The 'Save £12k in 2012' thread!

My_life

rictus123 wrote: »

Sounds like the position i would love to be in, can i ask how old you are and how long it has taken you?

Ah I am the wrong side of 50! and took the decision 6 years ago to move to the sea, buy a run down place with a great view and built the forever house. Ended up with a huge mortgage and debts 3 years age after finishing it - but now the mortgage will be history within 2 more years - so now focusing on savings as well

kandfs_mam

alionaear wrote: »

Hi all, I've been following this thread on and off since the day it's started.

I'd love to join the challenge but really worried I'd never meet the target. I noticed that a lot of people joining in are either single or have no children. We are a family of four with the youngest child still only 15 months old, I stay at home with kids, my husband is in full time employment.

I'm looking for some encouragement from those of you with families and, perhaps, some tips on how to make your money go further and save more.

Many thanks

We're married with 2 kids - a 12 year old and a 1 year old but we both work. I'm going to try to keep a tight rein on things this next few months, batch cook, start planning next Christmas soon and buying bits every month to spread the cost. I am also trying to curb my Tesco habit!!

Good luck.

slowlyfading

alionaear wrote: »

Hi all, I've been following this thread on and off since the day it's started.

I'd love to join the challenge but really worried I'd never meet the target. I noticed that a lot of people joining in are either single or have no children. We are a family of four with the youngest child still only 15 months old, I stay at home with kids, my husband is in full time employment.

I'm looking for some encouragement from those of you with families and, perhaps, some tips on how to make your money go further and save more.

Many thanks

You are more than welcome to join and set your own target

Baking_Mad

kandfs_mam wrote: »

We're married with 2 kids - a 12 year old and a 1 year old but we both work. I'm going to try to keep a tight rein on things this next few months, batch cook, start planning next Christmas soon and buying bits every month to spread the cost. I am also trying to curb my Tesco habit!!

Good luck.

Thanks for this, that's definitely encouraging. I already do most of my shopping in Aldi, and, therefore, save quite a bit on our food bill. I also do some selling of outgrown/unwanted stuff on ebay.

Does anyone elle out there have any other tips for us?

Baking_Mad

slowlyfading wrote: »

You are more than welcome to join and set your own target

Yes, I know, but 12k sounds a lot more tempting than say 6K (LOL). Think we need to sit down a make a decision on the target figure.

Thank you

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

alionaear wrote: »

Hi all, I've been following this thread on and off since the day it's started.

I'd love to join the challenge but really worried I'd never meet the target. I noticed that a lot of people joining in are either single or have no children. We are a family of four with the youngest child still only 15 months old, I stay at home with kids, my husband is in full time employment.

I'm looking for some encouragement from those of you with families and, perhaps, some tips on how to make your money go further and save more.

Many thanks

We've got 2 kids and both work part time, Oh in his 50s and I'm in my 40s. I dont think we'll save this amount of money but as I said before in this thread, I thought that about the mortgage free in 3 challenge but joined it anyway. 3 years later I had by some miracle paid off our mortgage as the challenge itself put saving at the top of the list.

Also the encouragement you get from likeminded people on the challenge all striving for the same goal is great. You cant always talk about this in everyday life as people have their own agendas and some can be judgemental. I had nasty comments from people asking why I wanted to pay off my mortgage (because I wanted to live rent free and for us both to work part time and spend more time with the kids) and relative actually laughing at us for shopping at aldi! Needless to say we have the last laugh as we have achieved what we set out to do and they are still squandering money and moaning that they are skint.

My advice is to go for it, if you dont achieve your goal it doesnt matter because you will have more than if you didnt do it.

As for saving money I always recommend 'The Tightwad Gazette' by Amy Daczyn. I bought a copy and it was an eye opener, over 1000 pages of thrifty tips it paid for itself many times over.

Good luck and come and join in the fun!

Baking_Mad

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

We've got 2 kids and both work part time, Oh in his 50s and I'm in my 40s. I dont think we'll save this amount of money but as I said before in this thread, I thought that about the mortgage free in 3 challenge but joined it anyway. 3 years later I had by some miracle paid off our mortgage as the challenge itself put saving at the top of the list.

Also the encouragement you get from likeminded people on the challenge all striving for the same goal is great. You cant always talk about this in everyday life as people have their own agendas and some can be judgemental. I had nasty comments from people asking why I wanted to pay off my mortgage (because I wanted to live rent free and for us both to work part time and spend more time with the kids) and relative actually laughing at us for shopping at aldi! Needless to say we have the last laugh as we have achieved what we set out to do and they are still squandering money and moaning that they are skint.

My advice is to go for it, if you dont achieve your goal it doesnt matter because you will have more than if you didnt do it.

As for saving money I always recommend 'The Tightwad Gazette' by Amy Daczyn. I bought a copy and it was an eye opener, over 1000 pages of thrifty tips it paid for itself many times over.

Good luck and come and join in the fun!

Wow, how inspiring!!! Thank you very much for this! Off to Amazon to have a look for the book! Back soon

natnat13

alionaear wrote: »

Hi all, I've been following this thread on and off since the day it's started.

I'd love to join the challenge but really worried I'd never meet the target. I noticed that a lot of people joining in are either single or have no children. We are a family of four with the youngest child still only 15 months old, I stay at home with kids, my husband is in full time employment.

I'm looking for some encouragement from those of you with families and, perhaps, some tips on how to make your money go further and save more.

Many thanks

Hi
We are a young(ish) family, I have 2 boys aged 4 and 5. DH works full time and earns a goodish wage and I only have a couple of small part-time jobs due to childcare difficulties, DS" not at school until 09/2012. We are lucky to have a small mortgage but even then some months are a struggle. However when I wrote down my in and outgoings I realised we must waste a lot of money!
I have set my goal at £5,000, could no way do £12,000.
Just go for it and see how u get on.
The frugal living thread on here is really good for tips too.
Nat x

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

alionaear wrote: »

Wow, how inspiring!!! Thank you very much for this! Off to Amazon to have a look for the book! Back soon

here it is... http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/279-5838939-0981044?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=tightwad+gazette

Baking_Mad

Hi Nat,

Thanks very much. We have a 7 year old who is in school and 15mth old. We live in the small village with no full time childcare provision and no relatives on hand. My OH is on pretty good wage as well and I do feel we need to try and find ways of cutting back on small spends here and there. We are presently in the rented house and would love to buy a place of our own. I'm inclined to set a lower target like you, I think the full 12K would be totally unrealistic and would leave us feeling dissapointed at the end, with lower target if we manage to make more I'll only be a bonus. Just need to talk it over with my OH now.

Thanks again