How did you 'mentally' start saving?

Pepperoni

I know how much I'd like to save, but putting it into practice is another matter entirely :mad:

It's not 'needs' that the money gets spent on instead, it's frivolous spending. Clothes for the children because they're too cute to resist, a food shop top-up that we could have gone without, and so on.

I'm sure not the only person that has been in this position (?) and I'm just wondering how people overcome it.

xylophone

Forget the mentally and take some action.

Open a high interest current account ( a Tesco (or 2) will do if you've no mind for faffing) and set up a regular standing order from the account which takes your salary.

Domayne

I overcame it by using the money I was paying for debt repayments after I became debt free to start saving as it was money that I hadn't really 'had' for a while anyway so didn't miss it.
After a while, watching the money pile up became more fun than having a lot of useless 'things' that I didn't really need.

chockydavid1983

Changed the "I'd like to save £x" to "I will save £x"
Make sure x is realistic and maybe start small and increase over time.

enthusiasticsaver

I agree with all the above. Budgeting is what helped me so we were restricting the frivolous spending as such and not using credit cards for this. It is often difficult to avoid spending on nice things and I am as guilty as that as anyone, books for me and clothes, toys for my granddaughter. I now discipline myself to only buy non essentials once a month just after payday and after I have put a set amount of savings away. If we have extra at the end of the month we top it up and start afresh the following month. My OH and I both get a monthly allowance for personal spending and that goes in separate accounts so we are not tempted to dip into our main current account which is purely for direct debits and bills and paying off our main household credit card in full each month.

System

I recommend using the 50%/30%/20% budget plan. 50% on needs, 30% on wants and 20% on savings/debt. I have used it for many years, I swear by it.

droopsnoot

I went to look at a car that I'd have needed to borrow money to buy, and built up a spreadsheet of all my incomings and outgoings to persuade myself I'd be able to afford it. Then, just to see, I left all the pared-down expenses in place and took out the cost of the car, and had a look at the savings account (back then I only had one current account and one savings account) in four or five years time. Something twigged and I didn't buy the car, but did the rest.

jimjames

Paying money into savings as soon as being paid so you then don't think about it. I also started investing very early on, if the money isn't quickly available then it was much easier to avoid thinking it was there to spend. Once it builds up then it seems much easier to keep going, I think the hardest part is getting started initially.

JohnRo

Start to think of savings as a bill that must be paid to yourself every month, for your children's future if that helps.

Pepperoni

mrlegend123 wrote: »

I recommend using the 50%/30%/20% budget plan. 50% on needs, 30% on wants and 20% on savings/debt. I have used it for many years, I swear by it.

This is an interesting way to do it. Things like holidays, would you consider that a 'want' or a saving though? Similarly, presents - a need or a want?

Pepperoni

Thanks everyone for your replies - I did not expect so many and have found them all very helpful.

Could I just ask how you all decided on the amount to save? I go from one extreme to the other, one minute no savings, the next planning to save say 30% of our income etc. I'm wondering if being over ambitious is half the problem?