The "Save 12k in 2015' Thread!

Twiggy_34

Hi all, I'm not logging any savings still as we're still dealing with the expenses mentioned earlier in the year following a boiler breakdown at the rental property, laptop failure and other costs, but I've been following everyone else's posts still (congrats SF and lalman!) and have missed being able to post anything myself so thought I'd share an update on my current circumstances!

The good news is that despite having forked out for a new laptop and boiler, and having things like car insurance and MOT in the last 6 weeks, I don't think I will have to touch my existing savings (at least not by much). The new laptop was paid for using my rainy day fund and we've since purchased contents insurance to protect us against similar incidents in the future! All but £450 was paid off for the boiler by using what we had left in our maintenance kitty and not touching 2 months worth of rental income. Also, I hadn't declared the £200 I'd already transferred to my ISA in January so that has covered almost all of my half of the remaining cost (I own the property with my sister so income and expenses are split equally between us). The remaining £25 for my share has come out of my ISA but this will have been covered by interest accrued last year (which I never bothered to declare, so I don't feel like I'm cheating lol). We are expecting one more big'ish bill in the region of £1k in the coming weeks for roof maintenance but, again, that should be mostly covered by April's rent.

As the rental income is typically what funds my savings it may mean I will be unable to declare anything for another month or 2, but I'm happy that we've been able to exercise damage limitation with regard to not affecting our existing savings and that sooner or later I will be able to resume saving for 2015!

The biggest downside for me from this whole saga is that I had been trying to build my rainy day savings (a separate pot to the savings I declare in here) to finance a new (to me) car purchase and had hoped I'd have enough to buy something in 2015. That clearly isn't going to happen now but, on the upside, the car I have sailed through it's MOT last week and is cheap and efficient to run, so it's not going to be a great hardship to have to keep it for a while longer <touches wood>.

yorpington

Squeaking in at the last moment and declaring a February total of £1600 £2200 overall, woop!

Lolly88

#139 checking in to declare a total of £600 for February.

Mc_Marty

#184 declaring £2975 for February.

Well done to everyone else.

Mc_Marty

geoffers4

Hi everyone, I'm declaring a big fat zero for February, as lots of expenses have all come at once: paying off xmas credit card, tv licence, spending money and airport parking for our winter break we've just come back from. And after many years of stretching out the life of our old motor we've taken the plunge today and swapped it for something a bit newer and a LOT more frugal on petrol. On the plus side, we paid cash without having to dip into ISA or other locked-away savings, so no serious damage to the 12k Challenge!

OH and I have also this month been looking at 'Early Retirement' blogs, as this is what we're saving towards... really fascinating, if you're interested, and relevant to people of all ages (some people retiring from full time work as young as 33);

Mr Money Mustache

FrugalWoods

Happy saving everyone.

brilliantsunshine

Just checking in with my February total of £500. It's been a spendy month for me with one thing and another but it's so inspirational and motivating to read everyone's post's, you've all kept me on track. So a big thank you and we'll done to everyone

MrKokosz

Hey it looks like I appear on list in two places, #138 and #212. Same for spreadsheet.

Sanne

£1350 for me this month, happy with that considering I spent £200 on my Grandmother's birthday present (which will also be our holiday).

Hopefully be a bit more next month before my company pension kicks in - and the next council tax bill!

boglehead

lalman wrote: »

If I pay off a loan instead of saving I would class that as saving.... Sounds strange but your net asset position would have increased, it's just your headline asset position wouldn't.

I really thought of this, and i am not sure i agree i would tend to count this as savings... Paying off a loan that was used to buy consumption items (cars, boats, etc...) cant really be counted as savings in my books.

Paying off against a mortgage might feel different though.

e4rly

Declaring for February at £1,386, higher than I expected due to being extra careful with my pennies! But my March will be expensive, so the cushion will be used up.
Thanks to everyone for posting, I've found the thread incredibly motivating when I've been wavering.