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.
