How much can you save?

Masomnia

I've decided on a mini-target, adding £3,000 to my cash net-worth by the end of June. Need to do this at least if I'm going to make it to £6,400 by the end of the academic year. Then I can add £3,600 to my ISA in my final year to make £10k.

The final year will be hard though because I'm paying waaaay more rent, so ideally I'll be saving a lot more than £3k this year. But then it should be cheaper as I won't be going out as much, and then consider interest on top of that etc. Should really be starting to think about work for the summer, but given the recession and everything I'm not holding out too much hope.

McSaver

Suzey wrote: »

Yeah, I remember. I just was thinking that it probably would have been easier for me to buy yours! Did you sell it on eBay?

Suze

Yeah I did - and I want off load the phone ASAP now because its been sitting around doing nothing for ages! I dunno if you would of paid £265 for it though.

Rose_Crow

I was having a chat with my boyfriend last night about house deposits. In order to have a £20k house deposit in 18 months time we will have to save around £555 a month, each! I only earn just over £1100 a month, so this is going to be difficult for me. Currently I save £200 a month, plus £100 to go into my insurance / emergency fund. I reckon I could get up to £300 plus £100 for the emergency fund so that's not too bad. Has anyone got any tips for either scraping a bit more cash together a month? My boyfriend earns quite a bit more than me, so it shouldn't be a problem for him once he pays off his credit card in 2 months time

Next issue is that I'm going to need a new car in a few months. My current one is my pride and joy and is heading for 90k on the clock. She's also not really worth much over a grand, I don't have any intention of selling her, but whilst I'm saving she'll be untaxed etc. in the garage so I can continue to run just one car (the new one). The depressing thing is, the cars I'm looking at to replace are around £3000, so my current fund will be wiped out if I'm not careful. Still, I've got a while to worry about that yet.

Lokolo

How much is in your emergency fund?

So you have income of just over £1000 a month and you only save £300? Where does the other £700 odd go (for both!!!)? Give us figures damnit!!!

JimLad

Lokolo wrote: »

How much is in your emergency fund?

So you have income of just over £1000 a month and you only save £300? Where does the other £700 odd go (for both!!!)? Give us figures damnit!!!

Maybe rent, council tax, food and bills?

Unless you live at home with your parents?

Lokolo

JimLad wrote: »

Maybe rent, council tax, food and bills?

Unless you live at home with your parents?

I pay all of that at the moment bar council tax. Theres 2 of them, so thats £1400 a month on all of that.... Rent about £600/700? Food £100, bills £100/150. £100 fun entertainment, £100 petrol, thats another £300 a month saved.

Rose_Crow

Hehe! Lokolo - hard core saver! Luckily I live with my parents I have around £500 in the 'insurance / car emergency fund. However the flippin' car looks as though it's going to eat the money up soon (got a feeling something's not right). I usually use that to pay for my car insurance out of habit. When I was younger my insurance was over £1000 a year, it's now at a more reasonable £400-£500 next renewal.

(per month)
Rent: £100
Rent on horses' field: £100
Mobile: £25
Internet: £18
Petrol: £100-£150
Lunch (work): £20
Horse insurance: £30
ISA: £200
Emergency fund: £100

That's the main stuff, as you can see, I'm a horsey girl. I keep them as cheaply as possible, all of them live outside all year round and only have hay / feed in the winter. Other things like paying the farrier crop up every 2 months which is around £50 a time, so say £25 a month for that. Over the last 2/3 months I've had to have the vet out a few times, although this won't happen again until next year (vaccinations).

I used to withdraw cash and spend it on things like lunch, but I now buy everything on my debit card, everything eventually goes into MS Money so I keep track of where it gets spent. Now I don't end up with circa £400 at the end of the month, but I know I can cut down.

Lokolo

Ha. Nah horses are nice thats fair enough.

Least thats a start, cutting down on the lunches!!!

My insurance has been: £1500, £1100 (I crashed ), £670, £445 (this year, has yet to come out my account!)

So you've got the budget sorted and everything, just need to try and stick with it. Dont forgets its only for a couple of years so you can do it. See where you start overspending, then try and rearrange either the budget, or the actual spending.

McSaver

Horses are expensive creatures. Kauto Star and Duke Of Marmalade don't win every race.

black_taxi_2

grn---what percentage of combined wage will new mortgage payments be---you dont want too overstrech yourself.

well done for saving up for deposit thou--you will get better mortgage rate