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If your income hasn’t changed, how are you spending


lovinmyboys
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I feel really lucky that dh’s job hasn’t been affected. I feel like we should be doing things to help, but I don’t know the right thing. Dh doesn’t make a ton of money, but we probably have some extra. Should we be buying gift cards from local businesses? Getting take out once a week (we very rarely eat out in normal times)? Give to charities? Save in case one of our family members needs help (several own businesses that have shut down). I have still been paying my kids teachers for their classes-I feel like I should continue to do that. 
 

It is hard to know because it isn’t like we have lots of extra money and usually I try to be frugal, but I think we should do something since we do have steady income.

edit: the beer thing? I don’t even know how that got there. I should read before I post 

Edited by lovinmyboys
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Income hasn't gone down.  We are spending the same nothing different.  

I am only paying for kid activities that are still going on.  I am not donating and doing things like that right now.  I have no idea what the future holds so I am just making sure my family gets through this.  Once life resumes back to normal we will be supporting the places my kids take lessons by being back there and possibly donating.   

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Up until this week we were buying carry-out/delivery every day to support businesses.  But not being extravagant.

This week we are mostly eating at home, but have ordered delivery a couple times.

I won't say my income isn't affected, but my spending is not closely related to my income.  I do feel that we should be more frugal now in order to have more reserves should they be needed, and also so that we can help others as it makes sense.  But most of our commitments are not variable in the short run.

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12 minutes ago, lovinmyboys said:

I feel really lucky that dh’s job hasn’t been affected. I feel like we should be doing things to help, but I don’t know the beer thing. Dh doesn’t make a ton of money, but we probably have some extra. Should we be buying gift cards from local businesses? Getting take out once a week (we very rarely eat out in normal times)? Give to charities? Save in case one of our family members needs help (several own businesses that have shut down). I have still been paying my kids teachers for their classes-I feel like I should continue to do that. 
 

It is hard to know because it isn’t like we have lots of extra money and usually I try to be frugal, but I think we should do something since we do have steady income.


We never really ate out much at all before this, so no gift cards. I'm largely an Amazon, FB Marketplace, Goodwill shopper so Amazon has increased and the other two I'm NOT doing.
We have supported a couple small businesses - our farm store delivers to our truck and takes payments via phone.  Our local nursery will do the same thing - load everything and take payment via phone! Love them! Gives me something to do while being super low risk!!!  Getting dirt today.  

Groceries are way up.  DH did my grocery shopping yesterday and it was 150% of my budgeted amount.  But, that's a mix of, "There will be NO mid week shopping," "The kids snack so I want planned snacks," and that he is home too. 

We ended piano this past summer so that's off the list.
We're saving a fair bit because we live rurally and we have no gas expenses and we're not running miscellaneous errands.  Utilities are down.  Spending is up because it's gardening season and we're redoing the beds (making them taller so I can weed from my walker), buying dirt.

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We’re doing some home upgrades we’ve wanted to do for a time. 
 

also fully funded our Roth retirement accounts for last year and this year. We just had $ in savings sitting there, still have plenty in savings for emergencies but it’s a good time to invest if you’re financially stable.

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We bought a large order from our fish delivery man on his last round. We signed up for veg delivery from our nearest organic farm. We don't eat out much anyway, and the takeaway places are big chains, not local businesses. We aren't spending much in general, except on a couple of new news subscriptions.

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We are spending as little as possible for wants. My husband is in the private sector and was retrenched in the Great Recession. So we are upping our emergency savings. 

We ate out three times a week for lunch when my oldest attended dual enrollment classes in person. Now that money is diverted to groceries. Cheapest options for groceries are usually gone by the time we reach the supermarkets so we are spending more on groceries now for fruits, vegetables and meat. 
 

My husband’s workplace is nearby so not much savings on gasoline from working at home. 

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I have spent more than usual, but some of that will balance out. I think we could grocery shop for 4 weeks now at about $60/week. We may spend more than that if someone wants something in particular, but it *could* be that low. I spent >$300 at the local game store before they closed doors for a little while. I sent vitamins to my parents. The only ones that wouldn't ship before the end of April were more expensive brands. I bought a birdhouse and birdseed since we'll be home so much. That's a lot of discretionary spending for two weeks. But, pur expenses next week will be pretty low? Dh won't even be driving to work. Overall I would say we will be about the same, but it was front loaded. And we may end up spending less. Maybe significantly less. Time will tell.

 

When we get our tax return, I think we'll see if the dojo would like us to pay for the next few years now. And I will buy school stuff for next year. That is more a function of timing on spends rather than amount 

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We are trying to support local businesses in any way we can. We are trying to order take out once a week (which we almost never do). We joined a CSA, which we haven’t done for a few years. We are ordering weekly gelato delivery, just to be supportive of our local gelato shop.

