Will lockdown change the way you spend in future?

[StormCiara]

I'm going to phrase this as carefully as I can, because I know many people have been financially devastated by the crisis. Our finances are basically the same as before, but without going out and only shopping every 2/3 weeks we're saving a LOT more than we were before. We're not extravagant by any means but this has really shown up our unnecessary spending! DH and I have been knocking round how to keep this up, and how far to keep it up, when lockdown lifts.

We're definitely committed to less frequent, more organised food shopping - sounds so obvious really, but the more often you go, the more you spend! And running out of something isn't actually a disaster. We'd really drifted into frequent top-up shops, and inevitably you always get a few extra things on top of the milk/nappies you went in for.

I don't want to cut back on going to see films at the cinema - it's one of my solo treats over winter and I love to do it with friends. See also drinks out. But I don't get any special pleasure from buying food on the go, so will be more organised about taking food out with me.

Any more ideas? What will you do differently?

We don’t go out much, don’t do take away (I prefer cooking myself), shop around to get better deals and don’t buy on impulse. At the moment our grocery bill is higher as we shop only from one place and choose more expensive products because cheaper options often are not available. So it’s the opposite of your situation.
We need extension, redoing kitchen and bathroom (we’ve moved to this house recently) During the lockdown I was actually surprised how the night current size of the house worked for us so I will invest more in kitchen and bathroom especially in comfort things and quick solutions like underfloor heating, dryer, etc and go for smaller extension. Also more investment in the garden.

I think we will return to as before. Where we are saving is on activities for DS and meals out both of which we really enjoy and will go back to.

It's shown me I need to earn more money if I want to restart doing the things I like doing. Which is a good outcome. I was extravagant in some areas but not in others and I was extravagant about those things because I like them.

It's funny because we're not buying less 'stuff' if you see what I mean - we buy clothes/gear/toys infrequently and plan those purchases - it's more the drip-drip of little expenditures. It's been such a good re-set for us. We were both really really frugal and students for a long time but we've had a bit more disposable income the last few years, and had slipped into looser spending habits to make life easier with DC in the mix.

I've long said I prefer spending money on doing things to having stuff and this has shown that is what I actually do. Yes, we are much "better off" but that's becuse we havent had lazy afternoons with friends in beer gardens, or evenings in fancy restaurants, lively family dinners, been to football matches or concerts, travelled to visit friends or have weekends away Also big savings in commuting costs.

So no, I look forward to getting back to spending as before but I suspect the things I love most will be the last to return.

I'm buying more stuff online (batteries, paint brushes, books etc) - it will be a wrench to go back to trudging round local shops only to find 'we don't stock that'. My adult children never use local shops and were always faintly amused when I moaned about having to travel about to find a particular elastic for dressmaking, etc. I now know what they mean but I will try to support local afterwards - Amazon is very tempting though!

I won’t be buying clothes, this year at least. I haven’t worn anything decent since the middle of March. I’d like to think we could afford to use local shops, especially farm shops more often.

We don’t eat out often, rarely have a takeaway or visit coffee shops, so I do t think that will change. Fewer impulse buys and more planned spending at the supermarket probably.

I'd like it to, but the reality is that it probably won't.

Ha that’s probably more realistic devil

I could actually buy myself a childfree day a week to go walking with the money we’ve saved-this would give me deep joy and I’d be a calmer, kinder person (better mother, better wife).

Foxy I think that’s it, the difference between intentional spending and incidental spending. But then, there’s been a marked lack of opportunity for the latter.

I hate online shopping so bar food lockdown has basically been a total spending freeze.

IF dh keeps his job and his industry opens back up then I imagine our spending will revert to normal. I liked our life pre lock down, cinema, meals out, concerts, holidays..... I like shopping as well! Sure we’ve saved money by not being able to do these things (but also dh has had a pay cut so it balances out) but I don’t view any of these things as a waste of money. We enjoy them. How can that be a waste?
Obviously if dh industry does not recover in time then no we will not be spending on these things!

Not really. I'm looking forward to being able to really shop offline again - we live in an area which has high unemployment at the best of times so we do try to support local retail.

Yeah daisy I’m sure some of our saving is also because we’re uncertain what comes next.

