March Budget Review
Monthly Review: March 2020 - 81.7% Savings Rate
Lets quickly hit the big events from March:
Coronavirus
Lost $100k+
Got in a wreck
30th birthday was cancelled
Ok so the reality is March actually had some bright spots as I now reflect back on it. It was certainly devastating for many reasons to so many people.
It was such a rough month that I actually stopped doing my monthly recap posts. As I write this in November of 2020, I’m a little embarrassed that I took such a long gap off but here we are.
While those items from the start are all true, I also got to participate in amazing barrel wine tastings in Sonoma county California, started a dream of mine when I began converting a van into a camper, saw live music, explored Yosemite, and turned 30 with some great friends even if it was virtually.
It was such a mixed bag emotionally and a flat out terrifying month financially. But as always, lets dive into the numbers.
Post-Tax Income: $8,540
Is what it is.
Expenses: $1,562
Most of my expenses were actually tied to the van conversion. Teaser but I was able to complete the entire structural transformation for just $250. Another $1000 would later go into the electrical and convenience pieces.
Pictured above is the progress I was at for the month of March. I’ll be detailing the full build soon but I worked like a maniac to get this project complete in about 6 weeks of activity.
A lot happened this month that was already pre-paid but we’ll cover that below.
Going Out: $7.12
Remys: $4
Point The Way: $3.12
Priority Pass - Free Food
Anyone who knows me, knows that free food is my favorite thing. No free food is as exciting as the free food I get in Airports thanks to the Priority Pass via the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.
Sadly the picture below would be my last free airport meal of 2020…but not my last free meal don’t worry.
Groceries: $19.15
We spent two weeks of the month in California traveling. Remember traveling? It’s weird right.
Between the airline food on the way down, the free breakfast, and the free dinners thanks to my $250 annual Hilton resort credit, we were able to not only keep our dining out budget low but also our grocery budget.
I do have to feed myself from time to time though so here are my grocery runs:
Star Market $2.51
Star Market $1.36
Stop n Shop $11.45
Market Basket $6.62
We didn’t want to buy many groceries since we’d be on the road. Instead, we started going through items in the freezer and just bought veggies and eggs to compliment them.
Bills: $969.82
Standard Bills
Rent - $837.50
Car Insurance - $49.32
Internet - $27.18
Spotify - $10
etc
Travel: $208.30
The weird thing here was how much we did in California that isn’t on the expense list this month because they were free or pre-paid and how much is on the spreadsheet that we never even got to enjoy.
Actual expenses:
Ski Pass (partial) - $49
Flight - $18.40
Flight - $33.90
Flight - $78.40
Camping - $23.60
Lyft - $5
But most of that were for flights that would never be. Now for the travel we did in March.
California… A Mixed Bag
We had been training for months for a half-marathon length Spartan race. If you’re not familiar, these are the intense obstacle course races. 13+ miles of hills, heavy objects, obstacles, and burpees.
The night before we were set to fly, the Coronavirus news started to heat up. With the concerns building they canceled our race. Remember this was the beginning of the pandemic and we had no idea what the next few months would look like.
We decided to still fly out but instead of staying in our original location, we’d get a hotel in the Sonoma county region where all the vineyards are. So we went from really sad to excited for something new.
We check in to the hotel and can see right away that things were starting to be different due to Coronavirus. The breakfast buffet and happy hours were already shut-down. But we got some good news.
A Bright Spot…Free Wine
There was this barrel tasting festival going on all across the vineyards in the area. Normally this was an expensive experience with people planning their year around it. You get to sample wine in it’s different stages and pre-order your bottles to be shipped to you when they mature. The vineyards had to refund all the tickets but decided to still open their doors to what became an amazing free experience.
Disappointment…Excitement…Disappointment
Another part of the original planned trip was an Air BnB near Lake Tahoe. I was so excited to ski at Heavenly Resort there. There was also several feet of fresh snow coming in.
Then I started getting concerned. There was so much snow that most routes in were shut down. The only way remaining in required snow chains. Our rental car obviously didn’t have them but I wanted this experience so bad that I bought snow chains.
We were at one of the last tastings we’d picked out when the news came through. Vail Resorts, who owns half the resorts in the country including Heavenly, had shut down all operations due to the pandemic.
As always, we tried to make the most out of it. We planned a little trip to some coastal lookouts and decided we’d use our ski days to instead make the trek out to see Yosemite.
Just Get Me Out of Here
I had been to Yosemite once before in the summer. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize how cold it got there. I grew up in Mississippi and never traveled much. With that, I mistakenly thought that California was mostly warm and certainly not a snow hazard.
I was wrong…
Don’t get me wrong, it was still beautiful. But it wasn’t as enjoyable as the summer for sure. The news was starting to get more clear that this wasn’t just a virus, but a pandemic on its way. So we changed our flights to that night and decided to get home before we were stuck in California.
On the way out the road was very snowy. I felt ok because I had an AWD SUV and had driven for years in Colorado and Massachusetts. The signs said only AWD or vehicles with snowchains allowed.
As I came around a sharp curve that then started a steep downhill grade, I see a little BMW spun out on my side of the road. To the left was a cliff and in the other lane was a line of cars who had crashed and pedestrians on foot. I could either run off a cliff, run over a pedestrian, or hit the BMW.
Luckily it wasn’t a severe crash. They eventually got the BMW out of the way and we were able to make our way towards the airport. It looked like we had plenty of time.
Then the roads just north of L.A. get shut down due to more snow. We’d eventually make it stressed out, anxious over how bad the rental car company might screw us, and so ready to be home.
Everything had changed in the airport vs when we first arrived. People were scared. There were no lounges or free food to be had. I think that’s when we first really started to feel like this wasn’t flu season with a different name.
It was not the most relaxing vacation but we made it home and were thankful that nothing worse happened.
Miscellaneous: $276
Now that I had the Van it was time to convert it as I mentioned earlier. There were some costs but luckily I sourced almost everything off craigslist and facebook for free.
Imagine all the renovation projects people have and are left with scraps that aren’t much use in a home but do wonders in a tiny van.
Home Depot / Lowes- $145
Amazon: $29.21
Phone: $72.19
Waffle Maker: $8.50
REI: $7.56
Gas: $79.66
Higher than normal thanks to all the California driving.
Big Picture: Net Worth Decrease $100,761 to $362,559
Imagine me, the guy who spends $20k per year and thrives off of deals realizing that I’d just “lost” $100k in one month.
As my net-worth has been growing, I’ve had to get more mentally prepared for dips like this. But talk is different than reality, and it scared me. Not enough to abandon my strategies, so I didn’t sell. But it made me wonder how far might retirement be pushed out now.
I saved $6,977 while the markets lost me $103,169