How do you guys save money for economic breakdown due to coronoa virus?

I actually earn more money now. Being a media analyst who works for home its surely beneficial that the media is currently more active than ever.

If we locked down now for six months, I can pull from 3 pools sequentially.
Annual leave 3 weeks, Long Service 5 weeks and then drum roll please.... Nearly 12 weeks of untaken Sick Leave.

I've been a loyal drone.

One should never save, especially in times of crisis. You should take on massive debts and use that money to buy up control of some key part of the market or the other. Why? Cos govts. are gonna be printing money like there's no tomorrow now, in order to meet their massive outlays needed to prop up the economy. That means inflation, which means savers get screwed. Otoh, it means whatever assets you bought appreciate in value. And if you can't meet your debt repayments, don't worry - as long as you bought big enough, they'll take good care of you. Your irresponsiblity will be rewarded.

Hey, if it works for companies...

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

Iceboxes aren't big here, but they sure got popular the past month or so. My mother nabbed one which makes me happy.

Wife brought home a spare mini fridge from work very helpful

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Dude! Bit of retrospective for you here -- good thing you quit smoking. Not only is it an obvious risk factor, it's a financial drain too. And, worst of all, it's an addiction that might drive some people to be a bit more reckless than they ought to be.

Convinced Mrs to stop about 3 months ago, thank goodness!

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We are still too indulgent with streaming services and whatnot. Probably have a few too many of them subscribed to be frugal but we do watch all of them for various things.

Yeah Netflix and Crave are must have.

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I'm not driving right now so we're saving on fuel quite significantly.

I only drive about 10km per day normally but yes saving on gas.
Mind you, electricity and gas bill are going to go up some with everyone home.

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The last big purchase we did was Animal Crossing on the Switch, and it's kept the GF happy and sane all week, so I consider it 'essential'. ;)

Eldest offspring pre-ordered online, it is *supposed* to be here today, fingers crossed.

First:

The key to saving during a crisis is preparation. Yes, that means you have to have preparation first, before the "crisis."

Not everyone can do that. But, if it's possible to do, one should first squirrel away enough money to be able to survive for several months without an income. The more, the better. That makes things much easier and one has many more options during the run-up time before the crisis hits, if one has warning, or during the crisis as long as "money has value." :)

(Note on a "rainy day fund" - This is the most important thing you can save up for after paying all your bills and operating expenses. Having the funds to survive for several months is of more value than the actual number of monies involved... Nothing is more important than having that "cushion" to rely on when it's needed. IF you need it, it's there. If you need it and it's not there, you have nothing... which is a bad thing. Unfortunately, it seems fewer people can afford to do that as time continues to trundle by.)

I'm a boring person, so "saving" during the crisis/epidemic isn't a problem for me. I don't "do" much of anything. I'm kind of like a fungus that has taken root on a recliner. I also have no responsibilities to anyone else, more or less, and if I fell off the planet tomorrow nobody would be particularly troubled by it. :)

What I do plan for right now in terms of "saving" is for around 1100 calories at the minimum of daily food reserves for several weeks at a time. Largely, that means dry goods and canned soups. Frozen foods make up most of my "daily consumables" right now. I can get what calories I need for a fairly sedentary hunker-down period on about $5 (USD) a day if I don't care about how "healthy" they are. Less on some days, slightly more on others. (Variety) (This is below an average recommended calorie intake, but one always has to include one's predicted caloric expenditures. Heavy exertion might require three-thousand calories a day, for instance. But, in today's modern era with typical military rations, I've never seen anyone lose weight or body mass that's been on deployment and feeding daily from "MREs." Gaining muscle and losing fat? Sometimes. Losing "weight?" No.)

For occupying my time, I read, write, play video games, cruise the 'net and am selectively "binge watching" some series. I'm currently watching several episodes of "Rome" a night.

A lot of people have many more concerns about daily survival and responsibilities than I do. Many more. In that, I'm both blessed and cursed. :)

I had saved up quite a bit to go visit family this spring and summer, but now that those are on hold indefinitely, I've got about 4 months of funds if we don't have any health emergencies or power outages or water shortages.

The good news is, I live in a big city atm so cities get the lions share of provincial resources to keep the lights on and the water running.

