The 'Save 12k in 2013' Thread!

lbnblbnb

slowlyfading I see you have updated the spreadsheet, thank you! Very motivating.

mandatory

£700 saved this month thanks to my payrise, and £3.03 of interest on one of my savings accounts!

BessieBooBoo

cydney65 wrote: »

Been in a thoughtful mood today and had to get some of my thoughts down...

All of my life (that's 48 years) I have been carp with money. My parents were poor and they scrimped and scraped to make a better life for us. I married at 20 to, who I thought to be, a lovely man. He was my first, and only, boyfriend. We soon had two children and it was then that things started to go wrong. We were constantly overdrawn to the tune of £1000 a month. I barely had any money to feed us, so I would go without food so the kids could eat.

I finally got a good job, yet all my money was disappearing. It took me four years to realise that my husband was using the money in the joint account to buy himself expensive presents, really really expensive presents. I felt stupid that I hadn't checked the bank statements and was really angry that I was struggling to work F/T and feed the family, while he maintained his expensive hobbies. I left him.

I bought a house and got my first credit card-WRONG. I started spending like there was no tomorrow, mostly on food and things for the kids. Then I met and fell in love with my OH, who just happens to be a woman. She is really really clued up on money and together we tackled my huge debts, using lots of advice from MSE.

Now I'm debt free and starting to save. I'm very interested in how finances work and in the last three months have acquired 8 savings accounts and 4 current accounts, all doing different things. I have saved over a £1000, a sum I have never saved before and I have all you lovely people to thank for that :T

Last week, when gold prices fell, I bought two gold coins for our daughters' birthdays. I know that gold isn't a great investment, but I just thought that a pretty little something which can be sold at a later date in an emergency, would be a nice thing to give them. And you know what?..I had the money put by to buy these coins. That is the first time in my life I have been able to buy them something decent and not go into further debt.

My next aim is to start to understand investments, so that at a later date I may be able to put money in a S&S ISA. All this saving is for our girls. I want them to be secure and financially aware and not to make the same mistakes as their mother.

I just wanted to share my story and tell people that if I can get to grips with, and save money, then anyone can. Keep saving everyone and thank you for wading through this.

Thank you, your post is very inspiring, it was great to read that and feel re-motivated!

I think we have all been through our different struggles, before we had our light bulb moment, lots of congratulations to you and your OH for taking responsibility and sorting it all out!

Your example to your daughters will be a great inspiration to them too, I hope, and see them through their own lives.

Well done!!:D

BBB

YoungBusinessman

Well I really need to crack on now! Looks like I might be going self employed come August! So would really hope to have £12,000 by then! This means if I leave this month on £4,000 I will have to get £8,000 saved in 4 months so stepping it up from £1k a month to double that!! Come August I might have a change of heart and stick it out here over winter (especially if saving £2k a month!) and go solo early next year, maybe march! Don't want to keep putting it off all the time though. Once I hit £12,000 I'm sure I will have enough funds behind me to fall back on should I need to, would be very hopefully it doesn't come to that. I'm used to getting by on about £600 joint bills and £300 personal, so £900 a month plus £600 work expense = £1,500 a month outgoing, anything over is saved. So first few months the aim would be just to clear that as an average. Then try to build it upto at least what I'm on now, about £3k net PCM +\- £700. Feel stressed out.

SusanneCape

cydney65 wrote: »

Been in a thoughtful mood today and had to get some of my thoughts down...

All of my life (that's 48 years) I have been carp with money. My parents were poor and they scrimped and scraped to make a better life for us. I married at 20 to, who I thought to be, a lovely man. He was my first, and only, boyfriend. We soon had two children and it was then that things started to go wrong. We were constantly overdrawn to the tune of £1000 a month. I barely had any money to feed us, so I would go without food so the kids could eat.

I finally got a good job, yet all my money was disappearing. It took me four years to realise that my husband was using the money in the joint account to buy himself expensive presents, really really expensive presents. I felt stupid that I hadn't checked the bank statements and was really angry that I was struggling to work F/T and feed the family, while he maintained his expensive hobbies. I left him.

I bought a house and got my first credit card-WRONG. I started spending like there was no tomorrow, mostly on food and things for the kids. Then I met and fell in love with my OH, who just happens to be a woman. She is really really clued up on money and together we tackled my huge debts, using lots of advice from MSE.

Now I'm debt free and starting to save. I'm very interested in how finances work and in the last three months have acquired 8 savings accounts and 4 current accounts, all doing different things. I have saved over a £1000, a sum I have never saved before and I have all you lovely people to thank for that :T

Last week, when gold prices fell, I bought two gold coins for our daughters' birthdays. I know that gold isn't a great investment, but I just thought that a pretty little something which can be sold at a later date in an emergency, would be a nice thing to give them. And you know what?..I had the money put by to buy these coins. That is the first time in my life I have been able to buy them something decent and not go into further debt.

My next aim is to start to understand investments, so that at a later date I may be able to put money in a S&S ISA. All this saving is for our girls. I want them to be secure and financially aware and not to make the same mistakes as their mother.

I just wanted to share my story and tell people that if I can get to grips with, and save money, then anyone can. Keep saving everyone and thank you for wading through this.

WOW Cydney65, what an inspirational story. All credit to you (and your OH) for turning your life around! It just goes to show, it CAN be done. All one needs is the will and some determination.

Now you'll have to help OH get over her obsession with cheese :D:D!

Big hugs to you,

Eco_Miser

twix521 wrote: »

Thankyou eco miser.

My income for yr 2012-2013 was about 4k as I only started work part way through the yr.
This years will be about 7k.. so still below the personal allowance.

I will print off those forms and send them off. Thanks for the advice

You're welcome.

twix521 wrote: »

Also, I have around 3k in shares all with the same company, they pay dividends twice a year and they are worth about £120 in total if I can remember rightly...Would I need to let the company know that I currently don't pay tax or are they tax free?

You don't tell the company. If there were any tax to be repaid, you would deal with HMRC, but there isn't. Share dividends have a non-repayable tax credit attached, which covers the liability for standard rate tax-payers and below. Higher rate taxpayers have to pay the difference between tax at their top rate and the tax credit.

Duke203

£775 on various little savings, investments, and a little punt on silver too. Quite a slow month due to holiday in a few weeks, but at least it's a sunny beach

girlatplay

Thanks for sharing your story cydney. Well done for turning it around. It can be done as you have proved and as I have proved to myself in my life.

£1.20 to the savings today

MoneyHungry

Friday is payday! Woop woop! Can't wait! I'm now gambling free aswell so I'm not wasting any more money to these thriving firms! Need to sab! for a holiday and house etc x

nat21luv

Students money came in and went straight into the savings account, doing quite well this month.

Lovely story cydney, very inspirational indeed