How much can you save?

save-a-lot

Hi

Who else gets paid early in December then has 6 weeks until the next payday?

I do and it is always a struggle to make what money we have last - all of our savings are in places hard to get at (done on purpose). This year we have been a bit more organised than in other years and have bought Morrison's saver stamps every week over the last 6 months or so, so now we have £126 (as of today) to spend on the Christmas food shopping. But even with that I know we will go overdrawn early on in the New Year. So a New Year's resolution for me will be to set up a saving account specifically for Christmas 2007 - just £20/month and keep on doing the Morrison's saver stamps aswell. That way those 2 extra weeks between pay-packets will not be so hard on the wallet and I can fully relax.

Wanno

save-a-lot wrote:

Hi

Who else gets paid early in December then has 6 weeks until the next payday?

QUOTE]

Yeah I do! Luckily any overtime will also be paid into the December pay packet (No bonus for me!) this should hlp, but I agree with you Save-a-lot, its hard to cover those extra weeks- But you sound very organised. I shoudl atke a leaf out fo your book.

I just sold something on Amazon for £20, but had a rather expensive weekend with a friend coming down so I'm not sure it balances out!

Cato

I;d like to join in too. However, I'm a bit vague as to my goals. I'm a SAHM and what DH gives me to save each month varies. I try to run a frugal household but as it's his income he can spend it on what he wishes so what's left over to save can vary widely. Will try selling my books on Amazon and finding cheaper ways to do things - DH is open to suggestions so it's up to me to investigate avenues. We need a car and I'm loathe to take out a loan to finance part of its purchase (we have no debts except mortgage) so maybe I'll aim by trimming and planning to get enough together to buy four wheels outright by the end of 2007.

save-a-lot

Welcome to the thread Cato!

Zazie_Zazou

Hello peeps,

Got paid today, so whacked another £500 into my cash ISA and £500 into an instant access savings account, so I now have £2000 saved so far - that's 10 percent of my goal in two months!

Wanno

This month has been stupidly expensive. I was hoping to bank £1000. In actual fact I am slightly in my overdraft! (Bad budgeting and impulse buying). Oh well I get paid next week and luckily everything is standing order set up so the usual £500 comes out. I just have to be good and save the extra £500 to make the goal.

gelato_cat

When you put it that way...! Well done! :T

Suze

Zazie_Zazou wrote:

Hello peeps,

Got paid today, so whacked another £500 into my cash ISA and £500 into an instant access savings account, so I now have £2000 saved so far - that's 10 percent of my goal in two months!

kiwigirl

Please can I join too?

I'm saving to buy a house one day! Selling a few of my things on amazon / ebay as I'm likely to have to relocate with job hopefully soon (just get that job first!) so selling all unneeded items as it'll be less to move and more towards rent (will have to rent until I get out of probation in new job).

Currently have quite a substantial deposit for a house, have a saving pig - don't feed him as much as I should though - just don't take money out of bank so never get to feed him really. Current job is only temporary so still living with parents for cheaper rent :rolleyes: will apply for a better paid job in company in next week or so.

May also decide to emigrate if I can't get a decent job within the next 10 months.

Only expense is my car, which I ain't getting rid of, as it's my pride and joy, and relatively cheap compared with other cars which my colleagues have although it's twice the size and more ecenomical!!

Have an ISA and a couple of regular savings too which I drip feed from savings - must change that to a HI drip savings account, trying to live on as little as possible and save as much as possible.

Just been told that I've been paying emergency tax for the last 4 - 5 months via an agency so not impressed!

Touche

I'll join too if that's cool? I'm 24 and have been employed for just over a year. Was a student before that and had nothing in the way of savings. I still have around £20k in student loans company debt, but to be honest I really dont consider that real debt, was needed to get my education, and with the low interest rate I let the default payments take care of it.

At the moment I have...

£6000.00 in Alliance & Leicester Cash ISA @ 5.45%
£2250.00 in Barclays Regular Savers Account @ 10% (Paying in £250 a month)
£ 250.00 in Brittania Regular Savers Account @ 7.5% (Paying in £250 a month)
£ 250.00 in Alliance & Leicester Regular Savers Account @ 12% (Paying in £250 a month)
£ 500.00 in HSBC Online Savers Account @ 5% (Waiting for £20 signup cashback)
£ 882.66 in Icesave Account @ 5.45% (paying in £84 a month)

Total: £10132.66

I try to save £834 a month, as that comes to £10k a year. I have been seriously trying to save for about a year, but I've only recently organised myself properly.

I think I'm doing pretty well in my selection of accounts, but in the past I've spent really frivolously, so this is really where I need to tighten up. This week I put my first ever item for sale on ebay, a personal organiser I bought around 5 years ago and barely used, 1 day left and it's doing really well

save-a-lot

Hi

Your choice of accounts is pretty much spot on. Consider the NS&I Direct ISA for next year as this pays 5.55% and guarantee's to always be 0.55% above the BoE base rate, so in the New Year another quarter percent rise could see this ISA paying interest at 5.80%.

Very commendable to be saving £10K/year. Are you saving for a house deposit??