Save my life!

d70cw6

get the horses to do your wife?
leaves you time to do the gardening

HouseBuyer77

110 Phone Contract

I pay around £15 a month for my contract, I purchase phone seperately. Seems plenty of save here.

Seems that list of expenses is the 2235 fixed outgoings? How about trying to save some of your disposable income? Try and save £500 this month, £600 the next, £700 the next and so on. I would have thought saving £1000 easily doable (leaving a cool £1'765 a month to spend!) and far more than that within your reach.

Don't touch stocks or indeed anything like that. Just save into a Santander 123 account for now (3% interest up to £20k you can get a joint one and two more seperately).

You need to make some serious lifestyle changes and begin saving properly. This won't be a simple thing, it requires commitment and it requires giving up things you previously enjoyed. However things like fancy clothes and expensive restaurants will seem all the more silly once you give them up for a few months.

Once you've gained some financial discipline and proved you can save then start looking at investments.

Savingsideas

d70cw6 wrote: »

get the horses to do your wife?
leaves you time to do the gardening

Haha, I'm sure this is illegal.
If it saves money and takes more time, perfect!

Savingsideas

HouseBuyer77 wrote: »

I pay around £15 a month for my contract, I purchase phone seperately. Seems plenty of save here.

Seems that list of expenses is the 2235 fixed outgoings? How about trying to save some of your disposable income? Try and save £500 this month, £600 the next, £700 the next and so on. I would have thought saving £1000 easily doable (leaving a cool £1'765 a month to spend!) and far more than that within your reach.

Don't touch stocks or indeed anything like that. Just save into a Santander 123 account for now (3% interest up to £20k you can get a joint one and two more seperately).

You need to make some serious lifestyle changes and begin saving properly. This won't be a simple thing, it requires commitment and it requires giving up things you previously enjoyed. However things like fancy clothes and expensive restaurants will seem all the more silly once you give them up for a few months.

Once you've gained some financial discipline and proved you can save then start looking at investments.

We are currently with Barclays. So you are saying we should open a santander123 account and have our salaries paid into there each money?

Saving money from the disposable income is kind of the only option at this stage. The family help I'm hoping to get weened off onto house benefit. Although I've done nothing to get this ball rolling.

Edit:
I just used the santander123 account calculator. Why on earth doesn't everyone have one of these.
How often do they pay the cashback to you?

Nasqueron

Cashback is monthly along with the interest, remember it's for £3000-£20000 so not suitable for everyone (might be a joint account thing else open one each) and some people prefer cashback on credit cards and not to lose the cash out of the account immediately

alicaurusrex

Savingsideas wrote: »

We can't get an extra income. It's against our contracts, also not really what we "want".
I bought 2x Gopro cameras in the black friday sales. I was thinking of starting motorbike vlogging.

So I was reading on this forum. I've done a cashflow. I've gone through the last year of bank statements. Something I've never done before.

It works out we have approximately 2235 of fixed outgoings now. Leaving us with 2765 disposable.

We are just spending the rest and our savings on fancy restaurants, clothes, vet bills etc. Wasting it.

775 Family help (Probably more like 1000, but its not consistent. The extra is individual hand outs)
1200 Horses
150 Gardener
110 Phone Contract
(Motorbike insurances are paid annually, but work out to about 80per month.)

I feel like putting money each month into shares (I'm completely ignorant but willing to learn) might be a way to occupy my time. Whilst making/losing money.

Are there "experts" we can speak to?
(Nothing wrong with you guys)

Firstly - what job do you have?! I want it. My partner and I earn around the same as you but we have more overheads living in London and both work 40-50 hour weeks, so we don't have much spare, or time to spend it.

Secondly - you guys totally need a 'project'. It doesn't need to be something that creates a second cashflow, but just a side-project:

Take a look at: No More Excuses: Why You Should Start Your Side Project Already

You are in an incredibly rare and fortunate position where you have both the time and financial security to indulge your interests and start a project that you love. You can even do it "for the love it" rather than having the pressure to pay your bills. I don't think you really grasp how many people would gnaw off their right arm to be in your position (I would!)

Anyway, I really recommend a book called Will It Fly by Pat Flynn, all about developing a business or a project focussed on your interests and passions.

A few ideas...

• A blog about one of your hobbies
• Online course for one of your hobbies
• Consulting
• Photography
• Videos

It sounds like you guys have lots of interesting hobbies that would be considered 'niche' and lots of other people could benefit from your knowledge and interests.

In terms of financials - I'd recommend opening an ISA. If you want to retire comfortably you apparently should be saving £800 a month. You are basically the only 'millennial' who I know is actually able to achieve this. Set up a direct debit immediately and make sure you're transferring at least £800 per month into savings at a minimum.

Regarding everything else...

Family help - it's nice to help your family but why are you doing this? If somebody is relying on you for regular income why don't you either a) help them develop their own form of income (help them get a job, employ them to do something for you (gardening?!)), b) agree a repayment plan so they can pay you back later.

Horses - I have some 'horsey' friends and I know it's not as simple as just giving up your horses. Have you considered 'sharing' them with somebody else, or renting them out to other rides, to reduce costs and overheads? Why is this so expensive - are you paying for the field/stables? By sharing you could half these costs.

Gardener - you don't need a gardener. You have hours every week to do this yourself.

Phone Contract - I pay £18 per month for basically unlimited internet and calls on Giff Gaff. Absolutely no reason why you should pay this much.

Vet Bills - go with Animal Friends Insurance. It's super cheap and they are amazing. They've literally saved me and my parents thousands of pounds in vet bills over the years.