The bad news is, if anything happens, we're packed in like sardines, and sanitation and personal safety will be the first to go.

As a precaution, I'm downloading tax forms, cancelling online subscriptions, and looking at wills and advance directives. I own nothing significant, but as a person with chronic asthma I will likely die if I become infected, so as long as that looks to be inevitable, time to make life a little easier for my surviving family. No loose ends, impending debt collection hazards, messy social media procedures.

In the mean time we have about $2 a day of food supplies to last us for a few months. Lentils, onions, potatoes, dried fruit of every type imaginable, dried meats and fish, canned fruit and vegetables, honey, salt, sugar, flour, and cooking oil.

We buy greens and fresh fruit when we can. I took cuttings of coriander and watercress so I can try getting those started indoors on our windowsill.

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crunkatog wrote:

...but as a person with chronic asthma I will likely die if I become infected, so as long as that looks to be inevitable, time to make life a little easier for my surviving family. No loose ends, impending debt collection hazards, messy social media procedures.

Understood. Thoughts and prayers... :)

Don't. Go. Out. In. Public.

Just... don't. Start not-going-into-public-spaces right now. Get whatever you can "delivered." Get healthy, young, friends, family or neighbors to do whatever they can for you that involves going to a public space.

I've likely got some bronchial scarring, am a smoker (shame on me) and am over fifty. I'm going to make a trip outside to try to get some more supplies, hopefully enough to last a few more weeks before I have to start digging into emergency rations. :) (Have enough for a few weeks, there.)

Why?

I do not wish to "roll the dice" and don't want anyone else to, either.

"Real Life" is very much like a playthrough of PoE. Is your build good? Do you really know that it is? How far will it get you? How reliant are you on RNG? Gear? What's the worst that could happen if you open that door? How likely is it that the worst could happen if you are very reliant on RNG?

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In the mean time we have about $2 a day of food supplies to last us for a few months. Lentils, onions, potatoes, dried fruit of every type imaginable, dried meats and fish, canned fruit and vegetables, honey, salt, sugar, flour, and cooking oil.

Outstanding! That should help a great deal.

I got a pretty good chunk of change in the bank, did pretty good last year.

I still haven't even filed my taxes yet, and I'll be getting another $1200 from the government on top of what I'll be getting back in taxes.

All my stuff is paid for, 2016 Silverado truck is paid off. I might even trade it in, because the 2020s look fucking sick!

Yeah, I'll be fine. I might just say fuck it and not do shit for the rest of the year.

I quit my last job when I got my inheritance in (even before this Covid 19 shit kicked in), because they pissed me off and fired someone over some BS which put more work on me. So instead of 3 maintenance guys, they got 0 right now, and still haven't found a replacement for even 1 of the 3 positions. Rekt. I bet they're losing their ass off from all the plumbers and HVAC techs they're having to call out.

I got wrote up 6 times in 2 years at this place, and they didn't fire me, and then they fire this other guy over some total BS. He got put in jail over a weekend for AI (alcohol intoxication), and they fired him over that. WTF? That's a low-tier misdemeanor charge, not much worse than a parking ticket. If you'd fire a person over this, and more importantly someone filling a position that's really not that easy to fill, then you deserve to lose your entire crew.

As luck would have it, the dealership is open. I dunno, if they'd give me at least 24k trade in on this truck, I might be rolling out of there with a 2020 Silverado. The one I want will be about $37,500, and I'd like a maroon one, TYVM. I got the cash to just buy that mother fucker. Gotta support the local economy.

Oh, and this was pure fucking luck: we had some cash in the wedding fund, set aside to pay off vendors and services as needed. That's going to be groceries for the rest of the year. Feel kind of bad as some of it was the father-in-law's but I'm pretty sure he understands.



Recently learned that the supermarket chain I'm signed up to for deliveries is closing some of its stores early each day to allow its staff to go through and set up deliveries for seniors/at-riskers. That's pretty awesome.

We have some emergency food set aside but for now, while the services are running, feel its best to live as 'normally' as possible, getting and eating fresh fruit and veg first and foremost. I don't suspect these services will go down in a hurry -- it's a low CFR virus (relatively speaking) and groceries/pharmacies are kept open at all costs, for fairly obvious reasons, even during 'lockdowns'.