The "Save 12k in 2016" Thread!

Lolly88

#002 reporting £1500 for March.

bobobski

I too have been paid early, but I don't like to report until all my standing orders to regular savings accounts have gone out because *in theory* I could choose not to save that money until the day of the SO. Some people have an aversion to odd numbers, this is my odd thing!

Looks like it's going to be a terrible month from me but hopefully this is the bottom of the curve now. I've also finally opened my "annual expenses" account, which is going into a second Tesco CA. I've estimated the cost of MOT, insurance, breakdown cover, my lease renewal etc and averaged the total cost over the year, and it's around £70, so every month I'm transferring that into a separate account and when those sums come to be paid it'll be out of that account. Smooth out some of the bumps and whatnot. I'm also overestimating the costs, e.g. £250 for car insurance where this year it was £210 after cashback, just to be on the safe side. And the money's earning away its little 3% over time My plan is eventually to ramp this up to about £125 per month to cover other odd expenses, like if the TV goes, or I *really* need that dress... But too poor for now!

Anyone else who uses YNAB miss the feeling of being rich on payday?? I used to look at my bank balance and think "wooohooo I'm basically a millionnaire!" but now, once I've allocated the money and realise there's actually not much in the "just for fun area", I feel sad

Also, my emergency fund is officially up and running... with a HUGE £80! Not really huge. I'm going to ramp up those contributions over time - last month was £20 (seriously poor!), this month £60, eventually getting up to £90. That should, hopefully, if I don't touch it, leave me with £5,000 by my target of late 2020ish for buying a house. Then that'll be my little "oh no the boiler broke" fund.

Will report next week with figures

P.S. Thanks SF! I love this community - it keeps me going.

Domayne

lisa110rry wrote: »

Domayne, we are also paid 'before the 25th day of the month' which usually means just before midnight on the day. This month, I'va already been paid, a nice surprise.

Regarding odd numbers, I can't keep up with that because the interest is always adding odd numbers. What stresses me is transferring an odd number with pence from my current account to my savings, just hate that!

I've yet to be paid any real interest because I keep shifting money around before it's due. Oops
The problem I have is I have 0 direct debits so do not qualify for any of those top interest accounts. Right now I just have a few Halifax online savers which range from 0.6 to 1% which doesn't really seem worth the bother :rotfl:
I need to get over my aversion to odd amounts though because when I looked in paypal, there was over £70 in there that I didn't know what to do with so ended up wasting it on online games :mad:

Domayne

RichyRich wrote: »

I'm the total opposite - I make sure my current account has a round balance every night and transfer 'odd amounts' to my savings all the time to make sure it stays that way! Direct debit for £26.45 out? That's £3.55 over to savings then, to keep my current account ending in a 5 or a 0! Obsessive? Sure. But every little bit over to savings counts!

Actually as it happens nearly all my accounts are at a round figure - TSB at a round £2k, FD Regular at a round £1,200, etc to maximise interest. Only my BoS (current filler-upper vehicle) is at an odd-pence amount. And of course my coin jar, which I have no idea how much is in and am trying REALLY hard not to bank till its full.

That's what I do as well...except instead of putting it in savings, it will go to paypal. Which is silly really but I can't 'see' my PayPal with the rest of my accounts (only have Halifax accounts so far...)
Anything under a round 10 bugs the heck out of me because I can't get it out of the cash point. How do I get over this?? :rotfl:

Domayne

bobobski wrote: »

Anyone else who uses YNAB miss the feeling of being rich on payday?? I used to look at my bank balance and think "wooohooo I'm basically a millionnaire!" but now, once I've allocated the money and realise there's actually not much in the "just for fun area", I feel sad

I don't use YNAB, Just an old fashioned excel spreadsheet and do a 'zero based budget' where I give every penny a job and yes I feel like this too
Because I've been saving another £300 per month that I don't declare here as I intend to spend it this year for my yearly travel card, holidays a new pc etc and have been leaving myself around £200 per month to play with which includes everything - food, eating out, day trips, clothes, beauty products etc....
Still might seem like a lot to some but when you are used to 400-500 'play' money, you feel the difference.
I've been using an app called spending tracker for my play money since Jan and I love it but I do see that I fritter money away on a lot of junk I don't need. It's decreasing month by month though as I get better at this budgeting thing

jacci45

Hi all, No 24 reporting, saved £945.27 this month so total for 2016 is now £2588.14.
Take care all and Happy Easter!x

Eco_Miser

Domayne wrote: »

The problem I have is I have 0 direct debits so do not qualify for any of those top interest accounts.

There's a thread about that - and lots of mentions on other threads.

ViktorOnopko

Declaring just £150 for March as I gave my car a service + some other work which cost £550.

Not too despondent though as my new business has kicked off well and I have my first clients and hence, extra income :-)

[Deleted User]

Just filled in the form to declare my total for March. Total of £1051 in March - this was helped by that unexpected cheque in the post. Grand total now standing at £2296.

RichyRich

Declaring for March.

Just totalled up my balances and am delighted to have passed the £10k mark (in terms of total balance, not saved this year!)

FD Regular £1200.00
TSB Classic+ £2000.00
TSB Regular £750.00
Bank of Scotland £4866.20
Natwide Regular £2000.00
Tesco £4.00
Total £10,820.20

Balance last month was £9,354.94 so I have saved £1,465.26 since then (plus whatever’s in my coin jar which I’m still trying REALLY hard not to bank). I may be able to squirrel a bit more away but I’ll take this as March and anything else will be added to April’s total.

Starting balance was £5,027.78 so total savings for 2016 so far are £5792.42 so I still have £6,207.58 to save in the eight months left of the year which averages at £517.30 per month. My ‘committed savings’ is £300 in FD and £250 in TSB so hopefully that’s all taken care of barring some emergency that means I need to plunder my funds (or a big holiday - you know, whatever).

Thanks to slowlyfading for the thread and thanks to everyone for keeping it going - the support on here is a major factor in keeping me motivated and maintaining the discipline to keep making a go of it.

Not bad to say January was negative. Onwards and upwards!