Savings Log of a 26yr old on low pay

MoneyWaster2007

Thanks guys. As this is my first month on the new contract I want to see exactly where I am with money, so I'm going to draw up a list of outgoings for the following month and then divide the surplus by 4 to allow me to see exactly how much surplus I have to play with at any given point in the month. I'm hoping I'm going to be able to save a bit each month but it will be harder now that I've got a car to run.

Thankfully the car has 12 months MOT, and the car tax will come out of my big wage tomorrow. The all I have to worry about is the insurance which is roughly £60 per month/ £15 per week and the petrol which is £10 - 15 per week, so I'm looking at a cost of £30 per week to run it. Which I think I can manage.

Good point about the possibility of the car breaking down though. That does bother me, but hopefully I can continue to save as much as possible as I go, which fingers crossed will cover any possible breakdowns.

arzosahr

Well done on the payrise mate - I've just had a payrise myself - now up to £6.32/hr!!

ILGPink

hi MW2007 just wanted to I shall be following your post as I am also trying to save and have starated my own thread very recently. Target is to save £5000 have no time scale.

Anyhow well done for all you have managed so far and I shall pop in every so often to see how you getting on (if that ok).

MarioKart

Hey Moneywaster,

I've had my car now for just roughly over 2 years. When I first got it, the insurance crippled me! It was nearly £150 a month, but in my second year it went down to £38 a month. I guess turning 25 and 1 years NCB did me good!

I have a 51 reg 206, which are reasonably cheap to repair. I thought that during the first year it will cost me £200. Roughly £50 for the MOT (i ended up getting it for £36 through a nationwide auto centre promo though) and the rest repairs. I was right, and at the MOT it needed a few things doing and ended up costing me near £175. Still, then i've got £25 left over. The next year i do the same, but don't need any repairs, so i treat myself to a full service, which i think that in the long run will provide trouble free motoring! I think that if my car only costs me £200 a year in repairs etc (even new tyres) including the MOT then it's not so bad. I just save £15 a month :j

Maybe if you did something similar then if you ever did need to get something repaired then it won't seem like so much of a lump sum

MoneyWaster2007

Hey all sorry not posted in a while.

So...this car I bought...it cost me £450, then I took it for a service, which cost me £460! There were lots of problems with it that I wouldn't have known about without a thorough look over by a mechanic. So...in total the car has cost me £910, plus the £70 I just paid to get it taxed for 6 months. So really it cost £980. There are still things that need doing on it, which are not of primary importance, but will still cost me a few hundred quid.

I am going to wait until the end of this month to see how much surplus I have. Currently on target for £250. So then I will get the things that need doing to the car done in order of importance.

This car has crippled my savings, but fingers crossed it is now in nearly mint condition and should last me over a year with no more expense.

In terms of saving, it will have to be put on hold until the car is sorted.

I now only have £60.76 in the ISA so it's a case of starting all over again. But the extra £30 per week I now earn on my new contract will help a lot. Not to mention all the overtime I put in at 1.5 times my hourly rate.

So..enough about the car it's depressing. I'm moving into a bigger room in the house where I live. The rent will be £3 extra per week which I don't think is a great deal. Quite looking forward to that. Won't be for another couple of weeks yet until the current tenant moves out.

I am also going to get Sky TV in the new room as it only costs £19 per month then another £20 on top of that for the sports package - I love watching footy. So it will only be £10 per week which isn't too bad.

Can't wait to get the car faultless, then I can start off with the saving again.

Working this coming Saturday on a side job so that's a bit of extra cash.
:):)

snowqueen555

Hi, what is your ratio of spend?

i.e. what percent on essential bills, savings and spending money?

tiff

I think that car is going to drain your limited funds, is there no way you can live without a car?

jimjames

You really seem to have got things sorted - I read the initial posts and was amazed how organised you had been in clearing your debts and saving that money.

I don't want this to sound negative at all but from the last post you made it did sound like you were adding substantially to your monthly outgoings that you had managed without before.

I can certainly see the reasons for getting a car as I would do the same. VWs are generally fairly robust and reliable vehicles (I've had 5 VW Golfs, my current has 160,000 miles on clock still going strong) but then adding Sky and a new room at £42 per month with the additional car costs looks like it might dent your ability to save anything. The Sky is presumably a 12 month contract so you're stuck with it if you change your mind. Cars have a habit of being a money pit, whether its on depreciation for a new car or repairs/maintenance for an older one.

I'm sure you've looked into the details but after the efforts you have put in I'd hate to see things go backwards for you. Whatever you decide, good luck & I hope it works out!

Andy

MoneyWaster2007

I think you may be right about the Sky TV - it is something I can do without.

My monthly income is £977.

Fixed monthly outgoings are...

• Rent £320
• Car Insurance £59.72
• Haircut £10/20 - get it cut every 3 weeks so some months are 2 cuts

Then of course there are the unfixed outgoings...

• food
• nights out - only do 1 per week at roughly £40/50
• tobacco approx. £12/wk
• petrol approx £15/wk

cashbackproblems

Id cut the tobacco, food, heating etc before i got rid of sky sports!!

I reckon cos youv bought such a cheap car more likely than not your problems are just starting, every 6 months there will be something tht needs doing, thts how it was with my first car (a vw golf) which i bought cos they were so reliable!

But you earning nearly 1k per month which isnt too low.