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!

Not yet saved anything really, especially as I just spent a decent amount on an exercise bike, but I imagine over the duration of the lockdown I will save on petrol, days out with the kids, some of my favourite online shops have stopped trading. Plus the "just pop to aldi for one thing" but spend £10 trips have stopped. Just looking at how much I spent over February half term and imagining the spend over the Easter holidays - yeah, pennies will be saved for sure

Hair £150
Nails £50
kids tutors £360
pt sessions £150
eating out £200
still paying the cleaner though

£1700 a month on childcare
£60 on swimming lessons
£80 on gym for me and DS
£100 on petrol

Tonight, me and DP had a Sainsbury's Indian "fake away" and that felt like such a luxurious treat! Most of the last few days we've been living out of the freezer so it tasted so good!

I haven’t quite calculated it yet, but I’ve been furloughed and I’ll be interested to find out how much going to work costs me (I know I “waste” money on lunches, etc, as I’m disorganised)
Bsseline, we’re saving on after school
clubs and ballet lessons. I’m barely driving anywhere, so fuel is costing very little
Food at home is costing more, as we’re shopping locally and obv not eating out. We’re meal planning though, to limit shopping trips and not wasting anything
Planning to dig out last year’s bank statements and compare. And donate some of the excess to charity, assuming I’m better off

Not a huge saving I expect, we don't spend much outside of usual monthly expenditure.
We're saving on fuel and school lunches but more on food at home and electricity running our computers for wfh and the kids studying. The tv is on more and the kids tablets are constantly charging.

£200 on au pair
£85ish on my commute
Probably about £100 on entertainment

Dancing for dd9 10.00 a week
Playgroups etc for ds 23 months 20.00 a week (this includes my coffee and cake!)
Me popping into town after work and buying crap 50.00 a week
I dont doubt that i have spent all this on extra food, gas and electric.

Double nursery fees, commuting costs and children’s activities so for this month, we’re up (other than investment losses). But, there is a chance one of us will be furloughed and if my husband is, we’ll lose out a lot making the savings insignificant.

It is really interesting from the perspective of the national economy to try and work out from this how much the consumption of "things" will just be postponed until later this year (like the person who wanted to decorate their living room) and also cancelled holidays which may mean people taking a bigger/longer/more expensive break later in the year.

The money saved on coffee/lunch/dinner now probably isn't postponed - when you go back to the office you will not buy two coffees a day instead of one. And you won't drive extra miles in your car to make up for the miles you are not driving now.

So I wonder whether while hit badly now, holiday companies and retail companies doing things like furniture and fashion might spring back much faster - they can potentially bring in extra revenue later this year. But hospitality/restaurant/cafe businesses will not?

What will people who are saving significant funds do with the money? Save it because of uncertainty ahead? Pay down debts? Splurge on treats when it is all over?

If households increase their savings, it means more money going to the stock/bonds/investment market (indirectly or directly) than before. Paying down debts faster also would have a knock on effect for financial institutions.

(And yes I am aware that for lots of people new sofas or holidays are a distant dream but it is also true that for people able to do stable jobs from home, they will be saving money)

@sounsociable that's a really good point. I'm only saving on things I could do without - I haven't had my nails done or had a wax this month, for example. If I were poor then I wouldn't have factored those in to my expenditure in the first place.

I think not being able to buy things at will have focused the mind a bit. We've been saying for a couple of years that we should really buy a new fridge/freezer - ours works ok but has some intermittent problems. Now I'm very aware that if it breaks it won't be as easy to get a replacement, so as soon as we can that will be one thing on the "buy now" list as we can't risk it breaking when we're in a lock down.

Equally my trainers are on their last legs. I have awkward feet so hate shoe shopping so normally wait until shoes are literally falling off my feet, but now I'm stuck at home and exercising is one of the few things I can still do, having a decent pair of trainers is something I will prioritise!

Those #wfh won't be taking any leave until lockdown lifts (unless it's enforced), so I would imagine there will lots of people who will be taking hols (if not constrained by school terms) at times they wouldn't normally be doing. And couldn't that potentially impact on businesses' economic recovery (for example if you have six weeks to use in six months so will effectively be off for a one week in four/five)?

