Blue sky thinking on spending
How have your spending habits changed in the 100 days since lockdown? And how do you think your spending will change again, as lockdown loosens?
I have kept a close eye on my spending since the first month of lockdown, and on Sunday I talked to Radio Suffolk about which of my new habits I’d like to keep – and what will be different.
Many of us saw our spending change radically, while so many shops and venues shut, and we were instructed to stay at home. People were forced into frugality, either because there was limited chance to spend, or because their income shrank with disappearing jobs and gaps in government support.
Pin for later:
As lockdown loosens, rather than snapping straight back into old spending habits, it makes sense to keep costs low.
For many, particularly working women, it’s difficult to get back to work while schools, nurseries and normal childcare is closed.
Even if your income continues as normal, stashing spare cash will protect against future financial uncertainties. A recession and potential job losses could hit us all.
Here’s how my spending changed during lockdown, what will change and which new habits I’d like to hang on to!
Piles of pears in my Too Good To Go box
Table of Contents
Food
Lockdown: Our grocery shopping costs shot up, with the whole family at home 24/7. I often ended up buying more expensive brands than normal when there were shortages of staples such as flour, pasta, fruit and veg. I wasn’t able to snap up cut price meat and fish from the short-dated yellow-stickered sections while we were self-isolating and avoiding supermarkets.
After lockdown: I’m really hoping to hammer down our food costs, now the shops have more stock and I can return to buying yellow-stickered food. I also bought my first Too Good To Go box in months, when Morrisons started offering them again. For £3.09 I got a ‘magic box’ of short-dated but perfectly good fresh fruit and veg, which would otherwise have been thrown away. The Morrisons boxes are meant to contain food worth about a tenner, but the contents of mine would actually have come to more than £18 when bought normally.
I’d like to continue my lockdown focus on meal planning and reducing food waste, and I’d also like to continue supporting local businesses, such as getting fruit and veg from Hadleigh market, after Carl the greengrocer organised deliveries during lockdown.
Birthday celebration with afternoon tea delivery
Eating out
Lockdown: Most pubs, cafes and restaurants were shut, stopping any chance of spending! We did splash out on the occasional takeaway from our local high street.
After lockdown: Even before lockdown, we rarely went to pubs or ate out, so although we might spend a bit more once things reopen I’m not expecting this to skyrocket. I’d just love to be able to have friends round for a barbecue.
Exploring Kersey
Leisure spending
Lockdown: With virtually every option for entertainment and leisure spending closed, we spent more time as a family in the garden or going for country walks. At home, I finally caved in and signed up for Netflix.
After lockdown: The Netflix subscription stays, and I’m keen to continue exploring more of the Suffolk countryside and coastline – especially when so much is free to visit!
Here at home, we’re also excited to have added some extra garden. It’s currently neck deep in nettles and brambles so we’ve got a lot to keep us busy right here. Fingers crossed we may even be able to book slots at our newly re-opened tip, to shift the big bags of weeds.
Hopefully, if our local leisure centre survives, it will continue offering free swimming sessions for the kids during the summer holidays. Swimming is one activity they’ve really missed. Here’s hoping Cubs and Scouts restart in September too.
Clothes, shoes and hair
Lockdown: We spent zip all on any clothing and all the hairdressers were shut.
After lockdown: I’d like to keep our spending on new clothes down, but the kids feet have grown so I’m resigned to buying new shoes.
Boy do we all need hair cuts – especially my 10 year old, whose hair is now so bouffant I’m surprised he can fit through the door.
Shopping
Lockdown: We actually spent more than normal ordering sports stuff and electronics for the kids online. I really missed our local library, and ended up buying more discounted or second hand books than I normally would.
After lockdown: Sod football. I’m just delighted the library is re-opening, and I can go back to reserving new books I’d like to read.
Otto uninspired by his first sight of the sea
Petrol and car costs
Lockdown: Our petrol bills evaporated when we confined the house and walking distance round it, and MOT tests were delayed.
After lockdown: I’m expecting our fuel costs to creep up, as we make longer permitted trips like going to Walberswick, and my husband returns to the occasional day in the office. We’ve just been hit by our annual car insurance bill and will have to face up to the MOT too.
Confined to camping in the garden
Holidays and travel
Lockdown: We waved goodbye to our Easter trip to Paris, so not only avoided spending on holidays or travel, but even got a refund in Eurostar vouchers. Any work meetings or events in London were cancelled (boo) but I’ve enjoyed Zoom calls for work and with far flung friends.
After lockdown: This could be expensive! I’m keen to book a self-catering or camping holiday in the UK, once bookings open, to avoid any quarantine issues. I appreciate from 6 July the Foreign Office is lifting restrictions on travel to certain limited places, such as France, Italy, Spain and Greece, but suspect we may prefer to stay closer to home.
Previous post: What to pack to cut the cost of a self-catering holiday
Backing reusable bags and bottles
Environmental benefits
Lockdown: The whole world saw environmental benefits from lower emissions, from fewer flights, fewer car journeys and I suspect less manufacturing. Cleaner air, cleaner water, less litter, more birdsong, goats running rampant in Llandudno – there has been a silver lining to the pandemic.
