Are you financially better or worse off since the pandemic kicked in?

[Chilli.s]

Not better off, and received nothing in the way of financial support from any gov or local authority, a lesson in self reliance

 

[sheothebudworths]

I got paid my full (albeit, very low) wage through the time I was furloughed, along with the extra £20 a week in Tax Credits/UC (which they are saying will not be made permanent).
However, I was previously doing all the overtime I could get (actually, looking for extra permanent hours - and I had just applied for some that had become available just before lockdown one) and there isn't any now - infact, we are now at risk of redundancies and certainly 'restructuring'/loss of hours when furlough ends.
On top of that - for a few months I was making extra meals for a friend of my son's, who was having a very, very difficult time, was also providing lunches for all three of us when I'd only normally have been doing packed lunches for my daughter during the week (I eat at work and my son sorted his own lunches) and our electricity/gas bill went up massively while we were all at home.
My son is still wfh 3/4 days a week so the electric, in particular, hasn't dropped significantly now, when I would usually expect to build up credit over the spring and summer months.
I walk to work anyway, so there was no saving there either.
There's a separate issue around housing, too, which has been/will be massively (negatively) impacted by the ridiculous rise in house prices/shortage of homes coming on to the market now, after they put so much effort/money into propping the housing market up (although that is partially down to the inexcusable delays of another body, too).

Vaguely dreading the coming months, but know I still have a bit more security than many others, too.

 

[hash tag]

I'm in the black now, so much better off.

 

[krtek a houby]

Not being spending much but it's impacted work, so yeah, worse off.

 

[stavros]

Probably about the same. If the value of my mortgaged house has gone up, as ska invita suggests, it's not an asset I intend on selling any time soon, so any change is pretty irrelevant. My old commute cost nothing, I'm eating the same as ever, and outside of my long-gone student days I've never been a big socialite.

 

[oryx]

Have saved money from not being able to eat out very much over the past eighteen months, or go on holiday.

 

[Elpenor]

Hard to judge. I didn’t work for 8 months in 2020 (not able to due to health / breakdown) so was on UC and depleting my savings. Didn’t work for 2 months earlier this year and about to finish up a job with nothing else lined up yet.

But I’ve also sold my house and had some money come through after Mum passed.

So overall I’d say liquid assets increased but lost a lot of earnings potential and also a ropier long term outlook due to health issues. While it’s nice to have money in the bank if i need it it’s meant to be for buying a house so try not to think of it as “money to spend”.

 

[Ax^]

due to nature of the job worked throughout the period saying that

someone one wrote off my beloved mini cooper s r53 during lockdown

seeming as it was getting 17 miles a gallon at the time after i'd finished messing around with it

the new car is a little cheaper

so slightly better off

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I'm financially better off because I signed a contract for a new job that paid a lot more just before lockdown kicked in. On the other hand, my start date was delayed, and while I've saved on commuting I've spent money on useless shit due to declining mental health and then had a breakdown with only SSP for a few weeks and, tbh, not sure of the long term effect on the employment, so overall it would have been better had it not happened. At least I have some savings though.

 

[nosos]

Would be better off if I hadn't spent the first year of it drinking obscure high-strength dark craft beers and having takeaways five nights a week. See also massive weight gain.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Several thousand pounds on cameras I clearly would be unable to use was probably a poor choice.

 

[nosos]

As was the expensive wildlife camera which seemed like a brilliant idea last year.

 

[andysays]

There was an item on the news at the end of last month about how the furlough scheme was changing 1 August and employers would have to find 20% of furloughed salaries. It said 1.9 million people were on furlough (down from 9 million at the height of the pandemic). I was surprised that there were still nearly 2 million people on furlough, If someone had asked me to guess I would have gone for half or less of that.
TBH I think if you're still on furlough at this point the chances of your job still being there is very low and you would be better off looking for a new one.

I'm slightly surprised there are still that many people on furlough now as well.

Does anyone have any idea what sort of jobs those people are in? I would have thought most people whose job requires them to be physically present in their workplace would have returned by now, though obviously there are still many people working from home.

(I've been working and getting paid as normal throughout and have probably saved some money through not spending so much)

 

[StoneRoad]

Has evened out - I have been working from home so spent a lot less on travel and work-related expenses, but spent a good deal more on household expenses, eg energy and internet. I didn't buy as many books as I thought that I might ...
I still can't get some friends to recycle eg cardboard and plastic bottles properly

Last year I spent a good deal on garden-related goodies, but some of the plants I bought didn't do as well as expected ...

Being away from the workshop for much of the time has stored up some serious problems that I will need to devote a lot of time to solving in the next few months ... mainly the workshop manager can't manage people properly.

 

[Leafster]

I'm slightly surprised there are still that many people on furlough now as well.

Does anyone have any idea what sort of jobs those people are in? I would have thought most people whose job requires them to be physically present in their workplace would have returned by now, though obviously there are still many people working from home.

