There is am entry discussing the Expenses during the day, related to being home all day – mostly HVAC related. This is a little different.

The coronavirus lock down caused us to actually be home a LOT (again, see the Expenses during the day post for more on this). I found that not leaving the house actually had some savings. Since there was no driving to the office everyday, there was less gas used. Plus we also only made a trip to the grocery store only once a week (milk, eggs, salad items, fruit). This took some planning for meals as well.

But I found that the grocery store wasn’t the only place we stopped at on the way home. Pretty much at least once a month, there was a trip to the home improvement store – probably more like bi-weekly. There was multiple trips to the grocery store during the week because it was on the way home – less meal planning. And, when we carpooled, we would probably go out to eat at least a week too. Stopping on the way home is a lot easier to do than it is when one is home all the time and has to actually leave the house to go out to eat (hence the name, right?!!?).

While not directly related to not being at home, not being at home also increases the fuel costs – and for some, tolls, subway, ferry, whatever. When commuting regularly to the workplace, these are a given. But the magnitude of the expense was highlighted when we were stuck at home almost all the time due to the Coronavirus lock downs.

The weekly trip to the grocery store was typically bundled with an as-needed stop at the home improvement store. And maybe the dollar store. And Walgreens. And the auto part store. Not all of them all the time, but they were all within proximity of each other so stopping wasn’t that much of an inconvenience.

I think the shopping and eating-out expenses will remain lower after retirement, much like following the example set during the coronavirus lock down.