 It’s tough though. We aren’t huge consumers and essentially nothing is open, so there aren’t a lot of opportunities right now. 

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We've never eaten out a lot and it feels risky considering we are in an area with a very high number of cases to get take-out so we are continuing to just eat at home.   We actually put a bunch of home improvement plans on hold since we don't know how long this is going to last or what changes may come.  Dh's job is secure but my business is basically shut down until this resolves.  We are still having to pay rent and utilities without any money coming in so we have to dip into personal money for that. 

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our income hasn't been negatively affected (yet).  I've hardly been out and about since I first got sick in Dec. (and now that I'm finally getting well . . . . .)  I see no point in buying things just to buy things.  Having had years of very hard times financially, I still deal with the "don't spend" mindset a lot of the time.   I think about doing some take-out from favorite places, but dh doesn't want me going out.  (I'm high risk.).   dh wants to reduce as much coming into the house..  his plan is to go grocery shopping every two weeks.   2ds - who lives here, has offered to  work from home to reduce how much he's out of the house - and what germs he might bring back.  (small office, half of which is now working from home.)

and dd just got laid off - no surprise cost cutting in these times.  (she has two job interviews on Monday with two different companies (one is a 2 of 3 interview) - as she was already looking.  ( Five mid levels left in Jan/Feb.  Another one quit in Dec. without a job lined up.)  While I think she'll be fine without our help - that is something I keep in mind.  (dsil is working from home, and 2dd is a pharmacist in a hospital, so she's actually working more.)

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Our main source of income hasn't changed, and isn't likely to, but we have a rental house and I don't know how the tenants' jobs will fare in the current uncertainty. The money that we aren't spending is sitting in our account to help if we have an interruption in rental income. 

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In terms of things to do to help...

We are continuing all services we’ve been using locally.  So, mosquito treatment, lawn care, etc.  

We have decided that even if classes are canceled at DS’s studio, we will continue to pay our monthly tuition.  To support the studio.  

We have aides for my mom who normally come, and a cleaning service.  We have asked that both suspend coming, but have offered to pay the same rate, even when they are not here, because we know they don’t get sick leave or paid time off.  We like supporting them.

Other than that, we are spending about the same.  I would like to save some extra so that it’s here if needed, either by us or close family or friends.

 

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1 minute ago, Carrie12345 said:

I’ve paused our debt payoff for the most part and am just sticking money in savings. Dh isn’t very likely to lose his job, but it could happen. He probably won’t need to take a pay cut, but it’s possible.  We’ll see how it all shakes out in the end.

This is what I am doing; everything has been put on minimum payment only with the difference between what I was paying and minimum going into savings. DH works for a pharmaceutical company, so I am hopefully cautious. Because they may choose to downsize the office staff due to supply chain issues or whatever. We are spending way less on gas and slightly less on eating out (we only did it occasionally, now not at all), and spending way more on groceries. We only have the TKD studio for 2 kids, Amazon, and the local paper as subscriptions; all of those are still being paid at this time. Our co-op just put out a letter yesterday that they are not offering refunds as well. 

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My income varies widely because of the type of work I do. January is a low month and then it picks up. But I had all kinds of expenses in January and February including some that I put off. One of my college kids needs new tires on their vehicle, and thankfully we had a mild winter. But we'll have to do that before it's due for inspection. His school year job is cancelled, as is his summer job. So I have to cover more than I usually do. My younger one's job moved online. 

March ended up much better for us, but I've got some catch-up to cover. And I've got to buy food for three meals a day for everyone. 

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Same thing as before. Buying food and paying bills if I can. Before this hit I bought a trip for dh and I to Curacao and in theory I have trip insurance so should get a refund but let’s be real, no one will get refunds bc if they did everywhere wouldn’t go bankrupt. In theory I hear that eventually the airline will give me a credit for 12 months but I don’t know if we will have financially recovered enough to go anywhere within 12 months and I am pretty ticked about that to be honest bc I’m doubting my credit is going to cover the cost of new tickets and the place I wanted to go is already super crowded for the only other dates I can leave the kids. It’s not like I can just up and go whenever I want and many people are using all their vacation and sick time pay to help them get through quarantine - so they won’t have any vacation time left.  I think if the airlines are getting bailed out they can refund me or at least give me more than a year to recover without a bailout. The hotel said if they refund me it will take “up to 90 days” for them to mail me a check. So I’m not holding my breath on that.  I’m fine with not being able to go. But I’m really pissed at how companies get a bailout but those same companies can’t see that refunding people is a huge financial relief too. Frankly I think the stimulus package is a joke. Trickle down economics is BS.  It’s going to be like when banks were bailed out but kept foreclosing on homes. 

