Making savings before it's too late

Siebrie · 27 April 2018 at 11:06AM

Blackcatsreturns wrote: »

We had a talk a few years ago from a financial advisor who said that when she did a full spending review with her clients many of them were spending approx 90% of their income. It didn't matter if the income was £20000 or £100;000 the expenditure was about 90%. When I thought about it that made sense to me - more money to spend means more expensive things to buy - a bigger house, a fancier car, more expensive holidays, more expensive clothes, bags, shoes etc. Shopping from the more expensive supermarkets etc etc.

Isn't it also the general advice is to save at least 10% of your income? It's a tip I read a lot on American financial blogs and forums. It seems that most people seem to ignore the 'at least' bit.

tori.k · 30 April 2018 at 8:48AM

Finally got back on-line it's been quite a shock how much we depend on the internet with everything being online and how awkward its become to function without access.
So think as a family we need to look at how dependent we've become on these services and make a few changes.
We are also having to relearn how to live in a normal sized house again,as we were spoilt for space in the conversion and I can't deal with the clutter especially with us still living out of boxes.
money wise we are sailing close to the wind this month,so no more money is going into the house till end of April, we have enough smaller jobs to be getting on with but need the accounts to recover a bit from finalising the bills from one house to another and what we've already done. I decided from the off I wouldn't use credit and standing firm on that issue, when friends come over they will just have to wipe there feet on the way out :rotfl:

[Deleted User] · 1 May 2018 at 7:18AM

april has gone quickly and been a positive month ie I have managed to put a month target by into my bills float/savings attached to my current account. I have cash in my cash wallet, enough to see me through several months. My current balance is comfortable with one pinch point, just for a few days after my house/contents insurance goes out and I have set that up for mid may.

CC has been good during april, not much in the way of impulsive buys but I did buy another bottle of expensive cbd oil a couple of days ago, for me it is an aches and pains life saver when I have overdone the work and house hunting. Gets me back to pain free and relaxed. It will last me 4 months at least, so is cheap at the price

I don`t think there will be unexpected expenses in may and I want to try and add a few £ to my ns&i account as it is more out of sight than my bills float. I cannot see me topping the bills float this month as more than that will be going out as a cash payment for house/contents. Now it is may, I will transfer all forthoming bills for another month ahead on m/s money. I think that will halp me plan to july and so far so good, the first month was hardest but I feel well into the swing of it now

moneyistooshorttomention · 1 May 2018 at 7:39AM

Here - it's "Thank goodness the 'bits' spending seems to have finished at last - just the second installment to pay on a pair of curtains I'm having made for me to go". Fingers crossed hard I'm not tempting fate here - having recently had to spend £140 on a computer repair.

Then I shall build up my "cash float" money again in the bank account and that will go back to normal at last. It's been literally years of everything going straight out the door for work on the house - so thank goodness for that winding down now.

After I've finished getting back my "cash flow money" in bank account, then I'll get some "visit Home Area" money in there too and top that back up again after each visit. To be concluded by topping my savings back up again to "basic minimum level" (yep...the house expenses even dug down into that:mad: - courtesy of having to get some work re-done for being poor quality - now gone from Awful Quality to Poor Quality - one day I might have it re-done with yet another tradesperson and see if I can get it Normal Quality:cool:).

lessonlearned · 1 May 2018 at 11:43AM

Well I have been speculating to accumulate. :rotfl: or at least save money. Hopefully.

I have. just ordered a carpet shampooer. £190. But that's got to be cheaper than getting someone in to do it for me. It will get used here and hopefully in my next property too because I doubt that I will be able to have new carpets straight away, wouldn't want to anyway prefer to get a y mucky jobs out if the way first.

I also bought 3 books off Amazon....yes I know I wasnt supposed to but these were all diy and decorating books from the £0.01 range, so all I had to pay is the postage. I shall need these for my next house.

