Giving every £ a job

Blackcats

I've decided to be brave and continue my journey from lurking on these boards, through posting on these boards and I now feel ready to start my own diary.
I don't actually have any debt anymore but I am very bad at saving so I've decided to set myself savings goals and treat them as debts to my future self. I was eventually quite good at paying debt after years of practice.
My first savings target is £1000. I have £200 in the kitty already and have drawn myself a grid to colour in each 1% I save. Very motivating for me.
My main goal is retiring early - more about that in future posts.

foxgloves

Yay! Blackcats, you have started a diary! I've loved hearing about your reformation away from spendiness when you've commented on my own diary, & I think your goal of saving to facilitate early retirement is really motivating.
I think I now want a savings chart to colour in more than almost anything, lol. Why is anything so much more appealing when there's a tin of coloured pencils involved?
Anyway, all the best for your plans,
F x

Willing2Learn

Hi Blackcats!

Since you have experience with clearing debt, then I was just wondering if you had considered starting a savings snowball. It works the same way as a debt snowball, except you would now have a number of savings targets which can be snowballed...Anyway...Best of luck to you

Blackcats

How lovely to have visitors.

Willing2learn - that's a great idea. I used the debt snowball technique to clear my debt. After the initial shock of seeing how long it would take and how much it would cost, I found it gave me a real incentive to pay ff as quickly as I could. Is there an actual tool for savings or should I just adapt the technique?

Foxgloves, your diary is one that has inspired me to take the plunge myself. Most of my newly forming habits have come from these boards so they have been "pinched" and will no doubt appear in my ramblings as I progress.

I fear I have peaked too soon with my 10x10 grid for colouring in as I save each 10% towards my first target. I saw on Pinterest a drawing of a sweetie jar with 100 circles in that can be coloured in. I shall need to get through my grid as soon as I can to progress to the sweetie jar.

I agree that coloured pencils are so lovely (all freshly sharpened and stored in a recycled pretty tin)

Another 2 squares coloured in today using £20 from this month's bank account rounding up. I do have approx £100 to allocate to savings but I'm going to wait til my usual pay day to move the money across to savings, just in case of unexpected expenses as I'm still not a confident and totally diligent budget master.

I've also been popping £1 coins into my money box ready to enjoy next November.

I'm responsible for taking pudding to a family gathering next week. In the past I would have bought 2 ready made extravagant puddings from an expensive high street shop. Probably spending around £25 (yikes). This year I am going to try and make 2 puddings. A fraction of the cost and hopefully nice and tasty. I'll report back on how they turn out. (I can always revert to the supermarket if they turn out disastrously).

enthusiasticsaver

I always find saving for a particular reason is the most effective way of motivating me. So early retirement is a good one as is a holiday savings pot or car or house savings pot. I also have a gifts savings pot to cover Xmas and birthdays as they all seem clustered around the same months rather than spread evenly throughout the year. That way it does not throw my budget out.

Franalamadingdong

I'll really enjoy following your diary I'm in a similar position of no debts, but struggling to save. Also a big fan of colouring in charts. I have jamjar pictures with lines up to colour in as I fill up the saving pots.

Blackcats

Thank you Enthusiasticsaver. I need a proper system for Christmas next year, I've bought gifts over the last 3 months so I've spread the costs out but better to save for 12 months. I have a big family so even small gifts add up. Most of the gifts are for families with children so I've tried to buy experiences rather than toys - they get enough toys and I hope that they will enjoy a day out and create some nice memories.
I think whilst early retirement is my motivation it is almost too big to have as a goal so I've decided to save in chunks for specific early retirement based challenges.:A

Blackcats

Hi Fran, glad it's not just me that still likes colouring in:rotfl:
Hopefully we can read along with each other's diaries and motivate each other to save.

Willing2Learn

Blackcats wrote: »

Willing2learn - that's a great idea. I used the debt snowball technique to clear my debt. After the initial shock of seeing how long it would take and how much it would cost, I found it gave me a real incentive to pay ff as quickly as I could. Is there an actual tool for savings or should I just adapt the technique?

There is no savings snowball tool that I'm aware of. Instead of prioritising the debt with the highest APR (debt snowball), you prioritise your savings goals according to need, making minimum payments to all your low priority savings goals whilst focussing on the one(s) with the most need... Lol, I'm not sure that what I'm typing makes any sense...

Blackcats

Hi Willing2learn - makes perfect sense to me .....I have 3 savings goals - priority 1 is to get to £1000. Savings Pots 2 and 3 I shall treat as my "minimum payment" accounts and save £100 and £50 each month to them.
Thanks for the idea and the explanation.

Finally finished all the shopping today - presents all done, food and drink all done. Have just come back from the supermarket and it seems to me that people are being far more restrained this year - no sign of massive trolley loads of food. Mostly people with lists who seemed to be checking prices as they go along. Might be a different story on Xmas eve though.
I used self scanning which helped me to be aware of my spending and then used my £10 money off voucher. Feeling quite virtuous.

Blackcats

It's payday for me today but it's a few days early so I'm not going to touch it just yet.
After the main festivities I shall do a proper budget and give every £ a job. I have some money left over from last month and I'm going to move that across to the main savings pot - a great excuse to colour in a few more squares on my grid.
I don't think I have any more spending to do. Shopping is all bought, presents all wrapped and car full of petrol.
I did manage to make 2 puddings for a family gathering at the weekend. They were actually very nice. I'm not very confident at baking yet so I had a bit of a crisis of confidence about whether I should just stop at the supermarket and buy some puds but I'm glad I didn't. Some money saved and a good confidence boost for the new more "old style" me. :T