COVID-19 has changed my financial habits! How you might ask? Well, during this pandemic I became best friends with frugal living. As things are starting to slowly open up, I am reflecting on my spending habits. Before this, I thought I had a solid grasp of my spending habit; however, when I sat and reflected, I realized I didn’t quite have it sharpened.
In a sentence of my spending habits, during lockdown my spending is up for groceries and home goods, and pretty much down elsewhere. As a result, I am reevaluating the nitty-gritty details of my finances, because I don’t want to feel financially unstable in my life again.
COVID-19 Changed my financial habits:
Rainy-Day Funds are Essential
I am new to the work-force, this hustle culture, and the 9-5 lifestyle. With that said, it is unsurprising that I lack an emergency fund. As a result of this pandemic, I am going to make sure I never skip funding my emergency fund savings. You just never know when you will wake up and your reality is not what it was.
Have Multiple Streams of Revenue
A lot of people are picking up their side-hustles during this time. They think to themselves, if I don’t do it now when I am stuck at home, then will I ever do it? This is a risky time to start a small business but this is also the time to invest your time and effort instead of money. I know this to ring true for me personally as I have decided that I am going to put my all into blogging.
List of “Essential Expenses” is a Short List
NOW, my essential expenses are as followed: rent, groceries, food, utilities, and bills. This doesn’t mean I am going to not treat myself from time to time. If I see a nice piece that is functional for work or everyday, I will buy it. I will just be thinking twice about my ‘comfort spending‘. For example, my almost daily Starbuck runs will now be eliminated. I will be implementing an alternative way of getting my afternoon coffee fix. Instead, I will be buying one large 32 oz Starbucks bottle and portion it into my Hydro Flask.
Your Home is not just a Place to Sleep
As you may know, my husband and I live in a studio apartment. Although, we are very tidy and organized, we did have the typical mentality that we just sleep here and we don’t spend much of our 24-hours here. Now that we have been confined to this space, we added a lot of comforting components to the place to make sure we don’t view our apartment as a hotel type space.
Checking your Expenses is Important
When you are busy running around, you don’t prioritize sitting down and checking your finances. Post-pandemic, I will be implementing a weekly expense check to make sure I don’t just blank spend. It’s easy to find comfort in that latte you buy everyday after lunch but those add up! For me personally, I spent at least $100 a month on coffee and now I am making delicious coffee at home for a fraction of that price. Sorry Starbucks!
Learn from your Micro-Spending Habits
In conjunction with the above point, it’s not just the coffee you buy, but the other small things you end up purchasing while you are at work. Maybe you pop into CVS during your lunch break and buy a lip balm. Think about the things you already have and try to repurpose, reuse, and restructure them! Don’t just buy things for the sake of buying them.
That gym membership I considered will be satisfied with at-home exercises and nature walks. The luxury $6 lattes will be replaced with personal at-home mixes. I think we all took away some financial literacy from this pandemic, I just hope it is carries out after things are normalized.
Comment below how COVID-19 changed your spending and saving habits.
I liked what you wrote about the importance of having a rainy day fund! It’s always something I knew I needed but didn’t really put much effort into having one. That’s changed now!
These are great ways we can save our money. Thank you so much for sharing….I try need it in present situation.
These are all great tips. Thanks for the post.
Yes, you are completely right. My habits changed as well, and it was basically the spending on little things while going out that were a game changer. great article!
Great post! This pandemic has made many reevaluate their expenses. Some people are saving money because we can’t go out and we’re going everything at home, but some are also spending more because of boredom and online shopping.
This is a great article I know we noticed that we spent a lot less money on food, since we were eating out a lot less. It was a considerable different at the end of 3 months we would have never noticed prior, as it was just a part of our lifestyle, but now there is all this extra money for other things.