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!

Probably $20-30 a week in petrol, but have more than made up for it in the food my kids seems to be eating all day long.

If you count our holiday to Florida we most likely can't rebook, over £8000, can't say I'm happy about that though 😔

None, my food bill has doubled for March, also I bought a lawn mower and a pool for when the weather gets better.

We’re saving money on going out, travel etc, but DP’s income is down to zero and I’m on reduced hours. So we are losing much, much more than we’re gaining. It’s shit. I have some savings but really don’t want to start digging into these until we really have to.

We haven't heard from nursery/after school club about fees yet....I will be very surprised if they don't charge.

I worked out when my next months wage is 80% I will have marginally more than usual due to not paying school dinners (although DS only has 2 school meals/wk) breakfast and after school club and travel, and I probably wont get the summer term Bill's for extra curricular activities. However DH is SE and not working so any extra I end up with needs to subsidise the fact hes not generating any income. We are getting much better at meal planning and making lots of soups/stew with left over veg , lentils, pearl barley etc.

@Cracklefraggle This is a fantastic, selfless thing to do. Well done. As soon as I have enough until rent until October (when I imagine schools will be back), I will also be donating. Of course, my arms are open wide to any of my family and friends that are struggling!

Was due to go on holiday yesterday - got a refund for all but about £150 in booking fees so that was a huge saving right there of around £4k.

Grocery bills have gone up due to four of us being home for every meal every day, but DH not buying lunch out, not travelling into London by train and not getting his shirts laundered will end up being a large net saving.

Not driving anywhere = saving on petrol. Usually I fill up every 10 days and it costs £60. I haven't filled up since mid-March and won't need to until lock-down ends.

So I'd say we've saved around £4500 so far!

Itsgettingweird There is an app called since I quit which shows how much money you will save. I'm six years in and have saved almost £19k 😱😱

Spent more, needed 2 laptops for high school age dc to do schoolwork, loads of craft stuff to keep ds2 (6) with asd happy and manageable. Plus the added cost of food as not much seems to be on offer at the moment so seem to be spending twice as much.

Not much thanks to comfort eating, getting more taxis and having to change what i buy.

I'm provide childcare for my DD and I've had to buy, at-home, focused toys/crafts. I'm getting a new slide and a sand pit, which I wouldn't have bothered with, because we have good parks close by.

But my three DDs are saving a lot. They normally do the gym, hair, nails, eating out etc. My youngest has another £1000 to put towards her first car.

No saving on car parking or train ticket as CP paid in advance and train ticket through payroll for the year. At least CP is quarterly so I won’t be paying €200 this week and won’t until it’s safe to go back on public transport (asthmatic).

I spent more on cp as I needed to drive to the office 5 days before shutdown -and had to pay city centre car parking for 2 of those (€76!).

More on food as we are all home for all meals (usually 2 breakfasts and 1-2 dinners per day, now 3 breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks). A lot more on food.

I spent extra before I left the office on things to entertain dd - chemistry set for schoolwork, a new game, lots of office supplies for us all. And we had to buy an extra couple of footballs, tennis balls and hockey balls to use at home (dd very serious about sport).

I haven’t been buying coffees and breakfast, and a couple of dinners per week. And the odd bits I get as I am in town anyway. And dd is not looking for various extra things.

But I had to pay for postage for chemist to send the owed parts of my and DD’s prescriptions out rather than go into city.

So overall, I think I’ve spent less but not considerably so. Maybe if this keeps going I will start to see some savings.

About £500 from part time nursery fees, petrol, train fare and gym membership

None really, I work part time self employed and can not work at the moment, can’t claim anything for a while. I have taken one of my cars off the road so saving £30 road tax, stopped paying my rent as I was ahead with payments £500pm, but kids are eating more, dd2 has ASD and I have had to buy her things to keep her occupied plus a printer for homework.

Not a lot the only thing that’s been paused is my sons £15 leisure centre membership. Our food bill has gone up by almost double, heating and electric is being used more and I am not getting any pay at all so are short of that money.

And saving gym membership £40pm.

Not much as yet. I think what we’ve saved on petrol has been spent on extra groceries. I’m waiting to see what the organisers of the dc’s extracurricular activities are going to do about payment after Easter (we pay a term at a time.) That could save us a few hundred if all fees are waived.

I can't even imagine how worrying it must be for those who have lost income :( luckily I haven't been furloughed (only 70 of us working out of 3500) but have been asked to take a 10% pay cut. DH work is still going strong and even paying overtime. I will stop whinging about lockdown now as I don't think it had clicked with me how much people were struggling.

Saving on fuel as not doing an 85 mile commute every day. Electricity and gas will be up with everyone home. Spending more on booze to combat the boredom. Lost any overtime which usually supplements salary. Probably evens out

I've saved a tank of petrol so £60, no meals out or takeaways probably £100, halved my foodbill as GC (2 teenagers) not coming after school or staying weekends depending on parents shifts. So Probably about £300.

We don't have any childcare costs anymore fortunately but that would have been huge for us.

DCs activities over just the two weeks probably £25, about £20 on parking, £30 petrol, £25 takeaways, frivolous top ups shops for 'treats' probably £30, lunch money for DD £20. That's £150, actually quite surprised at that.

My supermarket shop was significant bigger but I bought enough to last about two weeks whereas normally i'd but about five days worth and then top up so overall I think I may see a saving there.

DD1s birthday next week so that will neutralise the above!

I’m saving £28 a week that used to go on breakfast club and children’s activities. However I’ve probably spent the same in extra food and a few books and activity bits for the kids so it’s evened out. I also had to buy a laptop so I could do some of my work from home and the kids can do their online homework as using my phone and a couple of decrepit tablets wasn’t working.
At New Year I cut my budget to the bone to pay off debts so I was already spending every weekend at home and cutting my own hair using YouTube tutorials etc. It’s been a strange twist that now most people are at home all the time too as that was kind of my plan for this year anyway (not in these horrible circumstances though). I have got a caravan holiday booked in August which I’m still saving for. If it turns out we can’t go then I’ll be using that money to pay off more debt. So that would be a saving albeit a fairly depressing one! I just hope I keep my job through this all and really feel for everyone whose livelihood is uncertain.

I can’t quote actual figures but:

• we’ve not used the car, and we usually spend £40-50 per week on fuel
• £12 for the week’s after school activities
• £3 for local toddler group
• coffees/lunches out

Not exactly a saving, but we were due to pay for next term’s nursery and swimming lessons. That’s saved us around £1000 this week! We have also reclaimed the remainder of DH’s season ticket, which I think works out to around £100/week

On the flip side, I usually buy all our veg etc at Lidl. That’s now coming on the Ocado order, so we’re spending quite a lot more on groceries!

I forgot hairdresser I was already overdue for a cut and colour so about another £80. I'm lucky as pensions, state and private, not affected.