One big thing though-i’m ditching toddler groups. DS is quite happy without them and I don’t like them either! Might reassess come winter but I’m pretty sure we can do without.

I'll make sure I always have a good stock of groceries, paper goods and toiletries.

We used to go abroad 2-3 times a year. I suspect we won't, even if/when we are allowed to because I think it will become much more expensive.

We are the same. Both still working so as we are not paying for anything else we have managed to save money. This pandemic really bought it home to me that we had no savings and no back up plan

So my plan now is to cut out buying crap and save as much as we can. We have changed the way we have our weekly money as well to reflect this. We are lucky. And grateful that we are okay. But it has really opened my eyes.

We will go out a lot less (once the initial fascination of being allowed out again is over) - I've bought enough booze to last a week for £35, we spend at least that in one night out.
I also think we may do smaller holidays. I realised once we had cancelled our "big" end of GCSE's trip, that the pressure to enjoy it because it cost so much was immense (this is a definite first world problem!)
We already budget well for food so no real change there, but I've been made acutely aware of how much we drive normally. As we have a 4x4 this is not a cheap exercise and I'm definitely looking to cut down where possible (not that easy as we have no public transport and live rurally, but better organisation should cut out some unnecessary trips.

I suppose it's the surprising (not so surprising) evidence that it is literally leaving the house that costs money. And that we can be perfectly content not doing so - don't get me wrong I'm bored and anxious at times but I think we could all happily spend a Sunday at home. We might start doing no-spend Sundays. The other thing we're going to do is plan ALL purchases, making a list, and buying what we really want at the end of the month after savings goals have been met.

@Myownwendyhouse it's a really powerful experiment isn't it? We'd never have had the discipline to see these outcomes ourselves.

We will change, yes. We’re semi-rural, 10 miles from our local city centre and big supermarket, but have found two local firms that deliver groceries; one produces lovely cheese, and also delivers butter, raw milk and lately, flour. The other firm usually supplies pubs and restaurants, but of course that’s pretty much dried up, so they’re selling to the public now. We’ve got meat (cooked and raw), eggs, snacks and baked goods from them. We also found a farm shop 10 miles away, and have bought fruit and veg from them, including half-sacks of potatoes and onions. I’ve been going to the local Co-op once a fortnight to get fresh (not raw) milk and any odds and ends we need.

We haven’t been to a big supermarket for 7-8 weeks, and although we’ll probably go there from time to time, we really want to keep supporting local businesses and buying local products. As we understand it, both companies we’ve been buying from will continue selling to the public, so we’ll keep giving them our custom.

I'm spending more on food because prices are higher, but much less on petrol.

I'm spending less on other incidental stuff that I happen to pick up while out grocery shopping. So doing big shops less often will be useful.

I definitely think that I will use video conferencing much more often to save the time and petrol that I use while driving.

I'm going to use our local small shops a lot more (greengrocer, fishmonger etc).

Next car will be uglier but more environmentally friendly as I drive a lot for work

Buying less shit off amazon for sure

Yes for sure.

We are also saving a lot at the moment as we are both being fully paid (for now) and the only thing we're spending on other than usual bills and mortgage is food. We're definitely spending more on the weekly shop, but we always used to do a couple of mini top up shops when we'd run out of something, which would always end in buying more. We seem to be wasting less veg this way so I'd like to carry on in future.

We also used to spend a lot on our joint credit card (paid in full at the end of every month) just on nothing really - bakery cakes, lunches out (not very often, maybe one a month), random stuff for DC. I definitely want to reduce that spending too.!

@StormCiara. I know. Normally my weekly wages do our spending money. I spend the week thinking I have all this money to spend and just spend it. Now changes that to saving a bit of it. Giving myself and my husband ‘pocket money ‘ and the rest of it for family things. If the family things money doesn’t get spent it goes into savings.
Makes you think about all the stuff and crap I bought as the money was just sat there.

Our finances are basically the same as before, but without going out and only shopping every 2/3 weeks we're saving a LOT more than we were before. We're not extravagant by any means but this has really shown up our unnecessary spending!

Same for us. And actually I am working much less (freelancer) but somehow coming up with about £800 a month in savings. I'd always prided myself on being fairly astute with money, shopping at Aldi, waiting for the sales for DC clothes, all that, but apparently my incidental spending was through the roof.