Lock down has made me realise I've been wasting money for years. Anyone else?

[sunshineanddaffodils]

As supermarkets have been short of my usual premium versions of food I've bought the cheaper alternative and found they are just as nice/better.
Also recently dyed my own hair and actually prefer the outcome! This obviously saves me loads.
DH and I usually go out to eat one evening every couple of weeks. Instead we're having a nice meal and wine at home so not really missing that at all.
Anyone else?

I think I built a shopping trip into my weekly plan, like an activity. But it was all just crap, absolute crap. Probably a lot of skin and beauty products, but I've got such a huge stash I don't need more. Plus, what makes me look better is sleeping and eating well, not another twenty quid serum!

We've had two birthdays the last few weeks, very low key affairs, and it was fine. No one felt hard done by.

I probably woyuld have had a clothing shopping trip by now but looking what's in my wardrobe, most of its crap, which makes me think if and when I get anything new I need it to be better quality not throw away fast fashion.... also I wear a uniform at work and yoga leggings at home, so how much more do I need!

I came into this thread agreeing. Then got distracted by the sponsered ads..one dress from Topshop later..that I have nowhere to wear it to..what was I saying about saving money?

I guess so but I don’t think I’ll stop once everything reopens. I’m quite looking forward to a McDonald’s personally .

same here. At last I'm actually living within the grocery budget we had.We are saving on all the odd times we snacked out and our weekly treat of a takeaway meal. IU've never been one to waste much, having been brought up by a WW2 savvy Mum. Rediscovered bread pudding. We'retrying to support our local patrol station, which has a small store attached, as they can't be making much on petrol sales at the moment. We cann all learn so much from this strange experience and will enjoy visiting with friends and family again. Love having my husband home so much, so many "little" jobs getting done. Sorry for all the folk suffering at the moment, with losses,(Jobs, income, friends and family) My main worry is that complacency will set in and we'll have a new wave of this virus when people start to relax the rules. Just wish that everybody would observe them now, sad to see so many selfish people thinking they rules don't apply to them.

I bought breakfast and lunch almost every day when in the office, probably about £10 a day

We also got a takeaway every weekend, plus random junk to snack on.

I’ve not done any online shopping, my food bill is WAY down, I’m not paying for parking or petrol... my bank balance has never looked so healthy

Spending less, and as a result my mental health is better because I'm not worried about how close we are to the overdraft. I've also lost a lot of weight!

This will affect our spending habits after lockdown, definitely.

We are definitely saving on going out for dinner, days out, my beauty stuff etc but I feel like my shopping bill atm is massive but then we are all home eating constantly!! Hopefully all the money saved will pay for liposuction at the end of this

I’ve been enjoying working my way through my drawer full of beauty lotions and potions rather than buying more.

We've been topping up at our little local food store, which is dearer than the bigger supermarket for the last 4 weeks.

Finally went to the big supermarket yesterday to do a very big base shop for the next few weeks, because there's a lot of things we can't get locally.

I couldn't believe the prices ... almost no more deals on anything we normally buy, very little we buy on sale, and prices have clearly crept up a fair amount on most things. Paid a lot more than I normally would for what I got,but also felt I had no choice since I've tried really hard to stay out of there because of the descriptions of crowds, behaviour, etc.

Descriptions weren't wrong: saw a lot of couples shopping, saw families shopping as their kids touched lots of things, saw people rudely going up and down the aisles against the arrows and arguing with the staff when they were asked not to, saw people pushing past grumpily looking for what they want when they thought others were taking too long. I wasn't impressed with many. Did get some nice smiles and waves from others, though, as we looked astounded at the behaviour of some.

Will now carry on at our local shop for milk/bread/produce top ups for the next few weeks.

Have ordered a few things in for the kids (books, shoes), but otherwise not spending anything 'extra'.

