You’re stuck at home, perhaps even happily so. Entertainment options are limited – TV and takeout, and maybe increased at-home alcohol consumption. Can’t go out to eat – although that is becoming more available as time goes on. Gas is cheap but there’s no where to drive to including to the office. Shopping for new clothes is off the table with many shopping centers closed and, besides, who needs new work or school clothes when your day is spent in front of a computer in your own home?

Look At Your Spending

What can you do for fun? For one thing, it’s an excellent opportunity to review your current spending and project what your future spending might look like after the shutdown and compare that with what and how you used to spend before the shutdown. I will wager that a lot of us can see that we don’t really need some of the things we spent money on before and can cut down or cut out some needless spending going forward. Here are some things you can look at:

• Restaurants: We all miss having someone cook for us and serving our dinner and not having to clean up afterward. Yet, do you like ordering food to take out or have delivered to your door? There are at least a couple of benefits to ordering take out, both related to alcohol: a) You can go to the grocery or liquor store for your drink of choice and it will be a lot less expensive (per serving, at least) than ordering drinks at the same restaurant; and b) Drink up! No need to worry about drinking and driving since you are already home.
• Movies: I wouldn’t want to be long on in-person movie theaters at the moment. Many states have yet to ok them to open up again, and so they are losing money there. Some movie studios are bypassing the in-person theater release and heading straight to streaming. Do you miss going to the theater? Or is watching a movie in your living room good enough for you? Netflix and the like are not without cost but they are still less than a night at the movies, especially if an entire family is involved.
• Your Car: How does this new Stay At Home situation change how you view your car? Do you really need a high-end expensive car? If you are a couple, married or otherwise, do you each really need a car or can you get by just fine with just one car? Gasoline may be on the cheap side now, but don’t plan on it staying that way for the long term. Some project that the shutdowns by some oil producers will remain permanent which will lead to much higher oil prices once the economy heats up again.
• Your Home: Are you happy in your current home? Or do you live in a hovel because you work so much and now that you aren’t at the office you want a nicer place to live? Do you want to upgrade your current home? Paint and carpet are not that expensive but other upgrades may be, especially if they involve blowing out walls. Perhaps you can look at spending less on other things associated with your “work at the office” life and spend more instead on your home. Or maybe this amounts just to buying a new office chair and a new couch.
• Personal Appearance: Do you enjoy cutting or coloring your own hair and doing a self-mani-pedi? I didn’t think so. Probably no budget cuts there. However, how does nice, expensive clothing fit into the equation in the future? If you are going to be out in public less, probably you don’t need to up your wardrobe budget. On the other hand, maybe you do need to up your game with respect to your at-home appearance.
• Saving For Retirement: How does all of this change how you are viewing your retirement and when you want to retire? Does this make you want to retire sooner – assuming you haven’t already been forced into “retirement”? Or are you the groundhog who sees his shadow and gets scared and scurries back into his hole? This shutdown should cause you more specifically to focus on the timing of your retirement and to make or change your plans accordingly.

IMO

Make the best of a bad situation. Don’t let this crisis go to waste. However you want to phrase it, my point is that you should use this shutdown and change in your lifestyle, whether forced or voluntary, temporary or permanent, to think about how you spend your money and whether you can make changes now that will make your future easier to afford.

By the way: I have written this column with the assumption that you have choices that you can make and that you don’t need to struggle every day to put food on the table for your family. If you have been laid off after having lived paycheck to paycheck, you likely have a different perspective about all of this. We all hope that the economy does recover and that we all can get back on our feet again.