Oops 🙂 . My spending goal for 2025 was $24,000 and I spent $35,950.70. As you can see – I went over budget. Way over budget, but that’s for a very good reason. So let’s get into it!
This year I made a lot of large, one-time purchases that included buying a car ($6,500), paying taxes on that used car purchase ($590.75), and furnishing our apartment ($1,308.52). I also made a few once every 5-10 year purchases, such as my new Pixel 8a phone ($322.92) and a fancy TravelPro Carry On and Backpack ($604).
All together I spent a fair bit on one-time purchases that I won’t need to make again in the next few years. Without those one-offs, I spent $26,624.51 and was $2,624.51 over my $24,000 goal. That’s not bad considering I was paying for an apartment in addition to our Airbnb lodging 🙂 .
For context, the below is where I landed at the end of 2024. Overall in retirement I’d spent $9,277.96 less than planned and I used that leftover amount to cover these one off expenses in 2025.
I like to look at my entire retirement spending in context because some years I am underbudget and some I’m a little over, so here’s what my retirement spending has looked like overall as of the end of 2025:
And here are the specific numbers from that chart:
As you can see, this year’s one-time expenses have taken me a little over my overall retirement budget. However, the accidental extra income I’ve made in retirement, such as the $3,728.01 Ally has paid me in retirement to hold my savings account easily covers that.
- How I Lived On $21,499 As A Global Nomad In 2024
- How I Lived On $23,290 As A Global Nomad In 2023
- How I Lived On $16,930 As A Global Nomad In 2022
- How I Lived On $20,415 As A US Nomad In 2021
- How I Lived On $15,886 In 2020
So let’s see how much I spent and get into it! Here’s every dollar I spent in 2025:
HOMEBASE
13% Budget: $4,809.79 or $400.82/month
Apartment Rent: $3,200 or $266.67/month – This is a complicated one because I started a yearly lease at an apartment in Upstate NY with my Partner in May 2025 for $800/month total. We split the rent and utilities 50/50 just like everything else, so in 2025 this is how much the apartment cost me.
I’ve listed out below how many days I paid for each type of lodging and since I had the apartment as well, the total exceeds 365 days. And heads up that I’ve started separating out my Airbnb costs into my Travel budget below.
- NY Apartment: 245 days
- Airbnbs/Hotels: 208 days
- Visiting Family/Friends: 19 days
- Housesitting: 0 Days
Rental Insurance: $36.40 or $3.03/month – We have rental insurance through State Farm for one year and then I’m going to switch to the same insurance broker that I recently switched my car insurance to, which I’ll go into below.
Electric: $124.87 or $10.41/month – We have National Grid as our electric provider and since our apartment rent amazingly includes heat and every other utility except electric and internet, our electric bill is relatively small. In fact, when we were gone for 3 months it was barely higher than when we were home, even when we were running the AC in the summer. Most of the cost is to maintain the service and not from our usage. Cool 🙂 .
Internet: $140 or $11.67/month – We have 100 mbps internet through Spectrum that’s $30/month total this year and will increase to $50/month after our first year promo is over. In Seattle I would call our internet company every year and say I was leaving if they wouldn’t continue to give me the promo rate – and they always did 🙂 .
However, those calls always stressed me out for some reason so my Partner and I decided we’d just pay the extra $20/month total and not make those calls. I’ve come so far in spending money to make my life easier 😉 .
Furniture: $674.59 or $56.22/month – I’ve written a post about how I bought furniture for this apartment and came in way under budget. In summary, we used our community, antique stores and the Habitat for Humanity Restore, which sells thrift store furniture and the profit goes to their charity.
Furnishings: $633.93 or $52.83/month – I wasn’t sure what to call this, but it’s all the one-time purchases for an apartment like trash cans and bathmats that I don’t think of as furniture, but are needed to fill out a comfortable home.
CAR STUFF
22% Budget: $7,844.17 or $653.68/month
Car Purchase: $7,090.75 or $590.90/month – We bought a 2016 Honda CR-V EX with less than 90,000 miles on it for $13,000 total (so $6,500 was my 1/2). It works great and has all-wheel drive, heated seats and a moonroof – fancyyy! Also according to KBB, we did good. This cost also includes the taxes we had to pay on that purchase as well as plates and registration.
Car Insurance: $536 or $44.67/month – Originally we had Progressive auto insurance for $93.50/month total for 6 months, but then a reader suggested looking for an independent insurance agency. I found one in my town and purchased Erie Insurance for $43.16/month total for 12 months with the same coverage. Nice! The above amount includes the entire 12 months of premiums so I won’t have to pay that again until next fall.
Gas: $118.29 or $9.86/month – Since we don’t use our car to commute, I was curious how much gas we would use. It turns out the answer is, not much! And this is despite going on a few road trips. I have made it a bit of a game to get the highest mpg possible. Our 2016 Honda CR-V is rated for 25 mpg in cities and 31 mpg on highways, but I almost always get at least 31 mpg and my record is 40 mpg.
