While we have all been during our best to flatten the curve and social distance, it is a great idea to take a look at how this has affected our money spending habits. Have you saved money from staying indoors? Are you comparing your old habits to now? The best we can do right now is to stay positive and make the best out of every situation. Analyzing our spending habits is a great way to reflect during this quarantine and leave this quarantine different than when it began. Here are some tips to take with you after social distancing is over:
What services are most used in your household?
Now that you have been home for quite some time, it is important to reflect and analyze what services you have at home that are no longer useful. Are your kids watching streaming services and not cable? Do you need that monthly online magazine subscription? Are you paying for gardening services that you could do yourself? There are plenty of ways to take a step back and observe what essentials in your home are, and what is not. Perhaps you realize no one in your home is watching cable anymore, and it’d be a great way to cut unnecessary costs.
Comparing eating at home versus eating out:
Now that most of us have been home, it is a great way to see how much money you have been saving on morning coffee, lunches, and night outs. A great way to calculate this number is to get on your bank app and see the monthly summaries of your spending. Most bank apps show a pie chart of the expenditure on groceries, bills, entertainment, and dining. Compare January to these past few months and analyze how much money you have saved from not going out and making food at home. Although we are all excited to get back to our regular routines, it is a great idea to make a few changes and decide that perhaps you’ll only eat out once a week, or make your morning coffee at home. Spending habits are often tough to curb, and we can think of social distancing as a way to re-train our bad spending habits.
Thinking about our priorities and future goals:
Social distancing has caused us to stay home, leave our cars parked, and live in the only space we have. Your home may be something you are comfortable in daily, but what about now while being quarantined? Is your home too small? Too big? Do you now wish you had a vacation home to escape to? Social distancing has now made plenty of people reanalyze their priorities and realize that you may have goals you never completed, or perhaps, now you have new goals. Take this time to analyze your finances and how that plays into any goals or changes you want to make. Do you now wish you had a better back yard? Do you now wish you had your own business? All of these thoughts and questions matter and can be something to work on during this time.
We hope that you are staying safe through social distancing while still learning from social distancing. Take this time to observe your habits and find new ways to create more income for yourself, more savings, and more happiness.