After lockdown: I’m keen to do Plastic Free July again. Taking part last year made me much more aware of the plastic waste we create as a family, from food and around the house. Think I need that wake up call to make me reduce our plastic waste once more. I’m also keen to continue with all my efforts to avoid food waste during lockdown.
Saving and investing
Lockdown: I finally got round to setting up small monthly payments into my self-employed pension, but we actually spent a big chunk of our savings buying the extra garden.
After lockdown: I’ll definitely be continuing my pension payments, and could do with sorting out my different pensions too. Being stuck at home made me focus on the places I would really love to visit – so if we’re ever to afford a family holiday to Japan, we need to do some serious saving.
Debt
Lockdown: We’re incredibly lucky to live debt-free. However, many people seized the chance to stay afloat financially by taking mortgage payment holidays, and deferring other bills and borrowing such as credit cards and car loans. I did take out a Bounce Back Loan to support my business, which is interest-free for the first year.
After lockdown: Sadly, payment holidays don’t make the payments do away, they are just deferred, while interest keeps mounting up. So if you can afford to restart payments, or make partial payments, it will cut the total cost of your debt. I’m hoping to make early repayments on my Bounce Back Loan, to reduced the interest bill.
Now – over to you. What lockdown spending habits do you want to continue? Or do you just want everything to return to normal asap? Do share in the comments, I’d love to hear!
Food shopping has cost quite a lot more, often because I’ve had to buy brands which are more expensive, and because we are at home all the time. We never have takeaways but we do eat out a couple of times a month, so on balance the overall monthly food spend has not been very different.
Unable to get hold of the toiletries I usually buy, I’ve had to buy more expensive ones online, but OK with this as I’m very fussy about ingredients.
I rarely buy clothes (lots left from the days when I worked full time, and not the kind of stuff that dates) but have bought a few things on eBay.
Car costs have been minimal with three quarters of the tank I filled in mid-March still there. I’ve worked from home so no travel costs.
Hair appointments will resume next week, but I’ve realised that there are some beauty treatments that I make do with less often
Author
Hi Eloise,
Interesting that your food costs balanced out, with needing to buy more and having to buy branded products vs less on eating out. Hope you got a hair appointment – something I’ve been really looking forward to. Thanks so much for commenting.
My food costs also shot up as I stayed in for the first 7 weeks and had deliveries from various sources. I certainly missed Aldi prices! However-during this time I created my website http://www.patsfood.org which compliments the very frugal Facebook group feed yourself for £1 a day. Facebook is great but a lot of older people and some who do not use social media prefer a website. The mist frugal recipes and meal plans are now on my website.
I am back out shopping but generally a 9 pm trip to Aldi when it feels safe and very empty. Sometimes of course the veg shelves are rather empty but that is something I have to put up with to avoid crowds. The great bonus is-they also accept cash as so many places don’t now.
Author
Hi Pat – lovely to hear from you and delighted you’ve now set up a website alongside your Facebook group. Really glad you’ve found a time to visit Aldi that feels save – tricky times right now. Hope all continues well!
I’ve found that I have spent *less* on food shopping during lockdown. I think this is because I’ve had more time to cook from scratch and batch cook too. (Our freezer is now jam-packed full of bolognese, curry and chilli!) We’ve also started to grow our own lettuce, herbs, tomatoes etc in the garden which saves some pennies on our food shop. I really hope to maintain these money-saving ways!
Love the blog by the way, and also doing Plastic Free July 🙂
Author
Thank you!
Interesting you’ve seen your for costs go down, due to cooking from scratch. Chimes with stats I’ve seen about sales of ready meals dropping during lockdown. Brilliant about growing some of your own food, hope that goes really well, and good luck with Plastic Free July. Fair to say my family is reluctant, due to lots of their favourite foods and snacks coming plastic wrapped…
As a Londoner (and one who enjoys many of the delights of the city), I saw my expenses fall off a cliff. We’ve always joked our eating out habit is like a second mortgage, but now we were forced to see the reality of our ways.
I’ve turned into an unbelievable domestic goddess and discovered the joy of cooking from scratch. I’ve managed to make tasty and healthy meals (including some awesome Indian and Chinese food) and rekindled my love of the slow cooker (you can cook anything in this I’ve learned – even cheese and bacon bread – totally recommend).
Lockdown has been a brilliant time to reassess what we really want and need. And friends and family top the list.
I’m a pretty changed person…and my waistline definitely attests to that!
This is such a relatable article! I found that lockdown made a big difference to my savings, I will be trying to do the same and keep those habits! Thank you for sharing!
