Anonymous wrote:Those aren’t the costs of COVID. Those are Costa of life in the pandemic.
I thought OP meant the costs like my friends’ who had to pay for their daughter’s London flat to be sorted through, many items sold or donated, and meaningful items packed up to be shipped back to US. She has had to abandon her life there because she has such limited lung function that she can’t live independently there anymore. They are also stuck in the DMV SFH they planned to downsize from and move to a much lower COLA this year. She needs the dining room as a downstairs bedroom and needs proximity to excellent medical care. She’s 30 and probably will never work again or have kids.
Anonymous wrote:We hired a tutor and then sprang for private school. So bleeding money over here since September. From March 2020-Sept 2020, we saved a ton of money though. No work lunches, travel, gas, activities, camps (was about to sign up when the world ended), etc.
Anonymous wrote:Yes- we weirdly squirreled away an extra $15k without really trying. I think a lot of that is lack of travel, camps, sports and eating in restaurants. But I was still shocked. I feel like I am online shopping all the time!
My husband points out that our kids truly need less- fewer clothes, no specific shoes for a specific event, no impulse purchase. The occasional toy or art supplies every couple weeks doesn’t come anywhere near that random things that would pop up. Heck, even not having birthday parties really saved us about $20-$40/week!