Changes We’ve Made To Our Finances Due To The Current Situation
When this whole Coronavirus thing started I thought we’d be okay financially. I didn’t think I’d be talking about changes we’ve made to our finances as I didn’t think there would be any. Luke continued to work as normal as an electrician, his jobs were still going on. And I was just working from home. April was a bit of a weird one for me as I actually started a brand new job during the lockdown. After two and a bit years at ASOS, I left early April ready to start a new challenge a week or so later. Other than taking four days of work out in the middle my monthly money coming in stayed stable. From the main job that is.
Our financial situation
My blogging income has dropped drastically and while some work is still coming in it’s nowhere near what we had before. I don’t rely on this income so it’s been fine, but now Luke isn’t working it does come in handy when it comes through. Luke, like a lot of other self-employed people, is not working. Since the lockdown, all of his jobs have closed down meaning there’s nothing for him. Without an employer, he can’t be furloughed and paid. And because of my earning (and our savings), he can’t get universal credit.
We’re very fortunate though that we still have my income coming in. And my income is the one that pays the mortgage and the bills. Luke’s income is food, our spending money and savings. I know Luke will be able to get the self-employed grant which is really going to help. But it won’t be coming in for a few months now. Thankfully we’re incredibly lucky to have our own savings so we’ll be using some of that to get by until the grant comes in. Then we can replace our savings and continue to live off the grant until things get back to normal.
Changes we’ve made to our finances
Paused all of our savings – We’ve paused all of our savings until we’re both back to earning again. We used to save weekly for Christmas, our wedding, and an emergency fund from Luke’s wages. Then my blogging money would be used to save for holidays and fun things. Until we’re back earning saving money isn’t that important to us. Especially as we’ll need that money for food and other things.
Stopped our weekly fun money– When we’re able to start going back to the house again we’ll need a little money for fuel. But at the moment we don’t need weekly fun money to buy things. Plus we’re not going anywhere to spend it on days out, meals and drinks.
Applied for a mortgage holiday- Initially, we hadn’t planned on applying for this. But as we don’t know how long it will last and how long Luke will be out of work we decided to. The plan will be that we’ll overpay our mortgage after the 3-month break to cover what we should have paid. But it gives us the flexibility until Luke’s grant comes through in June. And it means we don’t need to worry about our biggest expense.
Not signed up for broadband in the new house– This was one of the things I wanted to do straight away but it doesn’t seem important now. I’m not going to be able to work from the new house properly for quite a while. And spending £30-50 a month on broadband we won’t use yet seems a bit silly.
Have you made any changes to your finances lately?
Pin It
16 responses to “Changes We’ve Made To Our Finances Due To The Current Situation”
Leave a Reply
All About Me
Rhian Westbury
Travels and Destinations
Nothing currently planned
Good that you have your finances an order and a plan. I’m feeling bad for those who don’t have savings right now
We have taken similar steps, weve paused everything as its all a bit uncertain how long etc, I’m able to work more to ensure we have enough money for bills etc, but overall our income has dipped and hope things turn round soon.
It is so hard isn’t it. My husband was due to start a new job on 28th March, he can’t be furloughed from that and his old employer and won’t furlough him. I have just found out I cannot be furloughed from my job at a pre-school either which we were not expecting. Luckily I have found part time work in tesco and we have taken a council tax and mortgage holiday which is helping
Was your husband not able to start his new job then I’m guessing? That’s a shame about the old employer, my old employer wouldn’t keep me on longer and furlough me, but thankfully my new job which I started last Monday have just let me start as there’s work x
I’m lucky enough not to have been furloughed and can work from home just as easily as I can from the office, but we have saved money by not travelling to work, between us that was costing around £15 per day, so that money has been put aside into a rainy day fun x
That’s such a good saving and a great habit you’ve got into saving it x
My husband has been furloughed and then his employer is topping up to 100% which is such a relief. It’s such a worrying time, I work for the NHS and I am now working from home. Our outgoings have reduced a lot but then the boiler broke last week and we are having to get a new one installed so there goes anything that we may have saved.
That’s so good that your husbands company is topping up his income so he’s not losing out x
Totally makes sense to change your finances due to the current situation. Steve is a key worker so thankfully our income remains the same in that respect and just before we moved into the new house, we paid 6 months rent upfront so don’t have to worry about that for a while. My blog income is down quite a bit but I’m lucky to still have some VA contracts to tide me over.
That’s so good that you paid 6 months upfront as it means you don’t have to worry too much for a while. And by then hopefully your blog income will be back up x
We have had to tighten our belts, but I am fortunate my husband is still working as he is based in a doctors surgery, so a keyworker at the moment. My blog income is trickling through but not what it usually is.
We’ve actually sat down this evening and gone through our finances to see where some changes and savings can be made .
it’s a very sensible thing to do at the moment because everything is so uncertain. We’ve gone through all our outgoings to check what we can cut back on. I hope some more blog income arrives for you soon.
I think it’s always good to assess your outgoings regularly anyway but at the moment it’s even more important to do so x
My husbands hours have been reduced so we immediately cut any bills we could. We have saved ourselves quite a lot although our food shops have gone up dramatically over the last 6 weeks.
Yeah our food bills have gone up a lot, but then we’re not going out to restaurants and buying food out so actually overall it’s not too much different x