How are so many people still spending as normal?

[nc1962]

I'm so confused by what I'm hearing compared to how people seem to be living their lives.

On the one hand, it's everywhere about job losses, redundancies, people not being able to pay mortgages. But on the other - a lot of people I know/vague acquaintances are going on holiday at every opportunity, buying a lot of stuff and spending a lot of money on house renovations.

Our household has been hit badly by all of this, with a massive drop in income.

Of course it's different for everyone and up to people how they spend, but I'm so uncertain what to think. Are there really so many households (normal as opposed to very rich) who have been able to carry on as normal? I thought we were very typical in terms of having taken a big hit, but now I don't know what to think and whether this is a short term or long term thing.

I wanted to ask what others are finding to be the case - are a lot of people you know carrying on as normal, or has there been a big financial impact?

We both have secure jobs and my DH is saving on commuting costs. I also had free parking for a few months. We’ve probably saved £600 per month but spending this on other things.

My DH is a key worker so has been working constantly throughout and I’m on maternity leave so my pay has been stable and consistent for now. We also get our wages topped up by Universal credit.

@Orcus

Thank you - you don't know how much that means to me and to other small businesses.

Morale is very low here at the moment and I'm one of the lucky ones in that I don't have a bank looking over my shoulder. The number of lovely well established guest houses that have gone on the market recently around here is frightening.

Healthcare, finance, telecoms, utilities, the public sector in general, “trades”, food retail, online retail, tech, pharma, most law....
That’s a lot of people employed in those fields, most of whom are financially unaffected by lockdown, or at least not affected yet.

I pray that Rishi Sunak realises how disastrous hairshirt austerity would be and makes the sensible call to expand public sector recruitment especially in understaffed sectors, eg police.

We’re probably a bit better off than normal and when my work did a survey recently most of the staff said the same. My dh and I are still working but we normally spend quite a lot on going out and weekends / eating out / holidays and since we’ve not been doing it as much due to lack of things open / our personal risk approach we’ve not been spending as much.

I heard Martin Lewis (I think) on radio 4 a while ago saying in general people normally earning over 30k per year had more money at the moment and those earning less than 30k had less.

This was broadly because if you're earning under 30k you are more likely to be in a job effected by covid as they're lower paying. Where as if you earn over 30k you're more likely to be able to work from home. Then save money on childcare, holidays, eating out kids ubs etc in lockdown.

This makes sense to me. Obviously there are exceptions to this. But the divide is what I'm seeing.

It varies for so many people.

We are fortunate in many ways. Both Dh and I were classed as key workers: I teach and Dh is a wills/private solicitor. We've both worked ft throughout, albeit from home for a while. We have both been incredibly busy from the start. Dh went back to the office on a PT basis as soon as offices were able to open and is now FT in the office much of the time. As I'm vulnerable I didn't return to work until September.

We've worked FT through and been paid in full throughout. I am currently off sick with Covid - I'll miss at least a month of work, though trying to wfh when I can - but due to my job I will be paid in full whilst off sick. Neither of us have big commutes so that's not been a factor.

In the summer we'd have had a big long haul holiday. We did go away but smaller scale and cost far less than it would have had. We should have been away on October but cancelled and got full refund. We don't have holidays booked for February or Easter which we normally would have. Dh decided not to get a new car this summer as he wasn't using it so much do put it off for another year. We usually socialise a lot with family and friends which means meals and evenings out, day trips or weekends away, etc but they've have been restricted a lot of the time this year so less spending there.

So we've saved money on some stuff.

We've also spent money too - we have had a new en-suite and downstairs cloakroom recently for example. We've had to sort out university flat costs for Dd and other related expenses but we'd have had them regardless this year.

But overall we've had no loss of income and not really spent as much as normal, though haven't had to deliberately make savings.

We are very fortunate that we are in the jobs we have in that the demand is there and our jobs aren't at risk from Covid.

We do know we are fortunate in many ways though too and we have upped our food bank donations, etc with that in mind.

I'm spending more because next year I expect things to be more difficult to buy and much more expensive (Brexit).

@Bearplumapple that makes sense.

Like, I assume, many people we are retired with decent pensions plus income from rental properties so really there has not been any financial impact. We have also had refunds for three holidays which were cancelled.
I am sure the changes to furlough will make things very difficult for a lot of people, with no end in sight. Just dreadful.

We cant go out, couldn't go on holiday and have had very little in fuel costs and childcare. We have spent money on 2 sofas and the kitchen that we wouldnt have had. DP is working from home, previously he would have had accommodation costs and I have changed job to a less paid one but £200 pm less travel costs.

