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!

It has really smacked me in the face how much money we spend on unnecessary shit! I keep thinking about stuff I would like to buy but can't because of lockdown, but I clearly don't NEED any of it do I? Still have over £200 in my bank from last pay day that would not be there now if we were allowed out 🤦🏻‍♀️

No savings here. I'm down 20percent on wages, groceries more expensive as all the cheaper stuff has gone, DD usually buys lunch but is now eating and snacking at home and I dread to think what the water bill will be with all the baths she's having! I guess I will save about £40 a month in petrol but that's all.

I probably haven't saved much but I don't really spend much. I have a full tank of petrol going unused, which might save me £50 next month. It's hard to tell with shopping, we're spending less but buying less (I actually think food is getting more expensive quite rapidly) but we aren't doing the odd few pounds here and there. Easter holidays in lockdown will likely save us a few days out and the associated cost of those. When I got paid I transferred a bigger chunk of my pay to my savings account than I normally do and hopefully it will just sit there.

There seems to be disbelief that for some people food spending can have increased because there aren't any lunches/coffees/takeaways to offset having to pay more for brands/shop in more expensive local shops.

Yes, it's bemusing. I didn't think it was that unusual to not buy takeaway coffees or regular lunches at work? Lots of people don't like coffee and/or have crap lunch options available where they are, prepped their own food because of money, dieting, fussiness or whatever.

DH and I do have a child in Year 2, so that's five lunches a week we're now paying for that we weren't. But it's not been a particularly expensive meal to fund and it's not where the extra spending on food has come from.

@LakieLady and @VegetableMunge Thanks for answering; would be good if some people are really going to save money from this. I guess it is too early to say what the long-term economic effects will be, but I'd be interested to know what a worst-case scenario would really look like today, compared with, say, 1929. I realise that we had a taste of it in 2008, but presumably this could be bigger? Starting to take a sudden and unexpected interest in economics 😂

I've always been quite interested but it's ramped right up! Tried to find the discussion to link to for you but it doesn't seem to be archived which is a shame.

I'd agree the potential is for this to be much, much bigger than in 2008. They talked about this in the FT discussion too. Part of the problem is we never actually fully fixed the 2008 problems either. In the UK, property prices never corrected and the government has actually implemented policies that artificially prop them up, and interest rates were kept low. Meaning there's very little to cut now, which is a typical response in times of economic crisis.

We've stopped payment for all clubs and activities where possible which includes:

£60pm on 2 x gym memberships
£54pm for music lesson
£40pm for dc1 sport
£25pm for dc2 activity

Plus I normally spend around £150pm on fuel which is down to about £15, we've not had a takeaway or meal out (we would typically have 1 sometimes 2 takeaways a month and eating out once either as a family either pub lunch or a pizza etc so probably c.£150).
That's nearly £500 on just activities and eating,out/takeaways . Mind you, I've gone from earning £2.5k+ pm to absolutely nothing and Dh's business is really struggling so we will be shaving off all non essentials for quite sometime.

Just remembered another one: we are also saving hundreds on the 2 birthday parties we are cancelling for my kids (1 party each before anyone bites my head off).

Saved about £20 on petrol but spent a fair bit more on food as sometimes there's only been branded food available which otherwise we never buy

@formerbabe probably not.

The furlough grant for employees to cover 80% of wages is capped at £2500 per month so anyone who earns over £37.5k a year will be losing more than 20%.

I think people will be more aware of what they actually need when this is all over . Perhaps they’ll stop wasting money on crap and focus on good quality local food . They can then stop whinging about not having enough money when they realise that actually they just spent it on nonsense .
Obviously doesn’t apply to everyone.
I predict a huge increase in rainy days saving accounts .

I am saving on diesel, but work can’t process my last month’s mileage and expenses until next month. Spent a lot on upgrading tech to wfh (workplace does not have enough resources). This won’t be reimbursed but will make wfh and schooling from home easier. Relying on our amazing local butcher and milkman making deliveries, as well as fruit and veg wholesaler doing home deliveries. Although these are more expensive than I’d normally like, I am grateful to have this option. I’m a lone parent and can’t imagine the supermarkets are much fun. We will be ok so long as I keep my job and pay our bills. I deal with many people who are losing/have lost income and don’t have the luxury of getting these deliveries. I’m one of the lucky ones, so far.

