Saving Money

Carl

Carl

Carl

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
3,517
Hi everyone! It's been a while since I last made a thread.

I was wondering if any of you have some advice that would help me to save money, I've been saying to myself for months that I'm going to start saving but haven't really saved anything, and now is a more perfect time than any.

I still live at home and want to save for a house deposit, whilst i have little out goings and responsibility's, even if it does feel questionable that ill ever save enough and meet current demands of a mortgage.

I've thought about starting a Santander First Home Saver, depositing £1000 then £300 a month standing order after that.

Or on the other hand paying myself £100 a week then saving the rest of my wages, or saving a reasonable amount via standing order each month.

What's worked for you? I know you can live on little and save lots with self control but your advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Carl :)

Also, what is the current deposit demand on the £100K house for a first time buyer and what schemes are out there to help with first time buyers?
 
I am abit crap with saving money as I tend to spend it again,

Im currently paying off a £2k overdraft, which iv payed back £650 so far, so less than £1500 to go. However for my debt repayment and savings, I am passing it to my dad who has an account set-up as I simply dont trust myself with spending money I should be saving in these hard times.

At the moment, im sending him

£470 a month to clear my overdraft, will be gone in another 2.5 months
£260 a month to put towards savings

In 2.5 months, I will have enough free cash to save £700 per month, and im looking forward to that :)
 
Best way is to treat it like a bill - at the start of each month transfer a set amount to a savings account, set up a standing order if you like.

Then you live on what's left, your lifestyle will adjust to whatever you have available so just make less available.

Oh and forget about the savings account, don't keep looking how much is in it, don't even think about it. If you do you'll always be thinking you can afford this or that and before you know it you'll have no savings and a good chunk of buyers remorse.
 
Does anyone know if there are any easy savings accounts I can sign up for these days which doesnt give me instant access?

I find it absolutly stupid that savings accounts are actually classed as savings accounts these days and they are "easy access" and you can easily control them by transferring money in and out the account within seconds online. They might aswel be called current accounts

The whole point of a savings account is to put away money that is away from your normal day to day life that you are not encouraged to use or spend.

Its why I have reverted to sending my money to my dad.
 
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I'd suggest an instant access postal account. You can get it if it's important, but the difficulty of actually getting at your money gets you past most consumerist urges.
 
Telescopi said:
I'd suggest an instant access postal account. You can get it if it's important, but the difficulty of actually getting at your money gets you past most consumerist urges.
Click to expand...

Something like this would be a lot better than having it available online where self control will in the end make people loose, ideally a choice between a postal service (3-5 days) postal account, or for the bigger saving funds a 30 day access savings account.
 
Just set up a automatic transfer to go into a savings account, open a savings account and as stated treat it like a bill. Let it automatically go into the savings and before long you will have alittle there.

I put around 100 a month away sometimes more sometimes less it depends on the month and what I spend.
 
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This is how I do it, it works very well:

When you get paid - take all the money that was in your current account before you got paid, and put it in a savings account, and leave it there.

Example:

Jan:
You get paid £1,500.
You go about your monthly business.
You have £357.98 left.
Feb:
You get paid £1,500.
You save £357.98
You go about your monthly business.
You have £400.21 left.
March:
You get paid £1,500.
You save £400.21.
-repeat-

You'll need 10% deposit, if you can go to 15% or 20% it helps a lot with monthly payments.
 
I want to know where this 100K house is :eek:

I would imagine a cattle shed in Orkney costing more than that these days :D
 
Also, what is the current deposit demand on the £100K house for a first time buyer and what schemes are out there to help with first time buyers
Click to expand...

I was told a few months back by my mortgage advisor, a 25% deposit is ideally needed these days. You can still get some mortgages with a lower deposit but you're looking at higher APR rates and higher fees etc etc

The total amount of mortgages lent last month were at an all time low and it's only set to get worse this year :-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...rning-as-banks-lending-targets-withdrawn.html

P.S. you can buy my 3 bed house if you want, £110k and it's yours! :P
 
Set up a standing order on another account, maybe a savings account. Burn or throw away the details so you won't have access unless you are physically present at the bank. Having said that, most importantly though, it's all about self control and lifestyle if you want to become successful at saving.

Note: This is not my personal approach, it's just an idea.
 
There's a lot of suggestions for automatic transfer to prevent yourself from slacking.

But if you transfer say £300 a month into a savings account, when you had £340 left in your bank at the end of the month - over a few months that £40 will add up, and you'll end up splashing it on something.

Some months you need to spend a bit more and don't want to save a fixed amount.

If the goal is to save as much as possible, I think the best advice is to live to your means.
Bank the balance of your current account each pay day and treat each payslip like it's all the money you own.
 
What you want is a regular savings account. Most banks do them. Generally you're limited to 250/300 per month at their advertised rate, and the money is tied in for a year. At the end of the year you get the money back plus the interest.

You pay in by standing order, and the interest rate is usually 3-5 %, which at the moment is very competitive.

But if you're only starting to save the interest is not a big thing, it should be far down the list of priorities.

Telescopi gave exactly the right advice.

If you need to go further... then set up a second bank account.

Account 1 - Receives salary, SO to bills account (second bank account), SO to savings account. No other DDs or SOs.
Account 2 - Receives SO for bills. All bills come from this account. Don't use the debit card.

That way you pay all your bills and savings as soon as your salary arrives, and whatever is left in account 1 you know it's ok to spend, and you know that's how much you have left until the end of the month.

Finally, you need to save more than you think. You need to save monthly to pay for Christmas, holidays, weddings, birthdays and perhaps even nights out and clothes, depending on how you do things.

Ultimately you need to find a system that works for you.
 
For me I've done things a bit of an odd way.

I generally try to keep £1000 in my current account (in case of emergency funds really) From the wages I get I have a direct debit of £150 going into my savings ISA (thats the one linked to the stock market) whilst I can add to my cash ISA (dont at the mo since it earns bugger all interest!) and just this last year I've invested in Premium bonds (only won 25 off them but almost as good as the interest from my ISA. I've almost got enough for a deposit on a 2 bed house plus solicitors fees and some basic furniture. It does get boring as I'd pretty much shifted all my wages (minus general outgoings) into other accounts but every so often i do treat myself. Over the past 3 years of saving I've had trips to Prague, South Africa and Las Vegas as well as buying over 5k worth of camera equipment and a new PC.

It spreads the cash around a bit and I think so far my savings ISA has earned me nearly 800quid (although for a good year i was losing money!) whilst the cash and Premium bonds are more holding accounts due to low interest rates and not winning much! All of the money can be accessed within a months notice so when i do decide to pool everything together i know i can within a reasonable timescale.
 
Don't think about saving until the debt is cleared!

The money you where paying the debt off is now excess! Pay this into an account whether it be a savings or standard.

Plus the money you where originally going to save is also going into that account!.

Another thing is maybe get your parents to open the account for you thus not having access to the account you can't use your cash.
 
Like many others I transfer an amount each month to my flex savings account (from which I then invest, put into other accounts like regular savers etc.).

But I vary the amount each month according to what I think I can save using an annual budget I create. Possibly a bit OTT for personal finance but it gives me confidence that I know how the year is likely to play out financially.
 
You can't spent what you cannot get at (in the short term)
Pay yourself the absolute minimum you need to survive with pocket money left over and bung the rest into an account you get penalised for accessing or one that takes time to release the funds.
 
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