How on earth do you save?!

Coffeekup

sacha28 said:

Thank you both for your words of encouragement. 

I have opened a basic account with barclays that my husband and I will be setting up a standing order from our respective accounts for £100 a month, starting at the end of the month. Although this is only a tiny amount, it's only until the new year (want to get Christmas out of the way first before the big savings begin). I've been musing if I should put away half the agency into it, rather than all? That way I don't feel I'm working for nothing? Or is that a stupid idea? I could do 3 agency shifts a month which would mean £450ish a month doing it this way (but some months may be less, so I don't die, some months could be more if my permanent job shifts allow).

20 year's ago I owed £15,000 and spent 7 years in a debt management plan, all in all it was about 8 years of torment. I said to myself once it all gets paid off, I'm just going to move the money across to a savings account and did exactly that. These days having someone (my daughter) that relies on my financial planning also puts the pressure on me to get it right. 

Once I started putting savings into one account and once I saw how quick it grew it was easier to keep at it. The downside was when I dipped into it a kept loosing focus and motivation and thought what's the point.... That's when I realized I needed to save into a number of accounts.

So I have money go into my main account every month, and I move money across into a number of accounts every month...
A bills account, which pays all household bills and I put 10% more in there a year than what goes out for peace of mind.
A 3rd account for birthdays and Christmas gifts
A 4th account for breakdown's which will replace TV's, toasters, boiler etc when they go bang.
A 5th account for treat's so if I see something I like I can buy it or go out, if there is no money in it I have to say no.
A 6th account for holidays which accounts for travel and holiday spending money too.
Finally a 7th account which is just savings and doesn't get touched.
All of the accounts fluctuate which doesn't bother me as account number 7 is the main saver. At the end of the year any money left in the other accounts gets moved across to number 7.

The key is to budget I.e. for birthdays and Christmas write down everyone you buy for, set them a budget and multiply by 2 this will.get everyone a Christmas and birthday gift, then divide by 12 then round the number up to the nearest tenner and everyone will have a gift. You'll have enough money in there at some point to buy someone a Xmas gift in July if you see something that suits that particular person.

kimwp

I echo the regular savings advice - I started as soon as I started earning regularly and as it was locked away for a year, it was easy to get used to not touching it. Allocating amounts to different things will help too - house deposit, emergencies etc.

Paul_O_4

If you are new to savings and wanting to break old habits, why not have some fun with it..:

Premium Bonds could be a fun way to get into the habit. If you aren’t familiar, they are like buying lottery tickets, but your money is always yours. Every month you could win prizes up to £1m. The bonds are government ones so your money is safe.

Also, I’d suggest you transfer the money on pay day via a standing order so that you never see the money. If it’s not there in the first place, you can’t spend it.

You don’t earn interest on premium bonds and whilst statistically you probably won’t win, this is about having a bit of fun with your money and might help to encourage saving? You might even win! And you’ll get all your money back at the end anyway.

EssexHebridean

Kakiste said:

I use pots for things I know will be regular monthly expenses, I also set myself a small amount of personal money to spend on whatever I want each month- once that money has gone, it's gone and no more personal spending until the next month- if I reach the end of the month with any left then it rolls over. 

I also transfer a set amount of savings out every month into a completely different account- that way it's not sitting there looking at me whenever I open my banking app. 

I do similar with the personal spending money, except that money left at the end of the month is used to boost one or other personal savings fund. I split my personal money between two accounts - one that any direct debits come out of - and I deliberately over-fund that slightly each month. The debit card on that account never comes out, and I never withdraw cash out of it either. The second account is purely "money in/money out" via my debit card - that's the card I have on my phone payments too for personal spending - and it covers all the incidental spending for the month - a round of drinks in the pub or at the rugby club, a meal out with friends, or a cuppa and a snack when on a day out for example.

EssexHebridean

One more point - deliberately posted separately. It sounds like your Barclays account isn't earning you any interest? That - particularly at the moment - is a bit counter-productive as it means that in real terms the money you stash away in there will actually be worth less month on month. My suggestion would be to either open a regular saver account for a term of a year (there are various decent ones about - First Direct have one paying 3.5% on up to £300 a month currently and you could potentially get a switching bonus for opening the current account that gives you access to that, as well) or even an ISA - again there are some reasonable 1-year fixed rates about now. I don't suppose by any chance you had any previous flickers of the lightbulb moment that lead you to open a Lifetime ISA while you were still eligible, did you? If so then that would be a no brainer to fund!  The reason for saying a 1 year fix is a) it means you will be demotivated to remove money from the account as it will mean a loss of interest and b) a year is probably about the maximum time that the rates that seem "decent" now will continue to do so - I'm fully expecting that the 3%+ cash ISA I recently opened will be overtaken in a short space of time by easy access accounts, for example! 

The alternative if you aren't bothered about the potential loss of "real world value" to your savings would as said above be Premium Bonds - the money is safe, and there IS always the chance of a prize, although definitely don't assume you'll win anything, and certainly not on a small amount of bonds held! 

theoretica

Try to make savings a positive thing - not the negative of 'money I haven't spent now' but the definite positive of money I have put into savings. 

Also acknowledge that it seems for you the immediate spending seems more appealing than the future spending, so work on making the savings goal more real to you - future things that you want and not just increasing numbers. 

kimwp

theoretica said:

Try to make savings a positive thing - not the negative of 'money I haven't spent now' but the definite positive of money I have put into savings. 

Also acknowledge that it seems for you the immediate spending seems more appealing than the future spending, so work on making the savings goal more real to you - future things that you want and not just increasing numbers. 

To add to this, have you thought about doing a thermometer chart or similar - you can colour it in as you add to your savings.

RobM99

Differentiate between 'need' and 'want'.   Only buy the "need" stuff!

gd55

Saving in specific pots/accounts for dedicated purposes, and putting the money in there as soon as I get paid, has made the move from paying off debts to saving for the future a simple and enjoyable one for me.

Nearly a year after completing my IVA and I have a completely different, and sustainable, attitude towards money, and its genuinely exciting.

Andyjflet

sacha28 said:

Thank you both for your words of encouragement. 

I have opened a basic account with barclays that my husband and I will be setting up a standing order from our respective accounts for £100 a month, starting at the end of the month. Although this is only a tiny amount, it's only until the new year (want to get Christmas out of the way first before the big savings begin). I've been musing if I should put away half the agency into it, rather than all? That way I don't feel I'm working for nothing? Or is that a stupid idea? I could do 3 agency shifts a month which would mean £450ish a month doing it this way (but some months may be less, so I don't die, some months could be more if my permanent job shifts allow).

And here is where the mindset bit starts..... waiting to save more until after Christmas for example is just another way of putting things off, cut back on your Christmas, start saving today. x