So £1700 is 20% of your wages? I'm sure you'll cope

It doesn't work like that because it's 80% up to £2500 (I don't know if that's before or after tax, or how they deal with things like pensions, company cars, childcare vouchers etc etc) but in any case, £1700 is not 20% of someone's wages, so if someone is on say £4k pm and they come down to £2300 pm for simplicity, they still may have expenses like mortgage and childcare that still need to be paid - I know you can delay your mortgage payments but you still need to pay it back later on, and taking a mortgage holiday is likely to cost more in interest.

The mention of lease cars above has reminded me that I was expecting to go over the personal miles that I was paying for on my work lease car, but I might not now, depending on how long I'm stuck at home, so the mileage excess I have to pay will be smaller or even non existent, depending on how long this goes on for.

Sorry that should have said employers not employees.

Apologies, I had no idea it was capped at £2500

^I think people will be more aware of what they actually need when this is all over . Perhaps they’ll stop wasting money on crap and focus on good quality local food . They can then stop whinging about not having enough money when they realise that actually they just spent it on nonsense .
Obviously doesn’t apply to everyone.
I predict a huge increase in rainy days saving accounts^

This, along with people spending less on 'nonsense' because they're out of work and can't afford anything more than the basics. A lot of the shops and restaurants currently closed may not survive even when they can reopen, especially if trade is much reduced. People will realise that £60 or whatever to take the family to Pizza Express is really poor value for money.

I'm still working full time but I've saved around £500 a month as there are no shops or garden centres open to go and spend money in and nowhere to go for weekends/holidays.
Plus we are getting a petrol allowance for seeing patients in their homes rather than clinics.

@BarbaraofSeville

It's before tax and NI calculations. Pension contributions shouldn't be affected however I've seen quite a few people opting out of pension this month already!

Car allowance etc is included in the furlough calculation and classed as gross pay for the 80%.

Childcare vouchers are a salary sacrifice arrangement so would also be classed as gross pay. So if you earned £2000 a month and usually had £100 of vouchers you would be paid 80% of £2000 and still have the £100 of vouchers (unless you cancel them)

Can you tell this legislation has been pretty much my only job at work this week? 😂

People won’t be spending on holidays and the associated clothing etc they’d buy . I imagine if a family are still earning but forgoing holidays and eating out, children’s activities , birthday parties , soft play etc they’ll save a lot .

I'm another that has spent more, due to extra food.
Normally my spend is very little I rarely buy coffee out, and only buy food for dinners and children’s breakfasts, my commute is tiny. So suddenly I’m buying three meals a day, plus snacks with limits on shops (can’t skip shop to shop getting the best deal), and limits on brands.
It’s not been easy.

I can picture the other way round, people who can afford it (or have deep credit cards) will jump at restaurants, pubs, days out when they have a chance to finally escape the house.

See how many people are proud to boost the economy (why not) and keep ordering nail kits, clothes, beauty products. These clothes will need to be shown around.

And people with a garden will be sick to death of their garden.

The knock on effect for so many businesses will be huge . The economy will be fucked .
People will be less likely to finance expensive cars , they’ll not be upgrading to the newest iPhone on its release date . They might actually develop some financial sense too .

I've never understood the attraction with Pizza Express. Seems very expensive for what it is.

I disagree , people with a garden will realise the worth of their garden .

Petrol from lack of driving - £90 a week
Day trips at the weekend - £20-40 a week
Takeaways / meals out - £30-80 a week
General shopping for non essentials - at a guess £50 a week

I won’t know the accurate figures but we are using more heating and electricity being at home all day
Food shops have become more expensive as no multi buys on anymore and we are buying from more expensive shops depending on availability
And we’ve ended up getting Disney+

We’ve also put one car on SORN so have saved the tax which is another £25 a month
And dropped insurance down which is a minimal saving
Car was due lots of repairs so that is saved for now but will need to be done if we end up keeping car long term.
If things don’t improve car will be sold at some point

Forgot about the toilet roll. We are getting through so many more now we aren’t at work