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Original poster

How is everyone coping financially?

85 replies

Gin96 · 01/04/2020 16:48

My husband won’t be furloughed because he started on the 2nd March, we are only entitled to £200 a month from UC, you don’t get any help with your mortgage ( I am going to ask for a mortgage holiday) How is everyone else coping?

OP posts:
TorysSuckRevokeArticle50 · 01/04/2020 22:03

@backfarblackcar if you don't need to hold the nursery space, just give notice. You'll probably have to pay during the notice period but once that's over you'll be able to wipe nursery feom your list of bills.

CoffeeRunner · 01/04/2020 22:07

I am a nurse. No change in income but I might die.

DH is a keyworker (freight) so no change in income.

DS1 is a keyworker (freight) but also in fragile health so has had to have a sick note from the GP to keep him home.

Itsjustmee · 01/04/2020 22:11

No mortgage or rent just normal bills &
DH is fine lots of work for him and his business
I’m self employed and ticking over probably earning less than 50 percent but still a decent amount .
We have plenty of savings and no debt
The holiday we had planned for August and had the money put aside for we will use if necessary as we won’t be going on it.
DS is fine as well plenty of work for him in his sector .
I’m mainly looking after my parents and making sure they are ok as well.
So to be honest nothing much has changed apart from more time to do stuff . We are I know extremely lucky

Alwaysoverthinkingit34 · 01/04/2020 22:15

I am wfh full
Salary for now but work will dry up in around 2-3 weeks. Partner on 80%. We just moved house so no savings as was used for deposit!! Mortgage holiday will be our first point of call but hopefully not for another month.

KoalasandRabbit · 01/04/2020 22:17

DH is working from home on same income. I was self-employed due to long-term illness but now looking after 2 kids, 1 ASD, so can't earn at all and will get no help from the government as started 1.5 years ago. We can manage day to day though and earnings had already fallen massively when became ill.

Losses on school trips are £285, looking at up to £4k loss on our summer holiday. Was due to be putting our old house up for sale soon, expecting that to have fallen 20% in value.

But we've got our house, food and we are all safe and healthy and grateful for that. Just hoping roof doesn't start leaking though as it's thatched and needed to be replaced by now.

MuchTooTired · 01/04/2020 22:24

I’ve lost my new job (started a week after the furlough cut off) and my dh is on 80% so we’re ok, but not great. How long we’ll stay this way for I’m not sure, but fingers crossed it’ll be ok. I’ve spent the last couple of days looking at our belongings and figuring out what I can sell if needs be.

tashakg89 · 01/04/2020 23:04

Not too sure at the moment.
Everything was fine partner made furloughed but could live on 80 percent comfortably. I'm key worker so have my normal pay coming in.
Partner has just being told building sites are back open Monday and he's expected to go to work, this however leaves us in the shit as grandparents are childcare which obviously they cant do and can't get a school place as we both have to be key workers which he is not.
So not sure weather they will keep him on furlough due to childcare plus he has an underlying condition or we're gona now have to live of sick pay which we will really struggle on.

KoalasandRabbit · 01/04/2020 23:29

Only one parent needs to be a key worker for a school place so you should be eligible tash

Chesneyhawkes1 · 01/04/2020 23:33

So far so good. DH still working full time as normal.

Unfortunately I'm long term sick since Monday just gone. But I'll still get full pay. Just no overtime. So I'll be a few hundred a month down. But I'll be staying in, so won't be spending as much.

CountFosco · 01/04/2020 23:37

We are both WFH and are in key industries so still getting paid and no expectation of any change. I'm in pharma and my linkedin feed is full of what my contact's companies are doing in the fight against Covid-19, the industry is very busy at the moment.

If anything not paying for petrol and childcare and children's activities and holidays this year will save us money. Still paying my cleaner and swapping as much essential shopping as possible from supermarkets to small local businesses who deliver. Day to day we are still very comfortable but our savings and my pension have been obviously been negatively affected by the drop in the stockmarket.

NeverTwerkNaked · 01/04/2020 23:38

I don't think exH will pay any maintenance any more - he hasnt told me yet but I am bracing for it. To some extent it is a bit of karma as he had been doing mainly cash in hand to reduce his child maintenance.

However DH and I are both doing our public sector jobs from home and so while it is chaos we know we are lucky for now. In reality we have paid for it to some extent already ( no payrises other than through promotions during Tory austerity and I imagine we will face another decade of similar now.). But we know we are lucky and will do our best to support family who are struggling and small businesses /foodbanks

missionalmostimpossible · 01/04/2020 23:52

We are in the extremely fortunate position of actually being better off.

Both working from home in fairly secure government jobs, so still being paid on full. At home with 2 children under 4 who were in full-time nursery, which has now closed to all but key worker children.

Nursery emailed to say that fees have been suspended for all children not attending as of 1 April, so we'll be able to save that money instead.

supermarketjobs · 02/04/2020 00:00

I am disabled and on benefits so technically nothing has changed, but I can't get through to say my partner is not working at the moment, as he is self employed, however he is looking for some type of a job, as is everyone else. But we should be able to survive on the benefits alone for a few weeks, plus we have his tax money and as long as we put extra aside when things start going back to normal, we should be able to borrow from that. It is all going to depend on how long this is going to go on. He doesnt qualify for the self employed benefits the government offered as he hasn't been self employed long enough.

