Has Covid-19 changed your way of thinking about budget or the way you live?

[Shelly F - Ohio]

My new mantra is "Doing more with less".

 

[LuvOrlando]

I am trying to pay more towards my cards to show financial stability since during the housing mess they seemed to slam lower ceilings when I was being conservative, which ruined my scores indirectly. This time I sent everyone a little extra 2 weeks early and then did the regular pmt on time. I’m doing the same this month- time will tell if I learned a useful lesson back then or not. Since it seems all shopping is through credit now it’s important. I am buying way more groceries at one time.

Daydreaming about our next family trip, which depends on who I can trust with my families well being. I like that airlines are offering suspended penalties and all but I am waiting to see if anyone comes up with voluntary testing only flights, if not my husband might have some Griswalds roadtips in his future, even though he has been declaring it a “Never Will” up until now.

For gardens, I am pretty sure I saw a scene of a chef on Ugly Delicious pulling veggies out of a VERTICAL long pvc tube with holes to grow stuff. I seemed to work like those strawberry pots, only the holes were large enough to hold stuff like what looked to be pepper plants.

And so, just like with the housing situation back in 2008-2010 it's going on again. We never had an issue but my rating took a hit, as rating has zero to do with income - it can be ruined just by having the ceiling lowered because it's all ratio driven. I think the distortion happened back when to keep me in my mortgage so I couldn't get a better rate, the people who benefit from us having poor scores are in charge of the scores. I am watching my rating as an experiment.... very curious

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/credit-cards-start-cutting-limits-100007311.html

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

Rating? Or are you talking credit score ?

 

[LuvOrlando]

Well it’s my score, which already took a hit looking at one of my cards which give the number for free. I got the paperwork yesterday where they get their information and nothing looks off.

Same exact thing happened to me during the housing crisis - I have a fixed 30 year & would be first in line to refi but if my rating is crummy I can’t. So if you take income out of the equation I am trapped in a 5.14 loan feeding the bank instead of my community. All they have to do is lower the ceiling on debt that we are quite able to carry but it makes us look like a risk because the score does not take into account income. Result is the housing industry stalls. Also I guess I’m gonna look bad on paper for a new car so that’s gonna affect auto market. Our income fine but on paper we are stuck- I am literally a cash cow.

This is the same play-by-play that happened in the housing crisis and I think is completely responsible for why the housing industry never got going again. There have to be allowances made for people whose income offsets the other info but right now that is not what is happening.

If you take someone like me and you allow us into a lower mortgage that frees up a lot of disposable income that can be spent on a lot of other things within my community... The answer to saving things is honestly in middle-class people like us. More disposable income Increases spending on vacation, cars, restaurants, haircuts everything all the little niceties go up as do donations and community support. Binding people in the middle who are still able to swim hurts everything and I don’t think anybody’s noticing it’s happening because everybody who runs things have a boatload of money they don’t get pinched - people on low rungs are always struggling so they are a constant. People in the middle get ignored because they’re not exactly suffering but but can have a huge impact on the lowest rungs because we are within the same communities and we spend locally.

 

[kathy884]

I'm able to work from home and DH is retired, so no change in cash flow. Also, with so much closed our disposable income / savings are way up since COVID 19 started. Our net worth, though, is way down due to paper losses in the stock market.

DH took most of his retirement savings out of the market before all of this happening. I have though fairly substantial stock exposure in by IRAs and 401K.

It hasn't changed things for us, but does make me realize how easy it is to live with less and still have an enjoyable life. I really appreciate my wonderful family and think about that even more with all of this.