Maintenance: $97.63 or $8.14/month – This included getting my annual car inspection, having a local mechanic friend check out a weird noise, a new air filter I installed myself 🙂 , an emergency kit and an extra-long ice scraper for winter driving in the northeast.
Repairs: $0 or $0/month – We have owned this car for 7 months and haven’t had to make any repairs…yet 🙂 .
Tolls: $1.50 or $0.13/month – This is to keep track of how much I pay in tolls to determine if it’s worth it to buy an E-ZPass. So far, it doesn’t seem worth it 🙂 .
CHANGELINGS
I call this section “changelings” because they’re the items that change the most month to month.
16% Budget: $5,705.84 or $475.49/month
Groceries: $2,169.46 or $180.79/month – My grocery costs continue to increase from the $125/month I usually spent in Seattle pre-2020. This is not surprising to me since inflation is a thing, grocery costs have been increasing in general and because with the monthly moving we usually do, we’re not as efficient with our groceries as we used to be.
However, that lowered efficiency while traveling luckily didn’t translate to more waste as I feared when we became nomads. If we have food left when leaving a location, we give it away to others or have found food pantries that will take our food and use it for good – win/win 🙂 .
Eating Out: $2,486.86 or $207.24/month – This amount of spending makes sense to me given that I’ve intentionally increased the amount I dine out so I can try the local cuisines in all the new places we’re traveling to! I suspected this cost would increase in retirement and I’m happy with that.
Alcohol: $498.46 or $41.54/month – I thought this would be higher since I was mostly buying flights at breweries to try lots of local beers instead of doing the more cost effective thing of buying some tipples at the grocery store, but this isn’t bad at all 🙂 .
Phone: $307.87 or $25.66/month – This is for my Google Fi service that works globally. I switched from Republic Wireless in 2021 and wrote about why below. I love stepping off of a plane in a new country and having service without having to do anything at all. Laziness for the win 🙂 .
- Why I Switched To Google Fi (And How I Got A Free Phone Out Of It)
- Review: Google Fi – The US & International Cell Service
Transit: $243.19 or $20.27/month – This includes all ride shares, metros and buses I took throughout the year. Once again, my main form of transportation around town was walking. I love taking a stroll and exploring a new city on foot.
RAINY DAYS
This section is named based on a principle in YNAB: saving a little for inevitable things that don’t happen monthly.
6% Budget: $2,269.83 or $189.15/month
Entertainment: $780.77 or $65.06/month – This includes my TIDAL music subscription, Kindle Unlimited subscription, Patreon subscriptions, streaming services, books, video games, movie theater tickets, and travel excursions.
Household Goods: $65 or $5.42/month – As always, this is the best part of my budget that covers things like toilet paper, sponges and items that keep a household running. Most of this stuff is already stocked in the Airbnbs we stay in, so this number has plummeted from when I wasn’t retired and traveling.
Personal Products: $152.93 or $12.74/month – This is other fun stuff like toothpaste, fluoride rinse, conditioner bars and hair ties. It’s wild over here 😉 .
Nails: $257.84 or $21.49/month – I love to get granular with some parts of my spending and I was curious if my Dashing Diva obsession would save me money or not. It turns out that having beautiful nails for a whole year costs less than I expected and I couldn’t be happier about that. This obsession has my stamp of approval to continue in 2026!
Knitting: $724.55 or $60.38/month – This is everything I spent on my new knitting hobby this year! This includes buying a beautiful interchangeable needle set, needle caps, markers, cable hooks, a swatch ruler, lots of local yarn, patterns from Ravelry and a ticket to the Rhinebeck Wool Festival! This year I knitted at least an hour a day (and usually a lot more than that) so this is not at all bad for a hobby I thoroughly enjoyed and spent at least 365 hours on this year.
Clothing: $117.35 or $9.78/month – I bought a few new items of clothing this year after I wore holes in them. I sewed them up a few times, but I finally had to accept that they had lived a good, long life and needed to be replaced.
Laundry: $12.75 or $1.06/month – What’s on the tin 🙂 .
Exercise: $108 or $9/month – This is another example of my curiosity in certain areas. I was curious how much I was spending on my various exercise hobbies and this includes buying weights, exercise bands and trainer armour for my shoes.
Vitamins: $50.64 or $4.22/month – I started separating out how much I spent on my vitamins last year out of curiosity. This included Vitamin D, Iron, Allergy pills and Melatonin for the year.
LONGTERM
12% Budget: $4,160.30 or $346.69/month
Medical: $1,510.11 or $125.84/month – This includes the premiums for my ACA plan, my travel insurance from Safetywing, 8 PT sessions, an x-ray, co-pays and prescriptions.
Dental: $68 or $5.67/month – This includes a dental cleaning in Perú. I’ve been having a great time in retirement doing medical tourism and seeing what care is like outside of the US. Spoiler: It’s usually way cheaper and way better.
Giving: $965.53 or $80.46/month – This includes giving to charities, such as Feeding America, a local food pantry and a housing affordability charity as well as buying things for friends and family. I use the great site Charity Navigator to check how efficient a charity is with their donations before choosing the organizations I’ll support.
