AIBU to not understand how people are saving money during this pandemic?

[squishedblueberry]

I know commuting costs have cut and buying lunch and dinner out etc but we seem to be spending more and more.
I appreciate we are lucky to be able to do this before anyone jumps on me but am baffled as to how people are saying they are so much better off.

Signed up to Disney Plus and Netflix to keep ourselves sane. Spending more on takeaway because eating is one of the few things we can still do that feels like a treat.

I’ve ended up having to buy equipment so I can work from home as has DH. Bought countless entertainment for DS as he’s getting so bored so toys, books, games etc that we can play together, crafts and things. We had to replace the deck as it was unusable and we are spending so much time at home we wanted to make the most of it (didn’t have to I know, but it was dangerous so DS couldn’t go out on it).

We’ve also ended up having to do some jobs to the house because things have finally given up due to us being in it loads.

And that’s before the books and things we’ve ordered for ourselves to try and keep ourselves sane, supplies for hobbies, having to buy more expensive clothes from DS as can’t nip to Primark and pick up vests etc cheaply and he’s growing like a weed.

I know this is all very privileged and we are lucky to be able to afford it but it amazes me when people say they are so much better off. We’ve also lost money on a couple of auks holidays so that adds to it and I’ve lost work so am down on income to what we usually have.

No annual holiday
No fuel for 2 cars
No train fares.
No trips to Scotland to visit family (we are in south west England and fuel is the major cost (.
NO SCHOOL UNIFORM. DS didn't need anything new in September but until I know for sure when he goes back I'm not buying more.

Ignore the last line - must have typed that then recalculated and forgot to delete it!

No holidays, no day trips, no kids swimming lessons, not going out. Yes we have a weekly takeaway but did that before Covid.

No nursery fees, then reduced fees and one moving up to reception.

No wrap around care because we’re working from home.

No sports/activity fees.

No holidays booked, so nothing lost.

Not able to have many days out.

Not really bothered for takeaways, probably had 3/4 in the last year. One was Saturday just gone, a new place and it was bloody lovely! But only £26 so not a fortune.

Kids would have needed new clothes, pandemic or not. We have sky and Netflix anyway, I would probably have bought Disney+ anyway too. Our fridge broke, but it was 10 years old and would have happened anyway. Adults used to take packed lunches so no difference there.

The only things that have gone up are the gas /electric bill, and food for the kids, as they’d have been fed at school /nursery.

We’ve been able to put a good £400/£500 in savings a month. Mainly because of not paying for nursery for 2 kids. I split the extra money in half and spent half on stuff for them at home during the first lock down. So they got a climbing frame, indoor agility equipment, new bikes, books, tablet, tuff tray, craft stuff, Lego, educational resources, paper, printer ink, laminating pouches. Then in the autumn we made sure everyone had decent wet weather gear (Lidl for the kids). We’ve probably hit critical mass now with birthdays and Christmas too, so we have plenty to entertain us.

Even with the little one back at nursery 3 days a week, it’s still £300/350 a month extra in savings.

Our biggest saving is childcare - used to pay for before and after school every day which really adds up!
(We were willing to pay something for a "retainer" to keep the provider going, but they were able to switch to key worker provision so are not charging us anything at all).

Also saving on weekend activities (no soft play, swimming, museum trips, wildlife park, cafe at the playground, cinema, farm etc) and no holiday this year.

There are things we are spending more on (nice food and heating), but these are dwarfed by the savings.

We are still worse off than before because of a change in wages, but I can easily see how others (whose income is less affected) are saving money.

There's quite a lot to show that the middle classes and above are saving on reduced travel, holidays, shopping, entertaining, outsourcing less of the gardening/cleaning/childcare etc, while those who were already close to the bone are spending more with higher heating bills, children eating more at home, supermarket delivery being more expensive and having fewer sales, subscribing to new entertainment services etc.

I feel sympathy, I'm also finding all this very expensive and am out of work, while my better-off family are tired of lockdown but thrilled with savings.

Oh gosh! We're saving almost all my wage and living off DP. We're still lots of take away s but it's making me wonder what on Earth I spent all my money on.

Definitely less spent on fuel
No digs to pay for DC in college
Don’t really eat takeaway as its too far but if we did its only fish/chips
Heating is on more but not on all day.

No children’s activities is the biggest saving here.

No petrol
No takeaway coffees
No popping in the shop and coming out with random stuff
No days out
No cinema
No swimming pool
No gym

We have spent a bit on books and board games but nothing compared to the above.

Oh we have probably spent about £150 on jigsaws and a mat each for the adults. The kids are jigsaw crazy.

