I saved £10k / annum during lockdown. What are your best saving lessons?

MoneySeeker1

I must admit it's enlightening seeing how some people are saving money in Lockdown - as someone that basically isn't doing so myself.

It does seem to boil down to having a job/career on decent income with heavy commuting costs - and that rules out a large number of people (including me).

I think lots of us just think "I wish" re saving money in Lockdown and it does feel like it sits uncomfortably. My own "Lockdown savings" boil down to saving on spending on a modest social life (couple of regular things weekly and going to cinema/music events I fancy and the odd cheap meal out) - courtesy of Lockdown having shut down my social life for the duration darn it. Probably works out about "evens" by the time I take into account having to pay over the odds for some things (eg the price I had to pay for compost recently was eye-watering - as there just wasn't any at normal price level).

So I do think many of us are making little (if any) savings in Lockdown and it does feel a bit insensitive to comment on making thousands of £s worth of savings - and more so because a bit of it has been at the expense of someone else not earning income any longer (eg those saved lawn-mowing costs - hence someone has lost a bit of their income there). £200 a month is a noticeable amount of income to lose to many people.

LameWolf

Right on, @Moneyseeker1. I'm retired on medical grounds, but do what the DWP call "therapeutic work" as a home dog-boarder. I went just over three months, from 20th March to 1st July, with no work whatsoever; and a lot of the bookings later in the year have been cancelled also. People are not taking the holidays they'd hoped for, so they don't need their dogs looked after. It's a double whammy, because not only do I not get any money, I also don't get the boost to my mental health that looking after these dogs gives me.

monnagran

You are spot on there Moneyseeker.  Someone who is obviously wealthy beyond most of our dreams, should think twice before broadcasting that they can spend £2,000 on a ride-on motor mower in order to save £200 on paying someone to cut their grass for them.  When a person who doesn't have to watch the pennies gleefully announces that they have now deprived someone of part of their (probably much needed) income, it does tend to make you question their moral values.

At the other end of the scale I know of someone who lives on an ordinary sort of pension who has paid her cleaner throughout the lockdown.  She knows full well that the cleaner in question relies on that money to pay household bills. The fact that she has not only had to do her own cleaning (she is pretty old and not well) but is also out of pocket does not worry her unduly.  In her eyes she has done the honourable thing.

I know whose conscience I would rather have.

ETA.  Sorry, this thread was to make us think of how much money we have managed not to spend during lockdown, not a judgement on people's morals.  I tend to go overboard when I get a sniff of injustice.

Back to the topic in hand.........

maryb

My elder DD moved back home during lockdown and younger still lives at home.  Funnily enough the utility companies now want to put up the Direct Debits for gas, electricity, and water.  The girls on the other hand, have realised how much they have not spent on going out!!

missychrissy

There have been winners and losers during lockdown. In my own family: one dil hasn’t been able to work as a beauty therapist and still now can only do certain procedures. She did however, start up a home baking business during this time and which she has continued, selling cakes for the weekend. She is an excellent baker and I admire her enterprise; one of my sons has had to work full time on 80% pay (his degree is in computer science) so he works in IT. I think I would have been insisting on doing 80% of the work; his wife has worked from home on full pay but with 3 children to look after and home school at the same time; another son is a GP so financially he has been unaffected; his wife is a solicitor so she has been able to work from home although now is going into the office a couple of days a week; another son is an engineer in the oil industry. He worked in Egypt and didn’t manage to get home until about 4 weeks into lockdown. He has been able to work from home but has been told by his U.K. company that he will not be going back to Egypt. That means a big reduction in salary; another son was furloughed on 80% wage. He works in retail management but having gone back to work his company is now going into liquidation. His partner lost her job 3 weeks into lockdown but has since managed to find another.

