2024 Year In Review

We just wrapped up the third full year that Mr. Sense and I extensively tracked our spending as part of our quest for early financial independence. We’ve seen significant improvement each year, and 2024 was no exception. In fact, we actually hit our stretch spending goal for the first time during our FIRE journey, despite having chosen a more aggressive target than 2022 and 2023. 

I’ve been hesitant to put out too many real numbers in the past, since most of my readers are friends and family. But today I’m going to share some figures, to show how we’re saving over half our income while tithing. This isn’t just a matter of willpower. God has blessed me with a well paying career, which gives Mr. Sense and me the opportunity to pursue financial independence even while living a comfortable lifestyle and having my husband stay home to be a full time parent (and for much of the last couple years, to spend hours each day homeschooling). In this post, I’m including our actual spending from the last couple years, in hopes that it will encourage those in similar situations who want to save more, without discouraging people who are already living just as frugally but not saving as much because of their income levels. 

In 2024, we spent $54668, just under our target of $54996. This represents a major improvement year over year, as we spent $80104 in 2023 and didn’t hit our goal. These figures don’t include tithing and charitable giving ($19048 in 2024), which we track separately. We tracked every single purchase and put them in categories. We made a few adjustments to the categories at the beginning of 2024, so I’ve gone back and put the 2023 purchases into the 2024 categories as closely as possible, so we can look at how we achieved this much of a decrease in spending, and then I’ll briefly discuss our plans for 2025. 

Bills: $25868 ($2155.67/month), 2024 goal: $26400, 2023 actual: $26057

This category includes the interest and tax/insurance portions of our mortgage, utilities, personal property tax, auto insurance, Mr. Sense’s health insurance, and phones/internet. It’s pretty predictable, and actually came in just under our estimate since we ended up finding less expensive car insurance and our heat bills were less than the previous year since it didn’t get quite as cold out. Notable exclusions are my health insurance (mostly covered by my employer with my marginal portion taken directly) and our mortgage principal, which we count towards savings. I expect this to stay mostly unchanged in 2025. 

Kids: $6937 ($578.08/month). 2024 goal: $8400, 2023 actual: $14348

Despite the fact that we had two kids in our home for most of the year, we spent much less in 2024 than in 2023. Kid Sense earned an amazing college scholarship and qualified for more financial aid than we anticipated. She also chose to discontinue horseback riding lessons early in the year. Much of the spending in this section was for educational expenses, but we also had recreational costs (sword fighting lessons for one kid, flag football registration for another), plus clothing and gifts. This category covers items that are 100% for the kids, but doesn’t include food or other items that are used by the whole household. We were fortunate that our kids didn’t have much in the way of medical or mental health issues that we had to pay for out of pocket throughout the year.

Kid Sense will be heading back to college from winter break this month, and our wonderful younger foster son will be reuniting with his first family, which is joyful but bittersweet for us. We plan to take a break from foster parenting for a few months to regroup emotionally and plan for the future. Without knowing what our future holds, we’ve actually developed two different monthly budget plans for 2025– one for when/if we have kids in our home and one for our empty nesting stage. 

Groceries: $5811 ($484.25/month). 2024 goal: $6300, 2023 actual: $7679

We got serious about cutting back on junk food and started planning our grocery trips more carefully, shopping almost exclusively at Aldi and Sharp Shopper. We spent more liberally towards the end of the year since we had lots of room in our budget, so this could have been lower. I quit drinking alcohol midway through 2023, and that continued to save us money. We plan to drive this number down further in 2025, particularly in months when it’s just us two adults at home. My in-laws gifted us a Costco membership for Christmas, so we’re working out how to use that to our advantage this year!

Home Improvement/Repairs: $3149 ($262.42/month), 2024 goal: $1200, 2023 actual: $1649

We were much too optimistic when setting this goal– old house people like us should’ve known better! A couple plumbing nightmares decimated our budget, even though we did as much work as possible ourselves. I tried to be more realistic when planning for 2025, and I even factored in some fun projects, like wallpapering the dining room. 

