There are unnecessary or unexpected purchases every year. I would have thought this year was a bit high– I’ve bought an amp, a guitar, and donated quite a bit more than normal. Plus everyone keeps screaming about inflation. Heck, my property taxes are going up at least $100-200 a month annually.

But because I use Copilot (affiliate link, my code is DW49GR to get 2 months free), I can view things like total spending in a year and average monthly spending.

Using 2022 as my base spending, I wondered, am I feeling inflation? Well, in 2023 I spent -14.39% per month what I spent in 2022. And in 2024, I spent -13.90% what I did in 2023. So my spending is up a little this year, on average. But my spending remains lower than it was in 2022.

Perhaps this shows that in my income bracket I am more protected from inflation. Maybe I’ve gotten cheaper (note, my income has increased, though our family income is a bit down this year because Elsa has decided to do consulting versus a full time gig and is intentionally doing less than 35-40 billable hours a week). I think it probably shows that inflation slowed, and that when inflation hits certain categories, we’re generally capable of substituting for other goods.

If I completely remove the inflation story from this, it’s also helpful to know that I have smoothed my consumption to a comfortable level. I don’t track a budget very closely at all– in fact, while there is extensive budgeting in Copilot, I use it for cash flow and investment tracking. And I like to see a pacing guide on monthly spend that I get by budgeting just to get a sense of “am I overall going a bit too nuts this month” before making a big purchase. But mostly, I just live my life a way that I’ve gotten accustom to and that seems to be properly sized to our income.

Why was I looking at all this anyway today?

We’re getting much closer to leasing an electric vehicle, and I wanted to know how much the additional $200-250 car payment would hurt us. As it turns out, we are spending more on the car these days. Our lease payments have been relatively consistent since 2022 (with a $25 a month reduction starting in May of 2022) and our overall car costs (maintenance like oil changes, gas, and lease payments) averaged $351.01, $334.50, and now a whopping $419.64 a month. I think we’re driving more this year, to be honest. Regardless, going from $276.88 a month to a $525 a month payment, subtracting this year’s average gas costs is only about $100 a month increase. We get some free charging while out and about and I’m sure charging at home won’t cost nothing, but I think I can safely say we can afford the increase in car payment given how consistent our lifestyle has been.