It may strike you as odd for a personal finance blogger to be doing a post on spending money vs. saving money but my philosophy here at YoungMoneyFinance is that we as young professionals should enjoy our money now and enjoy it later. Other blogs might follow more of a FIRE (financial independence, retire early) mentality and encourage you to save more instead of spending more money now, and perhaps other blogs might more focus on maximizing enjoyment now (YOLO).
I’m a big believer in trying to maximize happiness and enjoyment throughout my life, and yes I am making sacrifices today for a brighter tomorrow, but I’m also not sacrificing too much to where I don’t enjoy today. A few years ago I had this revelation (why it’s important to spend money) and did a follow up post on (why I now buy the $5 latte). I view money as a tool; a tool for me to save for my future but also to enjoy the present. So, here’s a quick snapshot to how I’ve been spending my money in 2023!
Brief commentary on how I feel
It’s been a funky few years, hasn’t it? I think back to 2019; I was super focused on growing my overall net worth and growing my family and career then a little thing called covid came and halted the world. For a brief moment there our world views changed and we wondered what this brave new world would look like (will it ever go back the way it was?!?). The stock market was falling, people were losing their jobs and we were all a bit panicked (or at least I was!). Then things got a bit better and we entered into the meme stocks era of 2020-2021 when basically everything went up in value – stocks, real estate, watches etc. We were getting stimulus checks left and right and we were spending money wherever we could! Those $5 lattes felt affordable and also felt like we were doing good – we were helping keep local businesses afloat!
Then 2022 hits and things start to slow down; inflation starts to rear it’s ugly head and then 2023 more layoffs (mostly in tech happen). Fast forward to today – suddenly it feels like we are back to a phase in which we’re buckling down. Things feel expensive, money seems to not go as far as it once did and that $5 latte now is a $7 latte (pre tax and tip!). So, in summary:
- 2020 – what the heck is going on let’s hold money
- 2021 – the worlds not ending and we have money let’s spend it
- 2022 – mmm feels like the economy is slowing but hey we almost saw the world end in 2020 so let’s keep spending
- 2023 – ok yeah now it’s time to pump the brakes on spending a bit!
Budgets are super important and we rigorously maintain one, and in today’s world we’re definitely trying to be more focused on making sure we’re hitting our savings goals and not continuously going over our spending buckets!
Ok off my soapbox and onto how I’m actually spending my money!
Experiences not Things
I appreciate the exercise that Mrs. Money and I went through a few years ago in which we agreed that we should start spending our money more on experiences and not on things. Perhaps it was 2020 that reminded us we’ve only got 1 life and we’d prefer to have memories vs. a room full of junk we no longer need.
The main way we’ve spent our money on experiences is through travel. Mrs. Money and I love to travel and we balled out in Italy (and spent 1 million airline miles & hotel points) for 2 weeks. I still can’t believe we pulled it off – drove to my parents house, I worked from their house for a week (they live at the beach so it’s a pretty sweet spot to work from), and then Mrs. Money and I left BabyMoneyFinance and SegundoMoneyFinance with my parents and we left for Italy for 2 weeks. We spent probably a million of our miles/points but even after having most transport and accommodation for free…we still had to spend money on food and tours and treats! Mrs. Money also had the chance to take a trip with her sister and Mom, and I had the chance to go to Spain with some buddies. These trips were offset using miles/points but still we had to pay some cash while we were on them!
We have also invested in experiences like a season pass to an amusement park (Dollywood!), soccer and swim lessons for the kiddos and sporting events. These experiences have been super fun and we’ve made lots of memories! Mrs. Money and I have also prioritized a monthly date night and have mostly went to restaurants but have also went to a few social events with friends! Memories over things!
While in Spain we did save money by staying in a hostel!
Still lots of things
As much as we try to prioritize spending our money on experiences vs. things, there still are lots of expenses that fall into the ‘things’ category. I’m sure we’ve all seen tweets and memes about how expensive groceries are, and we personally in the YMF household have felt this. Easily we’re spending $100-$150 on groceries each week. Eating out at restaurants almost feels out of control, and the delivery services many of us (myself included) got hooked on feel much more expensive now (‘wait we ordered 2 entrees and it’s $50 all in?!?’). Going for the $5 latte has now become the $7 latte, and that’s before tax and tip! Gas is back to the high $3/gallon too!
Haha, I realize I suddenly sound like an old person (‘ok OldMoneyFinance calm down’) but inflation was 4.7% in 2021 and 8% in 2022 – that’s a big jump for prices!
And then there’s the all the ‘Amazon’ things…aka all the random stuff that shows up in our lives that we need to buy – whether to replace things that broke at home or to upgrade or buy something new. Sure we don’t buy it all on Amazon but we do buy a lot of it there! I feel like the kiddos see the Amazon truck in our neighborhood more than they see the mail truck!
As much as I can complain, I do think it’s kind of just a part of life. As much as we try to cut back – and we are trying(!) – there are still weekly expenses that we have to buy regardless of how expensive they are!
2nd hand for the win
One thing we have tried to do more of – and credit here goes all to Mrs. Money Finance – but she has been all over the Facebook Marketplaces, the Poshmarks and the other used ecommerce sites out there. Several of the pieces of clothing or household goods we’ve bought this year have been used. Why pay more? Mrs. Money is often able to get some pretty good deals too – and our budget has appreciated it!
Treasure our time
The last big area I’ll call out is how especially now with 2 kiddos, how we treasure time much more. The old adage, ‘they grow up so fast’ is literally happening right here before our eyes, and we enjoy the time we have together – even if it’s just a lazy Sunday afternoon where we play with the kids in their playroom! To that end we have tried to be smarter about our spending – especially on errands that take a lot of time. This mostly applies to groceries. Although some weeks we use it as a fun activity with the kiddos, other weeks we try to make it a faster errand on our own – or even faster doing pickup or delivery. My Amex Platinum card offers a free Walmart+ membership and we’ve mostly enjoyed getting groceries delivered. The orders are not 100% accurate all the time, but Walmart is good about refunding when something is missing or damaged. We have learned that the benefits of not spending 1+ hour on a grocery run is 1+ hour back with our family and that’s been worth it!
TLDR
Life is expensive, but I think it’s always expensive, sometimes it just feels more expensive than others. Mrs. Money and I are doing what we can to maintain a balanced budget – i.e. one where we try not to overspend and still meet our saving and investing goals. When we do spend money (and it’s often) – we try to spend it more often on experiences (trips, vacations, sporting events, the zoo or aquarium) instead of stuff, but we do have plenty of stuff to buy!
A budget is never perfect and I’ve often set somewhat lofty saving / investing goals. I backed off of having them be too lofty – not meeting the goals month after month was bumming me out a bit, but I do still set them aggressively! Try to maintain a healthy budget of your own – but don’t beat yourself up too much when you don’t meet the goals!
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