I realized I never responded to people's questions about our 2020 spending.  So I decided I would do it now.  First off Disneysteve asked how did you spend $22k on travel in a lockdown year.  Well first off when we travel I do not breakdown eating out or gifts, etc.  Traveling is everything, everything we buy to prep to uber to eating out to gifts, anything and everything that is not because we are at home.

Jan $1200 - 2 ski trips 
Feb $1915 - Hawaii, probably bought tickets in 2019
March $2637 - ski trip and booked couple of hotels
April $2353 - future hotels ( i wonder if I got this refunded)
May $2711 - weekend away was $1500 with $600 hotel, but also $1400 hotels
June $2727 - start of road trip and i can tell by activities and eating out no hotels
July $3886 - road trip and $517 deposit on January 2021 ski vrbo
August $0
September $0
October $0
November $3287 - tickets to hawaii and VRBO final payment $814
December $2025 - some ski tickets and all spending in hawaii from eating out, groceries etc
=$22847

Wait I found $8861 refunded by "travel" category of alaska, expedia, etc.  So I guess we spent $13986 on Travel for the year.  That looks better than $22k, but still $14k is a lot.

We spent $15727 on groceries with a refund of $1187 = $14540 for the year for a family of 4.  This I can answer.  I did not shop sales and I semi-meal planned in the sense I looked at what I had but I did  NOT look at a price book or flyer and instead I just cooked whatever I wanted.  I do not usually buy junk food (see this month everything) but I did buy mostly organic and mostly whatever I wanted. In March 2021 we did not do our normal sushi, seafood, and steaks once or twice a month food runs.  I will buy prime steak, lobster, and sushi at least 1 a month each usually friday nights and make it at home.  Also we had two additional adults for at least 6-12 meals a month (dinner).  DH's cousin and boyfried were eating with us most weekends to help build shed and I both bought take out and cooked for 2 adults more food and more booze. She also watches our dog when we travel so we usually pay for everything. 

And yes we buy expensive cuts of meat and seafood.  We are not food wasters by a long shot.  NOTHING really goes to waste.  We also do not buy processed foods either.  BUT we buy everything not on sale and on demand. I bought anything I wanted when I wanted it.  So I would walk into a store without a plan and throw things in the cart. I will decide I want to make X, Y, or Z and just buy what I needed to make it.  I didn't waste food.  We eat everything and I buy premium stuff in smaller quantities so I didn't waste anything.  But there was NO meal planning or prepping I just wanted mushrooms great I bought it.  I wanted pork shoulder or pork chops?  $8.99/lb no problem.  Sure $30/lb no sale for sashimi = no problem.   You see the problem.  We do once a week leftover night where everyone picks leftovers that isn't enough for a meal and then we eat it.  That's how we don't waste anything.  I make fried rice from old rice. I make stews and omelets or mishmash from leftovers.  So food isn't wasted but my food wasn't cheap to begin with and i never actually looked at the price and went "oh that's a lot." I just threw it in my cart.

I think I get this from my mom.  She said a woman once told her "you know you've made it when you walk into a store and buy what you want, when you want it.  Because you no longer look at sales."  And she does.  I sort of fell into this mindset.

Jan $1705
Feb $596
March $1715
April $844
May $1659
June $1504
July $1154
Aug $1257
Sept $1265
Oct $1922
Nov $1555
Dec $557

$13048 was spent on buying crap with $3894 refunded so $9154 spent actually.  What sort of stuff?  Amazon, target, walmart, etc.  Stuff for house, stuff for kids, etc.  I will try to be better this year.

$6290 on Restaurants with $240 refunded.  The breakdown you cans ee the lockdown definitely put a crimp on our eating out.  I think I've mentioned before we used to spend I know around $1k month eating out and $1k month on groceries.  Again I just bought take out when I felt like it.  No waste but eating out for us expensive because eating out is expensive for a family of 4 at "nicer" places.  $75-$100 is not hard to hit even takeout.  After march we ate outside 2x the entire time both times in september.

Janurary $757
Feb $787
March $695
April $310
May $483
June $289
July $356
Aug $618
Sept $648
Oct $315
Nov $597
Dec $441

So that's our spending. I definitely need to tease out our spending in general. I need to probably look at mint because personal capital is having problems.

But I also think I need to average out my spending since I'm becoming more aware.  The first two months weren't great but we're improving.  We had a goal of $950 for groceries, alcohol, and cleaning.  We spent $1100 but we were over our grocery part by $20.79!  Next month dare I try for $675 thrify plan?  Let's look at 2021 bigger picture first.