How much did covid/lockdowns affect your finances

[Starfishswimmer]

Strikes me as it was such a lottery with some people become. Better off and some much worse off

I’d say we saved around 11k on not going out and on holiday as much
dh kept his job on
and works from home a lot and savings made on petrol
although suppose more heating costs etc
at home

Worse off here.
DH was made redundant, lost the company car and private healthcare for the 4 of us.
I am NHS and increased my hours to full time which helped.
He’s for a new job at a slightly lower salary and without the car and private healthcare.

Better off.

No commuting costs.
Saved money on going out/meals out/trips away.
Both remained employed.
I got a promotion.
Both got our usual annual pay increases.
Both got our usual annual bonuses.
Spent very little on cosmetics things like hair/nails/make-up/new clothes.
Our investment property value increased hugely as the location became even more popular.

I did lose money on investments, though.

Didn’t really change them. We still went to work as normal, yes we spent less money on certain things but just found different things to spend it on instead. No bonuses or anything in our jobs & can’t be done from home so no savings to make there. But we didn’t have to worry about furlough etc so were very lucky in that regard.

Hardly at all, furloughed, ( 3 months, then back to work) saved bit of travel money nothing else

DH laid off week of lockdown so our income dropped massively, though we were lucky it was balanced by no commuting or childcare costs and him picking up warehouse and care work as that was where the demand was. Taken us over 2 years to get back to where we were financially.

Better off during 2020-21, worse off in the long run.

I had a steady income (unheard of in an unstable industry) so I could budget properly and be careful, but the industry depends on networking and I did not make any useful contacts during those two years.

Now the steady income is gone, the training schemes are finished, and I’m meant to freelance on close to 0 useful contacts.

We were lucky. We didn't save lots and lots like some, but did have a holiday refunded so saved £3k. DD was in uni and had 2 terms of uni accommodation that she wasn't charged for when she was stuck at home - so she was up £2k also.

I was still teaching, in the key worker provision. And dh's factory didn't shutdown and he was one of the few who they didn't furlough (much to his disgust later on) so our earnings didn't change.

My gosh. Ok. I lost my permanent job, statutory redundancy followed. Got a job six weeks later, furloughed after three weeks in the role.
My husband was temp laid off for six months, had to relocate to gain employment (Ireland to UK) kept job for six months. Company went under overnight - unemployed for 8 months.
We attempted to relocate to the UK, put house up for sale, couldn't buy because of job instability so went down the rent avenue, had to withdraw due to me being laid off for second time.
It was horrendous - I'm estimating we earned 25% of our pre-covid household income for two years. We were planning a wedding during this time also - it was a very bizarre time, going through a lot when others seemed to be largely unaffected aside from a less hectic social schedule.

Furloughed so 80% of basic wage plus no overtime so earned less but spent less so probably about normal overall, didn't save anything, had to cancel holiday but had already paid for non refundable flights.

We lost two small businesses - one was construction based and the other was hospitality.
Luckily, we saw it coming and helped our employees as much as we could.
I grabbed an opportunity and quickly got myself back into a higher earning professional role (I'd previously taken a few steps down for an easier life).
My OH quickly shut down his small businesses and went back on PAYE for a larger company.
His pride has taken a hit but we've managed to survive it.
It's set us back a bit but we're ok.