Economic qualudes

daedalus

Well-known member
This ties in to the coronavirus recession, but I wanted a thread specific to anecdotes on spending.  I finally ran the numbers for my household, and our spending for the past month is down 42% from the average of the prior 3 months.  Daycare is the single largest missing expense, but is well under half the shortfall.  We are the anti-stimulus.

I'm worried about how quickly the economy can "get back to normal".  Will I send my daughter to daycare on June 1, assuming they're open?  Not sure.  It may depend on when my employer requires me to transition back to my office desk.  I'm seriously tempted to try to stick it out until August, when she starts public school.  The rest of my spending won't pick up anytime soon either.  No store I'll want to shop at.  No place I'll want to go.  No plane I'll want to board.

Meanwhile, businesses will cease to exist.  Once they shut down the life support stops and revival becomes next to impossible...or maybe not.  The 2 that I am supporting each week are miserably slow.  I can't imagine being those entrepreneurs right now. 

This is "the paradox of thrift".  My financial statement is improving while the overall economy shrivels.

What about you?  Are you reluctantly killing our GDP?  When do you expect to spend what you used to?

Is anyone spending the same, or even more?  Did you have to change what you consume to do so? 
 
Just ran my March v. April numbers and I'm down exactly the same.  42%
For us, the biggest "cuts/savings" are school tuition, activities and food/entertainment.
Have been looking into summer camps for the kids, and no one wants to take my money.  Many have just cancelled their summer offerings, some are going online and some haven't decided yet. 
 
Both 42%... is bones married to daedalus? :)

Entertainment/dining/gas spending down... frivoulous spending up. Thinking about upgrading Apple Watch 3 to Apple Watch 5... bought new tech for remote work... and since we are home so much, looking at new furniture (but furniture stores are closed).and other home improvment stuff.

Have not even checked our 401k... that would probably sober us up. :(
 
I think 42% is about right.  I was thinking more around 50% reduction in spending, but I didn't wanna math.  So everyone that kept their income through this is seeing a massive drop in expenditures currently.  What you gonna do with all that cash man??

I was thinking of buying a table saw and youtubing how to make chairs and tables.  I already planted a bunch of fruit trees in the backyard...shits getting boring.


$1,000 in carpentry tools or just buy a $1,000 table off the internet...
 
My spending is down about 50% in the 3 months before the March.  Mainly eating out (with clients and gf), going out activities with gf (movies, cooking class, comedy clubs, etc), gas, tracking my cars, and gym membership. I have spent more at Costco, Albertsons, Trader Joes, and Amazon then normal (mainly on food and drinks as I started cooking at home more). My real estate income is down materially as both my buyers and sellers have hit the pause button but I've been lucky to have made up for most of that with options trading income.
 
We have continued to pay for most of our kids monthly activities (gymnastics for instance) to help prevent the companies from going bankrupt. Our preschool is a non-profit and we've been donating the monthly tuition.  We pay our gym membership annually so that hasn't changed.

We're also trying to purposely spend money supporting local restaurants and hard hit retail though it's hard to do.

We replaced a planned vacation with a paid staycation here in SoCal and changed our plane tickets to future dates rather than ask for refunds.

As long as our income is not impacted, we're trying to go out of our way to support the local community. Our spending is therefore flat.

The nature of my worker is that my time is the biggest constraint. COVID-19 has freed up enough time to lead to record income for our family and high savings despite no reduction in spending. Fingers crossed that it remains that way.

 
irvinehomeowner said:
Both 42%... is bones married to daedalus? :)

If we're married then I need to hear about the other kid(s) I haven't met yet.  Do they have my eyes or the milkman's?

Paperboy, that's really cool of you to share the love.  We don't normally go out to eat much, so hitting my fav places even 1x a week feels like a huge indulgence.  And I'm already losing my crave for some of it.  I'm not about to pay our for-profit daycare for staying closed, but a few of the caregivers really do deserve a fat Amazon card from us, as they are hosting weekly zoom classroom sessions.

I'm banking what we don't spend.  In case things get dire and Bones and I both lose our jobs, I want to make sure we'll keep our house without having to sell assets under duress.
 
We're down about 50%.  Just eyeballing the main credit card statements that are half of what they were.

Major shift from dining to grocery.

We've decreased our grocery store trips, use shipt and other services and restaurant tip someone to do the pickup and deliver.  We have also picked up a local delivery from a restaurant supplier that is supplementing their business with a CSA type box.

Next up is half a half of local raised and butchered steer for the freezer.