My sister works in the entertainment industry and she and a large amount of her friends are fucked badly

FascinatingCarrot · 02/04/2020 00:21

Furloughed from today, which is great as I was on SSP for an unrelated to cv illness. Doubt I will have a job to go back to though.
DH is SE builder, so wont get any gov money until June, but we are fortunate that we are not go outers or big spenders. We just focused on paying the mortgage.

We have cancelled the ridicluous 400 quid direct debit to EDF as they have been royally taking the piss since an estimated bill in Jan with no reply to emails/calls/pics etc. They can whistle forever now. We can manage at the moment, so thats what we have to focus on.

LonelyFromCorona · 02/04/2020 00:37

I am okay for now. My job appears safe at a company deemed a 'critical' industry in that if we went down so would many other important things. I started in January so just finishing my probation period now. Hopefully all confirmed and I won't have to worry that I'll be let go with 1 weeks notice.

Fortunately in worst case I have some emergency savings to cover 4-5 months of mortgage, bills and food.

I feel for anyone caught out by the 28 Feb furlough rule. I know someone who quit a job in Feb and had a few days gap between starting one in early March. The new job has now ended already due to the crisis and he's not on the books at either job as at 28 Feb so can only get UC.

I shall be making some donations to local foodbank given my safe position at present. Feel we need to pull together through this

DreamChaser23 · 02/04/2020 02:14

Lucky that I am in a job but furloughed. Should be okay but there are worries.

  1. The COVID19 situation could last 12 months or longer. That will ruin too many businesses. Plus will the govt be able to furlough for another 9 months? Probably not. If that is the case then poverty will sky rocket, looting etc...

  2. Bills are rising - Council tax is up, water Bill is up, gas electric up, even food bill has shot up! Sad to see so many people taking advantage in times where we should be more helpful to others.

  3. Some of the schemes aren't supporting enough. I.e. universal credit is not enough to live on, not every organisation will agree to furlough, not everyone started before 28 Feb, a lot of self employed are still excluded.

I don't want to be negative but I feel this will be a very grim year or two. Way more than 5,000 will die could reach 20,000 plus you never know. A cure could take another 12-18 months at least. And recovery economically will be very long...

HathorX · 02/04/2020 04:56

Ok for now, OH volunteered to take time off unpaid as we have savings and his employer wanted people to take sabbaticals, but his offer was rejected as he’s too useful at work.

I’ve been a SAHM for a year, not going back to my old job but now don’t expect to get another job for a while, suits me.

We are tightening belts but have got refund on summer holiday, OH not paying for gym, not using cars, not eating out, not buying clothes (I buy the kids clothes 2nd hand and all stuff for summer is already bought), no family day trips, no swimming, no birthday parties, can’t even buy bedding plants for the garden (have bought seeds online to grow with DD so at least something to do).

So, we are hopeful. And saving hard ready to be hit by massive tax hikes when all this is over.

Mimishimi · 02/04/2020 05:29

Not great. I've lost ALL my work for at least the next 2 months as a hair and makeup artist as everybody's events have been cancelled. Currently beauty services are banned from operating.

On the upside, I have no rent to pay. I have no staff to pay. I have no overheads if I am not working and I am not spending anything because I am not leaving the house.

Original poster
Gin96 · 02/04/2020 07:32

It’s lovely to hear that all the people it hasn’t effected are willing to help others that aren’t so fortunate. There is no judgment anymore of people on benefits, hopefully we will all pull together and will get through this 😊

OP posts:
NerrSnerr · 02/04/2020 08:39

We're luckily ok at present. Both key-workers so working as normal. We are able to pick up overtime too. Not a fun time at work (nurse) but grateful I'm still getting paid.

cologne4711 · 02/04/2020 09:20

I started on 2 March and my hours have already been cut to 80% (and I was very part-time anyway). But I can do some freelance work and it's not as if there's anything to spend money on at the moment. Working from home saves cash and DH will get a refund on his season ticket.

DH may also find his hours being cut but we don't have a mortgage so we can cover the other bills and eat - and at the moment that's all we really need to do.

Natsku · 02/04/2020 09:28

OH is on furlough, we're not in the UK so not sure how much furlough money he gets or when he will get it because the Union funds (where our furlough pay comes from) are being swamped with applications - the biggest fund said some applications won't be processed until next year! We just had to pay for a new boiler and a new toilet too because they are both leaking so that's all our spare money gone.

Thankfully the money I get in child benefits and child home care allowance are enough to cover food shopping so that's fine but OH pays the bills and mortgage so I hope money comes soon.

cucumber66 · 02/04/2020 09:40

I'm screwed - my business has practically ground to a halt and I have a big mortgage and a baby on the way. I've taken a mortgage holiday but it's only for 3 months. It's likely I will have to sell my home after this (if it's even possible to sell of course - unlikely as the economy is in freefall). I'm barely sleeping with the stress of it all.

Original poster
Gin96 · 02/04/2020 09:42

@cucumber66 big hug lovely, that must be so hard. I wish I had money now to help everyone as you couldn’t spend it anyway at the moment Flowers

OP posts:
fivesecondrule · 02/04/2020 10:18

We've taken a dip in income as Dh has agreed to take a small paycut- but he's still working and his pay is much more than the £2500 he'd be getting if he was furloughed. My income had all but stopped (SE) but I was due to be paid by a client who came through yesterday. We use DH income for bills mine is for extras and there's not many of those at the moment. We have just cancelled a big holiday we were due to go on in August that would've cost a lot of money. We've lost our deposit but the money saved would pay our mortgage for the rest of the year if the worst happened so that's back in our savings. Saving a fortune on buying random crap that I don't really need- we've stopped all but essential spending in an attempt to build our savings up.