The "Save 12k in 2017" Thread!

Jo_Blogs

#157 - January £551.75 - 11.04%

Duckyduck wrote: »

How do you all do it?

[STRIKE]I'm tighter than a ducks[/STRIKE] .......I'm just tight.......:D;)

nat21luv

I dont know about you guys but this month has been tough! So many birthdays and not ones I could scrimp on; all immediate family/close friends inc my son's. The birthdays I were hoping to scrimp on invited themselves round for wine and cake to celebrate so my birthday budget has been completely obliterated!

I really feel we deserve a pat on the back for saving anything at all in one of the toughest months of the year- well done all!

zafiro1984

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Please can I join in. I've did a spread sheet before Christmas where I can track everything - all monies coming in and all monies going out.

My DH and I each have a monthly budget and know what we are responsible for - it will be hard for him as he usually leaves finances to me but I'm fed up with him with what I consider to be his overspending so this year instead of nagging I've given him a budget.

Hopefully by the end of the year I may have saved £2500 out of my budget - I have everything to do with 'the house' and one car, but not maintenance. I'll try to 'hide' any savings my DH has, I know it's sneaky but it can act as a reservoir when he overspends.

I'm going to keep it very simple - money in V money out, Interest on investments etc are not counted.

I've managed more than I dared hope by being being frugal with everything. Managed 912.35 really pleased with myself and it has given me a boost for February although I know it won't be as good. Off to fill in the form.
I noticed DH has also managed to stay within his budget so far, but I've not included his 'savings'.

mummytummy

Sent in my update for January, very pleased with 1,281.00

jessy-eve

Hey all, no. 21 reporting in for January. I have managed to put away £600 this month! pleased with this. Had a monthly saver mature and got some backdated pay which always helps in a rather tight January!
Happy Saving!

Bored

Number 35 reporting £250 for January. This was a tough month, as expected, and I'm hoping the amounts I save will be able to be significantly increase throughout the year.

laura84gr

What date does this get updated? I get paid the last working day of the month and just don't want to miss it or jinks myself declaring too early ����.

_Amaryllis_

I've managed £1251.93 for January. It would have been a bit more but I had to buy a new hard drive for my laptop.

LA.Nyx

#102 - I have managed to save £1666.90 this month. :j :beer: :j
I have never managed to save more than £500 so I am very pleased!

RichyRich

So I'm going for a slightly updatedstrategy.

Despite my earlier comment about not opening another current account I realised that my TSB Regular matures at the end of this month (should be about £3,075, thank you TSB!) so I opened a 2nd BofS Vantage which is has the biggest max balance for 3%. On 1st Feb I can transfer my £3,xxx into that and have a little bit of room for growth in there as well as Tesco of course. That gives me a maximum space of £14,500 in "accessible" cash plus the more restrictive cash possibilities in my Nationwide and FD Regulars (£3,600 and £6,000 by maturity all being well).

Anything above this will be going into a Nutmeg ISA as I will (hopefully) have enough cash to fall back on should the worst happen.

I opened the Nutmeg ISA yesterday with £500 and a £100pcm direct debit. Once my cash accounts are full I am proposing to put additional contributions into Nutmeg.

I haven't figured out how to account for Nutmeg in my calculations yet - as it's an investment it can obviously decrease as well as increase in value. So I will either use the sum of all my contributions or its current value as at declaration date. In truth I'm edging towards the latter as it will be easier to work out although is clearly a double edged sword as I will benefit from growth (gets me towards target quicker) but will suffer from contraction (moves me further away).

A little bit about me. "Save 12k" is part of a longer term plan. I'm 31, married, no kids, living in London with a reasonable job (but spend too much). Hoping to retire at 55 so need the means to do that. I am very fortunate that if I can continue in similar work and don't go overboard on buying unnecessary things then this should be achievable.

I pay 10% of my salary into my company pension and my employer pays 8%. This is not counted towards my "Save 12k" target. We also overpay our mortgage by between £100 and £200 per month (based on what's left over in the joint account after all the bills go out - this isn't counted towards the "Save £12k" challenge either).

I believe that the minimum age to take pension is changing to track the statutory retirement age by ten years, which will mean that I can't retire at 55 unless I have another income source. That's where Nutmeg comes in - I can draw on my ISA savings before I can draw on my pension. The projection for Nutmeg at the current investment rate of £100 per month should leave me with a pot that will tide me over until I can draw my company pension.

It's an ambitious goal and by the time I get to 55 I may well have changed my mind, so I guess it's more accurate to say that I'd like to have the option to retire at 55 should I wish to do so at the time.

I find this thread incredibly motivational and helps me to maintain discipline in achieving my goal; without thinking about saving £12k and maximising my monthly update I can easily become sidetracked.

I look forward to sharing in everyone else's success too and hope that we all achieve our individual ambitions whatever they may be.

Good luck everybody!