How much do you spend/save?

ms_london

I have been thinking about when i am debt free, and am interested to hear how other people spend their wages. (those who are debt free). Do you save, say 10% and spend the rest, spend £100 a week or just spend as you feel/dont save at all. I am interested thats all. I am taking about "fun money" - money just to spend as you please, clothes, going out, socialising etc etc.

I wonder if people around me are living off less than i think or are blowing all of their wages (and more) on living a particular lifestyle.

Sorry this is a bit of a ramble!! Not sure if it makes any sense.... :0)

For example, once i am debt free i will have £890 a month disposable income (supposing my circumstances say the same). I couldnt justify not saving any of that each month, and as i have said before, will probably save around £400-£500 a month. Initially since i want to go travelling it will go towards that, but afterwards, where will it go. I expect it will depend on my circumstances at the time.

Tell me about you, how old are you? Whats your monthly income? How much do you save each month? Whats your budget? Or are you regularly using your plastic and cannot Live Within Your Means?

Ms_London

(thinking out loud - hope you dont mind me posting!!)

squeaky

I think this post would have more readers who would be able to help you if it was in a finance orientated forum and so I'm going to look for one for you.

HappySad

MS_London

This is a good thread. When I first got my job I was taking home £750 and I spent all of it. Then I later got another job and too home £1000 a month and I spent all of it. One year I was ill and I was off work for a few months. I had no money to pay the mortgage and I borrowed money from my father to pay for things and to survive. I learnt the hard way to save for a rainly day.

So I rented a room in my house and saved that money. I kept 2months income in a saving account for a rainy day. When I got a better job I then got £1200 a month. I spent £1000 and saved the £200. When my saving got very big I would use some of it to do improvements to my house...but I always made sure I had 2months income saved there.

My heightest income was £1800 a month ...so again I spent £1000 and saved the rest. With the large saving I was able to buy my new car in full using the money I save.


I used the saving to live on while I was on maternity leave and because I had all that saving I was able to purchase all the things I needed for my baby and also take off the full year off as maternity leave.

I see the saving as a pool of money that I can use to make large purchases where normally somone else would take out a loan for. It also protects me for that rainy day for if I am ill again.


It is good to save as much as you can, because when you are in need of some money you can ask youself how much you want to give yourself from your saving account, instead of getting out a loan and also paying out for loan payment protection.

Living very well on less and follow the tips from this website and you will be able to save a lot more money without going down on the quality of you lifestyle.

deefadog

Hi, With what i have left each month (no where near what you have), I split the savings into two categories:

1) Divided the cost of car insurance, car tax, Xmas spending for the year and split per month and save that! (no nasty surprises then!) I use a an xl spread sheet to keep track and work out spending!

2) The rest is saved for rainy day

3) also all my out going is in a XL spread sheet also! and is updated all the time, so i know exactly what is going out next month, really helps keep track!

goo luck

deemy2004

I spend less than I earn in interest so my whole salary is surplus and goes back into savings & investments.

Also with the stock market booming theres additional capital appreciation on top

Though about £50k of my savings is stoozed cash, and with the charges on balance transfers appearing everywhere this is likely to disappear or be greatily reduced, but still interest will exceed expenditure.

Just do a monthly budget to see what your earning and what your spending and where your investing. And then every month fine tune it in favour of maximising your savings and maximising your interest.

Walletwatch

We spend about £80 a week (it comes to around £300-350 per month), and all of it comes from my interest income (on an accrual and not cash basis). Me and my wife are late twenties, and between us, we take home in the range of £4000 a month, of which the only expenditure we have to pay for is the house rent (£1000 per month)

Expenses like conveyance, council tax, utility bills, etc are paid for on actuals by the company I work for, so that works out very convenient for me ;-) Am on a very cheap corporate O2 deal for both me and the wife, as a result of which our combined phone bill hardly exceeds £15 a month. I have an ntl: land line, which I am paying £11 (the minimum) and I make all my calls using 1899 and 18866, paying them around £20 a month.

The rest of it goes towards savings, which in turn boosts my interest income per month - the whole thing works out as a good positive spiral - the idea is clear - to work towards financial independence, where even the house rent / mortgage (if I ever go for one) is paid for from interest income, and the asset block keeps building and generating passive income to take care of the expenses (a la Rich Dad)

deemy2004

Yeh the goal I am working towards... is interest minus 2% for inflation > spending.

lipidicman

Deemy, either you have been saving a long time, or you live somewhere pretty cheap! Good if you can get it!

deefadog

Was going to say the same

I find it difficult to put savings away each month LoL

Any tips then Deemy?

CrazyIndianZA

Good thread!

Age 32 (and 32 for wf). Debt free for about one and a half years although I will hopefully be buying a London flat soon...

We don't operate on a specific savings target although we do perform a review every couple of months to make sure we are not too extravagant. When I started my first job, I watched every cent using Excel/MS Money but keep in mind that my first monthly salary was ZAR 1500 = +- GBP 130

For the first 5 months of this year, we spent about 40-60% of our total household income. This did include a holiday (£2k) and gifts to parents (£1k).

I will admit that this includes a couple of indulgences viz. tennis & martial arts fees are in the region of £150-200 per month but...my attitude is that I don't touch alcohol (no expensive pubs!!!!), don't eat out a lot,only do bday and not xmas presents, have no tv and use the library a lot so I am entitled to some luxury.

As for plastic, I have 4 of those little creatures but all balances are current.

Respect to Deemy2004 and his plan!

deemy2004

deefadog wrote:

Was going to say the same

I find it difficult to put savings away each month LoL

Any tips then Deemy?

Tips ?

1. Never borrow money...
2. keep an eye on every penny you spend
3. No compulsive buying - everything is a planned purchase, i..e you look for deals, any means of getting discounting, example - Online purchases if you have a website you can be an affiliate to the item your purchasing and hence get a discount sometimes as high as 20% !
4. Develop several income streams on top of your job, start small and over the years they will grow.
5. Every Month - Evaluate your spending , income and investments to maximise returns. For instance when you see an opportunity to fix money at high rates for several years than take it ! Aug / Sept 04 was a great time for fix deals, many bonds in excess of 6% !
6. Credit Card Stoozing - Offcourse now its coming to an end with the transfer charges appearning everywhere, but had a good run for several years with still some £50k stoozed !