How much can you save?

Bananasplit

Hi all I'm looking to join in with the savings.
I've been spurred on by the prospect of visting family in (very) rural Texas next May/June meaning I need to save for flights/car hire/spends now really, but also car insurance, mots, services etc.
Any advice on the best savings accounts that give me easy access to the cash for when I need it for those things?
I would ideally be looking to be saving £150 minimum each month which could go to £200 sometimes.

Applied for the A&L online saver at 3.15% AER as pointed out by Martin. Was accepted. Just waiting on the paperwork now and then I am a fully fledged saver :rotfl:

Any advice would be gladly received!

mintedmatty

Got back off holiday 5am yesterday and had to be in work for 9am, to make matters worse it was my birthday! 28 years old! blimey!!! another year older and hopefully another wiser!!! Spent £40 in morocco as we went all inclusive, budgeted for about £100 but ended up not spending it all and my tenants first 4 weeks rent went in today! excellent news! forgot once again that im paying £11.54 a week into my YBS account? been paying that for 7-8 weeks, keep money saving everyone!!!!!

saver9713

It's all going terribly wrong here as I'm moving flats (have to find £600 for deposit) about to go on holiday (need £500 spending money) and interest free period runs out on M&S card and I owe it £600. I've been saving £500pcm :jbut I wonder if this isn't really do-able on my wages. Every month I seem to get in to worse and worse debt (albeit only to myself) and am borrowing madly from my savings to fund my life! I'm seriously considering having a month off saving alltogether, do you guys ever do this? I don't really want to as I think it's important to stick to goals but basically it's causing me to worry about money all the time, and since its self-imposed maybe I should calm down on the savings. OH thinks I'm totally mad and should save less.:A

MONEYME

saver9713 wrote: »

It's all going terribly wrong here as I'm moving flats (have to find £600 for deposit) about to go on holiday (need £500 spending money) and interest free period runs out on M&S card and I owe it £600. I've been saving £500pcm :jbut I wonder if this isn't really do-able on my wages. Every month I seem to get in to worse and worse debt (albeit only to myself) and am borrowing madly from my savings to fund my life! I'm seriously considering having a month off saving alltogether, do you guys ever do this? I don't really want to as I think it's important to stick to goals but basically it's causing me to worry about money all the time, and since its self-imposed maybe I should calm down on the savings. OH thinks I'm totally mad and should save less.:A

Ok this is what I TRY to do.
Any occasions I know in advance that will cost me money I try to save for. For example christmas club I pay in £100 a month which will take care of presents, nights out etc.
Also I have just started putting away £30 a month for my car insurance, MOT etc. for next March.
Once you do things like this you will have less to save but it will a more realistic amount of what you can afford. Unfortunately the way life is things are never that simple but that's what I try to do!
I would also advise getting a play.com credit card and doing a balance transfer to cover your M&S one. They do take quite a while to process applications though!

dippykitty

Haven't been able to save much lately as my freelance income is way down on what it was previously. I'm hoping to get over the £7.5k mark in the ISA by the end of this month as that's less than £100 away at the moment.

cookie9

Still saving here although expecting it to go pretty quickly once house bought. Hoping Student Loan Cheque will be sent shortly. In meantime clearing out house room by room so no clutter once moved.

crazzycat

I always save 10 % of what i earned, of couse it's a long way of saving, but the way of 1000 steps begins with first one

CaroleM_3

Hi All
I have been visiting this site a lot for quite a while now but never joined. I have joined today specifically to join this thread as it has been a real inspiration to me.
This time last year I had roughly £1800 of debt and no savings.
Since the demise of the evil debts (that I have had in one form or another for about 9 years) I have been saving....erratically....with the intention of saving a quarter of a house deposit. I have good months and bad months, but would love to be more consistent and dedicated.
The target is £6000.00 by December 31st, I currently have £3076.97 (I am a member of the round figures OCD club, but only on my current accounts, not on savings).
The target for August is £490.00. I should beat this, as it is in the budget already and I should get an extra £50 from topcashback, which will go straight in the savings also.
I am suffering from saving fatigue at the mo and am tempted to take it all out of the bank and go on a huge shopping spree....I think part of the problem is that the budget has been too tight for too long, so I have adjusted it going forward to be a bit more in favour of ‘spending money’. Hopefully that will stop the shopping urges!
Sorry for the essay but I didn’t want to be vague....poss I have gone too far in the other direction now tho!
Thanks for all the inspiration, which I really need as I don’t know any real life people who are either saving or like me: rubbish with money but trying to do better.

dippykitty

I'm having a bad month as I've had to lend a whopping £4k to my parents to cover the fact that their home improvements have gone way over budget. I'll be getting it back but it means my savings have taken a big hit in the short term and I'm back down to £3.4k in the ISA. The good news is that they're going to repay me with more interest than I'd get in the account so in a way, I guess I'll be gaining money!

gelato_cat

Yes, although if it's from your ISA you lose the tax-free status forever. However money isn't everything and it's nice of you to help your parents out

Suze

dippykitty wrote: »

I'm having a bad month as I've had to lend a whopping £4k to my parents to cover the fact that their home improvements have gone way over budget. I'll be getting it back but it means my savings have taken a big hit in the short term and I'm back down to £3.4k in the ISA. The good news is that they're going to repay me with more interest than I'd get in the account so in a way, I guess I'll be gaining money!