Save money or stock up?

applepad

Looks like my husband will be made redundant in a few months, we have already switched gas/electric, down graded virgin media and cut what bills we can.

But thinking do you think it's wise to stock up on expensive things like, tea/coffee/washing powder or just try and save money? I could buy 2 lots each time I shop so we have a stock pile? What do people do when they know that income is going to be reduced?

TBagpuss

I'd only stock up if you think that the items you need are likely to go up significantly in price, or if buying extra means savings (such as BOGOF)

getmore4less

cash is king,

no point stocking up on tea and coffee if you later run out of money and cannot buy essential food.

how far have you downgraded VM, should be to the bare minimum, to stay connected to look for work.

plenty of cheaper TV options.

sangie595

If he hasn't, start looking for a new job now. Redundancy money is worth losing if there's another job in the offing. Redundancy pay runs out. And if there are a lot of people being made redundant, or high unemployment in the area, leaving it until later may simply make the job market more competitive and less likely he'd get a job. Move on to new employment under your own steam if you can.

Xbigman

Stocking up as a one off because of redundancy isn't a good idea.
Stocking up as a regular budgeting system can work for some people. In your circumstances I wouldn't.



Darren

lincroft1710

I have a rule when buying breakfast cereals and coffee, only buy when there is a price reduction. So if your local Tesburys, Waitrisons or Asaldl has them on offer, buy 2 or 3

meg72

Stocking up is only a good idea if the items are on special offer, otherwise sae the cash.

Scorpio33

The best thing to do is to save money. But don't spend it.

The advantage of stocking up is that you have spent the money, so you can't spend it on other things.

However, (a) It does mean that you won't have that money available to pay for say your rent or mortgage and (b) you don't know how long you will be unemployed for, so you don't know if what you have stocked up on is sufficient or if it is an excess to what you need.

By stocking up you are severely restricted.

Fireflyaway

Save the cash. If there is a buy one get one free / half price ( on stuff you use!)then I'd say you should be doing that anyway. I have a bag of toiletries and cleaning stuff. Every time there is an offer I buy and put it to one side so I never run out or pay full price.
If worse happens you can go without non essentials and buy cheap food / loo roll etc when the time comes but that won't help keep the lights on.
Aim not to have to use redundancy money if possible. I'm convinced it can take longer to find work these days. I've been looking 3 months and no luck so far, so hopefully you husband is already looking.
As scary as it is redundancy can sometimes be good. My husband was made redundant but found a better job. I was made redundant and it gave me the push to leave a job I hated.
Hope it works out to be a positive for you.