How much can you save?

save-a-lot

Hi

With regard to "spare change" I tend to save this into my daughters Halifax Save4it account, she has a money box and my wife and I stick all spare change into this, it really mounts up and every say 2 months we count up the change and it usually is about £45. We also pay a regular monthly amount of £40 in and all her Birthday and Christmas money goes in there. The aim is to hit the £5000 ceiling to that account asap so it can sit there for another 15 years earning 5%+ interest.

The way I figure it is that in the future it will pay us back dividends as she will have money available in the future for things like first car and house deposit etc, that is the plan anyway, she is only 3 now and we just hope she will be sensible with her money in the future. Also, I'll make sure when she is able that she'd be the youngest MSE member :rotfl: get the money saving bug drummed in at an early age.

Angelselondon

Happy New Year everyone on this board

My Saving Challenges for this year are as follows:

1. Save £3000 between now and 5th April so I can max out my mini cash Isa for 2007/2008.

2. After 6th April open up a Regular Savings account and max that out.

3. Put the rest into ICICI account.

4. Start the next Sharesave in December working on £50 over 5 years the idea being that after the first £50 matures I'll have the minimum of £3000 to max out my mini cash ISA. This will be the third Sharesave.

5. Save £12.50 a week out of my weekly allowance for my Christmas Presents.

As I've said before. I am hoping to save a deposit for my first buy to let property. It is more expensive here in London my target is about £25,000.

After becoming Debt last year I have managed to save over £14,000. How did I do it? I decided I was so used to paying out large amounts on my debts to get rid off them and I survived, well why not continue to pay the same amount and live below my means but this time the bank has to pay me interest. It's pay back time!!!

Good luck everyone. Let's keep each other Motivated in 2007!!!

zag2me

Angelselondon wrote:

After becoming Debt last year I have managed to save over £14,000. How did I do it? I decided I was so used to paying out large amounts on my debts to get rid off them and I survived, well why not continue to pay the same amount and live below my means but this time the bank has to pay me interest. It's pay back time!!!

You should be very proud of that attitude.

Angelselondon

Just saved an extra £120 a year by downgrading to a classic account on my LloydsTSB Current account.

I never used any of the products that my gold account offered so why give them £10 a month.

Anyone else looked at any account charges they could cancel? the savings soon add up.

save-a-lot

Hi

I have recently moved to NatWest for my current account simply because there is a branch in my town and NatWest also runs a counter service once a week where I work. Anyway, I got a trial of the Advantage Gold on the current account and it is all stuff I would never use, or if I did I would look around for anyway. I went into the branch yesterday to cancel Advantage Gold and this has saved me £144 per year, £12 per month.

System

I think i am on a roll here folks. I have sold some new (and unused) Chanel makeup that i bought on impulse a couple of months ago and immediately got it home and decided i didnt like it.

I am doing well with my pay per click sites. As it stands at the moment, i have £60 ready to be paid out.:D

We hardly ate last week (due to the christmas blow out and extra food i had been stockpiling) and was able to save £25 on my housekeeping which has gone in the pot.

I applied for another bank account through Quidco a couple of nights ago, i am hoping that has tracked because if it has i should be £25 better off!!

Mind you, ive had a couple of minor (ok major) expenses:rolleyes: . I spent £50 in the pet shop on treats and food for the family pets and today ive spent £50 on the youngest Minime as its his birthday on Sunday . This money i am hoping to recoup from my tax credits by the time my credit card bill comes through.

gelato_cat

After a good start in November, I only managed to save £750.00 in December (in my three regular/monthly saver accounts). I haven't yet got used to my new paydays and my cashflow pattern (ie I have some money sitting in my current account which I could probably put into my savings account but am not too confident about doing that at the moment just in case I've forgotten about something as I have a couple of new DDs set up).

I should be alright soon though and less hesitant about keeping spare cash so with any luck I can save a bit more than this each month for the foreseeable future!

I actually started thinking the other day that I've been saving for so long now and never buy myself any treats, so am thinking about buying a new PC, laptop and maybe a car. I don't need them, but my PC could do with updating (it's a hand-me-down which has been patched up several times and I would like something a bit more robust), I'd quite like the luxury of sitting on the sofa with a laptop surfing the Internet and I've nothing against the bus but sometimes when it doesn't show up and it's windy and raining outside I do think that there must be more to life and I can afford to make my existence a bit easier so why shouldn't I!

Mustn't go mad though - I am sure you will keep me all in check!!!

Suze

save-a-lot

Hi Suze
Wow, that is some pretty hefty saving! keep it up... what are you saving for?

gelato_cat

Thanks for the encouragement!

Started saving from a young age, but only seriously when I got my first office job at 20 years of age. I started saving about 50% of what I earned. At the time I was saving for a house, but my bf at the time didn't have the same mentality... house prices went beyond our reach - we were looking at two-bed terraced houses and couldn't afford the £100k they were asking in 1999 (God knows how much they go for now)!!! (I was only in my sandwich year so had no steady job to get a mortgage with him and he was on a low wage.)

Graduated, got a good job but still couldn't afford much. Carried on saving.

Ditched the bloke, got better jobs, house prices now at £¼m for a cr*ppy one-bed flat in Wandsworth!!!

So I spose I was always saving for a house, but even though I'm now on a good salary and have money in the bank, 3x wage won't get me much of a mortgage and I'm not willing to borrow any more than that.

I'm moving to Canada in 2008 or 2009 and plan to use the money as a cushion to make that move a bit easier - not necessarily to put down on a house straightaway (I'd rather rent for a bit first) but as security - just knowing it's there will make me feel better if I can't find a job straightaway. Other than that I don't really know what to do with it. I spose it's a nice situation to be in but I never see it, I never spend it and to be honest it just feels like numbers.

I now have two years' current salary in the bank but, as they say, you can't take it with you when you go...

Suze

save-a-lot wrote:

Hi Suze
Wow, that is some pretty hefty saving! keep it up... what are you saving for?

save-a-lot

Hi

When I was a student the Wandsworth area was my stomping ground, I was at Roehampton Institute and even then 11 years ago the prices were quite steep. So I can fully sympathise with you.

Well, good luck with the planned move and I hope you reach the goals that you want. I know what you mean aswell about things feeling just like numbers. We have a pretty substantial amount of savings, but we have it tied up and the day to day life is almost as if we have no money at all sometimes. I think striking a balance between living a little and saving is the best approach