Don't know where to start.......

damanpunk

I'll be honest I know NOTHING about saving money, I never have done before except small amounts that I've kept in my current account. But I want to start something that will work for me, especially as I'm about to share an account with my gf and really need to have something in place.

My take home is a minimum of £3100, depending on work it can easily be over £4500.

My bills at the moment total £1075 excluding spending and food/petrol.

Therefore realistically I think I could save about £1000 when I have a basic month or more depending on work.

What sort of accounts should I be looking at?

JimmyTheWig

Have you got a cash ISA? If not, this is by far the best place to start. Interest on this is tax free.

Assuming you're not diddling the tax office you'll be paying higher rate tax.
So if you got a savings account paying 6.55% and had £1000 in it for a year you would earn £65.50 interest. The taxman would reduce this for you to £39.30.
But if you had a cash ISA paying 6.25% you would earn £61.00 interest and keep it all.

The downside is that there is a limit to how much you cna put in to an ISA in any one financial year (April to April). This year the limit is £3600.
So save into that for the first three / four months and then look elsewhere.

The following articles should help...
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/which-saving-account
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

Staciep88

Well all I can say is that if you are able to save that much per month you really want to get yourself on the Saving/Banking link on the top of the page and head for the highest interest. I have a e-savings account with natwest and they offer £50 cashback if you put £100 a month into the account and thats at 4.30%. I know thats you would be saving 10 times that each month so there must be some great deals out there. Good luck

StevieJ

As a high rate tax payer you should have a look at the NS&I indexed linked tax free saving certificates, although you need to keep these for at least one year to earn interest.