How I Spent $1,400/Month Living In Seattle: Q2 Budget Check-In 2020

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Oh 2020 – you weird, weird beast. Luckily, we’re halfway through this strange year and I’m doing all kinds of mental blood sacrifices hoping that the second half chills the fuck out!

Here is a snapshot of my Q2 spending from YNAB:

Here’s how everything shook out:

And for a month by month breakdown:

CHANGELINGS 

I call this section “changelings” because they’re the items that change the most month to month. 

Groceries – $208/month on average

This amount being higher than usual is not surprising to me. I was definitely eating my feelings to deal with our new COVID world and getting myself more treats than normal. I also went off keto for a while with my partner and had some fun times sharing treasures like Cheez-its and Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream 😉 .

I started back on keto about 6 weeks ago so despite buying more meat to hit my protein macros, I suspect this amount will decrease next quarter for that reason. However, we will also be embarking on nomad life next month, which might lead to more food waste (unfortunately) as we move around…or hopefully it just leads to some strange meal combinations 🙂 .

Eating Out – $42/month on average

I feel like I’m eating WAY more takeout than ever, but this number doesn’t reflect that. It looks like despite my best efforts, we barely made a dent this quarter. It’s also possible this is a little bit a result of takeout fatigue, since we WENT FOR IT in March. Anyway, I guess I have to try harder to support our local businesses and stop doing things like this 😉 :

Alcohol – $29/month on average

I am 22 days away from completing another 100 day alcohol free challenge. I was actually on a dry streak in March when quarantine started, the market crashed and life as we knew it changed forever. I was extremely proud of myself that despite all those external stressors, I didn’t crack and turn to wine, my previous go-to stress reliever.

However, then April happened and all the things I was looking forward to were (understandably) cancelled: A visit from my Mom who I hadn’t seen since January, a visit from my partner’s siblings that was a year in the making, all the travel I had been counting down to in retirement that had taken 3 years of planning. Basically, all the reasons that I was being ‘good’.

So it was a ‘wet’ April while I tried to come to terms with the fact that I didn’t know when I would see the people I love again and I didn’t know when I would be able to safely leave our apartment, let alone our state. Then the pendulum swung the opposite way in May when I started getting ready for our impending nomad life (our lease is still up at the end of this month).

I tried on one of the few pairs of pants I’m bringing in my post-retirement life and THEY DIDN’T FIT! So it was time to buckle down for that reason and because turning to wine is not a sustainable solution to deal with anything, even uncertainty in the middle of a pandemic and social uprising.

So I went dry and these 100 days have absolutely flown by. It’s also way easier to maintain when I’m not seeing friends or going to restaurants or bars so 1 point for the pandemic I guess! I wish I had instituted these annual 100 day dry streaks earlier in my life – they seem to really help to focus me – but you live and you learn.

MONTHLY BILLS 

Pretty self-explanatory. This section doesn’t normally vary a lot month to month, but this was not a normal quarter.

Rent – $852/month on average

My partner and I split a lovely top floor, corner unit one bedroom with a view of the Space Needle. This amount also includes our rental insurance.

Phone – $0/month on average

I finished up my pre-paid annual plan with Republic Wireless in June and then I got $40 of credit for trying out a new sim card and doing a survey for them so I will have almost 2 months of free phone service!

Internet – $23/month on average

We have just one more payment until I can tell Comcast to kiss my ass. Ugh – dealing with their nonsense has been a saga this quarter. Anyway, I’m so happy to take this item out of my budget and off my mind as we move into nomad life where WiFi is included in the AirBnB price.

Electric – $17/month on average

This is pretty standard. Electricity is surprisingly cheap in Seattle compared to NYC (where we previously lived). But now I need to close our electric account with the city and to do so I have to figure out where our electric meter is so I can (hopefully) read it myself when we move out and save some money.

