April 2021 Household Expenses

Posted On May 9, 2021

We are hovering around our average monthly spending of 6K a month. Which I think is pretty good for a family of 4 in the hella expensive Bay Area.

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Despite what the media has been saying about the San Francisco slash Silicon Valley exodus, the freeways are now packed again to pre-covid levels. The empty freeways of my dreams were nice while it lasted, but I’m back to morning and afternoon bumper to bumper traffic. The saving grace is that I work from home 3 days a week now…another reason to be grateful for the current position I find myself in.

hcol life

Our $6k a month average spending is around $72k a year. With taxes, vacations, and unexpected “shit happens” expenditures, this is more like $82k-$92k. Living in the suburbs has allowed me to continue to hack the high cost of living Bay Area by keeping our transportation costs low in tandem with a $1,630 suburban single-family home mortgage.

The value of my home has doubled from my purchase price. A smaller home (a fixer-upper) 3 houses down just sold at an astronomical price. Not that I count my home as an investment asset…yet. I do plan to rent it out when we FIRE. Based on current rentals in the ‘hood, I can likely net $1,170 after the mortgage is paid a month or $14k a year.

We are hoping that our employers will both conduct annual raises this year after canceling last year’s raises. This potential income will go straight to our taxable investments before we get a chance to see it or allow for any accidental lifestyle inflation. Raises would up our savings rate above the 50% Savings Rate we have (our method is the median average between pre and post-tax income).

26%

I just checked and we’re 26% of the way to our FI number. I do expect the markets to correct themselves sometime this year, but I’ve been expecting that for the last few years, so we’ll see how long this 26% lasts. But it feels good. We’re a year ahead of schedule for FI so far. We are continuing our investments in after-tax VTSAX (90%) and VSGAX (10%). Our tax sheltered accounts are maxed out as well with low fee S&P funds in the Traditional 401k’s and VFWAX in Roth IRA’s. On the individual stock front, I’m still holding all positions. TDOC took the biggest hit but others like LUV and DIS have performed better than expected.

Camping

We drove up north this last weekend to celebrate my daughter’s 4th birthday. After checking the weather, the Sierra’s didn’t look so good as the nights were still getting down to the 20s. So we took highway 5 north towards Redding. About 4 hours away and into the Shasta Trinity Forest to a small lake with no phone service or people. Up there is what I consider the real Northern California. If you look at a map, you’ll see the Bay Area is really in the middle of the state. In the north, the forests feel so rugged and pristine. Mt. Shasta was still covered in snow and loomed gently over the horizon from where we were camped. We drove through miles of valley farmland till we finally reached the forested wilderness of the North.

As we drove those tiny towns along I-5, I couldn’t help but feel grateful for living where I live and grew up, if only to have opportunity and choice. I romanticize quite often about living in a rural area, but only after I’ve made some money. I wonder how my life would have turned out if I’d been born in one of the many small rural towns that dot our country. The Bay Area has been good to me. It’s given me a chance to make some decent white-collar money with no college degree.

I was happy my parents were able to make the trip with us. They were the ones who taught me all about camping, yet hadn’t gone in nearly twenty years. Now that my father is getting ready to retire this year, I think he’s itching to get back at it. Overall it was a great time. No trout hooked, but plenty of bites like usual…story of my fishing life.

In this case, we chose the “cheaper” vacation, rather than Hawaii or Mexico or Disneyland, as I’d mentioned in previous posts. This is pretty much a pattern we have when it comes to irregular expenditures, we start with expensive options, then opt for the less expensive choice–not that money is the main factor in our decisions–it’s not. We just naturally choose the less expensive endeavor. I think a lot of it has to do with how we grew up, where expensive vacations weren’t even an option for our families.

We dance with expensive things, then realize what’s important isn’t a crowded tropical locale or an airline flight, but time with our family. And to be honest, I like uncrowded forests with no phone service. So instead of spending a few thousand bucks on a trip by airplane and hotel and food, we spent $350 bucks for food and gas to camp. Something that we’re trying to do is to give our girls experiences for their birthdays rather than gifts. We hope to keep up this tradition over the years.

We put birthday candles into Hostess cupcakes and taped up some balloons around the site and had a great time out in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Now my oldest daughter’s birthday might be a bit more expensive, as we purposely booked our Portugal trip so she’d turn 8 in Europe. I shamefully have not yet booked the return flight or accommodations as I’m still traumatized from last year’s canceled trip money loss. Right now Portugal is on the State Department’s Level 4 “do not travel” list. Not that I blindly adhere to every State Department’s warning; we went to Cuba back when it was illegal and all over Mexico’s essential travel only regions, but this time just feels different. I’m worried Portugal or the EU will block American travelers, but the plan to go is still 100%, foreign governments allowing.

April expenses

Here’s what we’ve been spending on.

Gym- This is back in our lives. My wife is happy about it so I’m happy about it.

Misc. Expenses– You’ll see we spent a few hundred for groceries and gas for our camping trip and a couple of toys. Also spent some money on stain and sandpaper for our pergola. The sun is starting to attack it, so I’m staying proactive…the home maintenance never stops.

Spartan Race– We signed up for a Spartan race in Monterey that was originally for June, but was pushed back to August due to Covid concerns. Gotta stay healthy and have fun doing it.

PG&E– is way high. I noticed now that I work from home 3 days a week, this has gone up (my house is way messier too lol). But I’ll take the trade off for no commute and time with my girls.

Eating Out– We ate out quite a bit. Some of this is was due to our road trip camping. And some was due to pure laziness to be honest. Sushi, pizza, and Thai were on the menu in April.

Groceries- I take $1,115 as a win. In the SF bay area, it takes extra effort to save here. Especially with 2 kids who say they’re hungry then don’t eat what’s cooked more often than they should. I keep telling myself I need to drive on over to Walmart for food. It’s a few extra miles and laziness is my only excuse. I could probably shave some off the price if I was more strategic.

How was your April? Are gas prices going up in your area too? Do you go out of your way to save money on staples like groceries? Or is convenience more of a factor during errands?