Entertainment: $3136 ($261.33/month), 2024 goal: $1200, 2023 actual: $4552

This was another category that got away from us, and it came down to my growing obsession with running. I even got Mr. Sense into it, and all the race registrations, shoes, and other running paraphernalia bumped up this number. This category was supposed to cover going to the movies and concert tickets, and once those were added in, our budget was blown. We decided we want to continue to ramp up our running in 2025 (I’m already signed up for my next marathon in March!), so we created a new category for Athletics/Health for 2025 to track those expenses separately. 

Dining: $2901 ($241.75/month), 2024 goal: $3000, 2023 actual: $5677

Mr. Sense and I agreed to make real cuts in our dining out budget, and we kept each other accountable. We still wanted to enjoy going out for a date about once a week, and we figured out a few favorite lunch date options within walking distance to our house and knew exactly how much each place would cost (since we’re a bit boring and mostly order the same items). Our regular places, Gloria’s Pupuseria and Taste of India, typically run us $34 and $50, respectively. The big key to staying on budget was planning ahead for pricier meals, like when we take family members out for birthdays or other celebrations. If we knew we would be taking my parents and the kids somewhere, we shifted our dates for a few weeks to picnic lunches at the park or cooking steaks from the bottom of the freezer and eating by candlelight. Coming in under budget is very romantic. 

Miscellaneous: $2099 ($174.92/month), 2024 goal: $1800, 2023 actual: $7312

This was a huge decrease from last year. It came down to avoiding shopping like the plague. I took a full year off buying clothing for myself, we agreed that our electronics were all decent enough, and we got used to not browsing stores, in person or online. We came in slightly over our goal, but mostly because we spent a few hundred dollars on upcoming “needs” on the last day of the year, when it was clear we would be easily under our overall annual spending target. 

Vacation: $1894 ($157.83/month), 2024 goal: $2400, 2023 actual: $5203

The Sense family joined our church choir trip to Wells, England, and we had an amazing time. It was so special to see Kid Sense singing in Wells Cathedral, tearing up because it was achingly beautiful. We didn’t go on any other trips, and the number is extra low because we paid for a lot (Mr. Sense and my plane tickets, half our Airbnb) in the previous year. We don’t have any big trips planned for 2025, but we kept the budget at $2400, which should cover a family trip to Wisconsin with my in-laws, and maybe a well planned couples weekend somewhere, too. 

Gifts: $1488 ($124/month), 2024 goal: $1200, 2023 actual: $2700

We tried, but still underestimated Christmas shopping and other presents for family and friends. While we did a better job of shopping throughout the year to get good deals, we still didn’t quite stay on budget. Mr. Sense and I didn’t buy birthday or Christmas gifts for each other all year, which we both felt alright about. We agreed that buying nice Christmas gifts for our families is important, so we increased this category for 2025. 

Transportation: $1313 ($109.42/month), 2024 goal: $2400, 2023 actual: $4216

Dropping down to one car saved us a huge amount! [Note: we did purchase a vehicle, but traded in our truck with a higher value, so we counted the difference check towards income rather than adding the sale price to spending.] Our hybrid Toyota Corolla is very fuel efficient, and I continued to rely on my bicycle for most in town transportation. The majority of the driving was kid-related, so we expect to see this drop further in 2025. Mr. Sense plans to bike a lot more this year, and we shouldn’t have to fill up the gas tank very often once we’re (temporarily) empty nesters. 

Oops: $72 ($6/month), 2024 goal: $696, 2023 actual: $711

This kind of embarrassing category is where we put our mistakes, like getting a speeding ticket or replacing a phone screen after a clumsy moment. We seem to be getting a bit more careful, so we eliminated this category altogether for 2025, and any errors will have to get lumped in whatever other category seems closest. 

So that’s how it worked out: major reductions in grocery, dining, transportation, and kid-related spending more than cancelled out extra money we spent on entertainment (actually, just running), gifts, and home repairs. We’re happy with our current level of spending and our 2025 plan has a similar total spending number, with some adjustments to the categories and flexibility to account for our parenting situation. 

Household spending is so varied, and I’d love to hear from YOU– are there any categories where you can’t believe we messed up so badly? Anything you can’t imagine getting so low? Email any criticism or tips and tricks to me at mammonsense@gmail.com, and maybe we can work together on a future post with reader advice!