Been around with the paintbrush this morning just doing some touching up. Houses are a bit like the Forth bridge aren't they. No sooner do you think you are finished then there's something else needing your attention. I need to keep the house looking immaculate so I can get my asking price......:rotfl:

Kittie.....I use CBD oil from time to time. I tend to use it only when I am pretty desperate because it upsets my tummy. Although that could just be the brand I'm using.

Hey ho....quick cup of coffee and back to the grindstone.....

[Deleted User] · 1 May 2018 at 12:40PM

lessonlearned wrote: »

Kittie.....I use CBD oil from time to time. I tend to use it only when I am pretty desperate because it upsets my tummy..

it did me the first time, now I take it after a meal as it takes hours to work anyway. I get mine from cbd brothers, all been good so far. I ordered the gums this time, I am thinking it was the oil that upset my tum
https://www.quintessentialtips.com/collections/all/oral

I had a carpet shampooer in my last house and it was worth every penny. This house I have sisal carpets upstairs and on stairs and they can only be dry treated but are very hard wearing and I love them. I would get sisal again, even though I know they cost a lot. I am hoping eventually for sisal up and wood or stone down. . In the meantime I am detaching my head from looking, no point if there is nothing for sale in the area that I want.

lessonlearned · 1 May 2018 at 12:47PM

Just read an article from my broker......it says On average Brits only have savings for 32days......:eek:

Mind there was a time when I didn't even have that........

moneyistooshorttomention · 1 May 2018 at 1:15PM

lessonlearned wrote: »

Just read an article from my broker......it says On average Brits only have savings for 32days......:eek:

Mind there was a time when I didn't even have that........

You and me both LL..

I read recently that the average British household has £14,000 debt:eek:.

I'm taking it as read that that doesnt include mortgage or any student loan - but only means "debt" per se iyswim.

I'm still wondering whether that was net or gross debt (ie they have £14k on average, but have some savings they could use to pay off some of that £14k - so it's not quite as bad as it looks).

I am guessing not - as a different article I read recently said what savings the average British person has - comparing by agegroup. As one would expect - the higher the agegroup = the higher the amount of savings. But even the older agegroups (ie the ones with most savings) only had VERY small savings on average. Think it was only around £1,000-£2,000??

To me - I'm aiming to get back to at least enough to cover, say, if I had to pay a bill for two cataract operations (ie £5,000 - just in case not just the NHS, but my private health insurer let me down as well) or an expensive house repair (eg having to swop the boiler - again).

EDIT; It's not just people with older (therefore possibly iller) bodies that need savings. Even as a working age person and once my mortgage was paid off at last - I always tried to have at least enough money to one side in case I got made redundant again - so that I wouldnt be forced to take a job that would be a "problem" to me (eg too far away or antisocial hours etc). Though, goodness knows, these days the waits for Universal Credit if one becomes unemployed sound horrendous and one needs a bit to one side, if possible, to cope with that.

suki1964 · 1 May 2018 at 3:24PM

lessonlearned wrote: »

Just read an article from my broker......it says On average Brits only have savings for 32days......:eek:

Mind there was a time when I didn't even have that........

Tell me about it, yet when you warn youngsters just starting out to have at least 3 months living expenses saved, you are told you are talking rot

[Deleted User] · 1 May 2018 at 3:37PM

In the 70s (or 80s nor sure) when there was terrible austerity, hubbie came home and said that they (the staff ) had all voted to go onto half salary, rather than any lose their job. It was out of the blue, we had 3 children and I was not working although I was a frugal mum and thank goodness I was. We had no debt but no savings at all, barely kept above water, ate beans and tomatoes from the garden and very little else. Priority was the mortagage, many people were losing their homes. Got through that but it was a lesson and a half

We didn`t manage to save much though, not until I was past 50 and thank goodness we had the children when we were young. I had a job and everything we had, we threw at paying off the mortgage capital, an endowment mortgage, which gobbled up many people, who did not get enough endowment insurance back to pay it off. I never thought we would get to being comfortable in our old age and this only happened because of paying the mortagage off early and then we really could save hard

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Making savings before it's too late

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