Though I just checked and it sounds like you can ask them to auto-calculate it, but I assume that calculation won’t be in my favor. However, the amount of time I have spent looking into this so far is likely worth more to me than the amount I (might) save figuring out the meter part. So as I often do, let’s go with laziness in this situation! Auto-calculation it is.

W/S/G – $25/month on average

This is for super fun things like water, sewer and gas for our apartment.

RAINY DAYS

This section is named based on a principal in YNAB: saving a little for inevitable things that don’t happen monthly so when a rainy day hits you have the funds.

Household Goods – $6/month on average

This is pretty low, but I’m not surprised. As part of our countdown to nomad life, I’ve been going through and using the mountain of lotions I have apparently accumulated over the last decade, which probably explains the origin of this creepy tweet:

Entertainment – $19/month on average

This is our standard monthly Netflix subscription that we let 10 million people use for free and a new fancy Spotify premium subscription to feed my music obsession. I’m basically a princess!

VACATION

Travel – $47/month on average

I bought a flight from Seattle to Atlanta for when we move across the country at the end of September and I was able to scrounge up a $50 eCredit from 2017 to cover a fourth of the cost. Love it!

LONGTERM

This category is for, you guessed it, “longterm” items that come up rarely.

Giving – $79/month on average

I donated to an organization that fights for racial justice.

Fees – $62/month on average

This includes the annual $95 fee for my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card that’s saved my ass from travel stress more times than I can count, my driver’s license renewal of $54 (I’ll be a WA state citizen for 6 more years baby!) and the annual charge for YNAB, my budget software.

OVERALL

So far this year I’ve spent $11,169.90 – that’s 55% of my $20,000 goal and that amount includes the 2 months of rent that I pre-paid for August and September. So overall I think I’m more than on track! Let’s see what the second half of the year holds.

How has your spending been lately? 

27 thoughts on “How I Spent $1,400/Month Living In Seattle: Q2 Budget Check-In 2020

  1. Haha, I can’t imagine a phone bill of 0. I spend almost USD 60 ( MYR 240) every month. Need to do something to cut down my phone bill

    1. Haha it’s just because I pre-paid for the year and then got those $40 credits for doing a survey. Usually it’s more like $20-25 a month. Good luck getting your bill down!

  2. i’m not sure what we spent. i know we got champagne a couple of times as our stocks continued to reach new heights at an alarming rate. it seems like groceries are getting more expensive but we still buy the same stuff.

    1. Champagne to celebrate new highs eh? That’s fun! We haven’t had a celebration like that over here in a while – I think I’ll put it on my to dos for next month. Fair point on groceries – I’m going to keep an eye on them. I’ve heard from others in Seattle that the prices have risen so maybe my budget won’t decrease in that area. We shall see!

  3. Your budget is so impressive! I thought I was frugal but you spend significantly less. Even with rent control, rent is my biggest expense since I live alone. That said, rent has basically been my ONLY expense because I’ve been using the Chase Sapphire Reserve ‘Pay Yourself Back’ to cover all groceries which seems to be literally my only cost aside from rent and bills. So my spending is also about as low as it has ever been. It is very satisfying! Your comment about the ‘mountain of lotions’ made me laugh because I’ve been trying to use this stretch to clean out my apartment and that is one thing I’ve noticed here as well, apparently they have collected over time 🙂

    1. Thank you! And haha it’s not a competition. Ooh rent control sounds awesome! I haven’t heard of the ‘Pay Yourself Back’ feature – how does that work exactly. And haha I’m glad it’s not just me that’s been accidentally hoarding lotions. It’s fun to try new ones every once in a while.

      1. Pay Yourself Back is a new feature that Chase added during the pandemic. I think they had to get creative since so many people like Chase Sapphire for its Ultimate rewards for travel and that’s mostly off the table these days (except for a few people like you, haha!) For the Reserve card they are letting us redeem at 1.5 cents per point on groceries and a few other categories. I think for the Chase Preferred so you can use it for 1.25 cents per point. You can crunch the numbers but you may want to save your points for travel. In my case I wanted to use some now in case I end up switching to a different card if this pandemic goes awhile. I don’t think I’ll travel enough in 2021 to recoup the fee on the Reserve.

