So who has actually saved money during the lockdown?

JDD

I will be the first to say that I am in a very lucky situation, and I fully understand that there is a huge chunk of the working population either on COVID-19 €350 a week benefits or the Government subsidized wages. This is not meant as a brag or anything. I just know there must be other people in our situation, who will have more resources at the end of this crises, which will assist in boosting the economy.

Two parents working, three kids, usually over €2k a month spent on creches and afterschools. Both of us work in offices, so have been able to work from home taking the childminding in shifts during the day. Our employers have been very understanding about flexible work hours and expected work output.

If the creches/afterschools/camps don't open until August (or later), we will have saved €8k in childcare fees.

Our health insurance is giving us €100 a month rebate on our family health insurance plan, so that will be another €400 saved.

Virgin Media have said they will give some sort of rebate for not having sky sports available. I don't know how much that will be - maybe €20-30 a month. We should get some sort of rebate on our car insurance. I may get something back on my annual taxsaver commute ticket. We're certainly spending virtually nothing on petrol.

Despite spending too much on Amazon and takeaways, I have definitely been spending less on a day to day basis. Lunches at home, no browsing at the shops, no impulse buys, no forking out €150 to get my hair coloured, no social nights out.

We are going to spend to the money once the restrictions fully lift. We're going to buy a new car. We are going to get some stuff done to the house that we have been planning for ages. There must be other people in our situation, with some pent up demand and no discernable change in the financial circumstances. This is why I believe that the recession following this won't be as crushing as people are making out.

How far off the mark am I?

NegativeCreep

The job has given anyone the needs to be physically onsite a 35% increase on basic pay. I’m only in half the time but receive it on my whole salary anyway so I’m saving all of that. The only things I’m spending money on are my car payment, car and health insurance, and groceries.
Since March I’ve been saving about 3500 a month!

If lockdown has taught me anything is that I don’t need to eat out nearly as much as I was before and that take out coffee really adds up over time!

crossman47

I'm over 70 and on a pension so I've saved a fortune. No meals out, no visit to pub, no petrol in the car, etc.

OU812

Normally spend €100-120 a month on diesel, I filled the tank on 30th March for €75 and still have ¾ of it left.

But my salary has been cut in half so not great for me

Mister Vain

Yep, I'm not going anywhere so I'm saving money on petrol, coffees, bookies, events etc. It all adds up.

phormium

I saved a bit initially but online garden centre shopping and paint/hardware have eaten into the savings

JDD

If lockdown has taught me anything is that I don’t need to eat out nearly as much as I was before and that take out coffee really adds up over time!

Yeah I'm completely with you. There's a lot of things I've realized I was spending far too much for. Not least getting my hair coloured. The box dye from the supermarket is nearly as good and it cost €10 rather than €120. While I might have to get my hair done every six months or so, to boost the colour, I won't be going every two months anymore.

I always knew shop coffee was overpriced. I tend to only buy it in our work canteen, which isn't the best coffee in the world but is only €1.20.

Infini

I'm lucky to be in a job that still has a full time pay, the overtime is gone but on the other side of things, I've saved a fair few quid on fuel thanks to both quicker driving times and not being stuck in traffic as well as falling prices. Would say there's quite a few who's managed to save a fair few bob here on there overall considering the circumstances so hopefully we'll all be able to ride this out and get some sense of normality back.

IndigoStar

Only one car on the road now doing short trips to supermarket so saving loads on fuel. No impulse spending or family days out.
Filled our oil tank for winter while it's so cheap, have almost cleared credit card debt and then will be putting extra into savings. Would be nice to have some extra funds put aside for whatever is ahead.

celt262

Myself and herself are going to look at working from home 1 day a week when things settle down. That would save us over €4000 a year which we would put towards home improvements.

yourdeadwright

Yes managed to save a lot more the usual
Hoping that it leads us as a family to save more in the future and not spend money on things we simply don't need ,

JDD

Yeah. There will be a few people who will pay off debt with any extra resources - whether than be credit cards or a chunk off the mortgage. Or they might make a pension payment.

