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

[nottsgirl]

Same, I spend what I’ve got, always have done. I’m trying to save and pay some debts off but it’s nothing to do with the pandemic.

 

[RubyToogood]

I am much worse off and I'm not really entirely sure why, whether it's just food prices or my spending habits or what. I tried to analyse it but no month is typical between pandemic and broken wrist so it's hard to compare. I ought to be better off as I increased my hours in January but I have been going into my savings every month for months now, without making any massive purchases (other than the orange fridge, which came out of savings - and normally I probably could have absorbed that over a few months).

I just need to budget ruthlessly I think.

I didn't save any money during lockdown as I just spent it on different things and I WFH anyway.

 

[Saul Goodman]

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

You could cancel your Tory Weekly subscription.

 

[baldrick]

Husband furloughed and then made redundant and decided to re-train. His income is 1/3 of what it used to be but on the other hand we've not been going out anywhere or having holidays. We do notice the change in terms of what's coming in and going out but it's not making a material difference yet as both incomings and outgoings are smaller. When things open up more that might change.

 

[Sasaferrato]

You could cancel your Tory Weekly subscription.

I've never given a penny to the Conservative party. Not a single penny.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Travel agent, own company, didn’t sell a single ticket between March and June 2020, after that around 5-10% of regular sales until Janauary this year when Brexit kicked in and picked up a load of new clients from both the U.K. and Europe which has pushed sales up to around 35% of normal, which considering the arduous restrictions on travel is frankly astonishing right now. Have not been able to be furloughed, guy who works for me is and was already given redundancy payment last October before we were told I could take him back on and back on to furlough. Sadly he will go at the end of next month, he has a job in Waitrose so not too bad for him.

 

[emanymton]

Short term better of just because I have not been spending as much. Long terms I suspect I will be worse off. Prices are going up and I suspect taxes will do as well but I expect my already small yearly pay rise to get even smaller.

 

[flypanam]

Slightly worse off mainly due to rent rises during the pandemic plus general cost of living increases have seen us squeezed a little bit more.

 

[tony.c]

Retired so income roughly the same. I've saved money as I didn't go on usual winter holiday, but spent more than that on helping a friend overseas who has no income and no government help, and a couple of my nieces. I still have slightly more savings than pre-pandemic.

 

[Leafster]

Travel agent, own company, didn’t sell a single ticket between March and June 2020, after that around 5-10% of regular sales until Janauary this year when Brexit kicked in and picked up a load of new clients from both the U.K. and Europe which has pushed sales up to around 35% of normal, which considering the arduous restrictions on travel is frankly astonishing right now. Have not been able to be furloughed, guy who works for me is and was already given redundancy payment last October before we were told I could take him back on and back on to furlough. Sadly he will go at the end of next month, he has a job in Waitrose so not too bad for him.

I had a client in exactly the same situation with the redundancies in October. We finalised everything the day before the government announced the the extension to the furlough scheme. He took them back on but had no cash reserves left to pay them when the percentage recoverable dropped so had to let them go again.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I had a client in exactly the same situation with the redundancies in October. We finalised everything the day before the government announced the the extension to the furlough scheme. He took them back on but had no cash reserves left to pay them when the percentage recoverable dropped so had to let them go again.

During the first round of furlough I topped up his wages to 100%, from October he has had the government's 80% only, I have still had to pay tax & NI though.

 

[Mogden]

March to October last year was rough. I was furloughed until August and then redundant and although a good chunk of those weeks, other than bills, I was literally only spending £15 or so a week, and that was food shopping, I was clutching the pursestrings cos I had no idea what was going to happen and so I was just staying in and doing free house stuff as much as possible and eating as much cupboard stuff as possible. Looking for a job was bloody rough and I had Universal Credit for a bit. I totally appreciated my frugal lifestyle though cos it was just that, frugal, rather than oh shit. I didn't do festivals last year and although I don't spend masses on that, that saved a bit. Not commuting when I was furloughed and out of work saved a chunk too. On the other side of it with a job in hand I realised I'd actually saved quite a bit. Then fortunate, or unfortunate circumstances depending how you look at it, meant I paid off my mortgage early with a little bit left over so at the moment I'm comfortable but some of that cushion will go on adventures & home improvements post whatever this is at the moment.