 

[tvguy]

Budget wise, we were going to retire (early, age 63 for me, 62 for my wife) this summer. We have pushed that back until May 2021 until things settle down a bit.
We are both essential workers, me working from home, my wife having to report in every day. But the coronavirus forced her employer to stop shifting her work start time (literally one week in January she had a 330 am start, a 430 am start, a 9 am start, and two Midnight starts IN THE SAME WEEK) so work has been easier than it has been for years.
I will have to take a furlough week in June, but the maximum state unemployment benefit coupled with the $600 federal money means I will make more than if I was working.
So overall our bills are down, so financially we are money ahead.
As for the way we live, we have always had canned goods on hand and food in the freezer, but I think especially with the canned goods, we will keep more on hand. When our kids were still living at home we always had powdered milk on hand, and extra non-perishable food, we kind of got out of that habit after the kids moved out.
As for TP, we still have some of the 12 pack left that we bought in February. It is back in the stores now here, so we have picked up another 12 pack, so we should be good for another couple months, but I might grab another 12 pack. I am not, however going to buy a 96 roll COSTCO pack to have on hand.

 

[bearzabout]

Be careful if retiring early if you can’t continue cobra health insurance. My husband and I saw our premiums increase from $4000 per year before Obamacare to $37,000 for premiums only for a similar plan after Obamacare when we were 54 and 64. Raising deductibles to over $13,000 for a truly awful bronze plan was our only option. I am not aware of any affordable health insurance options anymore for older people who are retired. Make sure to check all your health insurance options before leaving the work force prior to turning 65 when you become eligible for Medicare.

 

[tcufrog]

Our lives have changed a lot in the short-term but I doubt it will change it in the long-term. My DH is in oil and gas which is a very volatile industry. We've been through some very hard times in the industry and made it through because we save a lot of money. Unlike a lot of people in the industry, we don't spend the extra money we make when the industry is really great. We save and invest it for when the inevitable crash happens. While we don't like to, we could go for 1-2 years without him earning a salary depending on how we change our lifestyle.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Be careful if retiring early if you can’t continue cobra health insurance. My husband and I saw our premiums increase from $4000 per year before Obamacare to $37,000 for premiums only for a similar plan after Obamacare when we were 54 and 64. Raising deductibles to over $13,000 for a truly awful bronze plan was our only option. I am not aware of any affordable health insurance options anymore for older people who are retired. Make sure to check all your health insurance options before leaving the work force prior to turning 65 when you become eligible for Medicare.

This is so true! Right now, DH is pretty much working for the benefits. The money is nice, for sure, but we don't need it to retire. It will give us much more freedom in our retirement--mostly to spend on lavish family trips. We're a family of 6, so a fancy trip to, say, Europe, can cost some serious money. But, obviously not a need, and we live pretty modestly the rest of the year. Of course, it also helps that DH likes to work, and loves his current job. We also still have kids at home--it'll be 8 years before the last one graduates college and is (hopefully) launched. But even without the kids, health insurance is a big, painful expense for those in their 50's and 60's.

 

[barkley]

Be careful if retiring early if you can’t continue cobra health insurance. My husband and I saw our premiums increase from $4000 per year before Obamacare to $37,000 for premiums only for a similar plan after Obamacare when we were 54 and 64. Raising deductibles to over $13,000 for a truly awful bronze plan was our only option. I am not aware of any affordable health insurance options anymore for older people who are retired. Make sure to check all your health insurance options before leaving the work force prior to turning 65 when you become eligible for Medicare.

This is so true! Right now, DH is pretty much working for the benefits. The money is nice, for sure, but we don't need it to retire. It will give us much more freedom in our retirement--mostly to spend on lavish family trips. We're a family of 6, so a fancy trip to, say, Europe, can cost some serious money. But, obviously not a need, and we live pretty modestly the rest of the year. Of course, it also helps that DH likes to work, and loves his current job. We also still have kids at home--it'll be 8 years before the last one graduates college and is (hopefully) launched. But even without the kids, health insurance is a big, painful expense for those in their 50's and 60's.

so true on the health insurance.