I think we have really benefitted during lockdown, although finances are still a worry as the store where I work has remained open so I’m not getting paid anything as I have chosen to stay home & DH is self employed, waiting for the Government payout. We did have a UC advance but it won’t last forever.
Using way less fuel & no car repairs etc
No school dinners etc for DD11
No takeaways ( we very rarely ate out)
No booze as a) we can’t afford it & b) I am trying to quit - again!
A weekly shop at Aldi whereas before I virtually lived in Asda, plus would pick up bits from Tescos or Co op that we didn’t need
No swimming
No cinema, theatre etc although again we rarely went
Cooking a lot more from scratch. DH has really stepped up & has made allsorts, including the best bread ever!
Not buying clothes, jewellery etc. I said on another thread that I really wish I hadn’t bought so much in the past. My Avon bills were getting ridiculous & I went through a phase of buying loads of 2nd hand rings online. I still owe £100 as I have a Bonprix account so planning to close that

We are saving so much money being home , my husband usually has one day off in the week and we allways go for lunch together while his mum has our youngest , also every other week I take my dd into town or take the train to nearest big city for a mooch round the shops & lunch, & there's no family bike rides with coffee & cake stops, or breakfast\coffees with friends with my youngest or playgroups etc ,dh takes our eldest to a basketball games every month and they go for pizza first x shopping is about £50 more as everyone is home however we are seeing a drastic drop in spending that we will have to see whether we can save half on extra spending as it would be an extra holiday each year or extra saving s for the kids 🙈 xx

Saving a bit on train fares where we would travel at the weekends so I've been putting it towards paying off the credit card to stop me spending it on other stuff instead.

We're saving on buying lunch and childcare but that doesn't make up for the drop in our household income. I've had a 15% paycut and DH 20%

I’ve hardly spent a thing apart from a slightly larger food shop as trying to get everything in one go.
We don’t eat out a lot anyway as I’m often disappointed and find it so disappointing apart from pizza out which you can’t replicate at home and possibly a curry. I’m saving on petrol and uni handouts became DD is home with us.

• expensive not disappointed Because not became

Turns out the ten grand A year we spend on trains isn’t really necessary as both our jobs seem to be 90% fine from home! I’m not convinced we are saving much else though. Bit of petrol and some coffees / take away pizza.

Saving on Ds school meals as the £4.10 cheese and ham baguette we paid for each day - refused to eat pack lunch as had to sit in a different bit from his friends - has been replaced by homemade toastie. Got the cost of his school holiday back - that's sad though as an only he was so looking forward to going abroad with his pals and we were looking forward to a UK break without a moany teen.

We've been spending more on groceries and have treated ourselves to some garden furniture and an inflatable hot tub, but overall quids in as no haircuts or highlights, no meals out ( was a special birthday for me and we had a takeaway rather than the exclusive chinese meal out) abroad holiday cancelled and managed to get fares back from British Airways.

It's funny as had a bit of a blow out with friends just before lockdown to cheer ourselves up for not going on our ski holiday. We went for a glass of wine in a lovely hotel bar, to the cinema to see Missbehaviour and then for a rather pricey Thai meal with lots of wine. At the time I was a bit concerned that I managed to spend so much in one day, but the memories of that have kept me going during this period.

Wow @RHTawneyonabus that’s quite a discovery. Do you think you’ll be able to continue wfh after the lockdown is lifted? What a saving.
We had to cancel an Easter city break and got all our money back thankfully. Hadn’t booked any other trips so probably won’t be going far at all until confidence returns. Our pay hasn’t been affected luckily as both still able to work.

No train fares, no impulse buys on the way home, no lunches/dinners out...I have a nice wee amount tucked away.

I think in particular I’ve realised how often we spend money instead of time when it comes to having fun as a family. It’s a cliche but we are getting back to the simpler things at the moment and even though it’s a stressful time we definitely feel more connected

What about people on their own though Lane. Spending time with myself is not fun. Most things I enjoy do involve spending a bit of money, though not too much. A coffee in a cafe, a newspaper, a book, etc.

Sadly @Greenpop21 I’m not sure either of our employers would be down with us wfh for ever. But it is a massive difference to us. As soon as I realised what was happening I was straight down the station to get a refund on both season tickets. Shortly after that they’ve stopped processing refunds so I really feel for those who didn’t get there in time. Apparently ‘the government’ will refund the cost in future rather than the train companies.

I have had to buy a dinner set , as dinner plates broken since lockdown 🙄. That said we will get money back for summer holiday, Ds was spending £3 a day on school lunch- I already wfh but shopping hasn’t gone up much as I am meal planning.

I found I was spending more going to local shops rather than a supermarket shop so do wait till we really need food and do a proper shop.

It wasn’t a comment on others at all Gwen - by “we” I meant myself and DH, not a general we. We aren’t fun people at all, we’ve just been going through the motions for years for various reasons.