How do you save?

ruby_eskimo

At the moment I still live with my parents, so I know I don't have to have that much of an emergency fund etc. But I do try and put 10% of my earnings away every month and this covers any unexpected bills I have. But I know that when I end up moving out that I will try and squirrel more away than that. Plus I have my other savings which yes, are earmarked for other things but I will dip into them if I need to. I can always top them back up with some overtime if I need to.

GreyQueen

ruby_eskimo wrote: »

At the moment I still live with my parents, so I know I don't have to have that much of an emergency fund etc. But I do try and put 10% of my earnings away every month and this covers any unexpected bills I have. But I know that when I end up moving out that I will try and squirrel more away than that. Plus I have my other savings which yes, are earmarked for other things but I will dip into them if I need to. I can always top them back up with some overtime if I need to.

Angie_Clinton wrote: »

Well. I also still live with my parents. So I don't have much money to save for emergency. But I want to.

You go, gals; the wanting is the first part of the achieving, in this and all fields of life.

:eek: Back in 1990 when I was......umm......somewhere in my late twenties, I hit rock-bottom with a net worth of precisely £10 in all the world. Scarey place. It was a few hundred more but I'd settled some back-years of National Insurance with voluntary contributions and that took me down to the tenner.

Through savvy shopping and even savvier non-shopping, things have crept up to the peaceful position of having 1 year + of income socked away. I know that prolonged hardship would erode that, but I'm happy to know if the cooker or the washer dies on me, I can afford to replace them without breaking sweat............

I like having savings, unfashionable as it may be in certain quarters.

PS Stephen Leak, if you're reading, thanks for your sig line because it makes me grin everytime I see it.

You may also enjoy the throwaway line I read in an American novel last week;

"The bad news is that the CIA are reading all your emails. The good news is that they're reading ALL your emails."

blackandwhitebunny

Maybe some of you can give me your thoughts on the following...
Seven years ago my OH was made redundant, happily (or so we thought) we had morgage insurance, however they would not pay out for the first 90 days by which time he had been working again for a month. What's the point I thought...
However we changed to a new policy that promised to pay out from day 1. We were recently reviewing our finances and I found out that (apparently) all of these policies only pay out after the equivilant time of your redundancy payout so it would again be at least 90 days. (OH works in an industry where three months notice contracts are the norm)
Now I think that as I also now earn enough to cover all our basic expenses on my salary that we should cancel this and put the £50 odd a month into a savings account instead.
My FIL (who works in the insurance industry) says that saving the money we would still only save one mortage payment in a year, I counter that if I'd had my way and not taken out a new policy we would now have 7 months worth of payments - better start late than never.
Oh and OH's job is pretty secure....

Uniscots97

I think a combined approach would be best, savings (whatever you can manage) and a stockpile of toiletries, canned food etc. Store it under your bed if you have to. Mine is going to come in handy. I've been made redundant and today's my last day. Had a little money (trying to pay off debts so hence little in savings) squirrelled away so bought a new interview suit and shoes. The cupboards are heaving with stuff, just not what SD would like as it means cooking not microwaving!

For those that don't have extra money to help put away items, apply for all the freebies you can you'll use (shampoo, shower gel, tea bags, coffee etc). One of my freebies came in handy last night, .....a candle as we had a power cut!

Also try and do some surveys and put the money into a savings account, it may not be a lot but even if its only a couple of hundred pounds put away its better than nothing.

BitterAndTwisted

Very sensible plan Unixgirl. When I was last in work I could see the end of my long-term temp assignment rearing its head months and months before it happened. I used that time to get rid of every debt I had, stick what I could away in savings and stocked up on what discounted groceries and necessities I could get hold of. That stood me in good stead for a decent amount of time. Much longer than I thought it would and I haven't worked my way through the toiletries stockpile two years later. Just a pity that the emergency funds have been totally eroded.

It's been a terrible shock to find I haven't been able to secure any full-time employment bar a few weeks of temping here and there: I'd never been unemployed before in my working life of 40-plus years and didn't realise it would happen like this. Still, my head's just above water, so it's not that dire. Yet.

zippychick

As this is more budgeting related, and has dropped down the OS board, ive moved this to the budgeting board for you

ZIP