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Paying rent for my young adults- one who won't get a stimulus check because she was still in college on scholarship last year and is currently taking out loans for law school.

The other who lost his job at a high end restaurant. He is grateful but still upset that he has lost his ability to be financially independent.

Also we are forging ahead with a house project.
 

 

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Our income hasn't changed but DD's has.  She is considered an essential worker, but one of her clients has cancelled sessions until all this is over so she is currently only working 4 hours a week.  Her other job is tutoring at the college and they are on an extended break until the end of April, so she doesn't have that income.  So we are having to pay for some of DD's expenses for college that we weren't planning on.  Otherwise, we are trying to stick to our budget and put as much on savings and paying down debt as we can.

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Our income hasn't change for the negative.  It has actually increased because dh's company is allowing unlimited overtime and it pays double pay.  So, dh is trying to take advantage of that as much as he can.  However, our spending has still gone down considerable.  We are not willing to needlessly spend right now because if a recession or depression hits dh's job might seriously be on the chopping block.  So, for now everything goes into savings.  If we make it through whatever economic hard times are likely to come we have already designated a certain amount of money to go to local businesses that we wish we could support now but know we aren't financially able to if the economy tanks.

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We are spending a little more on household supplies as we build up things like TP, paper towels, baby wipes, diapers, cleaning supplies. And we are currently buying more fresh fruits and vegetables to preserve our shelf stable food. We are also getting take out once or twice a week. And finally we are also helping support my youngest who is currently unemployed but other than that we are squirreling away as much cash as possible just in case.

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Income hasn't changed and isn't likely to.

We are spending more money on groceries and household supplies, of course.  We usually eat out a couple of times a week, but are not eating out at all right now.  We just aren't comfortable with it.

Still paying our cleaning lady even though she isn't cleaning for us right now.  She has been cleaning for us for 13 years now, so I am happy to be able to do that for her.

Still paying for daughters' activities.  Piano lessons are still being done through FaceTime.  Not ideal, but it works and I'm glad to still support the music school.  Ballet school is offering recorded lessons, as well as some live lessons on Zoom.  Daughter hasn't done any, but we will continue to pay the studio to support them. 

Overall spending is greatly decreased though.  Aside from groceries and household supplies, the only things that I have ordered/spent money on are presents for my younger daughter's April birthday.  I want to make sure that she has some gifts for her birthday even if we are in quarantine!

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I have donated several hundred dollars to the local group that provides grocery store cards to school families and an equal amount to the food bank.  I tipped our voice teacher the equivalent of a month's tuition since he had many families quit and was worried abut paying his mortgage.  When we get take out I tip about 50%,  and this is reminding me to go buy gift cards for restaurants we support. Overall, grocery bills are higher but gas costs are much lower; I'm probably coming our ahead on that. 

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We spent a ton of money in the couple of weeks before things got bad, stocking up and getting prepped. 

Edited to add: Oh, and I completely forgot. When I realized that I was actually going to be stuck at home working and have my physical interaction with the outside world limited (meaning I can't just go run errands and go to theme parks and wander around -- I'm a big wanderer), I freaked out and told my husband I was going to need a few things. We spent several hundred dollars in a couple of days on a new printer, new monitors (I told him I needed one, but he thought I should have a matched pair), some small pieces of outdoor furniture . . .

Our income has not decreased. Well, my son and his girlfriend, who live with us, are not working. They are both performers, and all of the dinner theatres and such are closed at the moment, My son is continuing to bring in a little bit of buckage by selling the whips he makes, but that doesn't bring in enough even to make the minimal rent we charge them. And I guess this results in a tiny hit to our income, since we do charge them a token amount of rent and he is paying me back some money he owes me. However, all of that goes directly into saving accounts designated for those purposes, so we won't really notice the dip.

I'm a little concerned about my husband's job, which is our primary source of income. He works for a large entertainment company headed by a Mouse. Although his job function is "backstage," it is ultimately concerned with supporting operation and development in the parks, so if this turns out to be a really long-term, devastating shut-down, there is a possibility we will feel the impact. My job seems pretty secure; our CEO has held all-hands (virtual) meetings to reassure everyone, and our line of business (developing and offering eLearning) adapts well both to a remote work environment and to our customers' needs. However, we'd still be in something of a bind if my husband's income seriously decreased or went away, because I bring home about half of what he does. 

