Today I had to pay my Broadband bill. While paying the bill I realized that I did not take out my credit card or spend any money in the past 20 days on anything. I'm just staying inside the house doing no other expenses. I guess the COVID situation has made me cut down my expenses. I'm sure if this was not the situation, I would have ended up spending lots of money or at least a minimum that I regularly spend every month. This has also though many people that we can even live without doing such unwanted expenses every month. To be honest I'm not a big unnecessary spender but I myself feel that I have been able to cut down my unnecessary spending this month.
The traveling expense is something that I cannot resist. I have to travel to my office every day and for which I would have filled fuel. I now don't remember when was the last time I filled fuel for my bike. That is one major expense that I don't have to do now because there is a serious restriction on traveling. We have been working from home for the past 20 days and additionally, there is a strict ban from going outside the house. I should say that this has saved me lots of fuel so there is a cut down at my expense.
The next thing is the food expense. Now as we are in the lockdown, we don't have to spend too much on food. Before lockdown or during the normal days, it is quite natural that we go out with friends to restaurants and shopping malls to make purchases and have dinner and snacks outside. For the past two months, there have been no such expenses from my side. That has also saved me lots of bucks.
I feel very sorry for small business people who have their shops on the roadside and are dependent day to day on selling some small things. They don't have another source of income and their income is dependent on the crowd they see in front of bus stops and railway stations. As the trains and buses are not operating right now, they are the ones who are affected the most. So just considering their suffering, I have to definitely say that I'm not affected at all by this lockdown.
I hope all this settles down as soon as possible and people who are on daily wages get their routine resumed. This has already affected them so much. I'm sure the small compensations given by the government will not be able to help them so much. If you are with a stable income and if you also get an opportunity to help someone please go for it. Some of my friends like are in a tough situation right now where they don't get any pay during this lockdown period. They somehow manage only with their existing savings.