Shift your spending

Monthly expenses will likely also look different moving forward. Mahoney believes the stay-at-home orders have acted as a budget reset for many.

“It’s hard to press pause on spending habits that you’ve had for many years,” Mahoney says.

But for months now, most people have been left with no choice other than to stop traveling, dining out, attending concerts and going to the movie theater. Budgets have therefore skipped over expenses that used to be recurring.

Some of these new routines might stick even when life regains some sense of normalcy. (Maybe you actually like those PB&J sandwiches at home. Or, maybe you’ll continue watching movies at home instead of in the theater.) If these do stick, it’s possible you’ll spend less discretionary money in the months ahead than you did before the pandemic began.