        1. Oh wow – that’s so cool! I hadn’t heard of that (maybe I shouldn’t send all my marketing emails to spam…oops!) I’ll do the math on that because since I’m going to be domestic for a while my points only transfer to United and I hate flying United. Thank you!!

          1. I don’t think they sent any emails about it, I didn’t get any and I was looking for one since I kept hearing buzz about this new feature. Thank goodness for the internet, Chase seems to go for viral buzz rather than actual communication. I am with you on your feelings towards United, definitely check this out! As of now, I think Pay Yourself Back is only offered through Sept 30 and you can redeem on grocery charges as far back as 90 days. It was such a nice feeling to see all those statement credits! My credit bill was zero this month and probably will be zero the next few months, with PYB combined with a refund on a flight to Albania that I canceled. Such a nice feeling 🙂

            1. Ahh sneaky! I just read about it on ThePointsGuy and found the button on my Chase card. Really cool! Seeing a $0 credit card bill sounds amazing 🙂 .

  4. It’s pretty neat that you are able to keep your expenses so low in a high cost of living area.

    During the lockdown I spent around $1,100 a month which is by far a record low for me. Now that things have opened up a bit I got me some mild FOMO and had to start going out a bit haha. In June I was up to almost $1,500 which is almost a standard month for me.

    1. Thanks! And woah that was a lean budget – awesome job! It all evens out – sounds like you’re having fun.

  5. I spend more than $1,400 per month on my mortgage alone!!

    Should be “dead” in a couple of years though.

    Well done and getting close to your big FI day 🙂
    Mark

    1. Thank you! I saw that page and live in an apartment so I was poking around the outside of the building and didn’t see anything that looked like it. We live on a steep hill though so I couldn’t go all the way around. Looks like asking the electric company to come out costs money, which I would try to avoid haha. I really appreciate it though!

  6. Really cool to see the breakdown and your consistency. I was impressed that I got down to around $1900 a month for non rent expenses. Things really come down when you’re just sitting in your apartment even if the takeout budget went up ha!

    1. Glad you liked it and that’s an awesome reduction! It is indeed funny how much we save when everything is closed 😉 .

  7. Great job, Purple! As someone who lives in NYC and has also lived in Seattle, I am always inspired by your numbers! You’re “killing it,” as “they” say! 😉 I had to laugh at your lead-in about the blood letting and thought this pin I saw on Pinterest might give you a giggle too: https://pin.it/4zSFkUF

    Enjoy the exciting countdown to your new life!

  8. So, super random but even though that fee makes financial sense, doesn’t it bug you a little? Mine popped up on my bill last month and even though I knew it was coming, I got super annoyed at it haha

    Your spending levels continue to impress me, since they aren’t far off from what I spend in the middle of frozen wasteland here. Of course mine is as a single person but still. I think you’re an inspiration to others in bigger cities who think low spending levels can’t be done, and would be miserable if they could. It can, and you prove it can be enjoyable too!

    1. The credit card fee? No it doesn’t bug me – if it did I would cancel the card 😉 . It’s saved me more than the fee amount every single year and countless headaches. When it stops doing that I’ll cancel it. I think of it as travel insurance basically. And thank you!

  9. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites. I love your transparency with your numbers. It’s making me re-consider how much I truly need as my FIRE number.
    Q2 was relatively low spending for me as well since I cut out my 1.5 hour commute, outings etc. I did have a bump in spending in June to donate to orgs that fight for racial justice and civil liberties. I’m going to make this an ongoing line item in my budget going forward.

    1. Oh wow – thank you so much!! That means a lot. Sounds like you’re doing awesome with your spending and I’m interested to hear where you settle with your FIRE number. And YES my partner and I were just talking about making a plan for our donations instead of donating lump sums every few months or so. We need to make a plan!

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