Nonetheless, we're trying to do our part not to make things worse. So, we are continuing to order food for delivery and pick up semi-regularly. I have placed slightly larger orders than I might otherwise have placed with retailers I use regularly. I have dropped small-ish donations to various local groups, mostly arts groups that have been shut down, here and there. Once I kind of catch my breath, emotionally, I hope to get more intentional about that kind of thing.

We'll just have to see how things develop over the next few weeks.

Edited by Jenny in Florida
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We’re retired so income hasn’t changed, though our investment accounts are lower than they were a month ago.  Our spending is lower than usual because we have no entertainment or travel expenses.  We stocked up about five weeks ago-groceries, toilet paper, cat food  and litter, etc.  But  we’re currently splurging a little on groceries, buying salmon, shrimp, good bread, cut fruit, etc. It makes being stuck inside a little better to have really nice meals.  


Our two youngest kids have lost their jobs, but both have enough savings to weather a few months’ worth of expenses. Hate to see them deplete their savings, though.

Tried to buy a few things from Amazon- a cooling neck towel, weed wacker string, and a clock for beside the bed, but the estimated delivery date is a month away so I decided to wait and see if things open up and they’ll be available locally.  I would love to send the grandkids a few things to brighten their days but Amazon is a no and I’m not willing to buy stuff at Walmart and then ship at post office- not essential shopping. 
 

Nephew is co-running a program in NYC that both helps restaurants and feeds people who cannot afford to pay. I have sent $ to that program, and will likely send more as he is the one who gets corporate sponsors but is having to do it from his apartment because he’s tested positive for covid-19.  So I’m sure donations are down since he’s been out of commission. 

 

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So far income has not changed so that's a relief. We do not eat out at all and don't feel we need to suddenly start by ordering take out or whatever. One thing we have done is not requested refunds for activities or memberships. If we do receive a refund we've donated it directly back to that organization or someone who may have lost their job. It's not much but we feel that since we've not taken a financial hit it's one way we can help others. Our grocery bill definitely is much higher but I haven't bought anything that we won't use so it will all work out eventually.

With thrift stores closed some spending has gone down for me, lol. My once per week "browse" time (OK, almost always turns into "buy" time) added up even at just $20-30 each outing.

So far none of our young adult children have asked us for help. Goodness, that is so huge as we've seen the decisions they've made with savings and living below their means pay off now!

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Most of the businesses I feel are going to need our business are already closed. We don’t eat out much but I made s point of getting takeout when I could have eaten at home yesterday.

I feel like it’s better now to save since we don’t know where things are going (and if we’re not affected financially now, can we count on that to continue to be the case?) and spend to support local businesses after they reopen. So I’m not buying some things online now ( despite ample online shopping time and temptation) that I hope to be able to buy locally later.

eta: also I am planning not to pursue refunds and such for taekwondo classes and gym membership 

Edited by emba56
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We are somewhere between "spending normally,"  "going out more to help the local businesses we like,"  and "saving in case DH's income does get reduced in the next weeks." 

Which sounds contradictory, but....I don't know how else to put it. 

We're probably spending the usual amount on groceries, once you average out the whole month. As we're able, I'll start shopping more frugally, but right now things are still very much in "take what you can find" mode, so it's harder to do at the moment. 

We're going out roughly once/week for take-out dining, to specific locally owned restaurants that we want to still be here when this is over. (and tipping generously from now on; lessons learned).

We're not spending on anything else right now and are putting more money aside into savings, just in case. DH works in the oilfield, so, on the one hand, he's essential....on the other hand, business is slowed WAY down and many companies are furloughing workers, laying off workers, etc. so we're being prudent with things. 

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We are paying DD's gymnastics. It is very important to her/us that her gym still exists when this is over. 

I spent money like crazy when the restrictions were starting - on crafts, games, next semester's curriculum, fun hair dyes, etc. I'm keeping an eye on my email because retailers are running huge sales. I just bought both DD's summer swimsuits from Justice for $10 each. We are saving tremendously on fast food since we're not out and about. Trying to consciously pick up food once or twice a week, but I don't know the restaurants here because we generally just get fast food...

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We're probably spending less overall since I lost both my school-time sitters and my once-a-week sitter.  We have been getting take-out more often.  I go back and forth between thinking I should be careful in case DH's job take a big hit (he's working in the used car industry so pretty dependent on the economy overall, though he's unlikely to be out of work entirely), and thinking I should buy the things I really want in case I can't later.