 

[Leafster]

During the first round of furlough I topped up his wages to 100%, from October he has had the government's 80% only, I have still had to pay tax & NI though.

Yeah, for businesses in sectors like yours, where turnover still hasn’t returned to anything like pre-pandemic levels, the burden of NI, pensions and other unavoidable overheads, has eaten into any cash reserves. The reduction in the amount recoverable under the furlough scheme could tip them over the edge. I’ve had several clients where, even after taking a bounce back loan, they wouldn’t have had sufficient funds to pay the wages without pre-funding from the furlough scheme. One was down to around £100 in the bank each time!

If business doesn’t pick up soon for these businesses when the furlough scheme ends we could see some go under without enough money to pay any redundancy costs.

 

[cybershot]

Questions too vague! I bring in the exact same monthly income as I did before it started.

also too many scenarios in this for me. During lockdown stages I was better off because I was not commuting and able to put money into savings.

now I’m back commuting taking into account the price of energy/fuel/shopping and general cost of living has sky rocketed in the past 8 months I’d say if I had not moved house then I’d be slightly worse off in terms of disposable income.

The fact I moved house and almost doubled my mortgage means I’m definitely worse off but I brought that on myself and I knew I could afford it but would have less to play with every month. Ultimately now I have to travel a lot further the drastic increase in cost of fuel over the past months means I’m worse off. Pretty sure petrol went up 6p a litre here in the first week of the summer holidays. Disgraceful really when most people will be holidaying in this country and getting to those places by car. Don’t understand why there hasn’t been more uproar against it but I guess British public is consigned to the fact petrol will just get more and more expensive now because we’re being encouraged to shift to electric and the air quality etc. But that’s a discussion for other topics.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Slightly better off as I haven't had transport costs to pay, but otherwise things are broadly the same. Bills have probably increased being at home all the time but it seems I've been paying too much for electric anyway so my monthly DD has dropped now.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Despite working in the travel sector, I'm definitely better off overall. I'm saving around £50 a week on not having to commute any more, and obviously we haven't had any family holidays for the last 2 years. Also the lack of opportunity for random shopping trips has probably helped too.

 

[weepiper]

Slightly better off, I think. I have been working throughout apart from a month right at the beginning of lockdown when I was furloughed. We spent considerably less on going out collectively, no gigs or paid leisure activities. My ex partner wasn't working due to health issues throughout the pandemic so it felt like we were broke in terms of money coming in but because we were spending less it sort of balanced out. We've split up now and I'm moving to a cheaper flat (although now I'm paying for it from a single income) and I'll have to claim for tax credits/universal credit as a single parent, and one of my children is at the same time moving out to university so I'll lose the benefit income for her, so actually I don't really have any idea how it's going to shake down in terms of what disposable income I'll be left with although my experience in the past is that I should be a bit better off.

 

[sparkybird]

Initially much better off as we weren't travelling, eating out, going out etc. Then decided to use the extra to support friends, families and food banks in India, Mexico, Guatemala and UK. We're still supporting them almost 18 months on as their situations are no better.
So probably about the same.

 

[Voley]

I'm better off. Initially wfh saved me about £150 a month in commuting petrol plus giving me some free time to go for a walk. Plus there wasn't much to spend money on other than food and clothes

When the work dried up as building sites shut down, I was preparing for redundancy. Fortunately a new project came up that's taken most of lockdown to learn so I wasn't furloughed. It's now my full time job. I can still wfh -which I love- and I've had a raise of 4 grand a year. I've been very lucky.

 

[tony.c]

We're still supporting them almost 18 months on as their situations are no better.

I wasn't expecting to be supporting my friend abroad 18 months later. I thought maybe six months, but can't not support now.