if anyone is considering retirement in the nearish future (next year or so) and works for the rare (anymore) employer that offers retiree coverage, i highly recommend taking the time to review just what those benefits and premiums look like. my former public service employer stopped offering it to new hires over a decade ago but is still obligated to provide it to those of us who hired in before their new policies went into effect so in a very obvious attempt to 'thin the herd' of retirees who utilize it they go with the absolute worst coverage/highest cost (b/c their share of premium cost is capped) plans available to them. we had to retain coverage when our adult kids were still eligible but opted out this year when our share of the premiums jumped to over $4000 per month . it only takes asking h/r for a copy of current retiree plans and premiums to get educated on what the hard numbers are.

i've heard a couple of different reports that speculate that retirements in general are going to rise in upcoming months. it happened with the last recession-when people's jobs were impacted and they were at home they came to realize their monthly savings on employment related expenses, ran the numbers and realized in many cases they were at a break even or ahead if they opted to retire. there's also speculation that more individuals eligible to social security retirement will opt to take it sooner vs. later due to 2 factors-1 being the hit many have taken to their retirement savings, and 2 being that with talked about changes down the line to the social security programs people want to get that benefit under current rules and not risk waiting and being subjected to speculated program changes/benefit reductions.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

Not too much has changed for me. Prior to this, we didn’t eat out because our children have an uncommon allergy (nightshade -tomatoes, potatoes, peppers & associated seasonings). I always cooked at home because it was less of a hassle.

Will it change things for me when it’s all over? Probably not. My dad who is 95 was at a rehab center that had a breakout (50% have it) right after he got moved back to his regular assisted living home. He tested negative. Now his assisted living home has a breakout (30% have it). And he has again tested negative. At this point I think they just need to test him for antibodies because I don’t know how he could’ve avoided 2 breakouts of it.

 

[Andrea464]

We're loose Dave followers and this reinforced the need to pay down our debts and get to working on BS 3 (clearly we are loose followers if we're doing Disney while is BS 2).
We're both in the healthcare field and were doing ok- our hours were maintained and we continued to receive pay. We're both in leadership and we had some pay cuts announced this week. Nearly had a panic attack on top of that when I realized the same day that was announced that a $200 hospital bill was actually a $2400 bill. We crunched numbers that night and we'll still be ok but it just means we need to be more mindful of how we're using our money and eating.
Eating out remains our biggest expense that we can cut. We have a mostly stocked pantry right now and a full freezer (and if I had an extra freezer it'd be full).

 

[sheilafri]

I'm not shopping as much as before. Grocery shopping is strictly by the list, in and out of the store. All of my college classes are online so laundry is down to two loads a week. I can't get dirty or sweaty sitting in front of a computer during most of the day (maybe a bit dusty) so the wardrobe is one pair of comfy jogging pants and two tops a week. We still cook at home for 5 meals a week and do carry out to support the local restaurants two days a week. Except for the automatic payments, our AmEx and MC are really lower than before. All the spontaneous shopping has come to a screeching halt. I like that.

I read in an essay that we have an opportunity to only put back in our lives the things that really matter. I like that idea and hope that many people will live with more intentionality.

 

[Pesky]

Oh yes. We definitely eat out less, with take out once a week as a treat. We are cooking a lot more and that also is challenging with the kids. We are teaching them to cook for themselves after hearing about another client of our tutor who the parents got COVID and were just down and in bed for 2 weeks and the mom was so grateful she'd taught the kids to cook some basic things. We picked up some lettuce plants from the local high school's lettuce farm (only one guy tending it and it's closed otherwise and he brings them out to your car) so they are growing hydroponically in our window ledge so we have fresh lettuce. We can't plant here until mid-May at the earliest due to snow so starting some seedlings already. DH and I are both WFH so that hasn't changed much but with both of us at home, we are working out together to some YouTube workouts almost every day and starting to shed some pounds. Which is good as I got some extra starting quarantine that added to my overweight. 20 lbs to go! Our shopping is much more intentional and we aren't picking up as much crap, which is good! In fact, we are taking this time to declutter spaces so when donation spots open, we are ready.