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No income change so far.  We are a bit tight anyway right now probably partly due to my slow pantry restock that’s been going on for the last six weeks.  We don’t really get take away however dh is probably doing less work lunches and coffees due to partly working from home.  I haven’t asked for refunds from kids activities that are cancelled.  We did have a movie day out planned that turned into an at home movie night.   I think because we don’t do a tonne of going out discretionary spending this hasn’t changed much for us. There is a local bookshop that’s struggling and if we have extra money in a couple of weeks I will do an online order through them.

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54 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

Debating about a dehydrator. But my husband thinks is unnecessary. So for his mental health about panic spending on unnecessary things on money we can save, I have decided to learn how to dehydrate in the oven. 

I just wanted to comment on the oven versus the dehydrator.  The oven takes FOREVER to dry.  Mine oven actually timed off after 24 hours and my items still weren't dry.  I've used one of those round dehydrators to get a feel for if we liked the results.  It's okay for very small amounts but most things were a pain to remove from the hard plastic.  To really make the most use of a dehydrator, you need ones with flexible mesh trays but of course those are more expensive and really only worth it if you plan to dehydrate a lot.  I have a 9 tray Excalibur.  It can hold 11 pineapples at a time, or about 1/3 of a bushel of apples, or 5 lbs of onions (somewhat variable depending on how you slice/chop them).  So whether it's worth it will depends on what and how much you are hoping to dehydrate.

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Our expenses have stayed about the same.  We stopped attending extra curricular classes, so that saves money. DH is working from home, so no money spent on lunches out or gas. But, his computer is about to die and he uses it for work, so he had to order parts to build a new computer. He has a work-issued laptop, but he's able to work more effectively with a desktop AND the laptop.  We had stopped eating in restaurants months ago, so there's no change there.   

His job seems stable; he's a linux engineer for a server company, so he's been pretty busy lately. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but his job is probably pretty secure during this time.  If he keeps his job, we'll actually end up saving money, which feels...just really weird. Like some sort of survivor-guilt kind of feeling.  

If our art teacher is able to offer some on-line classes, we will loosen the budget a little and sign kiddo up for them. 

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Our Income hasn’t changed, and our spending is down in most areas, but up in grocery costs.
 

We are not eating out, so that’s way down. Groceries were way up two weeks ago, but now things are back to a new higher normal for now with college kids home.

Ds16 is enrolled in public school and has barely left the house over the last two weeks. He’s not driving, so our fuel costs are down. He also had some expensive school activities coming up (sports package for track, fundraiser for track, new track shoes, prom, Disney trip for orchestra, etc) that are likely not happening, so his expenses are down, along with his spending money. He’s been a really good sport. I’m not “homeschooling” him, but I’m impressed by the way he is taking initiative to check on his assignments and is keeping up with everything. 

I pay for his violin lessons by semester, so no change there. he’s meeting with his teacher weekly via FaceTime. The main purpose of lessons for him at this point is to ensure he practices, and that is still working, so even if FaceTime lessons are not ideal, I’m still glad it’s helping him continue to work on various goals.
 

I won’t have to pay April’s college dorm fees for dd18, but I may still have to pay for the meal plan as they are not offering a refund, just rolling it into next year’s meal plan. I should get a refund for part of march’s dorm fees. Any of that savings will roll over to help pay for the fall semester. Dd18 was set to work at a summer camp all summer and earn most of a semesters tuition, but it sounds like that’s up in the air at this point.
 

We won’t be hosting a grad/commissioning ceremony for dd22 - not sure if we will do something later, on a smaller scale. I cancelled a fancy cookie order for the party but will order from her again in the future. 

I ordered a couple of paint by numbers sets, but even with that, my online purchasing is way down. I’m still “window shopping” though. Thinking about picking up a Nintendo switch... just for fun.

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We pretty much live hand to mouth already, thankfully no drop in income yet. Gas costs are down considerably.  We’ve had no refunds on kid activities, so that’s not down. I basically just try to tip when I’m out. It’s what I can do.

Oh and maybe this is lame, but I tell the kids to get the school lunches from the bus because the lunch system gives people a job to do. The kids don’t really like them, but I can use a decent percentage of what the kids reject to make other meals: milk, packaged apple slices, ham, and salad are a few things I sequestered and doctored for meals. It’s not going in the trash, mostly. 

Edited by SamanthaCarter
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We are very fortunate to have secure jobs. Our grocery spend has sky rocketed this month, and yet our take out spend has not decreased. Gas and kid activity related spend is approaching $0, but our Amazon purchases have picked up. I had expected to see a net positive to our bottom line, but it has not materialized. 

Dh (attorney) said his work is slowing down enough that he is able to clear some of his backlogged tasks. He will have a huge surge when this passes and he can get back to court. My work (corporate accounting) has not slowed down at all, and now we are starting to see extra work related to the financial impacts of the economy.

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