While I know that is very sensible, I actually hope most people don't do this. We actually need this extra money circulating in the economy come August/September and beyond.

I will go as far to say that it would be unpatriotic to do sensible things with the money, and the morally right thing to do would be to spend it immediately.

BrentMused

Biggest expense for me was commuting by a significant distance.

I'm very lucky to be still receiving full pay and allowed to work from home, so if this continues until August when I expect to be back in the office, I estimate I'll have saved north of €2,000 in commuting costs alone. Then you can add servicing on the vehicle, wear and tear etc.

We had a couple of trips planned and a summer holiday which have all obviously been cancelled. Disappointing, but we were lucky to receive full refunds on everything so that was another chunk saved.

We've been able to pay up front yearly at a discount for services that we'd usually pay monthly due to having less money available and that saves a bit more in the long run too.

We're currently renting and saving for a deposit so one of the main positives of this pandemic has been the increased ability to save and that's where all of our savings from this will be going for the foreseeable future.

I really appreciate how lucky we are at the moment and certainly won't take it for granted.

Jimmy Bottlehead

Yep. My outgoings are way back, and while my work hours are reduced from what they would be ordinarily, they're enough to allow me to save for upcoming annual bills AND knock decent chunks off my credit card debt.

Should be debt free by August or September.

Alf Veedersane

Only really saving on childminder so will probably save of the order of €3500 there. But herself had to take a relatively short-term cut in pay so the actual saving will be less than that. Bought more toys for the garden etc for the kids so that will have eaten into that.

Probably not a massive saving, all in all.

Frozen gym membership but bought stuff to do some workouts at home which probably cancelled out what I'd have saved.

No car and we both walk to work anyway so no transport costs normally

SCOOP 64

Been claiming the €350 for about 6 weeks now, saved so far about €1500, no petrol , no takeaways, goes on and on really as no shops open apart from supermarkets, but i am spending a go bit more in them, does make you think what you can do if you had too but wont this help the economy when we are all let loose?

TomTree

Luckily on full pay, still working. Thought I would very much be in the green and was planning on paying off my credit card bill, but I actually have not been really saving anything, make it even more sad to know all my direct debits really savage my salary every month.:(

JDD

Well this is the big question isn't it?

Will people who have saved money hold onto it when restrictions lift, because of a worry that there will be more economic pain to come and you would be best building a nest egg.

Or will the economy bounce back relatively quickly, with people who have saved money delighted to be able to spend it in the shops again?

I think the general talk from the Government is that they won't impose austerity to pay back the millions this pandemic has caused us. I think this is definitely the right thing to say, as otherwise the savings made by certain quarters of the economy will be held back, and we'll be in an even worse economic situation.

onrail

Went from spending roughly €1,450 a month on rent, utilities, food and entertainment, to spending €725 this month bar electricity and heating which are billed quarterly.

New baby just arrived, and while my job is ok for now, things are looking shaky long-term - so all this is going straight into savings!

FVP3

Savings:

No morning coffee, no bought lunch. We generally cooked the evening meal at home except once to twice a week, so saving on take outs running to 30-60 a week between the two of us. Travel on dart is saving about 50-100 a month each, I used to sometime cycle. We never ate out all that much, but did go out about once a month with friends. The last overpriced restaurant I visited cost us 120 between us. Pubs, I go out once to twice a week, my savings there are probably 50, or 100 between us. Odd hotel visits - we didn't plan anything but we generally do go away for long weekends. 100-200+. I also didnt have to buy a confirmation present for the nephew. Score.

Costs:

Gym couldnt be cancelled but we are not using it. Buying some online stuff I may not have looked at. . Buying more groceries as we cook lunch and breakfast here, but still cheaper overall. I did buy a web camera, and upped my internet bandwidth.

Plumbthedepths

JDD wrote: »

Yeah. There will be a few people who will pay off debt with any extra resources - whether than be credit cards or a chunk off the mortgage. Or they might make a pension payment.

