How much can you save?

compound

hey guys, compound here. So i've been saving and scrimping as much as possible and i now have £5700 in my savings. My aim for the year was £6500 so im very close to it.

I wanted to reach it by the end of next month but i think it will most likely take me another two months before i've made it. I managed to put most of it in the ISA now.

I have tried to keep a log of how much i spend and how much of this is a proportion of my earnings. I am working this out on a monthly basis. So for this i have spent about 21% of my earnings and saved the rest. I think this will be around 25-30%.

Anyway well done on everyone on thier progress and long may it continue.

MrSkill

All I can say is, Good luck to everyone!

Cheers!

amethystcash

A few years ago DH and I decided we wanted to pay off the mortgage. We set ourselves a goal of 2 years to achieve and decided that we would make the sacrifice to live on my lower salary for all household expenses and use his salary to overpay the mortgage each month. We achieved the paying off the mortgage goal in Feb 2007 and although it was hard it made us realise just how much we'd been squandering by spending both our salaries and not really putting anything towards savings.

We've continued to live off my salary for the last 3 years. DH's salary now gets saved and used for household improvements, holidays, cars etc - short-term savings goals, but we also have the longer term goal of wanting to retire early.

I know it won't be for everyone and I won't say it wasn't a shock to the system to not have the extra treats, clothes, nights out etc, etc as and when we wanted, but actually now quite proud of our changed attitudes towards money and materialism. We seem to value what we have achieved so much more now and don't feel guilty when we treat ourselves occasionally.

georgepeen

guess its more of discipline...
since I am not good at it I force myself by issuing postdated checks payable to my retirement fund for the whole year. This way I'll be force to fund the checks otherwise I'll get caught due to bouncing checks.

Driving_Soon

Just been looking to the furture a little bit, one thing I've not really done before but I have decided to set myself a target! I normally just add money into savings when I have it and not if I don't, but I felt this time a Target might do better!

A lot of my finance coming in is not stable, but hoping I will get some type of job soon, My target is to have £24,000 by December 31st 2010! (My current total is £21,725.00)

Wish me luck guys!!! (I'll need it with very little income coming in at the moment!)

dippykitty

Driving_Soon wrote: »

Just been looking to the furture a little bit, one thing I've not really done before but I have decided to set myself a target! I normally just add money into savings when I have it and not if I don't, but I felt this time a Target might do better!

A lot of my finance coming in is not stable, but hoping I will get some type of job soon, My target is to have £24,000 by December 31st 2010! (My current total is £21,725.00)

Wish me luck guys!!! (I'll need it with very little income coming in at the moment!)

Good luck! Obviously keep us updated with your progress

I like to set targets for amounts but with my income being so irregular, I don't do the date side of things as I can't control that so much. Not much to report from me, just that the ISA/emergency fund is now officially up to £5k again, which is £2k off where I ultimately want it to be. On the flip side, I had to take just over £50 out of the SRE account to cover an unexpected expense that cropped up - so glad I have money in there as my current account would have been even more depleted :eek: and I don't like to take out of the ISA unless I absolutely have to.

tinkerbel

oooh driving soon are you still driving soon as in youre about 17? or was that someone else aiming to buy a new car? Either way thats a really impressive total well done you!! And a good target, I don't know how irregular your income has gone to but it sounds like a good target!
I should get paid soon (just not sure of the pay date) and that will help me to add to savings, I dont know how much I can add but I'll try to do the max possible! I'm sort of finding it hard using a vantage account though because I don't quite know what's savings and whats 'ok to spend' if you know what I mean?
I went shopping at the weekend though and treated myself a bit (probs spent about £100 but I got my bf a present in there as well) and this weekend should be a bit spendy but I'll be fine I think!
I think my aim for this months pay is to fiiiinally pay some more towards paying my mum back! (borrowed the money in January I think!)! I owe I think £765 at the moment, so I'll hopefully be able to shift that in about 2 or 3 months, depending on how much I get paid, and how save-y I manage to be the rest of the month!
Are there any good extra-money-making things going about at the moment does anyone know?

Driving_Soon

Cheers Guys!

Nahhhh, That name is more than 2 years old now, it was when I was having driving lessons and had my test in a few months but I FAILED ..... and its just sooooooooo much money, so I've kind of given up at the moment!! haha!

tinkerbel

ooh ok sorry!! can I ask how old you are then driving soon? you sound like youre a bit younger than me () but youre doing soo much better!

Driving_Soon

tinkerbel wrote: »

ooh ok sorry!! can I ask how old you are then driving soon? you sound like youre a bit younger than me (21) but youre doing soo much better!

I was 22 a few weeks ago :P but your still doing great!!!