Winter 2020...

[Uptheclarets]

Been lingering for a while now. Thanks everyone for all the tips. Out of curiosity, if covid19 is going the way the Spanish flu did, what are you putting into place re food to get you through the winter months especially with shortages.

We've just switched our energy supplier

Now isn't the time to buy a flash car or other crazy purchases. Trim your expenses, save as much as possible and keep your fingers crossed.

Yes that’s precisely it, I have trimmed and trimmed my budget and my only ‘luxuries’ are Netflix and Spotify, both of which I refuse to get rid of because I use both multiple times a day. Before Christmas, I fed the three of us on £25/30 a week and it was miserable. I don’t know if we can sustain that long time.

I haven’t cut my savings despite being on furlough, and the plum app alone is saving me roughly £140 a month. I truly love that app!

I think preparing for recession is difficult precisely because it helps stave off serious recession if everyone spends lots of money.

However, given that this is the prepping board and we plan for the worst and hope for the best we will be:

-Getting everything fixed and running properly now whilst we can. Middle of a serious recession is not when you want your washing machine or car to break

• make sure we have plenty of wood and oil
• keep up food supplies
• trim everything back to bare minimum re spending so that we have a buffer
• spend any store gift cards before they go bust and your cash disappears
• switch utilities and other services eg broadband and phones to get the best deals
• potentially investigate other sources of income
• sell unwanted items - better to have the cash than a baby toy your teenagers no longer need
• make do and mend
• buy essentials in advance eg next shoe size up for DC

Lots of these are tricky to do at the moment.

Dropping in as getting worried about winter. The previous prep threads helped me massively. As above I have no idea how to prepare for this

If we are touching on money a bit, the ‘Make £10 A day’ threads in money (I think) are quite useful. I do surveys and use cashback sites and when I’m doing it properly I can make a bit of cash worth having, but often in the form of vouchers. There are some that send cheques out or so bank transfers, though, and they’ve all saved my bacon at some point!!

I tried some survey sites and got nothing, anything I can make would be helpful as I’m self employed but not getting any support

Yes we’ve been catching up on maintenance while at home more. We’ve managed a lot of painting with what we already had, including much needed outside windows (hardwood framed) and woodwork on the eaves. But we need to get fresh masonry paint for the other parts - a shopping job this weekend or next, depending on how busy the shops are.

Gas boiler needs a service.
DH car needs a regular service.
Chimney from the wood fired stove needs sweeping.

We’ve also been continuing our general programme of going around the house and making it more efficient - LED lighting, changing air filters to ones that can be closed, blackout and insulating blinds, sealing up droughts and gaps, and improving insulation....
They have really helped reduce our energy bills over the years.

DH wants to get a better desk for me, as I’m using a tiny thing dd used to use in primary, which just about works ok but has no space to spread papers on and we’re likely to be WFH a lot this winter, even IF the offices get reopened.

YouGov and Populuslive are good ones, but slow burners. Certainly from yougov you can gushed what might be coming up in terms of government thinking just by looking at the question they try and slip in! You answer questions up to £50 worth and then they transfer it into your bank account. I’d say that’s every 8 months or so. Populuslive is a bit quicker but send out £50 cheques. I cashed out in March and I’m back up to £42 already.

Also, I know I’ve said it before but the Plum app is great for me. It takes small amounts of money out of your account every few days, based on algorithms, and puts it into a savings pot. Just for an idea, during furlough, I’ve got roughly £760 a month coming in. During the month of May so far, Plum has put aside just over £80 for me.

I'm a bit dense....explain plum to me!! What's the benefit?

For me, the benefit has been that I’ve had to budget savings into my weekly budget. I would have always said I couldn’t afford to save, or would say oh at the end of the month I’ll put aside what I have left, but Plum links with your bank account and uses fancy algorithms to work out what you can afford to set aside. It tells me a day or so in advance and takes money out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (I think) and it is usually around the £35 mark, split three ways.

It puts it in a separate account but you can withdraw whenever you like. I’ve found it really useful and love seeing the money rack up. It also has an investment portfolio option that I’ve stuck a tenner in and there are a few different intensity levels to the saving amounts. I don’t work for them, honest, but it’s really helped me save and feel more accountable!

In a tight patch previously I signed up to swagbucks (there was a bonus offer on MSE). There were lots of free clicks-type activities, and also mobile phone games that you could download and play for free and get a bonus once you reached a certain level. I made £50-60 in a month which really saved our bacon. The hourly rate for that sort of thing is pitiful, but I just did while getting on with other things and it was valuable income.

Farmfoods toilet roll is currently 4 packs of 18 rolls for £10

@TheWoollybacksWife interesting! My local is normally 3x18 for £11! I'll have to go have a look!