The "Save 12k in 2016" Thread!

Tea&Biscuits

£2065 so far this month.... I just know the rest of my months won't be this big... But still!!!!

Bruce_Bumba

Hello,

I've never been really good with money other than when it comes to spend it all. Now I'm 33 and I have no assets so it's about time I get a bit serious I guess.
This thread should help me focus so if you don't mind me joining, I'd like to try and save £6000 this year (if I can keep my job).
I have debts at higher interest rates than savings rates so I should clear all those first (~£6000) meaning I'll probably start the saving part in the second half of the year.

Good luck to all and thank you for sharing your experiences.

BB

slowlyfading

Sorry for the delay in updating - got a baby who doesn't sleep so walking around like a zombie at the moment.

Front page and spreadsheet updated

Wentthedaywell?

Thanks for the thread again, Slowly Fading,it's very much appreciated, especially when you have a new baby to care for.

RichyRich

Time for a status update. My fears were correct - I’m worse off now than when I started in January. My current savings balance is £4,757.37, comprising £600 in my FD Regular Saver, £1,000 in my Natwide Regular Saver and £3,157.37 in my FD eSaver, as compared to when I started with £5,027.78. This is mainly because of our holiday over Christmas which was deducted from my January credit card bill, and my wife’s birthday which was in early January. My target of a year-end balance of £17,027.78 stands.

I applied for the TSB Classic Plus account yesterday, and was accepted, so £1,902 will be transferred over to my ‘donor’ Nationwide account soon. Slight mishap occurred when I realised that I can’t find the card to my Nationwide ‘donor’ account so I couldn’t proceed with the switch. Best laid plans of mice and men and all that. So I’ve had to phone Natwide and request a new card (which I feel a bit guilty about given that as soon as I get it I’m going to switch away), so I won’t be able to fill out the switcher form until that comes through. I hope it doesn’t affect the TSB switch bonus because I didn’t do the switch form right away!

If you’re wondering about the extra £2, it’s so I can do two DDs from the Classic Plus into Tesco Savings once the switch has gone through, just to make sure that the DD requirement for TSB is satisfied as regards the DDs being ‘active’. The DDs can then be used to collect the interest going forward.

Once I get all the paperwork through for the TSB Classic Plus the next step is to open the TSB Regular Saver. This will reduce the amount in my criminally-low interest FD eSaver by £2,650 (£1,902 to TSB Classic Plus, £250 to TSB Regular and £500 to Natwide Regular), leaving about £500 in there. I might just scooch that balance over to Tesco (which pays more interest) until I amass enough to make another higher interest current account worth my while, although it’s damned convenient having the FD savings in the same place as my current account.

I keep finding loads of coin all over the house (where does it all come from?!?) so that’s all gone into a pot which I’ll bank when it’s full (if I can wait that long; I’m quite impatient).

In sum...start not as promising as I’d hoped, but a plan for a plan.

Hope y’all are on target!

There_Is_a_Light

I am going to declare my January savings today so that I am not tempted to dip into it before the end of the month:D

Regular savers £600 S&S isa £200 TSB current account £1461.87

Total for January £2261.87:j

Really pleased with that as I needed a good head start as we will be doing some maintenance work on the house over the summer months which may impinge my plan somewhat. unless I save more earlier in the year.

bobobski

RichyRich: a lower number than when you started can be disheartening but at least you're aware of your numbers (seriously, that itself is an achievement) and you have a plan

TIAL: very impressive!! What do you do for a living??

As for me, I'm not going to declare until the end of the month, but I did spend quite a while this morning preparing a plan. It goes something like this:

• £300 per month into First Direct regular saver - maturing on 12 Feb but I'll open a new one immediately.
  
• £250 per month into TSB regular saver - will open this on payday (28th) as I'm not sure how long it takes to open and don't want to go overdrawn by accident... Also prefer regular savers to come out after payday.
  
• Split the matured FD regular saver between my TSB classic plus (approx £1,650 to bring it up to the max) and a new Flex Direct (remaining approx £2,030) - going to wait until just before 12th Feb to open this to make the most of the 12 months' 5% interest.
  
