"Just keep saving, saving saving...."

Jackies

Having read Domino's saving thread, I feel like starting my own. I have been posting on the House Deposit Thread but its not necessarily the sort of thread where you can really post a blow by blow account of what you're doing to save money.......I don't really know how this diary will work, how much I'll use it or the sort of thing I will write, but it seems like a good place to start

DH and I have been married for 10 months, living together for 3 years, and have been together for 10 years this year. Over this time we've been saving whilst I've been to Uni twice (don't ask!). We're saving for a house deposit and are looking to have found somewhere by the end of this year

Currently our savings stand at £63,195.59 and were hoping for a total of £72500 by the time we bought our own home but I think thats looking less likely now. So now we're just aiming for as much as possible above our 25% target (62.5k) by the time we've bought somewhere.

As I said, we're aiming to have have bought somewhere by the end of this year (our rental contract on our current flat runs out at the end of Dec) so I'm looking to squirrel away as much as possible in that time, however short it might be.

So we'll just see how this all pans out I think!!

Jackies

Didn't start quite so well, out for dinner with a friend - whoops! Oh well, my savings for this month is done already so its not terrible! Maybe tomorrow will be a NSD!

missladyannie

Wow excellent savings! well done!

KONG

Looks great! Good luck with it!

Peas_2

Can I ask how you managed to save so much? Insight appreciated!

76rosie

I am staggered that you have managed to save this much money.

I too am saving for a flat but i am nowhere near your figures.

Maybe I just haven't been cutting back long enough or maybe i don't earn as much as you guys.

It would be nice if you could give us 'tryers' some ideas.

My target is a 10% deposit as I cannot stomach living in one room with my hubby for longer than next june.

Maybe I'm just in the tough bit right now, it would be nice to know.

Well done for your success!!!

Jackies

76rosie wrote: »

I am staggered that you have managed to save this much money.

I too am saving for a flat but i am nowhere near your figures.

Maybe I just haven't been cutting back long enough or maybe i don't earn as much as you guys.

It would be nice if you could give us 'tryers' some ideas.

My target is a 10% deposit as I cannot stomach living in one room with my hubby for longer than next june.

Maybe I'm just in the tough bit right now, it would be nice to know.

Well done for your success!!!

Well DH and I earn £55,0000 between us - he doesn't get paid overtime, but occasionally gets a bonus (only usually about £1000) and I get paid extra for working on weekends and bank holidays

Well its not just my savings (although I wish it was lol). DH has saved a vast chunk of that! And its taken us 10 years to save that amount (I';ve been at university for 6 of the years)

I wish I could tell you that we've done something specific but actually the truth is we haven't.......we live in one of the most expensive parts of London but we don't drive or have any children (at the moment) which is where a vast sum of most of our friends money goes on, so I guess that really helps.

The best way I find for savings, is to save at the beginning of the month rather than the end. I pay all my bills and then look at what is left - I then decide how much I need for myself for the month (and add a little just in case) and save the rest........that way I live on the minimum that i can.....I can always get to my savings if I need to but rarely ever do (only maybe around xmas time). Usually I save around £500 a month (going up to about 7-800 if I've done overtime, which is uaully ever 2 months) and DH saves about 2-300. Of course some months are better than others.

One other thing I've found really useful - DH and I have a joint account for bills - we pay a set amount in every month to cover them. But we've rounded each bill to, say nearest £10, and then rounded the month total again - so we actually end up over paying our account every month. Acts like a savings account without thinking about it, but then also helps if you have an expensive bill one month as you don't need to find the extra. Saved about £4000 in the last 3 years by doing this alone.

We don't deprive ourselves of anythig - but instead think carefully about what we do/don't need, but we're never allowed to "not" buy anything if that makes sense. One of our biggest spends is food (usually about £250 a month for 2 people - not very MSE! :money:) but I'm trying to get that down. DH is doing lots of overtime at the moment which is good as he gets dinner procvided, so at the moment our shopping goes twice as far cos I only have to feed myself 4 days a week! haha!

If I go out then its usually to somewhere with a voucher that I found on this site!

I do the sealed pot and virtual sealed pot challenges on this site - they are very very helpful

Perhaps the first thing to do is SOA (statement of affairs) that I've seen around on these boards. Help you to list everything you spend money on every month so you can see where all your money goes. I was amazed how much I was spending just on food at work when I have perfectly good sandwich items at home!

I'm by no means a savings guru! Perhaps start a savings diary of your own? I'll subscribe and read it for sure

76rosie

hi,

Thanks for that. You've actually put things into perspective me. Whilst I don't anywhere near your earnings, neither do I have the outgoings.

You've made me feel like it's achievable.

Thanks for that!!!

Jackies

76rosie wrote: »

hi,

Thanks for that. You've actually put things into perspective me. Whilst I don't anywhere near your earnings, neither do I have the outgoings.

You've made me feel like it's achievable.

Thanks for that!!!

I think the thing to remember is the perspective like you said - people save different amounts, have different incomes and different priorities. At the end of the day anything you can save is better than nothing and there is no point comparing yourself to someone who's saved 10x as much because you don't know anything about their circumstances

Anything you save will be MSE regardless :money:!

Jackies

all abit quiet on the savings front at the moment as its not pay day for another 10 days or so.

Started our house hunting, to see what the fruits of all our savings will buy us - no light bulb moments yet but we'll see!

shannonkyle

Great savings man!! I always try to do but do not ever reach the target I set. May be I set the target too much or I really cannot control.

Could you please tell me how much percentage of your earnings must be saved ideally for a better future and the coming time?

Thanks