Restaurants - Just stop. Learn to cook. You will save a ton of money and learn skills for life.

Black Friday Sales - NOPE. This is literally a scam to get you to buy loads of rubbish you don't need. Just stop buying things in sales unless you actually need them.

Ebay - If you have tons of stuff lying around, equipment etc, why don't you just sell it on and reap back some of that money you've spent?

I hope this helps!

droopsnoot

Savingsideas wrote: »

We are just spending the rest and our savings on fancy restaurants, clothes, vet bills etc. Wasting it.

So you've identified you're wasting it, stop doing that. Vet bills probably don't count, but you can surely only need so many clothes, especially if you don't go out to so many restaurants?

Dan83

Between you and your partner, open 3 X TSB accounts, your name, partners name and joint, put £2000 in each @ 5% interest.

Each account needs to be funded every month with a minimum amount, I'm not 100% sure of the figure so check T&Cs.

Bank transfer internally might cover the minimum payments, but might not, again check T&Cs.

There is a few places to put the £1000 left over, in my opinion, tesco is best, you can put it in the bank and leave it there if you wish.

greenglide

Start a personal pension scheme for each of you.

Stick loads of money in, tax relief on way in and you cannot access the money until age 55 (at present).

Seems ideal for somebody who wont save / reduce expenditure.

Savingsideas

alicaurusrex wrote: »

Firstly - what job do you have?! I want it. My partner and I earn around the same as you but we have more overheads living in London and both work 40-50 hour weeks, so we don't have much spare, or time to spend it.

Secondly - you guys totally need a 'project'. It doesn't need to be something that creates a second cashflow, but just a side-project:

Take a look at: ***I cant quote links***

You are in an incredibly rare and fortunate position where you have both the time and financial security to indulge your interests and start a project that you love. You can even do it "for the love it" rather than having the pressure to pay your bills. I don't think you really grasp how many people would gnaw off their right arm to be in your position (I would!)

Anyway, I really recommend a book called ANOTHER LINK, all about developing a business or a project focussed on your interests and passions.

A few ideas...

• A blog about one of your hobbies
• Online course for one of your hobbies
• Consulting
• Photography
• Videos

It sounds like you guys have lots of interesting hobbies that would be considered 'niche' and lots of other people could benefit from your knowledge and interests.

In terms of financials - I'd recommend opening an ISA. If you want to retire comfortably you apparently ANOTHER LINK.You are basically the only 'millennial' who I know is actually able to achieve this. Set up a direct debit immediately and make sure you're transferring at least £800 per month into savings at a minimum.

Regarding everything else...

Family help - it's nice to help your family but why are you doing this? If somebody is relying on you for regular income why don't you either a) help them develop their own form of income (help them get a job, employ them to do something for you (gardening?!)), b) agree a repayment plan so they can pay you back later.

Horses - I have some 'horsey' friends and I know it's not as simple as just giving up your horses. Have you considered 'sharing' them with somebody else, or renting them out to other rides, to reduce costs and overheads? Why is this so expensive - are you paying for the field/stables? By sharing you could half these costs.

Gardener - you don't need a gardener. You have hours every week to do this yourself.

Phone Contract - I pay £18 per month for basically unlimited internet and calls on Giff Gaff. Absolutely no reason why you should pay this much.

Vet Bills - go with Animal Friends Insurance. It's super cheap and they are amazing. They've literally saved me and my parents thousands of pounds in vet bills over the years.

Restaurants - Just stop. Learn to cook. You will save a ton of money and learn skills for life.

Black Friday Sales - NOPE. This is literally a scam to get you to buy loads of rubbish you don't need. Just stop buying things in sales unless you actually need them.

Ebay - If you have tons of stuff lying around, equipment etc, why don't you just sell it on and reap back some of that money you've spent?

I hope this helps!

Cheers Sir!

I'm well aware we are in an outrageously fortunate position. I think this was what initially started the spending spree. We used to work or a family in central London. We were paid less than we are now and worked 80-100 hour weeks. With all the free time and money now, we have done our binge and are now looking to straighten ourselves out.

I'll take a read of your link now. Then look up that book.

Speaking of projects, I am now a fairly average pianist and can speak enough french to get by! I didn't really see these projects through. Just became below averagely good and gave up!

Regarding learning to cook... my wife is a chef :rotfl: Hence half the reason we eat out in fancy places more often than we cook!

Regarding setting up an ISA. I read on this forum a regular saver seems to offer the highest rates. Just starting to put money aside would be a positive step though.

Regarding family: My father became ill with Lupus disease. He hasn't worked since. In order to prevent him losing his house we pay his rent. I figure he can go onto housing benefit, but I have taken no action on this part. He lives 5 hours away. Hopefully its something I can do online. He certainly won't do it willingly but as he isn't paying it. I won't allow him a choice. He also has no means of repaying us. If I'm honest, I wouldn't want him to pay us back. Just stop costing us.

Horses - We rent a stable block with grazing. Its full with rescued and bought horses. There is currently no room to to rent out a stables. Although if somehow horses start dying perhaps I could convince the wife to rent the stables out individually. They will absolutely not be sold! Most of them are knackered anyway

Gardener - I'll speak to him tomorrow and cancel him. Then go shopping for a lawn mower etc!

Vet Bills- Most of the animals are fairly old and with health conditions. I doubt most of them could be insured anyway as most have chronic conditions.

Ebay - I honestly could sell half of the crap I have accumulated and be all the happier for it. Old Ipads, Laptops, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox one. Not exaggerating to say about 1 million games. I don't use any of them anymore.