My savings journey

MaryMurphy

Cookies sound good! OH got chocolate chip ice-cream today so my willpower crumbled yum!

RE Christmas, I always have a vague list but nothing overly detailed... but I can definitely see the benefit of having something planned properly. Will bear this in mind closer to the time, thanks for the tip!

In the spirit of saving, I was very MSE today and used a Next voucher I'd received for last Christmas from a friend and used it towards a shirt for my bro's present (so my day wasn't exactly a NSD but I pre-budgeted for his presents at the beginning of the month so it doesn't really count).

I rarely buy myself clothes so using the voucher for this wasn't exactly a "sacrifice".

I spoke with OH about having some joint savings, and he was all for it. I was inspired by EC12345's set up (in terms of the way their savings are organised), and it's one of those things we haven't really thought about.

As it'll be two of us it'll not take us long to have a nice sum put away for emergencies, I already have a "House/Car" fund for this very purpose, but it's pitifully low. I'll speak with our building society tomorrow morning and arrange an appointment.

I don't want to take too much away from my own target, but it's a slight relief to know OH is up for it, so anything that encourages him to save I am happy with.

I have no idea how much we should aim for (I like having a target as I think it helps keeping up motivation levels). I want 3.5 k of my own money in case of emergencies that apply to me i.e. if I lose my job, or something that happens to meand need extra money; they say three months' worth of wages should be the minimum you should have which is why I picked that figure.

I did an online search for some guidance and the consensus seems to be: work out all the essential bills e.g. mortgage, electricity etc multiplied by three or six (months), so pretty similar to the rule I'm following for my own savings. I'll chat with OH in the morning, there is no real rush with this one but it would be nice to settle on an initial sum.

MMx

MaryMurphy

Dentist was £18.50 so that leaves me with £1.50 to play with until the end of the week. Ugh!

The B/S said we don't need to book an appointment as we both already have various accounts with them, all we need to do is fill out a form. I still haven't spoken to OH about this in detail as I had a few things to do this morning so I didn't get the chance to talk to him, we'll do that this evening.

I'm thinking we should probably be looking at a minimum of £1200 each (we both put in £400.00 into joint account so that's roughly all our bills - and a bit left over - for three months), and we should look at rounding it up so we have enough for big purchases e.g. sofas (which we will be needing eventually, plus new kitchen).

Honestly, compated to my current target this is going to be a doddle :rotfl:

Not too sure how much I can spare per month towards this at the moment but it's good we're at least starting to think about it.

MMx

fairtrade

MaryMurphy wrote: »

Dentist was £18.50 so that leaves me with £1.50 to play with until the end of the week.

Ouch, £18-50 how many bars of chocolate is that?:)

Well it is difficult to restrict your spending to £20 a week if you have these unexpected outgoings. It may be an idea to have an additional £20 reserve for the small unforeseen events or to take advantage of any special discounts and deals in the supermarket.

I was in ASDA last night and saw some stainless steel flasks a small one was £3 and a medium sized one was £3-50. Might be just the thing for your milk, or drink to take to work.

MaryMurphy

Hi fairtrade,

The £20.00 thing didn't go to plan at all as I met up with a friend today on my lunch break who is going through some hardship so I bought us both some dinner.

She's a bit depressed and leaving the house for a while did her good, and I only ended up spending £5.75 for the both of us which is very cheap considering (well we both had soup so it wouldn't want to be anything else!) lol

I think if I don't count the dentist it leaves me with about £6.95, which is still OK.

Work gave us flasks unexpectadly (as part of a "we value our employees" thing) so I've been using that for the last two days, can't really complain! AND they gave us all a pen. That's just spoiling us

Need to book flights for my holiday at some point today or tomorrow. Hoping it'll not come to too much so I can have a bit extra spending money, my holiday fund wasn't as healthy as I originally thought!

