My savings journey

MaryMurphy

Hi UnluckyT hope the OT is paid in correctly!

I was able to add a few quid into my eIsa so it's up to 37.9 %. Not long to go now!

I've had a very busy day so far and it's only 4 pm, so I am off again now. Hope everyone's keeping well

MMx

MaryMurphy

Some people on the forum are extremely organised with their spending - some even have an allocated amount of money to live on for the year and stick to it.

I can see the benefit of this, and I thought about doing something similar, however I am finding it extremely challenging to reach a realistic figure.

Not just that, but OH's outlook on all this is far from positive. We live together and therefore share bills etc, so it would be much more helpful if he was up for something like this.

I mentioned before he's happy to put x amount of money away each month and spend the rest as he's worked for it and should enjoy it, as opposed to me who puts away a relatively large chunk of money at the beginning of the month, any left over also goes into the savings account, and attempts to spend only a certain amount each month/week.

I feel like this is adding pressure onto me to ensure our finances are up to scratch. It also makes me feel quite foolish. He thinks it's pointless to have several savings accounts (as I do - I have three, four including our joint savings account, all with a very specific purpose).

One of the things that I think annoy him is that I am the main earner in the household, and - partly at least - when we discuss savings he feels under pressure as he can't put away as much as me and is adamant everything should be split right down the middle (I have offered several times to pay a larger amount towards bills so that it's fair and it reflects our individual income, be he won't agree to it) so increasing savings it's quite a touchy subject.

Sigh.

I am sorry, I am wingeing. I have a cold, home alone and feeling sorry for myself :S

It's only 1 pm so I have the rest of the day to pick myself up and get the house tidy

MMx

UnluckyT

i kinda understabd and empathise marymurphy.
i have trouble with certain members of my family who dont understand that i try to budget my money for the month. as i know what my bills are then roughtly say then food, mobile, cat at mums then what i put aside in an account for say drama and myself ie glasses, clothes and so on.
so when i get paid i try to save, go out and so on i work around that, and i cant get that simple fact through to them as they pay whatever thier bills are and see x amount left to do whatever with (although one doesnt always pay all thier bills), to wonder why theyre skint and in debt all the time.
it frustrating i must admit, esp when shopping with these people as if i leave it to them put shopping on belt it all goes on and i have to sort it out and i then get the 3rd degree about it, esp after having them try to do thier usual things to get me to wast my money. esp one of them as they will try to get me to buy them bits they cant afford plus try to continue the brow beating, conditioning or just out and out bullying in its forms.

Isabella_k

thanks to everyone on this thread, have been lurking for a while and have enjoyed Reading about how you are getting on. It's helpful and encouraging. Hope you don't mind if I join you now I'm in a position to save?

My story is that I am now debt free after paying back 30k in 5 years.
3k of that was thanks to this site and a ppi reclaim.
I was recently homeless with my 3 month old baby after escaping a bad marriage and promised myself and my daughter that we would never be in a position again where we had no money to survive. So for the first time in my life, I am saving.

I am aiming to save as below in my signature.
Started already with cutbacks on expenses. Am also a chocolate fiend and used to buy maybe 5 cans coke a day from vending machine at work. That went when baby came, have switched now to fizzy water at 17p for 2 litres from supermarket!

Are there any challenges going on this thread?

Best of luck everyone, hope you're all well :-)

ILGPink

Hi Mary hope you are well glad to see you are getting closer to your targets. Hope you are feeling better and sorry to hear that things a bit strained. My OH sounds a lot like yours he's coming round
S L O W L Y but does often say I work hard and deserve XYZ!

I think that in a relationship there is always the person who is the saver and tends to be the one who leads the way with regards to saving and security ect. I find sometimes that I can be over critical with how much we spend V save and my OH is a bit lax but when we sit down and discuss it we tend to find a happy medium we can bith live with. Find that some weeks I relent and we have a little treat and other weeks he relents and we save more; it's all swings and roundabouts with us anyhow.

well good luck and I will stop by again x

MaryMurphy

Hi ILGPink and UnluckyT well I guess I am not alone in this! Feeling much better today, so things are looking better.

@ Isabella k welcome aboard The site is great to keep you motivated so keep us posted!

Nothing major to report on my end, except thanks to the Virtual Pot Challenge my Base Savings are up to 38%. Go me

MMx

bohemianrose9

Hey all,

I've only just dared look in the savings forum. I've recently become debt free after 2 years in the overdraft and suddenly have a bit spare at the end of the month. I'm determined to save it rather than fritter it away. So far I've only got £500 put away, but its more than I've had for ages! It makes such a difference knowing that I've got a bit of a cushion now.

My plan is:
- an emergency fund of £2000
- a travelling fund of £2000
- money for new laptop and digital camera

I've decided that once I've reached £1000 in the emergency fund, I'll pay £150 pm into the emergency fund and £150 pm into the travelling fund. I'd ideally like to buy the laptop and digital camera (my current ones are breaking/broken) in the post-xmas sales, so I'll have to think what to do about that.

These are only vague plans, and I need to sort out some different savings accounts. This thread is really inspiring though - I've just sat and read through it all - well done all of you with your savings! :T

MaryMurphy

Hi wow this thread is “inspiring” great stuff! First off, well done for becoming debt-free bohemianrose9, that's a massive achievement (and I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way or condesending, I do mean it).

Thanks for posting – we’re in this together.

It’s almost mid-month now and nothing major has happened yet, so I am on track so far. I still need to get OH, my dad and one of my friends their Xmas presents, so I might have an internet browse later on today for ideas.

If everything goes to plan I might be able to put a considerable chuck away next month, though this is provided I get all my presents and various misc stuff before my next pay at the end of the month (such as drink, misc Xmas food such as cookies and what have you, maybe some extra Xmas decorations or something).

I am not going to go crazy with my savings though as every time I do this something seems to crop up and mess my plans big time, so I’ll keep my standing orders going as normal, keep the VSP challenge going, keep an eye on my spending and out away anything left over.

This strategy seems to work for me, so fingers crossed everything goes to plan.

Come the new year we will be looking at starting to save up for our big day (we still haven't figured out exactly when to get married!) but until then I'll not worry about it

Hope everyone's having a good weekend and enjoying the "lovely" weather.

MMx

MaryMurphy

I've thought about it and I've decided to put the "Wedding fund" at 0%, because whilst there is money in the account soon to be "wedding fund" we may need to use it for something else. If we don't, when the time comes I'll simply add it again. Plus, we haven't really finalised an actual target amount yet so not much point in having a percentage, is there... lol

MMx

MaryMurphy

Just a random thought here, but I stumbled across a thread on DFW about turning £1.00 into 1k plus from nothing in three months, without adding of your own money. It all has to somehow be generated from the initial £1.00

I found the concept interesting but it raises the question: how much time would actually be required to achieve this (be it by selling stuff on eBay, matched betting or what have you).

It did make me think that it's about time I tried to sell some books (my shelves are packed) and I think it would be interesting to try and bear in mind this "making £1000 from nothing" idea, but to do it properly it'll need some thought. I only read a few pages of the thread and I have no idea if anyone was actually able to achieve this, but I'm guessing some did as over in DFW some people can find thousands in the space of a few months so they can clear their debts, be it by selling stuff on eBay and what not.

Food for thought I guess.

MMx