 

[Dr. Furface]

Saved quite a bit on overseas holidays and not going to pubs, gigs etc for long periods. However all that and a lot more was lost when a company I had a big 'investment' with went bust, largely because of knock-on effects of Covid, though probably would have happened eventually anyway. I am hopeful (probably in vain) of recovering at least some of this money in time but as the case is complex and almost certainly involves fraud it will have to go through the courts and is likely to take years. In fact thanks to the backlog in the legal system caused by Covid it will take even longer than it previously would have.

 

[Griff]

Financially each month I'm worse off.
Choosing to semi -retire at 54, I'm far, far better off.

 

[sparkybird]

I wasn't expecting to be supporting my friend abroad 18 months later. I thought maybe six months, but can't not support now.

Exactly, and what an amazing thing to do for your friend.
From my own experience it's made me step back and think about my spending habits. What I might have spent on a night out could support a family for a good period of time.

 

[pinkmonkey]

Hard to say - didn’t earn much last year, but once I’d got my self employment money from the government I was ok. Had a lot of work on the first half of this year and built up my savings again, but now I’m living off/spending them again because we left London for good and are taking an extended break before moving up north. I’m expecting work to be slow, due to Brexit properly kicking in, although I’m actually getting plenty of enquiries right now, so who knows? Our outgoings are gonna be way less from now on, too.

 

[mentalchik]

Absolutely no difference...have worked all the way through as normal...don't go out or eat out anyway so nothing has really changed for me

 

[stdP]

Overall, probably a bit better off.

Personally, I'm a lot better off. I started a new job a month before lockdown and was terrified I'd lose it - as it turns out I've been given a pay rise and extra holiday to stay after my colleagues were poached by other, richer, firms. No commuting costs for a year, although I'm not a million miles away from the office and am (happily) going back in to the office now. No chance of spending my usual extravagances in restaurants, clubs and bars so that's probably at least £100 a week being saved, even with buying more and better food to cook at home. Zero chance of a holiday abroad - I'm claustrophobic and a bad traveller at the best of times; I'd end up causing an emergency landing in Rotterdam or something. According to the neighbours, the prices on all of our houses has apparently shot up massively percentage-wise due to having fairly secluded private gardens and thus being very des res as far as London properties go.

Much of that has been tempered by my partner losing their job and career in hospitality (restaurant manager); first they were fired, then kindly rehired to be put on the furlough scheme, and then fired again last september when they couldn't afford the changes to furlough. This is fine - I'm earning enough that we can both still live reasonably comfortably on my salary. It's still a bitter pill for them to swallow though; as much as they despised their job sometimes, there was lots of pride and self-identity invested in their former work ethic and that's now gone. Come may they were given first refusal on getting their old job back... albeit at a £1700pa pay cut. Given that the hours were long and stressful and now there was very little prospect of tips being half as much as they used to be, they declined. As such I'm now paying for all of the household expenses, and their part-time position doing TA in schools gives them some half-decent spending money, and at least it's a job they don't hate.

On a broader scale, it's rather fucking heartbreaking to see so many people catastrophically worse off. Rent and mortgages costs rising through the roof with food and other essentials not far behind them. For all of the talk of wages rising past inflation, I sure as shit haven't seen it in 95% of the jobs I've seen advertised. A government seemingly only concerned with lining its own pockets with open contempt for its own electorate. What a fucking time to be alive.

 

[ska invita]

...so overall a fairly even split with a slight propensity to better off, which i guess also reflects that the majority of jobs in the UK were furloughed/wfh etc
id guess urbans 10% a lot worse off is probably a fair bit larger across the UK...

 

[NoXion]

Slightly better off, I think. It depends on how badly inflation has eaten into the savings I've made WFH and not commuting, as well as the 5% pay increase I received last month. This I haven't looked into.

 

[dylanredefined]

Only due to an inheritance probably hastened on by pandemic

 

[marty21]

Mrs21 retired last month so we are worse off but not because of the pandemic, and better off as she no longer has work stress