The pence in the eISA amount were really annoying me so I ended up transferring 22 pence to make it a whole number again. OCD or what? lol

MMx

MaryMurphy

OH owed me some money which I put in the ISA so now I have a nice: £890.00

Very very likely I'll get to 1000 by the end of August, if not sooner.



Was going to wait until the end of the month for this update so I could count all this month's Virtual Pot Challenge money but couldn't resist

MaryMurphy

Bah. Flights came to a lot more than I had anticipated. Skyscanner usually rocks but not this time. So I need to work out a budget for my holiday now. I already have 90 odd euro.

I am away for two weeks but I am staying with relatives. I'll get paid overtime at the end of this month so I can use the extra money (or part of anyway) for the rest of my spending money. Don't want to have to change over any more than £200.00 pounds' worth really, if even that. Most of it will be going on groceries anyway!

This still leaves me well on track on my initial budget for this month, so I'm not worrying yet. All I need is another £110 to get to my "first" 1 k. If I can't get it done by the next paypacket it'll definitely be by the following one (unless I go crazy on my holidays! - very unlikely lol)

So, feeling still good about this so far. Sorry if this is boring! It helps to have it written down, I am sure it's thrilling reading

MMx

fairtrade

MaryMurphy wrote: »

" Sorry if this is boring! It helps to have it written down, I am sure it's thrilling reading

MMx

It is only boring if you are not interested. I think it is better than an Archer novel:rotfl:
Good to know you are still on track and optimistic about future spending. keep us posted.:)

EC12345

Hi all, wellwe broke into our "emergency savings" today - shower has conked out - well it was getting on - getting a nice new one fitted at the weekend ...

MaryMurphy

fairtrade wrote: »

Good to know you are still on track and optimistic

It's the only way to be!

EC12345 wrote: »

we broke into our "emergency savings" today - shower has conked out - well it was getting on - getting a nice new one fitted at the weekend ...

Aw that's not good, hope the new one works well for you!

Still haven't got round to opening the joint savings account, need to do that tomorrow. It's just one form so shouldn't be too taxing to fill out. OH wants to put £50.00 into it per month, which seems ok as a starter amount considering I have my Isa to take care of first.

I've worked out I need to give my dad E100 for my accomodation (plus any food etc) when I go over to see him, though he'll more than likely not accept it. Nonetheless I feel very guilty about it so I'll need to insist extra-hard this year that he takes it. And if not I'll make sure I buy all the food and whatever else we need to make up for it, it'll be a great help for him and I just wish he could take the help when it's on offer (he's not poor, but nor rich either, and he travels back and forth quite regularly to see us which I am use uses up an awful lot of his money).

I am still within budget as I already have just over E90, all I need to do is change over £200.

This weekend I've decided I'll buy the rest of my brother's presents. The weather isn't getting any better so it's very likely I will need to buy that gazebo, I've been putting it off hoping closer to the time the weather decides to go back to "sunny with extra heat" but it looks unlikely.

Once all this is done I'll see how much is left-over and reassess my bank balance. I'm itching to see if I can afford to put some more away (it's so strange actually looking forward to being able to put more money away - what's gone wrong!! :laugh: )

MMx

MaryMurphy

I was wondering how many savings accounts I should have, and how I should manage them.

I keep changing my mind on what I should do... OK so, in order of priority and initial targets (with aim to subsequently increase):

1) Base Savings (my eIsa). This should be for extreme emergencies only. Target: 3.5 k.

2) Start overpaying mortgage, as well as #3 (below);

3) Joint account (when we open it!): House/car stuff, big purchases and repairs, MOT. Initial target: 1.2 k each.

4) House/Car: I guess when we get the joint account going that'll be our house and car account, so I could temporarily use this as my Xmas fund. And then... we'll see. I'm sure I can come up with something. Target: £250-£350.

5) Holiday account: For holidays (err, duh). Target (by June 2011): £400.

I might come back to this though. I am not entirely satisfied with it for some reason...

Night.

MMx