The "Save 12k in 2016" Thread!

Suffolk_lass

Thanks for the explanations of how others are counting savings and what some are doing to shuffle money for best rates. It has made me reflect on what we are doing. I do count both the regular saver 2x£250 HSBC 6% regular savers for Mr SL and me. With nothing else this will reach this year's target of £6000. However, I have also started to count the money left in the account Mr SL's salary goes into as that is our running costs account - I round that to the nearest pound and shove it in the savings account with the same bank. It earns no interest and I must find a better instant access option for it. It is our emergency fund.

We also have a couple of S&S ISAs although mine is frozen, we recently opened a second in Mr SL's name using an investment platform (I think that is what it is called) and split £3000 from last year's regular saver between 3 funds to open it. We will set up a small DD for £150 a month to dribble that in to these three funds and see where we are in a year's time. I am not counting these or any growth from them, but I should probably count the £150 per month I think.I am also not counting the interest accruing to other lumps of money that are in bonds or savings accounts at the moment.

I try to earmark money to overpay the mortgage each month except March (insurance) - but I sometimes miss the month after our summer hols. I do try to pay for holidays by spreading it out a bit - so when I booked for July/August I paid for the Ferry and a 50% deposit for a Villa but used an online hotel booking service to secure rooms but not pay until we travel. Just trying to smooth out the peaks really. We'll have to see where we are by September as I know MrSL wants to retire three years from then. Seems strange really, talking about retiring when we still don't know what we want to do when we grow up... :eek:

garfield33

#017 declaring -£1109.15 for February!! Paid off the credit card as the 0% deal was coming to an end. It was an attempt at stoozing but I don't think it's for me. So I'm -£585.58 against my target of £6k. Not sure if a negative percentage is correct, but if it is then I'm at -9.8%! Oh well, I'm sure March and April will be better...

RichyRich

Hey Garfield

Don't let being in a minus situation get you down. It happened to me in month one!

You have paid off your credit card. That is a huge achievement and a positive step. Onwards and upwards - you can concentrate on building your wealth now!

Karen's_girl

#87 declaring £400 for February.

Ruthy1604

#26 declaring £2276.73 for Feb and £4824.71 to date.

I've had to revise my Jan figure downwards as I realised I was double counting

Form submitted - thanks SF.

copperjar

Late declaration for Feb of £434.84

My computer has completely crashed which means that I've lost my budget tracker YNAB It's the thing that has really helped me in the last year achieve my goals. It's so difficult now keeping track of what I'm spending and how much I've got going into the various accounts. Need to find an easy interim solution while I wait and see if the comp can be repaired. It's really highlighted to me how dependant I had become on the app!

slowlyfading

Spreadsheet updated there's some really good numbers going on there, well done everyone!

Can I be really cheeky and ask a favour of you lovely people on this thread? Please could you visit my blog page and subscribe? Desperately trying to get numbers up

Rosie_D

Hi sorry I'm late for February! I'm declaring £650. Thanks No 079 Rosie D x

bobobski

Of course SF, it's the least we owe you! Will do so after work

My savings look a lot like Richy's. £300 FD RS and £250 TSB RS no matter what. I also have the Flexclusive, currently dripfeeding but hoping to start actually contributing in a couple of months as I don't have enough to dripfeed for a year!

Anything extra e.g. cashback or VSP goes into my TSB current account. I also have a full FlexDirect but this is dwindling due to the dripfeeding. Finally, my emergency fund goes into a Tesco current account. I can't be !!!ed with messing around with DDs,otherwise I'd replace the Tesco with a Halifax due to the low numbers and proportionately high reward.

My FD RS comes out midway through the month so I store that £300 in one of the 5% current accounts. Also any "extra" money that will be needed this month, for example this month I have road tax and MOT so I'll need the money but not immediately. I don't count this as savings and I save it in YNAB as "storing" so I know it's just temporary placement to get a few days' extra interest.

ALIBOBSY

OK not been on the thread for a while, been struggling with my asthma and a series of chest infections through alot of Jan and pretty much all of Feb. Been in and out of hospital and the doc is sick of the sight of me. Made me very grateful to be in the UK with the NHS who looked after me.

I have added a few bits to the total, but no where near what I would have liked. The only good news is once we get into spring OH's second S/E business really takes off. He has two buisnesses one doing IT repair locally and the other is odd job work, painting etc and gardening. Obviously gardening is seasonal and during the spring/summer months alongside his other jobs he works alot of hours and often 7 days a week, but he earns alot more during that period than over winter.

So that will be a real chance to really boost the savings, also hoping once the weather is better it will help my asthma and enable me to work more and have a good clear of the house and hopefully sell some stuff to add more to the coffers. I also like to grow some veggies and fruit etc which reduces our costs over the period as well. All adding up to a good summer I hope.

Ali x