(I've been working and getting paid as normal throughout and have probably saved some money through not spending so much)

I have one client whose staff are on furlough and another two with a mix of furlough and flexi-furlough.

They are in hospitality and aviation. The two in hospitality are reliant on business from the visitors to their buildings. One is an office block and next to no staff are coming into the office. The other is just seeing very few visitors to their building so don't have the takings to pay the staff for the usual number of hours. The one in aviation just has no aviation work.

 

[Saul Goodman]

It hasn't affected me in the slightest. I'm still skint.

 

[andysays]

I have one client whose staff are on furlough and another two with a mix of furlough and flexi-furlough.

They are in hospitality and aviation. The two in hospitality are reliant on business from the visitors to their buildings. One is an office block and next to no staff are coming into the office. The other is just seeing very few visitors to their building so don't have the takings to pay the staff for the usual number of hours. The one in aviation just has no aviation work.

Thanks for that.

I can appreciate that although both those sectors have reopened, they won't be back to anything like normal for a while yet.

 

[Leafster]

I'd say I'm slightly worse off. The problems clients having been facing led to much lower activity levels which had a knock-on effect with the volume of work for me. I've always worked from home so there was no change there but re-organising how clients got information to me and dealing with ever changing rules meant I wasn't working as profitably as I might have been. Things are improving though.

I had to replace my boiler and some other things on the house and bought a mountain bike (and everything which goes with it!) so I'd say any savings on not socialising were more than wiped out with these expenses.

 

[MrSki]

Was on UC plus carers allowance at the start & am now working 34 hours a week so better off I suppose.

 

[campanula]

Same as Saul - still hopelessly broke...but immune to aspirational lifestyle stuff so much the same as usual.

 

[marty21]

I can still wfh 5 days a week , but I have been going in a few days a week (3 days last week) and doing home visits (which were a big part of my job pre pandemic) .

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I've saved absolutely loads through not going out, not going on holiday and not buying lunch every day at work.

It's quickly going down though as I used a fair chunk of it to get fitted wardrobes. Something I would not have done had I not saved that money.

Also starting to go out again in London is criminally expensive so I expect it to dwindle pretty fast over the next few months. I actually really resent the price of drinks in the pub. It's fucking extortionate and it's making me not even want to go out.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Also starting to go out again in London is criminally expensive so I expect it to dwindle pretty fast over the next few months. I actually really resent the price of drinks in the pub. It's fucking extortionate and it's making me not even want to go out.

Not living in London is an excellent cure for that. It's also an excellent cure for living in London.

 

[friendofdorothy]

Swings and roundabouts. Fortunate to be furloughed, fortunate to be made redundant. fortunate to find a new temp job. But job is temp and I can't imagine being able to go out and find a job in a workplace ever again so will have to 'retire' much earlier than I had ever imagined.

Spent less on entertainment / going out and travel.

But the basics of groceries are more expensive, supermarket prices have gone up. Also instead of shopping around, shopping in Lidl, going to the market, and hunting for yellow label bargains in the supermarket most days - I've had to buy what / where I could regardless of price and have had to have goods delivered - which we didn't do pre pandemic.

 

[planetgeli]

Better off through WFH, travel costs etc, just good fortune, did nothing to make this happen, even more random than normal capitalist bullshit.

 

[Supine]

A lot better off. I increased my hrly rate as there are so many jobs in the pharma industry and I’ve been turning down contracts left right and centre.

On the negative side I have never had so much work stress. I even ended up in hospital burnt out last october

 

[tim]

Paid the same, but rarely go out or travel last 18 months. So a bit better off, even with internet shopping.

Yes even on furlough I had more money at the end of the month than I would have had on my full salary, because I wasn't travelling and going out enjoying myself. Still, I'd rather be slightly poorer and have had more fun over the past 18 months.

Sunday lunch in a restaurant with friends tomorrow which is actually quite an exciting prospect, which it wouldn't have been this time two years ago.

 

[weltweit]

Being retired, not a lot has changed.

You might have been less able to adjust your income, being retired, but you could still change your outgoings.

 

[Looby]

I’ve been thinking a bit more about this.

We definitely spend more on groceries and takeaways but that’s partly stress and very busy job making me not want to cook much.
We started having meal boxes which have helped.
I’ve saved a lot on socialising I guess and I never really drink at home unless we have people over so barely bought any booze.
We did buy a puppy and do a lot of house/garden stuff.

Travel costs and motoring are about the same.
I haven’t saved any money WFH as my office is a mile from my house and all my other work journeys are claimed back.
I’ve actually done pretty well car wise. I’ve managed to trade my 2 yo car for a really good price (3k better than 6 months ago) and got a new car but despite it being much pricier, we have broken even on finance costs due to lower fuel and tax costs and 5 years free breakdown and servicing.

I shop when I’m stressed or anxious though so the online shopping habit has been shocking and will probably bite me on the arse soon if I don’t curb it.

 

[Sasaferrato]

You might have been less able to adjust your income, being retired, but you could still change your outgoings.

Aye, we live fairly simply though, so not a lot to change.