How much can you save?

skaps

Good luck with that. One thing I find that helps is setting up a standing order to my isa each month, that way the money comes out without me noticing.

dippykitty

Credit_Jake wrote: »

Hi

I'm 23 and decided it was time to save for a house deposit. Although I probably will never buy one until I have someone to buy one with. I started saving this Jan 2010 and really have tried to save every penny although I have bought a new computer and fish tank why??. I am kicking myself a bit aswell as I bought a 4 month old car 2 years ago and could have saved this money. Although the car is still very nice lol. I must have joined MSE 2 years ago but forgot about the site and have only just found it again so reading all the tips is very helpful.

One thing I enjoy is my Xbox 360 and this year I’ve adopted the rule of not spending more than £10 on a game. This is because previous to this I was buying games at £40 a time and often not fully playing them only for them to quickly drop in price to £20 within a few months. It does mean I don’t have the latest games as they come out but there’s so many now at reasonable prices I don’t mind. I think I enjoy them more because I know they didn’t cost so much. I only play max 4 - 6 hours a week anyway.

I think I need to improve managing my savings next year as I currently have all my money in premium bonds as it was the easiest thing to do.

Thanks

Jake

Welcome to the thread! What's your target?

sweetmate

Well I want to join back in on this thread as have been away from this website for a couple of years.

I have just reached the £20k mark and have decided this year I really want to save another £10k and hopefully purchase a house early 2012.

I've been saving since around the end of 2007, so have been averaging £555 a month and I'm going to need to try and save £835 a month.

So it's going to require a big push, I am going to start with working saturdays. This will also help me save as I won't be able to go out boozing on a friday night any more

Also unsure on whether to sell my MR2 that is worth around £3500 and buy a cheap diesel for around £1000 which would save on insurance, fuel costs and release at least £2000. But downsides are reliability and that my car is really my only hobby! Perhaps I will do this later in the year if the saving isn't going as well as I'd hoped.

Reading everyone elses replies on here really up's your motivation, all my friends just think I'm tight but I'd rather be tight than in debt and wasting cash :T

Credit_Jake

dippykitty wrote: »

Welcome to the thread! What's your target?

My target is £30k and just over half way there which is a good feeling. I am really going to hit it hard this year as well and invest all my pay rise come March as well as cut down on a few other unessential things. Once I reach my target who knows, unless I've met someone I'll probably just up it. I wouldn't want a mortgage on my own at this point in my life and I guess having more savings will make life easier when I do come to buy a place.

sweetmate wrote: »

Also unsure on whether to sell my MR2 that is worth around £3500

I'm the same, I could sell my car for £5k but as it's only coming up to 3 years old I'm not really keen to do so. I bought it Sept 08 and have lost £4k in depreciation which I'm gutted about but the convenience ever so slightly makes up for this. Although I think I'm going to be hit with a £400 bill when it needs it mot, servicing and new brake pads .

Credit_Jake

dippykitty wrote: »

Welcome to the thread!

Forgot to say thanks for the welcome! Are you saving for a deposit?

weeclick

great thread! I have several things I'm trying to save up for

1. £3,000 remaining on my dream holiday which I go on 1t July 2011

2. £20,000 + deposit for my first home

3. £20,000+ for future, rainy days etc.

that brings my total to £43,000 target starting from January 2011. Seems like a hard challenge especially as Ive been out of work for 2 years (set up my own company but decided 4 weeks ago to shut down and go back to full time employment with a stable wage) and I only start my new job at the end of January. Thankfully I'm not alone in my quest as this is a joint venture with my partner :0

happy saving:)

redcoltraine

Morning All

Ive lurking around this thread for sometime now, with the occasional post but I have decided to take a more active posting roll with 2011 fast upon us.
I've been reading through and am amazed at how much money you guys have managed to save, I am only new to my saving journey and with this year being the year that we had a new kitchen amoungst other things nxt year is going to be the year I/wee save.
I'm not really saving for much just so its there incase, but I hope to get to £30k at somepoint soon, probably a couple of years off yet but, heres where we are to today. I currently have £1777 in savings with a cheque for £600 on the way and I'm aiming to save between £400-£600 a month depending on incomings and outgoings etc, which I have worked out would mean that by the end of the year I could have between about 7k and 10k - i'm hoping for the later but not going to focus to mch on it. If I stick to my budget and try not to spend any money who knows where I could be in 12 months.
On to 2011

Thanks Red

PS apologies if I have posted some of this before I can't remember and thats in the past this is the future plan

TimBear

Everyone is doing so well!

Put a little more in my ISA last night to round it up to the nearest hundred, so now my savings stand at £1400. Feels like nothing compared to some of you guys' savings but I'm so proud of myself since I only started in November!

dippykitty

Had to shell out the best part of £500 for a new laptop so there won't be as much going into the ISA as I'd hoped but once I've checked the new balance, I'll see how much more I can spare from the last pay packet. I've had some freelance payments through or due to come through so that will soften the blow a bit.

@TimBear - That's a really good amount considering how little time you've been saving!

tinkerbel

Have had a major car issue so i think its going to be mega expensive
I'm going to pay for this, then get my credit card 2010 paid off (Dec was an expensive month) but I pay in the first week of Jan and then I'm going to wait for the cheques I've paid in over Christmas to clear and take a fresh look at whats realistically available, and set some new targets for 2011!
Also in the new year I want to help really kick my bf into gear on saving. We did set him up a regular fortnightly £200 SO (A lot from his wage but achievable) but now he's worked out how to cancel it for a few fortnights at a time etc when he's short. I don't know the balance of his savings but I would have hoped it was quite high (c. £2000) but I think it will be lower because of his cancelling. He's got it in a pityful saving account for now but it would be nice if he could (now he has a bit of a lump sum) open a 2010-2011 ISA and transfer all of this into it. I'm rambling sorry!

NewAccount, any tips on what you do? I'm a 2010 grad and I can't get anywhere close to that!