Husband is furloughed so receiving some kind of a salary.
I am on maternity leave so had an income for the first few months of lockdown, but that’s decreased overtime and almost ending.
We ended up spending a lot on home renovations, but totally worth it as needed doing at some point.
We saved money as children’s clubs not on. Also saved a lot of money on daily takeouts for DH and I (takeout was daily and sometimes even twice a day). We just didn’t have time to cook for ourselves whist both working full time, just used to cook for the kids.
Saved on a lot of fuel, both cars literally parked up for almost all of the lockdown period and even now I don’t really use mine as still not back at work.
Big one was no holidays this year. We used to go somewhere cheap in March/April and somewhere nice in summer and that has made a big difference for us too.
However, I still feel with the kids being home during lockdown I spent quite a bit of our savings on them! Trying to find ways to keep them entertained. It doesn’t help that they are not into the same stuff as each has own preferences and needs. One is a PS4 addict, one prefers physical sports, other prefers arts/crafts and anything involving role play/creativity. Also with a newborn we ended up buying everything new as after our third child we thought we were done having kids and gave away everything such as car seat, baby swing, crib etc 🤦‍♀️

My DH has taken a £500 pay cut per month so we were struggling a bit over lockdown but breaking even. DH is working from home so saving loads on lunches, petrol. We were able to save as cut gym membership and weren't spending going out etc. We had to cancel our holiday of a lifetime in the summer so saved loads of what would have been spending money. We spent this on home improvements instead as unsure if we will rebook next year. Had a uk holiday instead so saved loads we normally would have spent on holiday expenses

I notice loads of people saying they saved money in lockdown which we did too but our food bill basically doubled- did anyone else find this? We ended up shopping at a Tesco express round the corner instead of the megastore one and it really took its toll - If there’s a next time I will brave the queues instead as the additional costs, insane!!

I also know some people who have not had any financial impact, but took full advantage of the mortgage holiday so they could make home improvements I won't go into my feelings about how sensible I think that is

I don't know anyone who has lost her/his job because of the Coronavirus situation, but then I don't have such a big circle of friends. Everyone working in offices with jobs that can be done from home or even the public sector. It will depend on the sector. Some sectors are badly hit, some not.

A friend of mine had plans to look for a job after being on maternity leave for over a year and it is going to be more difficult for her I think, when in normal circumstances I think she could get a job pretty quickly, I don't think it will be the case now.

In our case, it hasn't affect us, if anything we are saving more as in general we do less stuff (no holidays) and a few months without the commuting expenses in London is a big saving!

I try to spend (not on holidays obviously, it is not the moment for that), but I think that people who can afford it and haven't been hit badly by this, should spend as much as possible to support business. If people don't spend so many business will collapse!

Where I work we have had so much more work since corona, we have started hiring programmes that were never expected before corona.

We haven't changed either. All of us fall into the key or essential worker bracket and have as a result of Covid been busier than normal. Salaries unchanged or increased and I've always WFH so no change there.

I wouldn't say we are going on holiday at every opportunity though. Normally we would have done two weeks abroad in the summer and a couple of city breaks in Europe with friends. This year it's been a week in the lake district. That's OK, was very grateful for that and i thoroughly enjoyed it.

@Mustbe3ormorecharacters
That's the case of my DP, he works sooo much more now, he is doing way more hours than he is contracted for, if anything they should be paying him more! (Or better still, he does only his hours and they employ more people!)

Carrying on as normal here. I work in the bio-tech industry and business is booming with lots of investment for r&d. So no change to income so yes, I’m spending as normal.

Everyone I know is the same. They work in legal/third sector/banking/the church/finance. We are all middle aged though so pretty well established. I think it’s hit younger people mainly.

Yes I know -the cancellation refunds I had to give came from my savings.

The hospitality industry has been so badly affected and it doesn't feel like they've had anywhere near enough support from government funding.

Our latest holiday had to be cancelled unfortunately. Even if we'd ignored the no non essential travel advice to go I ended up catching Covid and our SI period hit the first couple of days.

We have rebooked everything for May though, where possible using the same hotels. We've also booked direct where possible and paid the refundable rate so have paid at least £20 a night more than normal would. I know this doesn't help the small hotels, guest houses owners right now but it felt better than cancelling outright.

My income has remained the same..me and dp both work for the NHS. We've spent less on socialising etc but more on food/treats in the house and I've had some additional health related costs; Medication I need got stalled going through NICE due to covid and so have been paying for that privately for the last 9 months. So worse off over all but much luckier than many.

I work in Travel and am self-employed. (Franchisee)
I haven't earned a penny since February and, on top of that, had to refund bookings that I had already earned commission on which covered work that I did back in 2019!
I also worked stupid hours during March/April/May/June sorting out refunds for all my clients - all for absolutely no income!
I have no idea when travel will open up again and so have no idea when I will earn anything again.
AND, when I do earn anything again, the first thing I will have to do is to pay back the commission that I have already earned before anything goes back into my own pocket.
In addition to that, I have Personal Indemnity insurance and a phone contract that are adding up every month, increasing the total that I owe.
It is a nightmare scenario that I think only the Travel industry is going through. No other industry has to pay back any profit they made on things they had already sold.
No one seems to understand this - least of all the Government who have done a big fat nothing to help the Travel Industry.

'Luckily' we had been careful with my earnings and so had a buffer that has seen me through so far, but that won't last forever so we will have to go into our savings and/or I will have to look for other work.

So many people I know have actually done alright by being furloughed on 100% and saving on commute etc and it has been nothing but a steaming pile of poop for me.

Dh is working. I'm working from home. We had no commuting costs. We never bought coffees or lunches.

DH was furloughed and Im just not working now but we did save a lot over lockdown as a lot of our money goes on diesel and kids clubs. Also didn't buy any new school uniform this year in case the school just shut again although I've just remembered I don't think I have a bus pass for one of my DDs after half term. Thats going to throw a spanner in my works!