How much should I save

Mica98

Hi, so I earn £700 per month.
£300 for board (£75 a week)
£36.90 for transport (per month)
£39.99 for my phone bill (per month)
£5.99 for netflix (per month)
This leaves me with £317.12 for the month.
I get paid on a weekly basis, so what would be a good amount to save per week? I'd like to have some money to spend on myself too.  I want to save at least £1000    (or more) by the end of the year

bowlhead99

It can be tricky being paid weekly with monthly commitments. For example your board is not both £300 a month and £75 a week, because some months will have five weekly paydays and others four. On average though, either it's  agreed to be £300 a month (£3600 a year, 69.23 a week), or it's £75 a week (£3900 a year, on average £325 a month).

How much you can save depends whether spending 'some money' on yourself for food, clothes, gadgets, holidays, going out etc means £100 or £300 a month. It might be not much in some months and a lot more in others, because some items or events will need to be paid for all at once rather than little and often.

One way to look at your savings goal is that there are 41 Fridays before the end of the year so if you save £25 a week and don't spend any of that money you will have a little over £1000 by the end of the year.  If that seems reasonable and affordable, would £50 a week still be reasonable and affordable? if so, try it, and you'll have £2000 at the end of the year instead.

kuratowski

I think you should start by moving £100 to an easy access savings account each month immediately when you get paid, and see where that gets you.  If you can manage on the remaining £217, then you'll have hit your £1000 goal by end of December (assuming you start this month).  If you do find you have spare left over at the end of the month, you could increase your savings and hit the £1000 goal sooner.

Edit: I didn't absorb the part about you being paid weekly!  🤦‍♂️ Then I would change the above to £25 a week, as bowlhead99 already said.

Mica98

bowlhead99 said:

It can be tricky being paid weekly with monthly commitments. For example your board is not both £300 a month and £75 a week, because some months will have five weekly paydays and others four. On average though, either it's  agreed to be £300 a month (£3600 a year, 69.23 a week), or it's £75 a week (£3900 a year, on average £325 a month).

How much you can save depends whether spending 'some money' on yourself for food, clothes, gadgets, holidays, going out etc means £100 or £300 a month. It might be not much in some months and a lot more in others, because some items or events will need to be paid for all at once rather than little and often.

One way to look at your savings goal is that there are 41 Fridays before the end of the year so if you save £25 a week and don't spend any of that money you will have a little over £1000 by the end of the year.  If that seems reasonable and affordable, would £50 a week still be reasonable and affordable? if so, try it, and you'll have £2000 at the end of the year instead.

Do you think it would be easier if I try and move my monthly bill dates closer together? My bus pass is the 3rd of the month, netflix the 15th and my phone bill is the 28th 

Mica98

kuratowski said:

I think you should start by moving £100 to an easy access savings account each month immediately when you get paid, and see where that gets you.  If you can manage on the remaining £217, then you'll have hit your £1000 goal by end of December (assuming you start this month).  If you do find you have spare left over at the end of the month, you could increase your savings and hit the £1000 goal sooner.

Edit: I didn't absorb the part about you being paid weekly!  🤦‍♂️ Then I would change the above to £25 a week, as bowlhead99 already said.

I did originally think about doing £20 per week but I see that £25 will help me get to the goal sooner. I'm trying to spend less on leisure but at the same time it can feel depressing being the only one in the friendship group with no money. I do tend to stay home often to prevent me from spending

kuratowski

Good luck!  I can tell you right now, however much you have, there is always someone with more money than you.  Don't ever try and keep up with others.  Make the best life you can but stay within the resources available.

Notepad_Phil

To get to a thousand by Dec 31st means that if you start immediately then you'll need to put approx £25 per week away into your savings. So aim to start to put that away and see how it goes - hopefully you find you have other money left over too and can add that to your savings too.

If you're able to join an employer's pension scheme, then don't forget to join that too.

george4064

Have you thought about trying to reduce your monthly costs? Few things come to mind;

1. £39.99 per month for your mobile phone is pretty expensive, have you considered a cheaper contract?

2. With regards to Netflix, it’s very easy to share an account with someone else, perhaps a family member or a close friend? There are different accounts available that let you watch Netflix at the same time on multiple devices. For example Premium costs £12.99 per month and let’s you use 4 devices at the same time. So share that with 3 friends you only pay £3 each per month and you get ultra HD Netflix!

Mica98

george4064 said:

Have you thought about trying to reduce your monthly costs? Few things come to mind;

1. £39.99 per month for your mobile phone is pretty expensive, have you considered a cheaper contract?

2. With regards to Netflix, it’s very easy to share an account with someone else, perhaps a family member or a close friend? There are different accounts available that let you watch Netflix at the same time on multiple devices. For example Premium costs £12.99 per month and let’s you use 4 devices at the same time. So share that with 3 friends you only pay £3 each per month and you get ultra HD Netflix!

I called my network (3 mobile) and they said I can't get my contract reduced until june since that will be the last 4 months of my contract. Regarding netflix, I don't mind paying for it since I'm the only one who uses it, it's mainly my phone bill which is a bit of a nuisance. Thanks for the suggestions  

coachman12

Mica98 said:

Hi, so I earn £700 per month.
£300 for board (£75 a week)
£36.90 for transport (per month)
£39.99 for my phone bill (per month)
£5.99 for netflix (per month)
This leaves me with £317.12 for the month.
I get paid on a weekly basis, so what would be a good amount to save per week? I'd like to have some money to spend on myself too.  I want to save at least £1000    (or more) by the end of the year

What do you do with the remaining £317.12 at present, Mica ? Are you already saving an amount now ? If you are struggling with £317.12 now, how would you fare with only £217.12 ( assuming savings as suggested in this thread to get you to the magic £1000 by December) ? Do you need the £1000 amount for something specific or is it just an aim or a "test" for yourself ?
The phone needs reducing  ( a lot ) whatever you decide to do. But the very best of luck whatever you decide.

Mica98

coachman12 said:

Mica98 said:

Hi, so I earn £700 per month.
£300 for board (£75 a week)
£36.90 for transport (per month)
£39.99 for my phone bill (per month)
£5.99 for netflix (per month)
This leaves me with £317.12 for the month.
I get paid on a weekly basis, so what would be a good amount to save per week? I'd like to have some money to spend on myself too.  I want to save at least £1000    (or more) by the end of the year

What do you do with the remaining £317.12 at present, Mica ? Are you already saving an amount now ? If you are struggling with £317.12 now, how would you fare with only £217.12 ( assuming savings as suggested in this thread to get you to the magic £1000 by December) ? Do you need the £1000 amount for something specific or is it just an aim or a "test" for yourself ?
The phone needs reducing  ( a lot ) whatever you decide to do. But the very best of luck whatever you decide.

I'm looking for a new job as I'm only working part time at the moment. I don't need the £1000 for anything specific, I just want to have savings behind me and I want to see how well I can save. As for my phone bill, there's really not much I can do, as I mentioned above, I called my network provider and they said I cannot get a reduction until June which is really annoying.