💸 Money Talks #1: How We're Spending Our Money

Our financial splurges, savings, and surprises

In my introduction post, I shared that finances are currently one of my big worries. Finances stress me out more than anything else. Money has always been a little bit of a worry to me because I just don’t feel well-versed in it at all. But now that I’m one of two people solely responsible for taking care of a family, it’s a lot to manage. I didn’t grow up rich. My parents had good, stable jobs. They also had a mortgage on a $80k house (when I learned this I nearly died 🫠) that I am incredibly envious of. While growing up my parents got new cars, but never anything splashy. We went on family vacations to places like Disney World and Hawaii, and every weekend we were either at the lake in the spring or at deer campus in the fall. I know now it’s not cheap to load up the family and go somewhere every single weekend. We had a camper, a boat, etc. My parents were frugal, but we didn’t go without. But we never talked about money and I know it was a huge point of stress between my parents too.

With the rising cost of items we legitimately use every single day, my husband and I knew it was time for us to really look at our budget, where our money was going, and to create a new plan for moving forward. We looked at what we could cut from our budget (subscriptions), what are the must-haves (daycare), and what are the necessities (groceries, duh). There are also some areas where we continue to splurge because we believe (hope) it will pay off long-term.

Splurges

My Car

My car is our biggest splurge. After 9 years of driving my incredible Toyota Rav4, and having it paid off for the past 4.5 years, I upgraded to the new Toyota Grand Highlander in July. I love it. It’s everything I ever wanted, but I would have preferred not to buy a new car in this current market. It has so many bells and whistles I wasn’t expecting in a new vehicle. I think my 2014 Rav4 came out literally just before they started adding all of the new features or something because it was so bare-bones compared to my new car.

While the car is expensive we were willing to invest because like other vehicles we hope this car will last our family years. I’m a person who drives cars for a long time. I had my first car and second car for 9 years each. So I feel like I can sort of justify how much it costs knowing that it can last us forever. I paid off my Rav4 in 2019 and we paid off my husband’s truck last year, so we have no other car payment which I think ends up making those payments sting a little more.

Meat

We started getting our meat from a local farm a year or so ago through a monthly subscription box. It is some of the best quality meat we have ever had. The difference in taste of the beef and chicken is sort of a little scary and I try not to think too much about it. Our subscription is just over $220 per month and we get around 20 pounds in each box. At around $11 per pound, it’s a splurge but we can also justify it knowing we are getting high-quality meat. The cuts we get are typically some of the more expensive options available in the grocery stores. For example, we got our monthly box last week and it was full of ribeyes and New York strips. So we end up paying less for the more quality cuts and paying more for things like ground beef or chicken breasts.

Saves

Clothing

Clothing is one area I will pretty much always buy on sale. Over the past few years, there are a few more expensive brands that I have splurged to buy from, but if I do I typically buy when they are on sale and it’s an item I’ve obsessed over for weeks. I try to keep my closet as streamlined as possible and replace items when I need to instead of constantly adding them just because I think I need something that is trendy.

Delivery Services

I really got used to delivery services during the pandemic and as a result of having kids. Getting Costco delivered via Instacart has also been really convenient, especially since we’ve gotten our wipes, diapers, and formula from there. Well, the delivery fees and tips really add up so I’ve cut out almost all of our deliveries. This means no more grocery deliveries on Fridays. I will still do curbside pickup most of the time just because I don’t enjoy going into the store.

I tend to spend more in stores based on impulse buys than I do placing an online order. For example, last week I had a $55 grocery order sitting in my cart. I had already gone over our grocery budget at another store so I didn’t want to add on another $5-10 dollars so we just went ourselves. Y’all! We ended up spending $100 in the store. We grabbed a bunch of little things that we would eat and probably “needed” at some point, but we could have waited. It solidified to me that online grocery shopping is the best for us.

Subscriptions

I assume that many of us have let the number of subscriptions we have rack up over the years. We evaluated how many we had and cut out the ones that we didn’t use but were just maintaining. Now we have Amazon, Apple One, Peacock, and Max (HBO). I think we’ve been paying for a Netflix subscription we didn’t use for years because it just felt like you’re supposed to have Netflix.

We also realized that both my husband and I had separate Apple subscriptions, so we combined them and did the family plan which increased our iCloud storage and also gave us access to a couple of other Apple subscription features we didn’t have before.

Surprises

Groceries

This felt like the area we could really cut back and do better in. I have started shopping around more, which is also easier to do by shopping online. I usually have windows open for Central Market, Target, and Kroger and price check between the three to get the best price. I assumed things would be more expensive at Target, but our eggs and milk are actually about $2 cheaper at Target so we get them from there. That’s an easy $5 in savings each week.

I did a lot of research in this area to see what the norm was because I was convinced we were overspending. According to US News and World Report, a thrifty plan for groceries each week is around $225 for a family of four, bringing that to about $970/month. This blew my mind. I was really hoping we could save more in this area. Between trips to the grocery store, Costco, and the meat subscription we’re right around this zone. Shopping around helps, but it was surprising to see we couldn’t save more. I have started to use more coupons, markdowns, and cashback sites like Rakuten and Ibotta when I can.

Utilities

Over the past couple of months, the cost of our utilities has really increased. Our water bill and electric bill have doubled and they weren’t necessarily cheap to begin with. I’m really hoping it’s just a seasonal thing and that they will get back to normal soon.

Home Payments

We sold our house last year and through a weird turn of events, ended up renting it back from the new owner. We thought about potentially moving to another house to save on rent, but the cost of rent in our area is right on par with what we’re already paying and there’s no chance of cutting back in this area right now which was also surprising and discouraging.

So that’s where we’re at with our money right now. It’s a lot to think about all the time, especially for a topic that isn’t really that discussed in our society. I know a lot of people are feeling the pain from the rising costs right now, and I want you to know you’re not alone. What are some ways that you’re saving money or cutting back these days? What are the areas you continue to “splurge” on?

xoxo, Kate