Nellie K on 01 December 2020
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Q. What's happened to your spending since Covid hit?
I love this question because I think the assumption is that spending has gone down. But that’s coming from the perspective of people who have disposable income. Of course they will have saved money, they have less places to spend their ‘spare’ money. If you had no outgoings on luxuries like coffee shops, takeaway, clothes shopping, pubs, eating out etc then nothing has been saved. Our only saving has been £2.50 a week we spent on playgroup, and on petrol as we drive out to places less. On a whole we have seen our spending increase. Our electricity and gas bills have gone up for a start, as we’re at home more. We have spent a lot more on food, especially during the first lockdown when there were shortages and we had to buy expensive brands. My children snack more when they’re at home too, my fruit spending has gone up considerably. We’ve also found that we’ve made outgoings with regard to entertaining the children that we wouldn’t have pre-Covid - Disney+, crafts, and books (especially when all the libraries and charity shops were shut). We rely on charity shops a fair bit so when they were closed we spent more. I would have bought my daughters school uniform from the supermarket but couldn’t because it sold so fast and had to buy it at a higher price online. The Covid restrictions have also meant that my daughters school have changed uniform requirements at the last minute - requesting two days to wear joggers and trainers - which has meant an increased spend on uniform.
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