The "Save 12k in 2016" Thread!

bobobski

So I'd opted out of PMI (private medical insurance) at work because it was £54 per month(!!!) just in tax and therefore vastly too expensive. Unfortunately my employer's systems didn't recognise the change I made on their stupid webpage, so that leaves me stuck in PMI for at least another 2 months. Due to payroll messing around with payments of tax and giving me advances of money that now need to be withdrawn, my salary for March will be £108 less than it should be Gutted because April (March salary = April spend) was going to be my first PROPER savings month.

HR got an earful, I'll tell ya.

Suffolk_lass

Just submitted my Feb Form and much higher than normal due to a very frugal Feb. Saved the usual Regular saver amounts but also able to top up the emergency savings pot. This is now much closer to the £10k I like to see there. We should consider moving this to a tax free wrapper as I don't have a 15-16 ISA at the moment and it is earning diddly in the savings account it is in. March won't be so good as we have the house and contents renewal and it is up by about £80. Not so easy to shop around with a thatched cottage either!

Well done everyone, looking good

SL

black_taxi_2

seems a lot of us haven't had a good month(known unknowns)

my taxi been off road 10 days--get it back tomorrow

Gem-gem

My hubby laughs at me... He says that I am the only person he knows that says, 'I have no money left' because I have saved it all. Hubby always saves his at the end of the month, but he has better self control than me. I have to pay myself first and then give myself an allowance that I can have guilt free fun with.
Does everyone else save what is left at the end of the month or pay yourself first at the beginning of the month?

geoffers4

Gem-gem wrote: »

My hubby laughs at me... He says that I am the only person he knows that says, 'I have no money left' because I have saved it all. Hubby always saves his at the end of the month, but he has better self control than me. I have to pay myself first and then give myself an allowance that I can have guilt free fun with.
Does everyone else save what is left at the end of the month or pay yourself first at the beginning of the month?

Hi Gem, I'm probably not a typical saver, as I think a lot of people on here reserve a set amount each month to transfer over into an ISA, or similar saver account. I on the other hand try to be ruthless with savings, and once the Direct Debits and Credit Card bill (paying last month's groceries) have gone out: I try to spend zero from that point until the end of the month, and bank the lot! Everyone's situation is different though, so whatever works....

Wentthedaywell?

geoffers4 wrote: »

Hi Gem, I'm probably not a typical saver, as I think a lot of people on here reserve a set amount each month to transfer over into an ISA, or similar saver account. I on the other hand try to be ruthless with savings, and once the Direct Debits and Credit Card bill (paying last month's groceries) have gone out: I try to spend zero from that point until the end of the month, and bank the lot! Everyone's situation is different though, so whatever works....

Gem-gem wrote: »

My hubby laughs at me... He says that I am the only person he knows that says, 'I have no money left' because I have saved it all. Hubby always saves his at the end of the month, but he has better self control than me. I have to pay myself first and then give myself an allowance that I can have guilt free fun with.
Does everyone else save what is left at the end of the month or pay yourself first at the beginning of the month?

I'm somewhere between the two. On payday I put aside all my household DDs and various other "pots" and give myself a fairly minimum amount for spending (including food and petrol). The rest is saved, but with the proviso I may need to dip into it if an unseen expense comes up. If it does, I adjust it on next month's declaration here.

I'm being very tough on myself, but this is my last full year before retiring so I'm trying to make up for 35 profligate years!

Lomcevak

A rather late declaration of £1639.79 for Feb, which makes £3104.37 for the first two months of the year - it's a rather slow start for me, but has all been a bit expensive recently

Better start to March though, I've dropped £1250 in to savings to get things started off, should be some more to come.

Bruce_Bumba

Gem-gem wrote: »

My hubby laughs at me... He says that I am the only person he knows that says, 'I have no money left' because I have saved it all. Hubby always saves his at the end of the month, but he has better self control than me. I have to pay myself first and then give myself an allowance that I can have guilt free fun with.
Does everyone else save what is left at the end of the month or pay yourself first at the beginning of the month?

Being new to the saving game, I've been debating the two methods so glad you're asking the forum!
In the end I think option 2 forces me to have more self-control if I want to maximise the pot whereas I'd probably be more careless and end up dipping into it if I knew I had some saved already.

imajica37

Gem-gem wrote: »

My hubby laughs at me... He says that I am the only person he knows that says, 'I have no money left' because I have saved it all. Hubby always saves his at the end of the month, but he has better self control than me. I have to pay myself first and then give myself an allowance that I can have guilt free fun with.
Does everyone else save what is left at the end of the month or pay yourself first at the beginning of the month?

I am the same as you. I used to take a chunk out of my current account as soon as my wage went in, and put it straight into my savings. I then did my best to "forget" about it and even if struggling at the end of the month try my hardest not to dip into it. I am now with Santander as they have a good interest rate and cashback so it's a bit strange having all my money in the same account and nowhere to squirrel away a chunk of money each month.

RichyRich

I have a bit of a hybrid system. I have a 'committed' savings amount which at the moment is £550 (300 FD and 250 TSB) which go out on payday. This means whatever happens each month I save £550 even if I don't save another penny.

I then, theoretically at least, save what's left at the end of the month.

In practice I'm always moving bits from my current account to savings. For example my visa bill is due out on Monday. That will be accompanied by a transfer into savings to make my current account balance a round number (my wife thinks I'm autistic). Rather than just round it down to the next £10 I'll make an assessment of how much I think I'll need for the rest of the month, based on the DDs due out later in the month, and make an appropriately sized transfer (still ending in a zero of course).

Depending on how far I cut the balance I sometimes need to make it end in a 5 rather than a 0. Last week I was most upset because I made an error with the timings and had an overnight balance with pence on it in my current account!

Quidco is paid straight to savings, it doesn't even see my current account. Accounting entries are made throughout the month to maximise interest. My highest paying accounts, in order, are

FD Regular 6%
TSB Classic Plus 5%
TSB Regular 5%
Natwide Regular 5%
Bank of Scotland 3%

So on the first of the month there's a £1k SO between TSB C+ and BoS in both directions to satisfy the funding requirement, and I'll manually do a £500 transfer from whichever account has the lowest rate to the Natwide Regular (assuming it wont take me below an interest threshold).

This month that's likely to be the BoS because the balance is just over £4K and the Internet drops at £3k so I'll still be in my limits. I *do* have a crappy FD eSaver for ease which pays next to nothing but is useful for scraping bits out of my current account for short periods. My quidco gets paid there and it's just as easy to ping it over to BoS on a FP as it is to change the details, esp as once BoS is full I'll want it paid somewhere else. I think of it as a 'holding' account!

Martin makes a big deal of how complicated this all is, suggesting we all need spreadsheets to keep track. I disagree. I'm fairly handy with Excel and use it every day at work but I've really not seen the need. I have all the apps and can track my balances at any time, in real time, and I'm not beholden to remembering to update it.

As for calculating the amount saved month to month, it's easy. I just add up all my balances to get my total balance, and then subtract how much I had the month before. To understand how much I've saved this year I subtract my 'starting figure' as stated in my signature.

All that reminds me - my BT £130 cash back is awaiting withdrawal from Quidco. Once I can drag my !!!! out of bed I must request it. I do wish there was a withdrawal option on the app!