Hello
We are professional traders, earning on forex and binary for investors weekly, will love to tell you all more about our investment platform where you can invest funds as little as $200 and start earning $2500 weekly, alot of people has benefited from this investment offer before and during this convid-19 virus, if you passing through financial difficulties due to this coronavirus and you need help paying bills simply choose a suitable investment plan for yourself and start making profit weekly
$500 to earn $5,000 in 7 days
$1000 to earn $10000 in 7 days
$5000 to earn $50000 in 7 days
To Start your investment now contact Via whatsapp: (+12166263236)
email: carlose78910@gmail.com
Thankfully, I hate online shopping almost as much as a I hate going out in a pandemic. I’ve also saved on dining. For the first time in a long time I’ve been able to pay more towards credit card debt each month I can see my debt go down and it makes me feel more confident. It feels good. Definitely something I plan to keep doing even after shutdown.
Thank you for the pointers! Your blog is a great resource for me as I am also building my own in the same niche. I think I’m going to learn a lot from you.
Thanks for sharing… I found it very informative
Thanks for sharing informative content
GET RICH WITH BLANK ATM CARD, Whatsapp: +18033921735
I want to testify about Dark Web blank atm cards which can withdraw money from any atm machines around the world. I was very poor before and have no job. I saw so many testimony about how Dark Web Cyber hackers send them the atm blank card and use it to collect money in any atm machine and become rich I email them also and they sent me the blank atm card. I have use it to get 500,000 dollars. withdraw the maximum of 5,000 USD daily. Dark Web is giving out the card just to help the poor. Hack and take money directly from any atm machine vault with the use of atm programmed card which runs in automatic mode.
You can also contact them for the service below
* Western Union/MoneyGram Transfer
* Bank Transfer
* PayPal / Skrill Transfer
* Crypto Mining
* CashApp Transfer
Email: darkwebonlinehackers@gmail.com
Text & Call or WhatsApp: +18033921735
I just want to say Thank You to everyone who supported me through the years. My name is Manuel Franco, New Berlin, Wisconsin. My story of how I won the Powerball lottery of $768.4M is a bit of a tale. I have been playing Powerball tickets for 6 years now since I turned 18. I bought my first ticket on my 18 birthday. I was feeling very lucky that day because I had contacted Dr. Odunga Michael to help me with the winning Powerball numbers. I really had that great great feeling that I looked at the camera wanting to wink at it. I only did a tiny part of it and trusted him. He gave me the numbers after I played a couple other tickets along with it for $10. I checked my ticket after the winnings came online and saw the numbers were correct including the Power play. I screamed for about 10 minutes because it felt like a dream. I had won $768.4M. You can check my winning testimony with the lottery officials just with my name search. Thank you Dr Odunga. Well, his email is odungaspelltemple@gmail.com and you can also call or Whats-app him at +2348167159012 so you guys can contact him
Hey, guys!!! I have my loyalty. My blank ATM card can withdraw $5,000 per day. I got this from Mr. Georg last Wednesday and now I have €10,000 for free. The card withdraws money from any ATM and there is no name, it is not traceable and now I have enough money for me and my 4 children. I’m thrilled I met Mr. Georg because I met two people before and took my money not knowing they were scams. But I’m happy now. Mr. Georg sent the card through DHL and I got it in two days. Get one of him now. See, it’s giving out to help people, even if it’s illegal, but it helps a lot and no one ever gets caught. The card works in all countries worldwide. Hurry up and email via georgbednorzhackers @ gmail. com Text, call, or WhatsAp: +1(262)355-8285
Other services offered were:
Cloning ATM cards
Hacking Bitcoin ATMs with malware cards
Recovering Lost or Stolen Cryptocurrency
Hacking Western Union transfers, MoneyGram transfers, Bank transfers, PayPal transfers, Cash app transfers
Recover Hacked Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Gmail, Yahoo mail, and websites.
BITCOIN RECOVERY IS VERY MUCH REAL, AM A LIVING TESTIMONY!!!!
Hello everyone I want to use this Medium to say big thank you to ethicsrefinance for they just helped me recover my stolen crypto worth $367,000 through their hacking skills I tried it I was skeptic but it worked and I got my money back, I’m so glad I came across them early because I thought I was never going to have my money back from those fake online investments website .. you can also contact them via
email: ethicsrefinance@gmail.com
Telegram: @ethicsrefinance
You can also contact them for the service below
* Western Union Transfer
* Blank atm card
* Bank Transfer
* PayPal / Skrill Transfer
* Crypto Mining
* CashApp Transfer
* Bitcoin Loans
* Recover Stolen/Missing Crypto/Funds/Assets
BE SMART AND BECOME RICH IN LESS THAN 3DAYS….It all depends on how fast
you can be to get the new PROGRAMMED blank ATM card that is capable of
hacking into any ATM machine,anywhere in the world. I got to know about
this BLANK ATM CARD when I was searching for job online about a month
ago..It has really changed my life for good and now I can say I’m rich and
I can never be poor again. The least money I get in a day with it is about
$50,000.(fifty thousand USD) Every now and then I keeping pumping money
into my account. Though is illegal,there is no risk of being caught
,because it has been programmed in such a way that it is not traceable,it
also has a technique that makes it impossible for the CCTVs to detect
you..For details on how to get yours today, email the hackers on : (
atmmachinehackers1@gmail.com < Tell your
loved once too, and start to live large. That's the simple testimony of how
my life changed for good…Love you all .