January Look Ahead

 Still making the final entries on my 2020 spend tracking so don't have those totals yet. 

I enjoyed the December preview so thought I would do another for January. In theory it should be harder to reduce spend here as I had January 2019 spend to compare and should have made the easy choices last year. 

My home insurance is due in January. I made changes midway through 2020 and got a small refund, the premium payable in January 2021 does indeed remain less than last year's payment. That would be a big $10 that stays in my wallet. I was hoping for more but ten bucks is still ten bucks.

I had also joined a premium loyalty club at my local brewery last year. I will not be renewing this as COVID is still likely to shadow most of the year and I am trying to reduce my alcohol consumption so not renewing removes an encouragement. $100 saved.

Last year also saw me switch my cellular provider to Verizon. New carrier meant a double bill of $115 last year. Due to still burning Verizon Dollars from the Verizon Visa signup bonus I have several more months where my out of pocket spend will be zero.

Pre-COVID, I was getting monthly massages. My back misses them but my wallet is good staying closed. I also had some social spend that will not be happening as optimistic future travel and event spend. Let's round that to another $200 that will not be happening again.

Increases in spending again looks to only be a trade of quick service work meals for increased grocery spend and the $225 HOA assessment is with me until April.

All in the forecast looks to be $200 in reduced spending year over year. 

December Thoughts

 December 2020 will be the 24th month I have tracked my spending. Two years! And a lot of dollars. 😐

As part of estimating where I will end up for 2020 year end I wanted to look over my December 2019 spend and see what is likely to change.

Savings opportunities I see are approximately $300 in holiday get togethers that won't happen because 2020. About $150 in alcohol purchases for home consumption, I recall this being to load up on Point Pistachio beer not a holiday surge in consumption. I also spent about $150 on work breakfasts and lunches last December, much less opportunity to hit the McDonald's drive thru when there is no commute. 

I also spent $300 on restaurant gift cards last year to claim the holiday bonuses, as of this writing I still have a small balance left on one of those. I will not be buying those this year as I am going out much less and am even less willing to commit cash to a business with a less than stable future. 

Holiday gifting was about $500 last December and for now I am expecting to keep this amount about the same with a few meaningful and useful gifts.

Increased spending is only expected on my association dues, because of a renovation special assessment these are up by $225 over last year for a few more months. It is what it is.

Factor in some increased grocery spend to account for more at home dining and I am going to target a $500 reduction in spend for this month.

December is also when my Chase IHG MasterCard annual fee hits, this is an $89 expense. This is very much a card to have rather than to use so I don't have a comfortable amount of leverage to ask for a fee waiver.  Despite not spending a single night in 2020 at an IHG property I see the free night and other benefits that come with this card as worth the fee. $89 in 2019 will be matched by $89 in 2020.