How much can you save?

Woodyrocks

Hey Vicky,

Welcome to the thread. You might want to check out the olympic challenge as well if you are anything like me and you are loathe to taking money out of the saving pot. The olympic challenge acts as a seperate pot for treats during the year and is funded by any other means/new income streams than your main saving. Because of this I am still able to save up my deposit as normal and can also look forward to an holiday, paying for driving lessons and maybe even getting my teeth fixed if I make gold! Or should that be when I do

Vicky82

Thanks Woody,

Have been having a look through that thread. Should really try and set myself some sort of target. In my head I have always had my own wee challenge to get £20k by the end of June and hopefully I should manage that if I stick to my £600 a month target!

save-a-lot

Hi

How come, you get a touch in front on the savings then you have no option but to spend money. Car tax and MOT are now due by the end of May and I usually get a service done at the same time, however, it is the expensive 'C' service this time. I know this money has to be spent, it is just annoying.

EagerLearner

grn.w.nv wrote: »

Cookie - Thanks for the welcome, it should be do-able providing I don't spend any money unnecessarily

Eager Learner - Have been using MS Money for about 2 years now, started of with MS Money 2000, and recently decided that it was long overdue an upgrade so I now have MS Money 2005 - slick! Thing is, I can't stand sitting in front of a computer in the evenings as I'm usually parked in front of one most of the time at work. So making up spreadsheets doesn't really do anything for me, I'm far too lazy, MS Money does all that for me! Doing quite well with Internet banking, I have my current account, savings, ISA and Premium Bonds all accessable on the net - I need never go outdoors again!

Anyone else got a penny pot? I've always collected coppers, but am now going for 10p and under as well.

Same here - got Money 2007 (US version) and love it to bits - I only use my spreadsheet to compare year to year spend, as MS Money doesn't have all the old data. As time goes on the spreadsheet will become unnecessary as it will all be on MS Money.

I have a copper pot - Mr EL and I both put coppers in there and any silvers I put in another piggy, plus £1 and £2 go into another piggy. This one is for the £2 club! I got both piggies from Pigsback - are you with them yet? Send me a PM and I can refer you if you like I am also on the Olympic Challenge and that's a great one to do as it forces you to put away money in the spirit of competitiveness he he!

Rose_Crow

I think that if I start saving £1 and £2 coins I'd end up making myself skint, and having to take more cash out of the ATM. I'm not strictly doing the Olympic Challenge, although I've read about it. I do sell bits and bobs on Ebay though, but it's no fortune-making enterprise.

Not heard of Pigsback, what's that all about?

cookie9

Pigsback is a cash back site where you get points for buying items and for clicking on adverts. Clicking on adverts is free and a useful way to build up to for vouchers. ( These click throughs appear on a weeklyy basis.)

If you know someone who is already registered get them to refer you as they will get 500 points. (Most people here would happy to do this!)


Re: coppers pot. I've two piggy banks; one for £2 and 50p and the other for everything else. Amazing how quickly they fill up!

Redbedhead

I managed to achieve my silver this month:j

What is the level needed for Gold and Platinum?

Natty_82

Hi Guys, can I join in?

I've been reading your thread for a while but have never got round to posting, like a few of you my boyfriend and I are trying to save up for our first home, luckily we're both debt free (discounting the student loan ). Our first aim is to hit £10000 but i'm guessing (knowing!) that we will need more than this, but i reckon baby steps are the way forward. I can't really join in on the olympic challenge as my wages vary a lot from month to month.

[Deleted User]

Yep i am afraid you will need more then that but it will be worth it in the long run. If you have less then 10% deposit you may have to pay a higher lending charge of £1000 also the feesaver mortgages that pay your fees for you also hit you in the long run as you pay extra interest on the extra fees over a long period of time (interest rate and duration are very important see https://www.whatsthecost.com for calculations). Thus the more money you have up front the less money banks will rip out of you. Its best to save until you can get the very best mortgage products.

Using the whats the cost snowball calculator for 100k mortgage on a good product and then a bad product-
10 year fixed at 5.5% mortgage going to 7% no HLC and no fees paying 800 quid per month -
Would take 15.6 years and you would pay £50,000 in interest to the banks, this means that if you buy a mars bar when owning this mortgage the true cost of a 50pence mars bar would be 75pence.
7% fixed for 2 years returning to 9% with 5K of fees and HLC added paying 800 a month -
This would take 32 years to pay off you would pay £201,809 in interest payments meaning the house has cost you £306,000.00p ish. A 50p marsbar in real terms would be costing you £1.50p.

Looks like there is quite a bit of difference between teh best and the worse mortgage rates eh Houses aint going to be doing nothing over the next 10 years with rates rocketting thus dont panic buy or rush in, bide your time and get a good deal. This is real money being deducted from your lifestyle if you overstretch the banks have you by the short and curlys, there objective is to get as much money out of you for as long a time as possible. The comedy thing is they probably are borrowing the money from japan at 0.75% interest rate to lend it to you at british rates (one of the highest rates in the world). You cant do this though as your not a bank.

slowlyfading

Gosh, I'm saving for a house deposit as well, by myself, and now it looks as if i wont be able to afford a house until i'm at least 30!
sf x