I’m on a state pension so my income hasn’t altered. I normally babysit weekdays so I have saved a lot of money in petrol. I normally grow some of my own veg but I have had the time to grow even more. My youngest son also built me 4 raised beds in lockdown as he was furloughed. At present they are covered in black plastic to allow the turf we lifted to break down and I will plant in them in Spring.  I would anticipate it will take a couple of years before the cost of the beds will be recouped by the saving in veg cost.  I have also had time to make more homemade wine. I have only done a supermarket shop 3 times since Mar 11 so haven’t been tempted to buy extras. I’ve had to buy some things online, such as bird food which was a bit more expensive.  All in all I’ve saved quite a bit of money.

GreyQueen

  I have family who are jobbing gardeners, and know people who clean houses. They bust their guts to earn money to put food on their tables and cover their bills, and are really hurting.

I’m lucky enough to have been able to WFH in my modest office job, my on foot commute didn’t have a price tag attached anyway.

I have postponed spending in terms of the new glasses I need, and likewise for a dental checkup due this month. Otherwise, I’ve saved £60 a month on physical therapy, which has come off the bottom line of a very good physical therapist. 

I have saved about £30 chazzer spends, spent about £15 more in groceries due to lack of YS bargains, my water bill for the 6 months Jan-July was up approx £20, the gas and electricity a small fraction higher. I expected the utilities to be higher as I’m running my home PC for work purposes, but the costs have been negligible.

I shall be getting that money into the chazzers ASAP, mainly in exchange for books.

RobM99

No football to go to (£15 pw)
Less petrol (although not this sunny week!) £20 pw
No data roaming (£20 a week - I had no idea it was that much!)
No café breakfasts or coffee out (£20 pw)
Until 2 weeks ago, no band rehearsals (£12 pw)
Holiday cancelled, rock festival cancelled (about £400 the lot)
Doing nothing is cheap!

prowla

I'm not paying commuting charges (for a rubbish train company), not buying lunches whilst at work, have way cut down on days out and petrol, haven't eaten out or had takeaways in ages (bar a Subway last weekend), haven't been shopping for non-essentials; totting things up and looking at my mortgage, I reckon I am saving about that amount.

PipneyJane

monnagran said:

You are spot on there Moneyseeker.  Someone who is obviously wealthy beyond most of our dreams, should think twice before broadcasting that they can spend £2,000 on a ride-on motor mower in order to save £200 on paying someone to cut their grass for them.  When a person who doesn't have to watch the pennies gleefully announces that they have now deprived someone of part of their (probably much needed) income, it does tend to make you question their moral values.

At the other end of the scale I know of someone who lives on an ordinary sort of pension who has paid her cleaner throughout the lockdown.  She knows full well that the cleaner in question relies on that money to pay household bills. The fact that she has not only had to do her own cleaning (she is pretty old and not well) but is also out of pocket does not worry her unduly.  In her eyes she has done the honourable thing.

I know whose conscience I would rather have.

ETA.  Sorry, this thread was to make us think of how much money we have managed not to spend during lockdown, not a judgement on people's morals.  I tend to go overboard when I get a sniff of injustice.

Back to the topic in hand.........

@monnagran - I have to say that I totally agree with you.

What riled me was the tone of the original post: “hey look at me, saving money from my huge income”.   I did actually check to see whether we’d been trolled by someone.  Since the OP has responded, I’m assuming he was sincere but didn’t realise how off-putting the tone of his post was. 

(FWIW, the only difference between his bread machine and mine is that mine isn’t brushed metal and only cost £60.)

- PIp

-taff

I have no problem wih what the OP posted. So what if he has a big income? I expect he works for it. And don't forget, no one was going anywhere when lockdown happened for seven weeks which meant no gardener coming to mow the lawn. Not important to me because I have a small lawn, not 3 acres. Important enough for him to sort his lawn cutting out though.

This attacking him because he 'should know better' or 'should be more sensitive' is just nasty minded sour grapes at the life situations everyone finds themselves in.

I haven't saved anything, neither of us are working and we are living on savings. Am I bitter because the OP spent some of his hard eaned money? No.