Every year around the New Year (Eve or Day), I calculate my (our) net worth and tot up my (our) spending. [I’ve been doing this for many years, since well before I met Mr. PiN, so I will revert to the singular going forward, mostly.]
I have written about this on the blog before, usually in January.
So why am I writing now, at the end of 2024, about our 2023 spending?
Some of it may have to do with early 2024.
Our spending looked like this:
Note the overall trend upward. And the fact that we were often spending more than was hitting our checking account each month (with savings going to my secret savings account each month too, this is not a total disaster).
It might be true that I have been known to offer opinions about our spending. It may also be true that Mr. PiN may think I am offering opinions when all I am doing is reporting facts. That makes him pretty cranky.
In addition, Mr. PiN’s dad went downhill significantly around the time I would normally have written about our spending, and I chose not to cause more strife in the house.
All year, though, I have been thinking more about the value of what I spend on. And as we approach the end of another year, and another review of our spending, I think it’s good for me (and maybe fun for you) to review some highlights of our 2023 spending.
What spending went up?
- Grocery spending increased by about 21%
- Our insurance cost almost twice as much as the year before.
- Our spending in restaurants also doubled.
- I nearly quadrupled my CME spending (going to a meeting for the first time in 4 years will do that).
- Spending on tennis (me) and pickleball (Mr. PiN) increased significantly as well.
What did we spend less on? Not much. We did spend less on travel in 2023, but that didn’t make up for the other increases in our spending.
I like to find a few things to highlight when I look at my numbers, especially if they aren’t entirely to my liking.
Best value: A $15 yearly subscription to The Pixie Pit. I play internet Scrabble with a friend I met on a yoga retreat years ago. Considering how often we play (sometimes only one move a week, but sometimes 4 to 5 moves a day), I more than get my money’s worth from this subscription.
Worst value: A $15 fee to my auto insurance for missing the due date. That was a total waste of money.
A better value than most years: My Amazon Kindle purchases. I ordered 27 books from Amazon for a total of $117.67 (about $10 a month) in 2023, and I read 21 of them. Several quickly became favorites and were read more than once. I would consider the money spent to be an excellent investment, given how many hours of enjoyment those books provided.
Again, why am I writing about the 2023 spending now?
Partly because I have been chewing on it for most of a year, and figured I’d finally write about it. Maybe that will get it out of my brain.
Partly because it’s almost time for me to review the spending for 2024. I think it might be helpful to get in the reviewing mode a few days ahead of time.
Hopefully I will be happier with the numbers, and Mr. PiN will be too.
Do you review your spending yearly? Have you also found that it seems to be going up significantly over the past few years? If so, what have you done about it?
Ha ha. Opinions vs. Facts. That made me smile!
I do review our spending every year. It’s surprisingly consistent from year to year. I put that down to two things. First, we live more simply and buy a lot less than we used to. Second, our daughters are grown up and “off the payroll” freeing up a lot of money for other things.
I think what makes me so confused is why our annual spending bounces around so much. It’s up and down without an obvious reason (it’s not our travel spending). This makes it harder to plan for retirement spending if it’s not clear that we still have a constant range of spending.