• I'll pay out my MOT and road tax from my February pay, and then for subsequent months Ill open a Tesco current account and deposit £125 in there per month as follows: £30 car insurance (December), £20 breakdown cover (August), £8 MOT (next year Feb/March), £12 road tax (next year March), £15 lease renewal fee (June) and the remaining £40 as a buffer for technology breakdowns and clothes (I don't buy much by way of clothes and I don't own a whole lot of technological equipment). I'll also open a Flexclusive regular saver after my February pay and start drip-feeding from the Flex Direct.
  
• From March pay (so, April spending) I'll be saving £300 (FD RS), £250 (TSB RS), about £300 (Flexclusive, topping up to £500 from FlexDirect) = £850 per month. I'll also be setting aside £125 per month as above.
  
• My pay in July will hopefully jump if I get the payrise my boss is hoping to secure me. If so, no more drip-feeding from Flex Direct into Flexclusive, as I'll be saving the full £500 from my pay. Any extra, and my bonus (expected around £1,000) will go into the Flex Direct, which will be a little depleted at this point as I'll have been drip-feeding for a few months.

So from July onwards, I'm hoping to be saving £1,050 per month, plus setting aside my true expenses and small buffer pot, while still allowing £600-£700 per month to live on without the credit card. One reason for lower savings in Jan and Feb is getting out of the credit card habit - so December's spending (Jan bill) is £483 while this month's spending (Feb bill) is £280. The plan is not to use it anymore, have a very stingy couple of months, and implement plan savings! Anyway, following this plan the £10,000 goal I set myself for this challenge might just be achievable - I was deliberately aiming high by my standards.

Any recommendations let me know. I'm mostly posting the plan here to make it seem more real!

P.S. Does anyone else find it tricky to budget month-by-month when they're paid at the end of the month? I don't know why, but I think I'd find it easier to budget if I were paid on 1st!

RichyRich

Boboski: it's disheartening based on the pure numbers but to put it in context I was expecting this as it's last year's expenditure (before I started the challenge) and my wife can't help being born in January! It was her 30th too so I did push the boat out a bit - I shudder to think what I spent on her overall: jewellery, a party...she deserves it though. I also paid out £200 for the annual line rental for landline so that will save on an ongoing monthly cost that I'd otherwise be shelling out.

I could have deducted the holiday from my current savings balance without being duplicitous which would have mitigated the amount I'm down by...but I like a challenge

The rest of the year should be easier: we have some annual bits of larger expenditure: car insurance, contents insurance, car servicing, an eternity ring for my wife as it's our 5 year anniversary in July - all large one off or annual costs due later in the year but planned for. All being well I should get my bonus next month which should boost the savings a bit. We are in credit with the electricity and that's due to be changed at the end of March so we should get a bit of a windfall from that (we're currently over £100 in credit but I'm cognisant that it's winter so not expecting the full figure).

It's a marathon not a sprint, and I'm taking the right steps to get where I need to be. Onwards and upwards!

bobobski

I completely agree Richy - although planned for (now I'm getting to grips with the bad habit) I'm dishearted by being able to save less due to £483 on the credit card. That's all I meant - in pure numbers you occasionally think "... oh" for a minute, but as you say it's a marathon not a sprint and it's about having a plan and knowing the context of where the numbers come from I wasn't trying to put you down at all!

Sounds like you have an exciting year planned with the 5 year mark coming up - t'internet tells me that's the "wood" anniversary?!

RichyRich

No I know what you mean and know you weren't trying to put me off

I like your idea about killing off the credit card spending but I have quite an addiction to collecting Hilton HHonors Points. I stick all of my spending onto my Hilton Barclaycard and get enough 'free' points for a couple of free hotel nights a year. Nothing earth shattering but we are going to a wedding in Liverpool this year and are not paying anything for the stay, saving over £200. It's just about maintaining the discipline to only spend what you earn, paying in full when the bill comes out.

I've now started paying the full balance by FP the day after I get paid so I don't get caught out by the DD and then after I get paid all the money in my account is 'mine' (less whatever's on the CC for next month).

I also do this which might seem a bit obsessive: I check my balance on my current account every day and keep it at a round figure (ending in a five or a zero), moving the remainder over to my savings account. Again, no great shakes, every time a DD comes out (mobile bill, whatever) that makes my balance an odd number it's a little bit more saved towards the target. It also keeps my statements neat. My wife thinks I'm autistic.