To ask how much money you have saved since lockdown?

[Cheapprimarkbra]

... Compared to same 12 days of the previous month (23rd - 3rd)? Not including the usual bills, subscriptions/direct debits and mortgage/rent, have you noticed a massive change your outgoings?

I am a self employed freelancer (as is DP) and we both rent, so definitely not an enviable position.
Between 22nd Feb and 3rd March, I just worked out that I alone spent roughly £384 on train tickets, clothes, coffees, online orders, meals out and takeaways. This same 12 days I have spent £78 (just food, essential office supplies and a cheeky lottery ticket), so that means my savings total up to about £306 in TWELVE days! I feel almost ashamed at how easily I would throw money away, and will definitely reflect on this whenever I go to buy something that I don't necessarily need in future.

It will be interesting to hear other peoples' savings stories!

Just worked it out as I hadn’t even thought of doing this yet!

£200 on tube journeys
£255 on childcare
£50 between me and DH on takeaway coffees
£84 on lunches/snacks at work
£150 on beauty appointments
We normally go on a date night once every month so that’s about £100 saved
£60 gym membership has been frozen
£120 compared to last month on meals out/drinks with friends

It’s definitely made me to see how much money we spend on non essentials and when things go back to normal I’m definitely going to readjust my spending habits. Overall though we’ve certainly not came out better off from this- we had a holiday booked at Easter which hasn’t been refunded, and our grocery costs have gone through the roof with 6 of us here all day every day

My pension losses are horrific.

No idea but even if I don't spend a penny for the next 3 months it won't make up for the state of my ISA and pension pot.

A few grand on our Easter holiday to the in laws that was cancelled, no commuting to London saves £500 a month, no kids activities or childcare another £400, and DW is an impulse purchaser to say the least so that's probably another £500 on her lunches, clothes and general tut. Another £100 from me on lunches, and activities.
Food's gone up, petrol's gone down.

Oh yeah, except our pensions and savings stuff is MINUS £70k compared to a month ago... but working on the assumption that it will recover by the time we retire in 20 years time...

"Well, my house has burned down but think of all the money I've saved on getting the windows cleaned!"

No intention to gloat, @KenDodd. I would rather not have had a nasty virus which DH and DS then got.

I would rather be working, shopping and going to the pub instead of wondering what we have had and whether we will now be immune (never mind any concerns about long term lung damage).

We continue to pay our martial arts instructor, we will be supporting local breweries through delivery services and I have donated my ticket price to our local theatre for a show I had planned to attend. I am also saving money on a rail season ticket for the filthy trains where I probably caught this, and have spent a bit more on books (not Amazon).

I fully intend to find any consolations I can in the current situation and I make no apologies for that.

One reason why I've never seen the attraction of online grocery shopping unless you really have no choice due to disability or no car or whatever, in most cases the service seems to be barely adequate. Missing items, short dates, expensive substitutions, needing to plan days in advance to make the order etc

This is exactly what I found a few years ago, when I was unable to drive for a few weeks and had to shop online. The thing that pissed me off the most was getting 4 out of 5 ingredients for a specific meal, and still having to get the bus to the shops to buy the vital one which was missing!

It really didn't work for me, but may have got better in the years since then.

Those in a position to do so should try to not spend unnecessarily during lockdown. Who knows what the future holds, we must learn from this lesson about how much our lives cost us financially but also emotionally. We live in a constant stress bubble, a hamster wheel we cannot get off because our lives are so tied in to the system. Only now are people realising how expensive our little normal lives are.

Saving:
£80ish a month in diesel
£66 a month in gym membership and swimming lessons
£200ish a month on eating out and non essential shopping
£170 a month on childcare

But we are both losing 20% of our wages, spending a LOT more on food shopping (we both work in restaurants and have free staff meals, dh eats all 3 meals at work some days) and obviously more on gas/electricity/water.

We are having to be really careful with money and cut back. All our money is going on mortgage, utilities and food. No spare for luxuries.

Saved about £750 in commuting and other stuff but spent more buying stuff to work and school at home.

That said there's about £80,000 gone missing from my pension so I'm not celebrating my savings just yet

One reason why I've never seen the attraction of online grocery shopping unless you really have no choice due to disability or no car or whatever, in most cases the service seems to be barely adequate. Missing items, short dates, expensive substitutions, needing to plan days in advance to make the order etc

I have done the bulk of my grocery shopping online for over 10 years (rural); I’ve had very little experience of the issues you describe. I work FT, DH works away a lot and I have 2 primary school age children. Grocery shopping was never going to be spontaneous. Having a delivery booked every fortnight or so (in normal circumstances) is not a big deal to organise.

