The "Save 12k in 2017" Thread!

ambitiouspanda

The month of January was a disappointing month, I spent my £1900 savings on garbage! I will not allow this to happen again this month. I am cutting up my card. BUT I WILL exceed my £18K target! Hold me accountable to this!

rjrs0510

I am able to salt away £5000 February...always remembering to try and pay my future self first...so I have precious little for the rest of the (thankfully short) month. As always, it is so good to read about everyone's progress... i am really trying to focus on early retirement now. I was reading that if you can save 80% of your salary for 5 years that you should have accumulated enough to retire if u can generate a 4-5% return..this percentage is now my goal!! Thanks, as always, to Slowlyfading for updating everything and doing so much:)

cathybird

hi all, no. 38 here declaring £2,310.93 for January.

sezamma

I've applied for a Help to Buy ISA and looking forward to starting my saving journey! The end of the month (and payday) can't come round fast enough!!

tara747

Psychobabble78 wrote: »

Oh my word Tara, how did you manage to save so much - have you any tips?

Well, it's taken around 9 years


Lots of tips:


Go through your finances with a fine tooth comb and see what you can cut out or change.


Make a budget and stick to it.


Prioritise your spending! You don't have to live like a pauper (I don't), but work out what's important to you and what's not. I like to spend money on travel and socialising; I'm not bothered about expensive clothes, handbags, magazines or takeaway coffees.


Cook from scratch - way cheaper and healthier too. Bring lunch to work. Get a travel mug and take coffee with you (even fancy home-brewed coffee works out a lot cheaper than buying from cafes).


Pay yourself first - set up SOs into your savings account and learn to live on what's left.



Always shop around for decent savings interest rates (getting difficult now, but 1% interest is better than 0%).


If you get a pay rise, allow yourself a treat and save the rest.


Buy birthday and Christmas gifts in the sales.

cathybird

Hi all, no. 38 here reporting an error in the earlier figure - I've set up a new spreadsheet for this year and realised when I went back that I've included some pension savings that I didn't include for this challenge last year or the year before. My bad! So the real figure for January is in fact £1,525.29.

Carrie85

So a fairly big update from me.

Managed to save £2000 in January and £550 in Feb so far. Very pleased with that and there is more to come, just waiting for it to be paid (freelance, so no set pay days for me).

I managed a big number in January last year and then everything went off track a bit. Determined for that not to happen this year.

Also, having lived in London for the last 10 years there's the potential for me to move to another city, with getting more freelance work there. Been working there on and off since last summer and it would give me such a better quality of life. Would be a big move, but could still do the freelance work in London with way less costs.
Everything feels very exciting at the moment. The savings may take a hit if I move but trying to plan it in advance and there's no rush, so hopefully it will be onwards and upwards, ��

Jo_Blogs

Well done to everyone. A great effort for January and a great push for February :T

Fruittea

February is being kind so far. One of my regular savings accounts has finished and paid out so that's a nice £2787.39 that I can call savings. The rate First Direct pay this year will be 5% on up to £300 a month for their regular savers - so I've opened up an account for another year.
House-sitting, dog walking and Ebaying are all doing well and I'm also on the grocery challenge - so saving on the shopping bills too - mainly by meal planning and shopping around.
So the savings stand at £3324.94 - I don't think there will be much more to come even at this early stage in the month. And I'm guessing March will be a quite one.
Good luck everyone.

Psychobabble78

Hi sf sent you through the update for January now I've found a device that will let me access it!! Including another 100 as I had forgotten I had popped it into my funding circle account