The "Save 12k in 2021" Thread!

Lomcevak

Lomcevak said:

#45 in with ... an early update of £3,650 for December

Oops, I can't count - should have been £3,900 for December - have resubmitted

ForestBluebells

#21 reporting £2,298.98 this month. Had to withdraw some for Christmas gifts and my annual car insurance but had commission at work and £50 premium bond win plus plenty of freelance earnings and cash back so totalled up to a very nice sum. 

Totals £18,258.93 saved for the year! I’m actually £26,950.13 up on my December 21 total so the rest must be investment growth. 

Making up for lost time and working really hard to achieve my goals. Hoping for a good 2022 savings year too until I eventually feel back on track. 

Not sure I’ll get a pay rise again next year despite not having one this year too so may end up having less spare income especially with the April tax increase and increase in bills. 😞

geoffers4

Reporting £1554.16 for December, just about making my target for 2021.

At the end of each year I like to look back through my budget spreadsheet and see where the money has gone and anything more or less than I budgeted back in January. Helps me set more realistic target for the year ahead, and also see if there is any ‘lifestyle inflation’ I want to trim back:

Income – close. £285 less than expected – rubbish interest rates on savings

Council Tax – budget £2.2k actual 2.2k, easy to predict

Electricity/Gas – budget £1k actual £.97k. I know this is going up a lot in 2022 though

Water – budget £.37k actual .39k

Broadband – budget £.35k actual .35k

Milk – budget £.23k actual .2k. A small gesture to support a local diary and use glass bottles

TV licence – budget £.16k actual .15k

House insurance – budget £.17k actual .1k - ridiculously cheap

Groceries – budget £1.9k actual £1.9k WOOT! No idea how this was so accurate

Home improvements – budget £.8k actual .07k - we need to do some re-decorating in 2022

Home maintenance – budget £.36k actual £60 – been putting off a few jobs

Personal items – budget £.65k actual £3.5k – ok Covid got to me so I spent a lot on Spanish lessons and a shiny new gaming PC. Muy Bien.

Animals, children, family – budget £3.6k actual £4.3k – elderly dog and relatives needing support

Transportation – budget £2.3k actual £1.7k – huge drop in petrol costs with WFH mostly

Health – budget £46 actual £181 – dental work and other meds I needed

Charity/Gifts – budget £.3k actual .87k

Entertainment – budget £.4k actual .3k – Covid meant we didn’t feel like going out much

Holidays – budget £4k actual £1.8k –  a trip to Canaries for most of December, loved it

Total outgoings – budget £18730   actual £18920.

See you on the 2022 thread!

thewildrabbit

Made my total this year, have included ISA and AVC contributions as they are in addition to my pension and can be accessed if required. I have not added the growth on the funds. Thank you SF for doing this, makes the savings journey easier.

Betharooni

#13 reporting in with total for December of £1,465.61 and total for year of £17,953.61. Extremely happy with that. Am already signed up for 2022 and looking for another money saving year.

Thanks as always slowlyfading for your amazing work.

Form submitted.

B x

cathybird

Afternoon all, no. 10 reporting £1,670.01 for December, bringing my total for the year to £9,379.32. Happy with that!

I won't be taking part in next year's challenge due to having taking early retirement this month so I will living off pensions etc next year and seeing how it goes ... in other words, maintaining, rather than aiming to save up a lump sum. I do want to say though how grateful I am to this challenge, since before I joined MSE I had no idea how to be a saver and it turned me into one. So many thanks to Slowlyfading and to everyone here, and may there be many years of happy saving to come! Happy New Year, everyone xx

AuburnEnigma

#40 with my last report for 2021:

·         Into ISA (ii): £1000

·         Fidelity SIPP: £100 + £25 tax relief

·         Savethechange: £4.40

·         Grand total: £1129.40; YTD: £18763.43

So I'm a bit down on my revised target of £20k, but considering I was unemployed for nearly 5 months and I haven't been able to put as much into my ISA recently, I'm pretty pleased with that. I've saved more than my current salary, so that is certainly something. Off to do the update form now.

Happy New Year everyone, and I'll see most of you on the 2022 thread 

Xenon

Xenon #37

December £5617

Mortgage Deposit/Costs £154,260

Merlin's_Beard

£1898.02

For 2021: that's £12,316.72 saved for a house deposit, and £3,550.00 (net) into a SIPP beyond my workplace pension, so pretty happy with that!

Including workplace pension contributions, tax relief and growth that's a £25,800 (ish) increase in net worth. Really happy with that.

Plan for 2022: buy a house, then increase pension contributions and open an S&S ISA for a more FIRE-y goal (or at least the FI part of it).

Huge thanks to those on this thread for sharing their journeys and the conversations that keep me going.

Jami74

I didn't meet my target, but still happy to end the year with more than I started with (counted as cash balance at the close of business on the last day of each month). 

Big events this year included a change of job (3 different jobs across the year) and child 1 starting university and needing a bigger accommodation deposit than expected. Positives include spending slightly less on Christmas than I had budgeted for and watching my tiny S&S ISA go up and down and up The big negative was the monthly electric direct debit nearly doubling but the heating is going off next week, everyone got fluffly thermals for Christmas

I am still a long way off getting a mortgage or retiring, but at least I still have my health. 

Happy New Year everyone!