2022 was one heck of a year! Can anyone else relate? I know for us our budget was hit more times than once. Every year at the end of the year I do a spending and budget review. This helps me to discover issues that weren’t noticeable before. Also, it allows me and my husband to make better decisions for the New Year.
In 2022, I struggled like crazy trying to navigate inflation and the rise at the gas pump and grocery store. Meal planning around inflation and not knowing how much eggs or milk, or even meat, was going to be at the grocery store left my husband and I having to work together to find solutions.
I can honestly say that 2022 was the most expensive year we’ve ever had. On the one hand, that’s because we bought our boat – in cash, but it was the most we’ve ever spent outside of buying our home. On the other hand, it’s because there were so many things outside our control that left us feeling a little like we were bleeding money.
Emotions
Even though I’ve always been the Saver in our relationship, I know that my spending trigger is emotions. If I’m going through a tough time emotionally, I tend to overspend. Just like how some “eat their emotions” or “run from their emotions”. My method of coping is overspending. No, that’s not a good idea, and I’m not justifying my behavior. I’m merely acknowledging the problem and recognizing that I have to be the one to take ownership of my actions.
I definitely spent more on Amazon this past year than in any other year before. Oh, and did I mention that in 2022, my book all about learning how to manage money came out? You’d think I’d have this whole money thing figured out by now, but that goes to show you that it’s a forever learning process.
Seasons of life change just like the seasons of the Earth change. We must constantly adapt because what worked in one season won’t always work in another.
Spending Breakdown Overview
Since I use Fetch Rewards to earn gift cards on our purchases by scanning our receipts, I can actually see very easily how much I spent and where. Now granted, this doesn’t necessarily tell me what I bought at Amazon, but it does give me an idea of the mindless spending that happened in 2022.
As you can see, our food spending increased dramatically in 2022 – double what we spent in 2019! And, of course, Amazon spending went up too by a significant margin. Oh, and none of this shows how much we spent on regular things like bills!
Regular Household Needs Spending Breakdown
I spent nearly $1,000 on fuel for my car (my husband’s fuel is paid for by his business, so our budget only pays for my fuel). I know some will be shocked at $1,000, thinking it’s way too low, but the reality is I had to force myself to stay home a lot in order to avoid burning a lot of fuel.
We spent right at $5,000 for utility expenses (power, natural gas, and water). Since we’re on septic, we don’t pay for sewer, just water that comes into our home.
We paid just over $1,000 for the year for our internet bill (we have the mac-daddy internet plan). We paid only $150 for my cell phone service for the whole year thanks to a promo deal I got from Mint Mobile (again, my husband’s business pays for his cell phone, so our household only pays for my service).
For TV-related expenses, we only have Peaco*ck and Amazon Prime for watching TV. We also have HBO Max, but we don’t pay for it as it’s a perk of having AT&T internet. We canceled Discovery + at the beginning of 2022. So our total (I include our Prime Membership here since it’s our primary way of watching TV as we have a Fire TV) is $209 for the year for TV expenses.
Another expense that went up in 2022 is our Healthcare Sharing Ministry cost. We looked around on Marketplace but were just not able to find an insurance policy that met our needs and meet our budget needs. So, for now, we’re staying with them. You can read more about our Healthcare Sharing Ministry here. We paid a total of $6,267.24 for the year for our Healthcare Sharing Ministry and our dental insurance policy premiums.
If you’re new here, we don’t have a mortgage payment anymore as we’re 100% debt-free. We paid off the mortgage in January of 2019. But we do have various sinking funds that we contribute to, as well as our Roth IRAs. We also contribute to our Emergency Fund as well.
Looking Forward
In 2022, we made a lot of financial mistakes. I’ve already mentioned that I overspent and didn’t reign myself in properly when I should have. We also realized that even though the best part about 2022 was the fact that we went on more vacations than we ever have before, we didn’t properly plan for them. The Vacation Sinking Fund was never quite full enough, even though we thought it was fine. We failed to properly account for inflation in our Vacation and Christmas sinking funds.
We also failed to set up a Boat Sinking Fund. Our old boat was a jon boat (pictured above). A very well-loved boat that Pat and I were so proud of. We bought it the year after we became consumer debt-free and made many memories on it in the six years we had it! That old jon boat didn’t take nor use as much fuel as our new boat. So even though we paid cash for our new-to-us boat (pictured below), it’s a gas guzzler and costs a small fortune to fill up. Going forward into 2023, we will be adding a Boat Sinking Fund so we can be prepared to fill up the boat come springtime!
Spending and Budget Reviews are Essential
I share this because this is why it’s essential to review your finances often. It’s vital to do an annual spending and budget review like I’ve done in order to determine what changes need to happen in the New Year. After all, nothing can change if you’re asleep at the wheel! So even though we should have had the foresight to see that this new boat was going to cost more (i.e., fuel, insurance – the jon boat wasn’t worth much and so couldn’t be insured, maintenance), we didn’t. And you know what? That’s okay. You live, and you learn. And what’s important is that you do, in fact, learn from your mistakes. Take action to remedy them in the future.
Are you ready? Are you going to do a spending and budget review for 2022? I would love to hear what you discovered (both celebrations and things to improve on). I believe it’s super helpful to others to hear how other people handle their finances!
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