Subscriptions: $240.94 or $20.08/month – This includes my annual fee for my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card that pays for itself every year with its $500 Trip Delay Protection, my annual 1Password subscription and the annual fee for my budget software YNAB.
Blog: $165.71 or $13.81/month – This includes blog related expenses, such as website hosting.
Mail: $146.84 or $12.24/month – This includes my annual Traveling Mailbox subscription so I can get my mail wherever I go plus any additional costs to forward specific pieces of mail.
Electronics: $411.94 or $34.33/month – This included my Pixel 8a Phone, a Spigen Rugged Case for it, my beloved Space A40 Earbuds, new USB-C Cords for my MacBook Air and my new favorite gadget, a Wireless Charger!
TRAVEL
31% Budget: $11,160.77 or $930.06/month
Lodging: $8,600.54 or $716.71/month – This includes all of my Airbnb payments during my travels, which include utilities . The Airbnbs I choose have at least one bedroom with a washer/dryer in an apartment that’s walkable, downtown and ideally has outdoor space.
Travel: $2,560.23 or $213.35/month – This includes all of the planes, trains and automobiles I took around the world this year! Booking in advance seemed to play a large part in this relatively small amount that I paid for travel. Add to that the fact that we can travel whenever tickets are cheaper instead of trying to fit everything into the (more expensive) weekends.
Another aspect of why this is lower than last year is because unlike last year, I travel hacked in 2025! In fact, I travel hacked a lot of my flights that took me around the world, such as the below.
- Review: Singapore Air Business Class – LA to Tokyo, Japan For $5
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Tokyo, Japan to Singapore for $37
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Singapore to Auckland, New Zealand for $37
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Auckland, New Zealand to Singapore for $18
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Singapore to Tokyo, Japan for $18
- Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Tokyo, Japan to LAX for $44
My 2026 Plan
In a surprise to no one, I’ve already started planning my 2026. I can’t seem to help myself 🙂 . I get an idea, I get excited and suddenly I have a page of logistics ready to be executed.
In 2026 I’m planning to live in Upstate NY and visit México🇲🇽 and Ecuador🇪🇨 internationally as well as at least Arizona and Maine in the US. It’s going to be the first time I’m mostly living in this new homebase of ours so let’s see how that goes 🙂 .
Conclusion
So there you have it, every dollar I spent this year! I aimed to spend $24,000 and ended up spending $35,950.70 mostly because of one-time purchases.
In 2025 I lived in Japan🇯🇵, New Zealand🇳🇿, Perú🇵🇪, The UK🇬🇧 (England🏴, Scotland🏴) , Iceland🇮🇸 and the USA🇺🇸. I also got a homebase and bought a car. Madness 🙂 .
In 2026 I’m going to aim to spend $25,000 after accounting for 2025’s 3% inflation rate. We’ll see if I stick to it 😉 .
That’s impressive that you only spent that much for an entire year with the amount of travel and a home base. You deserve a frugal award 😂 Who do you host your website with?
Haha thank you – it felt pretty spendy for me 😉 . I’m with Bluehost.
Wow amazing detail thanks for posting
Thank you for reading Ken!
A whole $36,000 in a year?! Look at you, big spender. /s
It’s been a while, but I seem to remember that E-Z Pass tags are free to get. You have to put down a $25 deposit or something like that, but that same amount gets credited to your account, so you don’t actually spend any of it until you pay tolls. Plus there’s the convenience of getting to use the fast lanes.
Haha yeah I’m wild 😉 . And great to know about how that works! I’ll look into it – thank you.
I know that the 4% rule-of-thumb says that you can only spend 4% of the original amount plus inflation, but given that your assets doubled in the first five+ years of your retirement… perhaps you can safely start spending some more?
So yeah, I wouldn’t start worrying just yet 😀
Lolol yeah I’m not worried and I am comfortable spending more, which is why I did this year 🙂 . We’ll see if the trend continues.
Pretty cool to see all of the details! I’ve been able to cut my grocery and eating out expenses by half recently but I’m still not on your level haha
I’m glad you liked the details 🙂 . And lol I think I spend a lot on those things personally, but I imagine depending on where you live it might be more expensive.
Do you pay for haircuts?
Maybe once every 5 years. I cut my own hair every 6 weeks.
Can you explain this part:
“my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card that pays for itself every year with its $500 Trip Delay Protection, my annual 1Password subscription and the annual fee for my budget software YNAB.”
Are 1Password and YNAB subscriptions part of the Chase Sapphire Preferred benefits?
Those are 3 different things: I pay for my annual Chase fee, a 1Password subscription and a YNAB subscription all separately.
Do you count your 2025 spending including December from the previous year? If not, I am confused about posting a year-end spend report before the year is over! I imagine there would still be some grocery and other miscellaneous spending in the last 2 weeks.
Yes indeed I do. This is how I’ve done my spending reports for like a decade. This year’s spending includes December 2024 expenses after I did my spending post.