How much can you save?

amethystcash

clareevy wrote: »

Wow, didn't expect replies so soon! This site is even better than I thought!

Anyway I've been thinking about where to start. When I buy my lunch I generally spend about £3 a day and this is spent on a sandwich and a packet of crisps. This is the habit I've got into over the last few months so as well as wasting money, I've also put some weight on! Starting from tomorrow I'm going to make my own lunches at home. Given that I was spending £15 a week on lunches, I will subtract the cost of ingredients that i buy for my home made lunch and see how much better off i am at the end of the week.
I'll keep you posted.

I'm also going to ask my OH to ring the Building Society tomorrow and enquire about using our savings to reduce our mortgage. I've spent enough time reading these forums, it's time that i took some action!!

PS Is there a thank you button that you can use to thank people for their responses??

You should try the forum on here that is for the Monthly Grocery Challenge. You propose a monthly budget for your groceries and there is loads of advice and encouragement from users on there - recipe ideas and places to get reduced deals on groceries. Very very useful stuff. I've not been on the forums long and it really helps you stay positive and motivated.

amethystcash

Alohahawaii, What I do is allocate a monthly budget as soon as I get paid and then transfer everything over that amount into a savings account. That way it earns me interest. I then keep an eye on the expenses over the month and if I think I need any more I transfer it back, if not then it just stays in the savings account. I started doing that in July and set a monthly budget for food, diesel and household expenses of £1200. Since starting in mid July we've accumulated £600 - that would probably have just been frittered away had I not made a conscious effort to keep an eye on it.

Its quite a morale boost to know that at some point I will have that extra month as a treat instead of wasting it.

alohahawaii

amethystcash wrote: »

Alohahawaii, What I do is allocate a monthly budget as soon as I get paid and then transfer everything over that amount into a savings account. That way it earns me interest. I then keep an eye on the expenses over the month and if I think I need any more I transfer it back, if not then it just stays in the savings account. I started doing that in July and set a monthly budget for food, diesel and household expenses of £1200. Since starting in mid July we've accumulated £600 - that would probably have just been frittered away had I not made a conscious effort to keep an eye on it.

Its quite a morale boost to know that at some point I will have that extra month as a treat instead of wasting it.

I find it hard to use the budget planner as I don't put in things like food shop and hair cuts and other things as I never know what I will need to spend until it happens. So it looks like I could save money but then it's gone!

I might try that and transfer it back if I need it.
I think I need to be more strict with my weekly/ monthly budget too as I'm in work 8 hours a day and make my lunch at home now so don't need much for the week!

Masomnia

Spam reported.

Masomnia

Freshers' week is proving pretty expensive, despite the fact that I'm not a fresher! Still lots of new moving in costs are mounting up. Good news is tht I've started a spending diary. I'm determined to save as much as I can this year, so I'll give (brief) updates on where my money is going and how much I'm saving so I can be accountable in my cutting down.

purplevamp

Masomnia wrote: »

Spam reported.

Did I miss something?? I haven't seen any spam on this thread.

I used to love spam fritters when I was at school, mmm

Anyway back to topic - saved 25% of my wages plus £80 overtime. Not too bad, but I feel things are going painfully slow. Had a letter from Icesave regarding the ISA. It should be set up within 30 days, so fingers crossed.

Lokolo

Well I refused to go out yday and tonight I'm ill so thats saved me some money, every little counts I suppose.

Also applied to IBM for my placement year, IBM are offering £14k, Accenture £18k. If I don't go for IBM I will go for Accenture. Hopefully I'll get the IBM job, only because they are more likely to give me a graduate job of £26k, which is of course, pretty good.

So fingers crossed.

£600 into overdraft (should be £500 max on the 1st so I am behind already!!), and its my birthday this month so going home and stuff, costs are gna rack up this month. Hopefully I can work a bit more, and try not to spend as much. Hopefully anyway.

gelato_cat

Hey all

I have news.

I am not going to Canada any more!

Instead, my boyfriend and I have decided to buy a house here!!!

I'm really excited, but obv this means that a lot of my savings is going to go into that...

Suze *going to check the house board*

save-a-lot

Suzey wrote: »

Hey all

I have news.

I am not going to Canada any more!

Instead, my boyfriend and I have decided to buy a house here!!!

I'm really excited, but obv this means that a lot of my savings is going to go into that...

Suze *going to check the house board*

Nice one Suze.. with the way you've been saving you are in a strong position. Are you going to wait and see what happens with regard to house prices, mortgage rates etc, or get in there now??

gelato_cat

Thanks - we are going to start looking now. We've both been saving and might even be able to buy outright, so we'll see what happens. We had a quick look to see what was available in the areas of London we want, and were surprised as it wasn't as expensive as we thought it would be!

Suze

save-a-lot wrote: »

Nice one Suze.. with the way you've been saving you are in a strong position. Are you going to wait and see what happens with regard to house prices, mortgage rates etc, or get in there now??