But even so lots of those have been birthday/Christmas presents. I went back to cross stitch, as well, but have £100’s of pounds worth of hand dyed threads and charts / fabrics from pre-kids.

We were always a very ‘low key hobby’ family.

I have been saving over £200 in petrol. No hobbies/activities for the kids. No spending money on the weekends/days out, no holidays, no meals out, no hairdresser, no need for proper work clothes as I just WFH in my comfy rags. there is just so much stuff we are not spending right now - and being very very lucky to have a job and to be able to WFH.

We put the heating on a bit more but that is the only extra expense but there are a lot of regular costs we just don't have right now.

We have saved quite a bit but we would normally eat out a lot, buy new clothes, days out, haircuts, only 1 UK holiday this time.

However the amount I've spent on takeaways is embarrassing

My young adult son who was paying nearly half his salary on rent (London) plus commuting and socialising costs now has zero outgoings since he moved home last summer. He and his friends in similar positions are managing to save a large proportion of their income which for that age group is pretty much unheard of usually. This will put them in a great position once things get to a situation where it’s worth moving out again

oh, and no school holiday childcare - that added up to roughly £1.5k annually alone.

No holidays, no petrol, no eating in restaurants. No buying food at work as we work from home. No theatre or other event tickets. No train tickets, no Uber’s. No/sporadic gym/zoo membership.

Food bill has gone up but probably by half the amount we would spend in restaurants (conservatively) a month. We’ve spent more on doing up the house but we needed to do that anyway. We now have national trust membership but that’s pretty cheap as is Disney plus.

Definitely saved money for us but we are lucky to never have been furloughed and to both have above average salaries.

Savings we are making each month
DH petrol £80 pm
School dinners £160
Eating out £70-100
DH lunch coffees as work £200
Various clubs £50
Me lunch/coffee with friends £50
Recreational shopping £100
That’s just off the top of my head

Oh and we already had all the home office kit, including 2 monitors. We did buy another wireless keyboard and mouse, so about £30?

And that doesn’t include holidays we would normally take, probably saved up to £5000 there last year

You can't understand how other people are saving money as you are determinedly spending as much as possible? Did it occur to you that other people are simply not spending like you are?

I'm saving an absolute fortune and don't understand how others aren't if their income has not reduced.

No petrol, childcare, children's activities, gym membership, days out, holidays. Clothing costs dropped dramatically (what's the point in buying shoes if noone sees them ). For us all of that's a saving of about £1k pcm. I have spent a large chunk of it on the house instead .

No commute
No days out
No theatre or concerts
No work clothes
No coffees
No toys as DD is a teen
No eating out and we don’t like takeaways so maybe get them every two months or so
Cheaper holiday
Less fuel
We already have Netflix and I wasn’t impressed with Disney+, we are not their target audience, only got it for Hamilton and cancelled afterwards.

DD’s hobbies stayed the same as most moved to Zoom apart from swimming. We paid the riding school her normal lesson fees as a donation to the food costs they have,

The one thing I pay more is grocery shopping as I only go to one supermarket instead of shopping around as I prefer to be out less.

And I bought a lot more books. We did some projects in the garden but would have had to do them anyway.

Still on full salaries as both still working. As no private nursery and breakfast and after school club we are saving slot. Also no lunches out etc.

Would rather be paying for child care as the extra money does not make up for the stress of working while homeschooling and looking after a preschooler.

We save around £6,000 a year on commuting, and easily about another £3,000 on DH and I spending money on work lunches, shoes & work clothes, coffees etc, it's much cheaper making a sandwich and drink at home. We had a david lloyd gym membership before which is on pause and that's saving us £200 a month too. Probably another £50 to £100 a month saved on petrol not driving to visit family either. No costs on childrens activities (DS sport thing plus swimming lessons) another £50 a month.

DH spent on a desk chair, I work at the kitchen table. It and the chairs are solid oak and the extra use doesnt seem to be wearing anything out.

The kids had plenty of toys, if anything we spend less on weekends now as the only places open are free parks, local woodlands etc. I dont watch that much tv but we had Netflix & disney plus anyway so it's not been about extra cost.

Supermarket vests are not that much more expensive than primark or you can get very cheap clothes bundles online.

I feel sympathy, I'm also finding all this very expensive and am out of work, while my better-off family are tired of lockdown but thrilled with savings.

Yes it's truly not equal for all. Lots of those savings will mean others won't have jobs anymore & they probably can least afford that.

I've saved loads. No diesel (which I'd normally spend at least £300 a month on), no days out, no swimming lessons, currently no childcare costs (£450 a month), no meals out, no new clothes, less wear and tear on the car etc.