Can I save 30k by Christmas 2009???

scrooge2008

Hi,

I am on the 4k a year challenge.

I was made redundant from a 50k+ job in Financial Services, and before that our joint income, after tax, was about 60k. I am now earning 7.5k (after tax)a year. The 4k challenge is different for everyone, but my aim is for this to cover all food/clothes/presents/hair-cuts and miscellaneous spending. My husband's income covers the other bills. By living on the 4k, my aim is to save £300.00 a month from my earnings. Started doing this in November and this will be my 3rd month of hitting the target. The money goes straight into a regular savings account each month, and is psychologically out of bounds.

You are in a really good position now, but this may not be the case for very much longer. I would agree with other posters on this thread. If you really embrace the MSE culture, 20k saving could be achieved. Your share dealing sounds like a hobby, which is fine, but treat it as such and budget for it. It would be unwise to rely on equity money for your household's security.

Go for it!

amethystcash

I agree with Scrooge wholeheartedly about being aware of your circumstances and how easily things can change - and not always for the best. I've not been forced to reassess my financial situation through losing my job like Scrooge, but I had a really important reminder through serious life threatening illness over the last year about what's important in life and while I don't want to preach about it, it certainly gave me a wake-up call regarding my materialistic attitude. That's not to say I don't still want gadgets, holidays, meals out, and other treats lol!! I'm just a lot more careful about feeding short-term desires, given that I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep working for, so I'm preparing for worst case scenario while at the same time not giving up on living a decent fufilled life (without spending money!).

Just been having another look at our finances for last year. Income was approx £58k and savings just over £33k. What's most interesting is that for the first 6 mths where we weren't paying any attention to saving money or cutting expenditure, average mthly savings were £2,300 and the last 6 mths when we were paying attention the average was £3,200. I hadn't looked at it in this way before - a staggering £900 p.m difference! Gosh I've even shocked myself...

scrooge2008

amethystcash wrote: »

I agree with Scrooge wholeheartedly about being aware of your circumstances and how easily things can change - and not always for the best. I've not been forced to reassess my financial situation through losing my job like Scrooge, but I had a really important reminder through serious life threatening illness over the last year about what's important in life and while I don't want to preach about it, it certainly gave me a wake-up call regarding my materialistic attitude. That's not to say I don't still want gadgets, holidays, meals out, and other treats lol!! I'm just a lot more careful about feeding short-term desires, given that I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep working for, so I'm preparing for worst case scenario while at the same time not giving up on living a decent fufilled life (without spending money!).

Just been having another look at our finances for last year. Income was approx £58k and savings just over £33k. What's most interesting is that for the first 6 mths where we weren't paying any attention to saving money or cutting expenditure, average mthly savings were £2,300 and the last 6 mths when we were paying attention the average was £3,200. I hadn't looked at it in this way before - a staggering £900 p.m difference! Gosh I've even shocked myself...

I'm extremely impressed with your goal of saving £100.00 a day, and what you have already achieved. I had a similar LBM when assessing our family grocery bill. I used to spend £700.00 a month on food (on a good month :eek: ), now I am struggling to spend £200.00, and we are eating better than ever. As you pointed out, if you stick with MSE, money saving gets easier with practice and you start to enjoy the simple things in life much more. It took me about six months to really start to get the hang of living on a much smaller budget and to enjoy the experience.

As before good luck OP and all other money savers.

musclesza

Glad to see there are some others with yearly goals
OH cash comes through on monday which we use for savings and investments. It looks like at least 1200 will be saved not sure whether any investments will be made right away!!!! The market looks jittery with today more than likely being another one in the red

scrooge2008

:beer: £1200 would be a great achievement. Well done.

climbgirl

I agree with Snow Dog, I'm not sure you're really certain about what you really want from life and your time in the UK. (Are you planning on going back to SA one day, I don't think you've said). It also seems to me that perhaps you and your partner don't have the same goals - she wants to travel and see Europe, you want to save (and have a plasma screen and trips home!). If you're counting combined incomes in your savings goal, you need to be on the same page and want the same things.

I came to the UK from NZ 5 years ago, originally I was only planning on staying for 2 years. My aim was to see as much of Europe as I could and not to worry too much about saving money. As long as I didn't go home with debt, that was fine. Now that I've been here longer than planned, my priorities have shifted. While my company is doing ok given the economic climate, my job isn't completely safe. So this year is all about saving money for me - building up a bigger redundancy buffer and saving as much as I can for a house deposit eventually.

And that means cutting back on everything - I've cut my trips back from 12 a year to 1, I'm not going home this year, I'm not buying anything I don't truly need, I'm very rarely going out for dinner, no festivals, no takeaways and certainly no plasma tvs!

If you want to get to your goal, you have to stop spending money and pull it right back to the basics. It means some sacrifices but you'll come to realise spending money on stuff isn't what's really important in life.

I'm not sure you're really there yet in terms of focus. Spending on flights, plasma tvs, these aren't signs of someone who's really focussed on that savings goal....

climbgirl

Another thing - you're talking about investing in the stock market as a way of getting to your savings goal. Which is fine. Just be prepared to make losses on what you're investing. This market is so volatile and is nigh on impossible to call. So it's a very risky prospect, it's not where I'd look to make my savings goal!

Snow_Dog

Hey, if you don't buy the TV to watch sport all weekend you could be out hard grafting and earning more. Bonus both ways :-)

musclesza

Rent780Council tax25Gym140Satellite33Mobile phones 100Elec est21Water est14Gas est25Transport542Total1690
Income is 4100 a month thus we have 2310 to spend on the variable expenses which include food, clothes, entertainment and holidays. I hardly ever buy clothes apart from work clothes although OH likes to splurge a little in this department

This above is a monthly expense sheet and I see the gym level is unacceptable - the rest are necessary and a guess ie at the end of the year I dont want to pay more than what I see as the estimation (so no comments about mobile phone being too high - sometimes with work etc out of country its higher and if necessary to phone home which costs 15p a min to mobile and 4p a min to landline)

I still have 19 945 to go to reach my savings target which works out to just over £1800 a month to save plus I have to some for holidays.

This leaves us £500 to live on (food etc) after all expenses to me seem like a truckload even for 2 so it should be a walk in the park if managed correctly and nights out on the town etc are kept to a minimum.

OH has a wedding to go to this year back home which will cost closer to 1000 than 500 so that will have a nice dent.

Any more advice or comments would be useful - and I promise one day I will have that tv, maybe only if I get a bonus or a promotion but I am hoping it will be this year.

OH has to pay approx £400 for the renewal of her Visa in june so thats another month that will eat into the savings!!

musclesza

Snow_Dog wrote: »

Hey, if you don't buy the TV to watch sport all weekend you could be out hard grafting and earning more. Bonus both ways :-)

Completely agree - however current job will have me back in the office on Sun as I need to work on the project currently taking up my life....

I am quite keen to go sell something at the market on a Sunday though - any other ideas for extra cash would be welcomed!!!