Loads on the commuting/eating out/socialising/school stuff. And (hopefully) we’ll eventually get a refund from EasyJet!

However, our energy usage with 3 of us at home has gone a lot, particularly as the other two seem to leave everything on, all the time! My new in-shop shop at Waitrose (tiny queue, lots of product) is coming out nearly twice as much as my previous online Asda shop.

I’ve put aside £500 from my salary this month but am not thinking ‘Wahey! Money to burn when we get out of this!’. I’m on furlough, heck knows whether I’ll even have a job to go back too -it feels more like bills back up money!

£1,500 in nursery fees
£2,000~ in refunds from cancelled holidays
£400~ estimated for not eating out during weekend, no take aways, no work canteen lunches/office cafeterias for both of us, no purchases of new cloths/shoes, no petrol

None as I have lost work.

Amazing that people are discussing how much money they are saving now. Surely anything you save is going to be eaten up by the financial losses we make as the next great depression hits us or we lose work? Without wanting to be too negative, really? Are there really going to be people saving money? That's an honest question

I really fear for what the future holds and really feel for people with families, who have less scope to cut costs (the little buggers will insist on growing, and eating, and wearing out their shoes).

But we're very fortunate. DP's job is pretty secure and I'll be retiring next year, as soon as I get my state pension. We have no mortgage or credit, and can live very frugally if we need to. We don't have holidays abroad or expensive hobbies, and if I can't afford to buy books, I'll just have to start using the library (if it's still open). We save money most months, and then use it to have much-needed stuff done on the house, so that it (hopefully) won't need shedloads spent on it once we've both retired.

But I know that most people aren't so lucky, my clients are all vulnerable and on benefits, so I see daily how precarious things are for them.

These people whose food bills have gone up - did you used to get free meals at work or elsewhere? Our food costs are right down as we're not spending on lunchtime sandwiches/meal deals etc, nor takeaways, now we're stuck at home. Making your own stuff is far cheaper.

£200 in after school club fees
£30 roughly a week in petrol
£28 swimming lesson
£20 gym membership
£5 for every shift I'm not working for parking

We are meal planning rather than shopping day to day so saving money there.

Would normally have one "night out" a fortnight and me and DP would easy spend £150-£200 between us on meal out/cocktails/taxis.

£60 from no after school activity. However, art crafts, cooking and cleaning takes away and puts a bigger dent in our budget. This has made me reassess the want of garden a lot more. All this keeping young children indoors has not been healthy.

One reason why I've never seen the attraction of online grocery shopping unless you really have no choice due to disability or no car or whatever, in most cases the service seems to be barely adequate. Missing items, short dates, expensive substitutions, needing to plan days in advance to make the order etc

Funny you should say that. We've just collected our first "click and collect" from Morrisons. What a waste of time and effort from start to finish! Sat in the car park parking bay for an hour before they brought it. No indication as to what was missing - the guy didn't have any paperwork etc. Absolutely astounding once home at how many basic things had been missed or not available - even basics like bread and milk. So we had to go back and we got most of things they'd not included. So, rather than save time and reduce risk, it actually took all morning and increased our risk as we had to go out twice. Never again.

Kazzy DH usually buys lunch at work, which I don’t count as part of the food bill. Dd has school lunches which we are billed termly for so I don’t count that either.
Plus with 3 other people at home all the time the snack and drink consumption has gone right up. I could cut it if needed but until we do I’m happy to but more food than before

Buy, not but more food

I think the entertainment/hospitality industry could be badly hit for years to come after all this when people realise how much money they're saving by not going out socialising, restaurant meals, theatre trips, coffees whilst out shopping, etc. It's all discretionary spending and when taxes rocket to pay for all this shutdown, people will be more conscious of what they're spending money on that's not essential.

Our food costs are right down as we're not spending on lunchtime sandwiches/meal deals etc, nor takeaways, now we're stuck at home. Making your own stuff is far cheaper

Many people are already aware that making your own stuff is far cheaper, so take their own lunches to work :-)

Nothing really as I've been furloughed so I'm losing the 20% of my wages that I would have been spending on going out.