How to fall in love with saving money

cathybird

Jevvers wrote: »

£45 is great! And don't be put off by big savers, the journey to £1000 begins with a single penny

I have found that the more I save the more chances to save quickly I have - ie the first year I saved for an ISA I had to do it in a regular saver. But by the second year I could move that to an ISA paying a better rate and I could also start a new one. Also was recently able to buy Royal Mail shares because we had savings to use there. I sold some and put the money back into the savings account. So it gets kinda addictive!

ha ha Jevvers, hope so Well done on the Royal Mail shares, wish I'd done the same!

cathybird

Another savings win for me - found a whole Kilner jar of coins under the stairs today while moving some other stuff! No idea what it was doing there or how much is in it but I'll count it up tomorrow.

jimjames

cathybird wrote: »

Another savings win for me - found a whole Kilner jar of coins under the stairs today while moving some other stuff! No idea what it was doing there or how much is in it but I'll count it up tomorrow.

I heard that you can use any amount of coins to pay for Tesco self checkout. Might be an easy way to get them counted and not pay extra for it if you have one nearby

cathybird

JimJames, Tesco is actually a possibility - been looking at the options but don't especially want to make the trek to a bank with a cash deposit machine and don't want to pay commission on getting them counted either ... I have bagged them up and taken them in before, it's a bit of a pain but you can bag them while watching TV. But Tesco would be easier. I'd just like to know how much I found round the house so I can put that amount into the savings account.

Eco_Miser

Not just Tesco, any supermarket with selfservice checkout is likely to accept payment all in coins. Maybe not £100 in pennies, but in reasonable amounts that don't overload the machine. I'd still sort and bag the coins first, so I knew what I had.

Doda555

It's definitely an inner skill or inclination I think. Ever since I was a child I just had that good feeling about saving up and imagining what I could buy in the future. Of course it's easier to save up if you have a goal, otherwise saving up for the sake of it may feel like you are missing out while everyone around you is spending without regret. Starting with small amounts of money is great. It sort of trains you and makes you see how much difference even 5 quid a day can make. If you save up only a fiver a day, that still makes 150 a month, but it feels much easier than just taking out 150 all at once and putting it under your mattress. Good luck and remember - every skill and habit is initially formed in the brain. So all you need to do is believe and want it first.

cathybird

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Not just Tesco, any supermarket with selfservice checkout is likely to accept payment all in coins. Maybe not £100 in pennies, but in reasonable amounts that don't overload the machine. I'd still sort and bag the coins first, so I knew what I had.

Thanks, Eco Miser. I really wish there was a bank with a free cash sorting machine around as it would make the job a whole lot easier. What I really, really want to do is take the tin of coins into the bank and stick it straight into my bank account. Sadly all of the banks that have them are in central London, which is not hard for me to get to but it would be a special trip, plus I don't bank with them anyway. I could set up an account with, say, HSBC, but it starts to look easier at that point just to count the coins :rotfl:

cathybird

Doda555 wrote: »

Of course it's easier to save up if you have a goal, otherwise saving up for the sake of it may feel like you are missing out while everyone around you is spending without regret. Starting with small amounts of money is great. It sort of trains you and makes you see how much difference even 5 quid a day can make. If you save up only a fiver a day, that still makes 150 a month, but it feels much easier than just taking out 150 all at once and putting it under your mattress. Good luck and remember - every skill and habit is initially formed in the brain. So all you need to do is believe and want it first.

The longish-term goal is retirement really - not that it's quite breathing down my neck but I do need to make sure at this point I've got some provision for it. I've got a small pension pot but it on its own is not going to be adequate. One of the reasons I need to learn to live on less is that I don't want to arrive at retirement and suddenly find I'm living on almost nothing and don't know how. If I can live on less now and save up my pennies I'll have more to live on then. I think I'll just about be all right, but it will take some work and thought at this point to make sure of that.

cathybird

Eco Miser, since you're there, what are your tips for living on a tiny food budget, as you do? ... Can you point me in the direction of a thread where you've talked about it? I'm sure there are plenty of others on MSE who do too and I plan to have a look round the forums to see how people do it but thought I'd ask you, since you're there.

cathybird

Re the coin counting dilemma. I noticed today that there is a branch of Britannia near where I shop for groceries. I bank with the Co-op so rang them and ask if I can bring in some coins. "Yes, if they're bagged up," was the reply, "and we don't take more than 10 bags."

I've got no bags so I trek down to the branch, tin and Kilner jar of coins in my hand - they're very heavy. I go into the branch and ask the smiling cashier for some bags. They get some bags out of a drawer.

"Do you need an office to count all those coins out?" the other cashier asks, as she hands me the bags.

"Um, sure," I say to this unexpectedly kind thought. The cashier shows me into an office and I retire in there with my bags and start laboriously counting out the coins.

A few minutes later the other cashier appears with a coin-counting machine.

"I thought this might help because you've got so many coins," she says.

"Well, I don't want to be a nuisance," I say.

"No, it's no trouble." She eyes the coins. "Just tip them out on the table and I'll bag them and put them on the machine to be weighed."

At this point I notice for some reason I can't explain there are coffee grounds mixed in with the coins at the bottom of the Kilner jar. I point this out.

"That's fine, tip them on these," she says and grabs a sheet of A4 paper to put on the table. I tip out the coins, which go everywhere, along with the coffee grounds, not just on the paper but all over the table.

"Sorry about that," I say.

"That's perfectly all right," she says. She appears to be completely unfazed. She starts counting the coins up about a million times quicker than me. I note that not only are there coffee grounds all over the place but also a handful of other random items - two keys, a 13-amp fuse, a tiny metal dog (!!!!!!?), coinage from other currencies, dust, and what looks like a very large, ancient piece of popcorn. I pick these up and hastily put them back in the tin.

I count coins very slowly while the cashier counts coins very quickly.

"There are two bags of £1 and 50p coins that aren't complete, we wouldn't normally bank incomplete bags but those two might be all right," the cashier says.

"Oh right," I say. "Oh good, that's very kind of you."

"It's perfectly fine."

When all is done, about 10 minutes later, and my coins are neatly bagged up I start not very effectively trying to sweep what I can of the coffee grounds and other gubbins back in the tin.

"Don't worry about that, I'll get a cloth."

I hastily clean up what I can anyway then take my coins out to the other cashier.

"Well, we're technically only supposed to take 10 bags of coins," she says, eyeing all the bags rather nervously.

"Oh that's all right," I say, "you've been more than kind already."

She counts the bags up. "Thirteen bags. Thirteen? I suppose that's all right."

"And there are these incomplete bags," I say nervously.

"OK, that's all right."

She weighs my coins. Two of the bags of 1p pieces don't weigh up and need to be re-counted, which she does very slowly and patiently.

"Sorry about this," I say to the woman behind me waiting to be served. She ignores me totally.

"Right," the cashier says finally, "that's £80.50. Mounts up, doesn't it?"

I produce my card and the cash goes into my bank account.

"There you are then! Have a lovely day!"

I exit the bank, the two cashiers and a woman clutching a mug of tea who seems to be a manager cheerfully waving and smiling as I leave.

Maybe as soon as I went out of sight they said "whoa, CRAYZEEEEEE" and downed a few gins to cope, but all things considered, best and nicest service I have ever had from any bank branch anywhere. Though not sure I can ever show my face there again.

Anyway, in the meantime, that's another £80.50 gone into the savings account. :j