While I know that is very sensible, I actually hope most people don't do this. We actually need this extra money circulating in the economy come August/September and beyond.

I will go as far to say that it would be unpatriotic to do sensible things with the money, and the morally right thing to do would be to spend it immediately.

It would be incredibly stupid to blow through any money that people save due to the crisis.
The economic fallout will be phenomenal. Ireland plus much of the world will be in a deep recession.
Patriotism whilst an admirable trait will not pay bills or put food on the table.

Andrew00

Yep saving loads. No bookies/racing and pub is a blessing in disguise

road_high

Definitely saved a few bob but not massively. I didn’t have a commuting bill anyhow. Last few weeks been trying to spend if I can like coffees and a few take away meals from places. Other people’s jobs depend on that.
Would expect electricity and gas bill to go up as I’m at home so much

NegativeCreep

JDD wrote: »

Well this is the big question isn't it?

Will people who have saved money hold onto it when restrictions lift, because of a worry that there will be more economic pain to come and you would be best building a nest egg.

Or will the economy bounce back relatively quickly, with people who have saved money delighted to be able to spend it in the shops again?

I think the general talk from the Government is that they won't impose austerity to pay back the millions this pandemic has caused us. I think this is definitely the right thing to say, as otherwise the savings made by certain quarters of the economy will be held back, and we'll be in an even worse economic situation.

I’m personally saving it all to buy a house hopefully next year so won’t be spending like mad when everything opens up again but I’d say a lot of people will.

ceadaoin.

Yes. The amount of money we spent eating out was unreal. Husband even managed to make a good bit of money on the stock market. Still doesn't make up for the worry of him potentially not having a job in the long term though. Its all getting saved.

fits

Our grocery/food bill is gone way up! We signed up to Dropchef in February so thats been great for a bit of variety 2 days/week but we still have massive grocery bills. Im not sure whats going on there except for the few bits for my mother. I suppose the lunches and snacks at home are adding up. (ITs not alcohol either!).

Livvie

JDD wrote: »

Virgin Media have said they will give some sort of rebate for not having sky sports available. I don't know how much that will be - maybe €20-30 a month.

I had a £36 rebate for the first month. Assume it will be the same every month till things get back to normal.

JeffKenna

I'm saving €1,000 a month by making my own lunch, no shop coffee, no commuting or gym bill.

Sono Topolino

I have saved a good lot of money because I am not going on holidays, not able to eat out etc, gym membership suspended etc. I don’t view this as anything more than a silver lining.

JDD

JDD wrote: »

Yeah. There will be a few people who will pay off debt with any extra resources - whether than be credit cards or a chunk off the mortgage. Or they might make a pension payment.

While I know that is very sensible, I actually hope most people don't do this. We actually need this extra money circulating in the economy come August/September and beyond.

I will go as far to say that it would be unpatriotic to do sensible things with the money, and the morally right thing to do would be to spend it immediately.

Why? Anyone who thinks that they're under some moral obligation to spend what they earn on stupid crap is really not thinking straight. This was the shot across the boughs. The next one will sink a lot of the clowns who think money saved now is some sort of windfall to be blown at the next opportunity.

People need to take away from this that you need money set aside for a rainy day and that you shouldn't count on the taxpayer subsidising your income next time something like this happens, which it certainly will. Once is enough. Get your crap in order because the state can't afford to give it out with one hand without taking it in with the other. Some of the dumbest stuff I've seen posted on boards to be fair.

So yeah, pay off some consumer debt and avoid taking it on in future. Save enough to cover yourself if you have no income for 3-6 months. Then start paying into your poxy retirement plans or investments. And for the love of whatever you believe in, stop shopping day to day or week to week for basic foodstuffs and essentials. Keep a supply on hand so you don't end up looking like a flake next time the crap hits the fan.

rahmalec

Definitely not saving. Income cut by 90% and since I work in events, will be out of work for quite some time.