This is quite a long
post so grab a cuppa and get comfy!
Now I’m no ‘expert’
but in the last 5 years we have done some serious saving! We’ve
saved for a house deposit and also a wedding…so I thought I’d
share some of the tips that seem to have helped us as I know in this
day and age it seems impossible to save for house deposits especially
but don’t give up!
Also these are just a few tips and ideas,
there are so many so maybe I'll follow up with more in the near
future.
Set a (realistic)
amountWhether you’re saving for a big event such as a house
deposit or a wedding or you are just saving to pay any credit card
bills, maybe that nice holiday you keep pricing up? It’s always
best to set a realistic amount you can save weekly/monthly.
To
get an idea of how much you think you could save, take into account
all of the things you have come out of your account i.e. phone bills,
gym membership, Netflix, Spotify etc etc.
Then look at the figure
you are left with, also remember you still want to ‘live’ a
little so you don’t want to put the whole lot into savings and end
up with nothing.
So maybe start by putting half into a savings
account and see how you get on.
Now talking about savings
accounts, there are so many! If I’m completely honest I just opened
an online savers on the Lloyds mobile banking app as it’s so easy
to transfer money to and from, now I know this isn’t beneficial in
the way that I’m not making a lot if anything on interest but for
me I just wanted somewhere I can separate my savings.
If this is
something you are wanting to look into I’d recommend looking on
Money Supermarket as this is the money man Martin Lewis’ website
and he’s brilliant at things like this!
Memberships/Subscriptions
– do you need them?Everyone has at least one direct debit,
whether it be for the mortgage, car finance, phone contract etc
however most of us are guilty of having those direct debits to things
that we really don’t need!
If you have these whether it be gym
membership or Netflix, think to yourself, do you need them? Now I can
hear people gasping at the suggestion to get rid of their Netflix
subscription but if it’s something you only watch every now and
then is it really worth paying for? When was the last time you went
to the gym? Or used that music app?
If you have a service you are
paying for but you really don’t use, it might be time to cancel! If
you have doubts and think ‘Yes but I think I’ll use it in 5
months time’ well that’s fine there’s nothing to stop you from
signing back up but just think of the money you could save over the
month and year – it all helps!
Change (the money
kind!)
By this I don’t mean you need to change personally!
What I am referring to are those pennies which sit in your
purse/wallet until the end of time.
Start collecting those in a
tin or money pot. We have a Celebrations tin (no chocolates in there
obvs!) and we collect 1p’s, 2p’s and 5p’s. Anytime we have
change we just throw it in the tin and at the end of the month we
s
This is quite a long
post so grab a cuppa and get comfy!
Now I’m no ‘expert’
but in the last 5 years we have done some serious saving! We’ve
saved for a house deposit and also a wedding…so I thought I’d
share some of the tips that seem to have helped us as I know in this
day and age it seems impossible to save for house deposits especially
but don’t give up!
Also these are just a few tips and ideas,
there are so many so maybe I'll follow up with more in the near
future.
Set a (realistic)
amountWhether you’re saving for a big event such as a house
deposit or a wedding or you are just saving to pay any credit card
bills, maybe that nice holiday you keep pricing up? It’s always
best to set a realistic amount you can save weekly/monthly.
To
get an idea of how much you think you could save, take into account
all of the things you have come out of your account i.e. phone bills,
gym membership, Netflix, Spotify etc etc.
Then look at the figure
you are left with, also remember you still want to ‘live’ a
little so you don’t want to put the whole lot into savings and end
up with nothing.
So maybe start by putting half into a savings
account and see how you get on.
Now talking about savings
accounts, there are so many! If I’m completely honest I just opened
an online savers on the Lloyds mobile banking app as it’s so easy
to transfer money to and from, now I know this isn’t beneficial in
the way that I’m not making a lot if anything on interest but for
me I just wanted somewhere I can separate my savings.
If this is
something you are wanting to look into I’d recommend looking on
Money Supermarket as this is the money man Martin Lewis’ website
and he’s brilliant at things like this!
Memberships/Subscriptions
– do you need them?Everyone has at least one direct debit,
whether it be for the mortgage, car finance, phone contract etc
however most of us are guilty of having those direct debits to things
that we really don’t need!
If you have these whether it be gym
membership or Netflix, think to yourself, do you need them? Now I can
hear people gasping at the suggestion to get rid of their Netflix
subscription but if it’s something you only watch every now and
then is it really worth paying for? When was the last time you went
to the gym? Or used that music app?
If you have a service you are
paying for but you really don’t use, it might be time to cancel! If
you have doubts and think ‘Yes but I think I’ll use it in 5
months time’ well that’s fine there’s nothing to stop you from
signing back up but just think of the money you could save over the
month and year – it all helps!
Change (the money
kind!)
By this I don’t mean you need to change personally!
What I am referring to are those pennies which sit in your
purse/wallet until the end of time.
Start collecting those in a
tin or money pot. We have a Celebrations tin (no chocolates in there
obvs!) and we collect 1p’s, 2p’s and 5p’s. Anytime we have
change we just throw it in the tin and at the end of the month we
sort it into those plastic money bags (you can get these from the
bank)
You’ll be surprised how much you’ll end up with over a
few months. Also if you let people know you are saving those you tend
to find people are happy to get rid of loose change and will throw it
your way! Start this and see how much you have after 6 months, then
go and take to the bank and bank the cash! It’s such an easy way to
save just that little extra.
Anything and
Everything elseDo you go out a lot? And by out I don’t
necessarily mean ‘out out’ but just an odd Costa trip here and a
cheeky Nando’s there…? (I’ve never been to Nando’s so not
sure I’m qualified to use that phrase!) It might be worth planning
to only have say 2 days a month where you do these sort of things,
you’d be amazed how much you save! This does come back to the part
above where I mentioned you obviously don’t want to give up
absolutely everything and be miserable but just cutting out a couple
of lunch dates will help.
The same for Takeaways, these all add up
so maybe start having them as a once a month treat? You could always
make it fun and make your own takeaways, there are loads of recipes
on the internet for home-made Kebabs, Chinese, Pizza’s.
Whether you are saving
for a house deposit or that dream holiday I hope these tips have been
of help! If you have any more tips to save money share them in the
comments below to help others even more.
Let me know if you are
using any of these saving tips and if it’s helping.
Maxine
x