My wife was saying over lunch that in July and August we need to get our running around, eating out, and going someplace.  Come fall she's expecting a return to lockdown.

 
daedalus said:
I'm banking what we don't spend.  In case things get dire and Bones and I both lose our jobs, I want to make sure we'll keep our house without having to sell assets under duress.

I don't have a job to lose luckily as I have my own business. Knowing that a business can be volatile we try to always keep one year worth of expenses in cash or cash equivalents.

My clients are seeing a surge in spending nationwide as the stimulus / bonus $600/wk unemployment are hitting Americans bank accounts.
 
paperboyNC said:
daedalus said:
I'm banking what we don't spend.  In case things get dire and Bones and I both lose our jobs, I want to make sure we'll keep our house without having to sell assets under duress.

I don't have a job to lose luckily as I have my own business. Knowing that a business can be volatile we try to always keep one year worth of expenses in cash or cash equivalents.

My clients are seeing a surge in spending nationwide as the stimulus / bonus $600/wk unemployment are hitting Americans bank accounts.

What industry is your business in?
 
daedalus said:
irvinehomeowner said:
Both 42%... is bones married to daedalus? :)

If we're married then I need to hear about the other kid(s) I haven't met yet.  Do they have my eyes or the milkman's?

Paperboy, that's really cool of you to share the love.  We don't normally go out to eat much, so hitting my fav places even 1x a week feels like a huge indulgence.  And I'm already losing my crave for some of it.  I'm not about to pay our for-profit daycare for staying closed, but a few of the caregivers really do deserve a fat Amazon card from us, as they are hosting weekly zoom classroom sessions.

I'm banking what we don't spend.  In case things get dire and Bones and I both lose our jobs, I want to make sure we'll keep our house without having to sell assets under duress.

"If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain
If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape
I'm the love that you've looked for, write to me, and escape"
 
daedalus said:
I'm banking what we don't spend.  In case things get dire and Bones and I both lose our jobs, I want to make sure we'll keep our house without having to sell assets under duress.

Glad we're on the same page spouse.

 
paperboyNC said:
we try to always keep one year worth of expenses in cash or cash equivalents.
Heck, with our new outflow baseline, we have a year's worth too!

bones said:
daedalus said:
I'm banking what we don't spend.  In case things get dire and Bones and I both lose our jobs, I want to make sure we'll keep our house without having to sell assets under duress.

Glad we're on the same page spouse.

Me too.  I was apprehensive, since it seems we never communicate.  :D
 
Spending down 50%. Country club suspended dues for April which was nice. No $15 lunches, takeout 3x since lockdown began. Cooking up a storm. Fitness levels up due to daily 3-4 mi walks and 40-80 pushups a day + crunches (small sets of 20/10), and teenage son looking thinner due to no snacking on garbage at school and after school. Really loving the time with wife and son.
 
Ironically my restaurant spending is way up, like 3 or 400%.  Grocery spending is up, since delivery stuff costs more.  But everything else is way down.  I STILL have not bought gas since mid March.  I'll need to soon though, because...

I finally had enough of this lockdown, and  loaded up the family for a trip to the mountains just to get out.  Arrowhead Lake and the surrounding area.  It was pretty packed.  All the freeways were pretty dense too.  Very few people wearing masks (except the foreign tourists lol).  It seems people are tilting toward a jesphuckitalready attitude.  We'll see if infections start to trend up in a couple weeks.
 
Ya traffic this weekend seems almost back to normal levels, but where are people going?  Everyone is going to the grocery store or to pickup restaurant food?  Not much else to do, malls closed, churches closed, kids sports cancelled.  Maybe people are just driving around in circles.

We drove to get some boba for the family by UCI then stopped and got some fresh strawberries at Manasssero stand on the way home.  Milk Tea and fresh strawberries has been my lunch of choice for the last 3 Sunday?s haha.
 
aquabliss said:
Ya traffic this weekend seems almost back to normal levels, but where are people going?  Everyone is going to the grocery store or to pickup restaurant food?  Not much else to do, malls closed, churches closed, kids sports cancelled.  Maybe people are just driving around in circles.

We drove to get some boba for the family by UCI then stopped and got some fresh strawberries at Manasssero stand on the way home.  Milk Tea and fresh strawberries has been my lunch of choice for the last 3 Sunday?s haha.

Yeah, I've wondered what all those people are doing on the road on the weekend.  I was driving down to Aliso Viejo to show some homes to buyers this afternoon (Sunday) and the freeway was packed. Get this...on Friday around 3pm I dropped off my car at the shop in Corona to get new tires for a track event next Saturday at Buttonwillow and the 91 freeway heading East was packed and had traffic. WTH!
 
Back
Top