How much do you save a month?

NewKidOnTheBlock_2

Forgive me for being nosey but I am trying to compare my monthly savings to those of other peoples.

Once you've paid all your bills, food, car etc how much do you manage to put into a savings account? Would also be nice if you could post the year you remember starting to save and how much you've got saved so far.

I've only been saving for 3 years but I manage £300 a month. Had to dip into it a few times for large purchases (computer, sofa, tv etc) so I have £7300 in total.

Is this good progress?

bsms1147

You'll get an idea of how much others save from diaries/challenges like like this one. If you save anything at all each month you're on to a winner.

Well done on your savings so far.

lawriejones1

It's fantastic progress!

Don't compare cash amounts, it's futile. Some people earn huge amounts, others have lower overheads, some no children etc. You can get disheartened. I save as high a proportion as I can whilst maintaining the lifestyle I want. Holidays and spending on entertainment (ie good wine, beer and food) against 10% into a pension and a healthy cash reserve for when the car goes bang.

Your savings probably make you somewhere in the top 10% of UK savers. That's great!

bowlhead99

You'll see some big numbers in some of the posts on here compared to your own circumstances. Bills and food and transport and housing, not to mention the net pay in the first place, are different for everyone, so whether you do it as a percentage or you do it as absolute pounds, we all have a different number. Some people can save 50% of salary, some have done well if they save £50.

My savings can go up or down by large amount (compared to your £300) every month as I earn several thousand a month and sometimes I buy things and sometimes I don't. Not sure how that's useful to know for you or anyone else. But congrats on making a start!

Jaguar_Skills

I saved my bonuses when I got them.

I have just started saving regularly so I save £1200 a month into my joint account (my gf puts in another £1200). This will be used for our house deposit soon.

Then I save set up a regular saving of £600 to my pension plan. When my employer introduces the workplace pension next year I will max out my contribution which he will match up to a cap (hopefully keeping my £600) going in anyway.

I am 29.

Herbalus

I run my little personal financial empire in what the average bloke would call complicated (although it'll be relatively straightforward for those on here!). I'm constantly shifting money between current accounts and drip-feeding it into monthly regular savers. That being said, I now keep a spreadsheet of the balances of each account on 1st of the month, so I can see how much I've saved or spent in the previous 30 days. This can be skewed somewhat as I pay for most things on credit card so in March I paid off February's spending, but you get the gist.

On 1 Feb I was up £769.34, on 1 March I was down £622.77 (paying off the CC bills from Christmas!), and today I'm down £42.44 compared to 30 days ago.

So it varies. But on 1 January I was down £38,051 because I bought a house haha.

racing_blue

The government are trying to kill me.

When Mrs RB and I decided a few years ago to save the full ISA allowance each year, the target was £7000. But, like a politician's waistband, it keeps getting stretched.

This year we have just managed to tuck away £15000 each, but we had to sell a kidney, and eat only bread and scraps that the cat didn't want.

Zippeh

I have a spreadsheet into which I put estimates on what I will spend Yearly, Monthly and Weekly. From this I can work out what my average monthly spend should be if I live frugally and only spend what I have allocated for (obviously it doesn't work like this in the real world!). I then have a spreadsheet into which I put in the amounts in current account, savings and credit card which gives me a comparison month by month. I can then compare the amounts saved here with what I "should" be saving and see if I could do better!

It works for me

Oh and you can do pretty graphs too!

lippy1923

My savings amounts change from month to month. Most of the time its around £500. This month I have car tax, mot etc to get through so will only be about £250 I think.

I don't earn loads though and have a mortgage, child and husband to-be to look after :rotfl:

fromtheshires

It varies month by month for me. I always try and save at least £250 a month but I always find the first three months of the year I save a lot more than this as in January I have food and money etc so don't spend as much and in Feb and March I don't pay council tax.

As I am sad, i have opened my spreadsheet and I save on average £280.66 a month so my target is pretty spot on. This may be more than others can afford though and also less than some of the top savers here.

If I didn't have to buy things like a new TV, three piece suite or spend over £1k on a camera (my hobby and fellow togs will know how expense it is) it would be higher. Its all very well having money but you need to enjoy life too.

jimjames

NewKidOnTheBlock wrote: »

Is this good progress?

As per this link posted on another thread http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/Media/Press-Releases/2014/lloyds-bank/uk-household-savings-rise-by-500-in-the-last-40-years/

Almost one in three (32%) UK households have no savings (accounts and investments) and a further 14% hold savings of less than £1,500.

So with £7000 already you are doing very well. Doesn't mean it's worth stopping but gives you an idea how that fits and I certainly wouldn't want to be in the 32% who have no savings.