I reckon there will be lots of people doing house and garden projects with the money saved on holidays. Plenty of people will still worry about going on holiday the end of the summer if they know anyone vulnerable

I wasnt a big spender anyway so probably havent saved but my food bill has increased and my electric and gas bill will shoot up going from no use for 6+ hours a day, 5 days a week to heating being on more (thank goodness for warmer weather) and the house "waking up" around 5am when work lap tops, TVs and kids electrical go on.

We will probably not go on holiday until a vaccine is out widely so summer 2021 at the earliest so will miss a holiday. Won't make much difference to economy as we probably won't get money back.

We got 2/3rds of Italy school trip back and that's been spent on a laptop and flooring. So that would add to UK consumption but our consumption of takeaways is down to zero so we are probably neutral on UK consumption. We've had to put off having our thatched roof and chimney redone which is about £20k of expenditure but just delayed until planning reopens and work allowed. Can't get pets vaccinated atm so vet expenditure is delayed.

This month was 412 last was 410. However last month included the cinema, trampoline park, a night out. So realistically I'm spending more at home than normal on food with us all stuck here.

Saved on
Dog walking £100 a month
Gym £98 for 2 per month
Petrol £50 a week
Makeup and hair £50
Tutors for GCSE £70 a week
Eating out and socialising Loads
Takeaways Loads
Coffees out £20 at least
Holidays £3500

Spent on FOOD £1m 😀

Saved on going out for meals twice a week often more so, socialising, clubs, gym, petrol, coffees out, holidays- got full refund.
Dp has lost some earnings but I haven't. Had heating on lots but spent the same amount on food as normal.
Probably broke even. We've got savings to fall back on but doubt we'll need them.

@BubblesBuddy

We have lost ££££. Our investments for retirement have plummeted. Pension savings are now not what they were. 20% gone - at least. Any saving on outgoings will never replace what we’ve lost.

How old are you? Unless approaching retirement then don’t worry.

Mine has fallen hugely but I’m 39! So at least 20 years to recover

We have no commuting costs and don't go out much. My income has halved, DH's is unchanged.

DH has to buy a big monitor to work from home more comfortably and our food costs have gone up massively as much harder to shop around and meal plan effectively due to shortages. I saved money on a haircut though.

Over the month we will probably be down by £700 assuming the money for the self employed will come good in June.
If things carry on for 3 months we will probably be £2000 down. We do have some savings but it's still painful.

I forgot about the guy who cuts my grass. He's missing since October when he didn't do the last cut of the year, can't get hold of him by text or phone call so just before lockdown I bought a lawnmower. I'm not saving yet but in May I will be and it is good exercise while I'm doing nothing else. I hate it though.

I'm surprised food is costing people so much more, apart from not feeding GC I am also finding we are eating less. Tending to get up a bit later, do a few jobs before eating so combing breakfast and lunch so I'm doing 2 meals a day instead of 3. DH is a fussy eater and he is now getting used to eating what he's given. It is a revelation. Because we are both retired the gas/electric/water isn't hitting us. I've given to a few charity things so don't know if that adds up to move than I'm saving or not.

Definitely saved a lot. Haven't totalled it up but fuel alone is a big expense of mine.
Also no temptation to just wander round the shops buying things I don't need, no nail/hair appointments.
We finished above our overdraft for the first time in a while last month
However, I've just been furloughed and DH is going to have to take a significant pay cut to keep his job so the joy won't last long

I feel I should be saving money. Not buying lunches from M&S. Not impulse buying clothes.

But I’ve spent a fortune in stuff like vegetable seeds, more food due to us all being home all day, a virtual reality headset to keep Dd quiet, a roku stick, a now to subscription, restarted world of Warcraft subscription, a new headset for my laptop. I’ve had to repurchase some text books as ebooks because my physical books are trapped in my office and I have to prep lectures still.

Dh has had a 20% paycut. And I swear the price of food is going up already.