Context

The dataset used for this analysis comes from the Makeover Monday Week 12 2021 Challenge called, "Cereal Had a Very Weird Year." The challenge used a dataset on personal expenditures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and focused its analysis on the unusually high spike in expenditures on cereal during the start of the Covid 19 pandemic (March 2020).

My goal in exploring this dataset was to see if there were any other hidden findings beyond the clear fact that expenditures naturally increased when lockdown started.

Creating the Dashboard

• Immediately I knew that I wanted to be able to filter on multiple expenditure categories so that I would be able to compare more than one category throughout 2020.

• Then, once this clearly showed the huge spike in expenditures in March 2020, I also wanted to see how the actual percentage in expenditures changed throughout the entirety of 2020, and compare this with 2019. This would show me if expenditures ever went back to "normal" or if there were any more long term trends to discover. So, I created two bar charts showing the percentage change in expenditures.

• For color scheme I wanted something neutral and un-abrasive, so I opted for a green/sage palette.

Findings

• Overall, greatest expenditures were on meats and poultry, followed by alcoholic beverages, and then cereal and baked goods.

• In March 2020, cereal expenditures surpassed alcoholic beverage expenditures, but by May 2020 , alcohol expenditures once again took the lead over cereal.

• Fish accounted for the least overall expenditures. However, the % increase in expenditures on fish in all of 2020 was greater than in any other category.

• Comparing 2019 to 2020, alcohol had the greatest % increase in expenditures, followed by fish, then cereal.

Conclusion and next steps

• Expenditures clearly spiked in March 2020 when the lockdown started. However, after the dust had settled, a longer-term look at expenditures showed that people were spending more on fish than they ever have before. A next step could be to look at whether this is because fish was becoming more expensive, or if people were buying more fish.

• All categories of expenditures saw a spike in March 2020. Expenditures then dipped back down drastically, although never back down to pre-pandemic levels.