How much can you save?

Lokolo_2

Driving_Soon wrote: »

Added a little more, now £24,500! .... £500 more and I've got £25,000 at 22!! (Only been working part time for the last 3 years!) .. Really happy.

Wow Congrats :beer: That's fantastic at such a young age!

tinkerbel

wow driving soon!! I don't know how you've done that but its brilliant well done!

maestrobeed2g

Hi guys

newbie to the forum I started saving in October 2009 for a house deposit and I have managed to put away £23200 so far. I am hoping to reach 35000 by the end of the year. It's great to see there are others who believe in the art of saving.

bodmil

Hi newbies! Hope you find the thread useful motivation to keep your totals rising!

I just sent off my application and cash to Close Brothers for the 18month 4% account and emptied my 3 Lloyds Vantages, so I have a nice hole to fill up again. Also got my First Direct regular saver sorted so I'm looking forward to a healthy March 2012 balance!

bodmil

Oh crap. Just realised I'd forgotten about a substantial amount of money in another account that I could have thrown at Close Brothers! Nuts, so that's my Lloyds Accounts well on the way to being full again.... spreadsheet fail.

tinkerbel

Aww bodmil at least you've got too much money! Thats a nice position to be in I'd say!
Where can I get info on this close brothers account?

bodmil

Here you are - http://www.closesavings.co.uk/premiumgold.asp

Good position yes, just annoying to have rushed it!

tinkerbel

Thanks very much!

SuaveStar

Hi all. I posted on the forum last summer for a little while, and then I sort of became a lurker and one thread I'm always looking at is this one.

I see the money you've all saved and said, why can't I be like them

I've been saving since June 2009, right after I got myself out of some serious debt, which required me selling some of my stuff on eBay just to pay bills. I realised that with the spare money I would be able to put aside £150 a month minimum, it didn't matter if I had the money or not, I would find a way to make that transfer on the first as long as I could.

Last May I ended up saving £3,000! My goal was £2,000 but when I reached it in January, I felt like I could keep going.

After that, I had to spend about 2k on my new rented flat, paying 6 months rent, installing phone line, new TV. It was a furnished flat, but had no TV, I didn't mind, I wanted a new TV.

Anyway, this year, while still being a student, the second my loan/bursary came in, I shoved most of it into my savings account, trying to live on as little of it as possible and get some good interest for my money.

I rent DVD's and games from LoveFilm instead of buying them, and pay the bill months in advance to save a little bit, as it still works out cheaper in my mind. A game costs me £20, and I play it once, and then it gathers dust, and then I trade it in for £3, or buy a film for £4, and watch it once. With this, when I'm done with the stuff, I can send it back and enjoy something else. Which is nice.

Sorry, this is going off topic, and will be a long post.

Anyway, I kept to the same money saving tactics, paying rent six months in advance, working out where money was going, and at this moment I've been able to keep in my savings account £4,500.01.

The problem is, I come on here, and I compare it to other people's and say "They are doing so much better than me...I wish I was more like them." You all seem to have a goal of how much you want to save, or what you want to save for. I feel like I'm just saving so's that I don't feel like I have no money. Yet, I'm saving a lot of money right now, and I feel like I have no money.

I feel like I should know 4 and a half grand is a lot of money, but it doesn't feel like it. In my mindset, that money will one day be gone, and I'll be back where I started, broke and with huge debts that I can't get away from. The irony is that I'm saving this money so's that I do not feel like this. I want to save this money to get a proper start in life (23yo student) but it just doesn't feel like enough. I thought I would be ecstatic when I reached £4,000 as that's better than my goal last year, and all my rent has been paid till July, but it meant nothing to me, it just felt like, not enough.


I sort of think my mindset isn't look how much money I have, it is more the "I've had my whole life to save, and when you look at this, and realise I have to pay TV License soon, rent repaid in July, bills still coming up. This is not enough money, I need to save more."

I do continue to save, and not spend as much money as I used to, and whenever I'm done with books, they go up on eBay during free listing weekends and if they sell, great. If they don't, well I've not paid any insertion fees, so it's alright.

I sort of feel like I will never find a job, and once this money dries up, that will be it, me back where I started, and the money just doesn't feel like it is enough. I feel like I should enjoy saving the money, and instead, I just look at the money and say "It's not enough"

Does anyone else ever feel like that? If so, how do you deal with it?

Sorry about the long post.

tinkerbel

wow SuaveStar what a post!
I think you're doing really well and to have £4,500 as a student is simply amazing! I left uni with a massively overdrawn account (still got it ) and no real savings to speak of! I think your paying for things in advance sounds like its going well and hopefully when you leave uni you should have a pile of money because youll get your deposit back and you'll not have to pay 6 months more rent!
I think its hard to budget etc. when you're getting loan payments and its not really a regular income but it sounds like you're doing fine!!
Also, when you finish uni (i dont know how long you have left) you should have that money to either live off if you can't get a job immediately, or to start towards a house deposit or a car, or a wedding or something (I don''t know what youre life goals are) so what if it means the money will be gone, it will be spent on something good and worthwhile!