 

[dreamin_disney]

I was doing my bills and realize how much money I’ve been saving in this quarantine
$250 in gas alone
$973 for college housing for dd
$32 on fitness membership
$400 on crap and misc

We only shop 2-3 times since March 13 so spent $150-$175

Last night I was shredding old bills and after this quarantine I will stick to my new ways of shopping only buy what I need and buy certain items in bulk. I pay of my credit card off every month and only use so I can get rewards/ cash rewards. Dd only has one more year left of college so I will have the extra $973 open

 

[Andrea464]

Oh yes. We definitely eat out less, with take out once a week as a treat. We are cooking a lot more and that also is challenging with the kids.

I'm struggling with the eating out part. Our pay cuts will help us stick to eating a home a bit more (we're concerned about more cuts down the road), but we were trying to eat out at 1-2 times a week to help a local business. I'm in a FB group for local restaurants and they're posting their deals and specials and it's so tempting.

 

[Pesky]

I'm struggling with the eating out part. Our pay cuts will help us stick to eating a home a bit more (we're concerned about more cuts down the road), but we were trying to eat out at 1-2 times a week to help a local business. I'm in a FB group for local restaurants and they're posting their deals and specials and it's so tempting.

You know what we did to reduce our temptation? Create our own eateries! We tried the theme night and it's so fun. Once a week, roughly, we try, for example, for making our spaghetti and meatballs into Amore Pesky restaurant (the kids love being the waitstaff) with a fancy tablecloth and drippy candles and breadsticks. We've had Chez du Pesky (a fancy restaurant where we all had to dress up), Habachi Pesky (with habachi take out), Luau Pesky (Hawaiian night), and coming up we also have Casa de Pesky (taco night!), Pub Pesky (pub fare), Pesky Diner (50s diner stuff -- burgers, fries, milkshakes). We use different set-ups and everything and the kids really get into it. It's so much fun planning these, it takes a lot of the emphasis off our food being home cooking. Maybe that's a way to take the pressure off and move the eating out to one night a week or maybe once every other week.

 

[2TxAgs]

You know what we did to reduce our temptation? Create our own eateries! We tried the theme night and it's so fun. Once a week, roughly, we try, for example, for making our spaghetti and meatballs into Amore Pesky restaurant (the kids love being the waitstaff) with a fancy tablecloth and drippy candles and breadsticks. We've had Chez du Pesky (a fancy restaurant where we all had to dress up), Habachi Pesky (with habachi take out), Luau Pesky (Hawaiian night), and coming up we also have Casa de Pesky (taco night!), Pub Pesky (pub fare), Pesky Diner (50s diner stuff -- burgers, fries, milkshakes). We use different set-ups and everything and the kids really get into it. It's so much fun planning these, it takes a lot of the emphasis off our food being home cooking. Maybe that's a way to take the pressure off and move the eating out to one night a week or maybe once every other week.

This is FABULOUS!! So creative, and for most of us, only something that would come out of having the TIME together that probably wasn't part of our former lives. Between school, sports, band, church and all the other nightly commitments, we'd never have thought of this, much less had the time to make it happen. This may be one of those things that 20 years from now your kids will still talk about...'remember when we used to pretend like we were different restaurants when we all were home for the quarantine in 2020? That was so much fun!'

 

[QueenIsabella]

Pesky--that sounds like so much fun for the family! I also like that it focuses on what you have (time and creativity), rather than on what is currently lacking in your lives. A couple other suggestions: If you're feeling brave (or have a pasta maker), try homemade pasta with the kids (you can use a knife or pizza cutter to cut noodles). Another thought--Fry Day, where you deep-fry everything. You could make potato chips, fries, chicken tenders, doughnuts... My kids are dying to do this.

 

[hsmamato2]

Love the idea of making it a fun themed dinner with the kids helping out!