Trying to save £10k in 12 months on £30k salary...

Eskimo12345

Hi, my first post on MSE.com! Great reading I have to say :T

I'd like some feedback and critical advice on my proposed saving for the next year please.

In a nutshell, I put myself through uni and graduated two years ago on £23k and it's now risen to £30k and will stay that way (+ inflation). The last two years I spent every penny I earned and let me tell you it was a great two years
I stopped smoking 5 months ago (£150/month saving ch-ching!) and now make my own sandwiches and breakfast every day for work (£80/month saving ch-ching!), I've stopped impulse buying clothes and stopped going to pricey bars as three drinks in an evening would cost in excess of £40 :eek: I've removed the phrase "who wants a drink" from my vocabulary! ...So there's a load of free money to begin with :beer:
I want to co-buy a house this time next year so need to save. I had some backpay come through last month and I've saved £1700ish from two paychecks this year; I want to make that £10k by next January.

My rough budget is:

Salary after tax, student loan, pension, NI etc: £1600 / month
Rent & council tax: £310 / month
Petrol: £30/week = £130 / month
Food & going out: £75/week = £320 / month
Bills: £120 / month
Savings: £706 / month


ISA at end of '06: £500
ISA now: £2240
ISA in Jan '08: £10,000 (hopefully!)

That's about it, sounds simple don't it :rotfl: I've got a spreadsheet of my finances and my own budget planning files (though I have used Martins, thankyou Mr MSE!!)

I'm just wondering what people think, or if it's even possible to keep it up... Over the last five months I've gone from spending £300/week to £130/week (everything apart from rent) which has been a bit of a killer but I think I'm used to it now...

I'm looking forward to hearing people's comments and any similar experiences/plans.

s1h

just one small flaw with your plan.

You can't put 10k in an isa in a year. You could put another £760 in before the end of the tax year, then another 3grand for the next tax year so the maximum you could have in one is 6k by jan next year.

s1h

or you maybe able to put more than £760 depending on when you opened it and how long the orignial money was in there. its 3k per tax year. so if you had £500 in it before april last year you could put your £760 plus another 500.

quick-learner

Good on you.

Best of luck with your plans, I hope you manage it, you sound determined.:T

Go for it....:T

Eskimo12345

Oh ah yeah, I musta been tripping when I wrote that, my spreadsheet even works out when I'll hit my ISA limit each year!

I can put £1270 more in my ISA this tax year; all of that is coming from my next paycheck. I'll then dip into my free overdraft until I get paid the month after, when I'll only put £140 in and pay off the overdraft. Then by saving £706 a month I have untill september until the 07-08 tax year ISA allowance is full, so I have plenty of time to find a savings account

Snippet of my spreadsheet:

month | total | isa | hi-int
dec | 506 | 5060 | 0
jan | 1236 | 1236 | 0
feb | 2236 | 2236 | 0
mar | 3506 | 3506 | 0
apr | 3646 | 3646 | 0
may | 4352 | 4352 | 0
jun | 5058 | 5058 | 0
jul | 5764 | 5764 | 0
aug | 6470 | 6470 | 0
sep | 7176 | 6506 | 670
oct | 7882 | 6506 | 1376
nov | 8588 | 6506 | 2082
dec | 9294 | 6506 | 2788
jan | 10000 | 6506 | 3494

The £506 has been in there for two years (lost my bank book for a while!)

Thankyou quick-learner, I've got my fingers crossed

shippers

You seem so organised, good for you. Maybe you could open a high interest savings account for a year. I'm sure Lloyds were doing an account with 8% interest for 12 months.

Worth a look anyway.
Best of luck