£3050 a month after tax, NI and pension contribution how much is realistic amount to save?

[Figaro88]

I want to set a standing order up to go into our saving account each month, with the above take home pay what would you see as a realistic amount. Family of 5 the 3 dc range from 13-7.

Noone can tell you that without knowing your outgoings. You could save £50, you could save £2,000.

This is impossible to answer without knowing your outgoings.mortgage? Debts? Private school? Kids activities? All makes a big difference to what you can save

How are we supposed to know when you haven’t shared any of your other outgoings?

Are you saving for something in particular that has an end date? Or just a rainy day?

Rent £570
Council tax £92
Home insurance £20
Car insurance £55
EON £92
Water £23
National Trust £10
Netflix £12
Amazon Prime £8
Spotify £15
BT £40
Vodaphone £100 (4 mobiles)
Car tax £16
Food £400
Petrol £160
Prepaid prescription £10.
Tv license paid yearly
I think that is everything

What does that all come to in total?

What are the savings for? Just because/true emergencies like job loss or illness, or is this to cover things like insurance, Christmas, holidays, broken cars, pets and washing machines etc, as in you would expect to spend them sometime within the next few months and never really build up to more than a couple of grand, or a bit more if you can afford a more expensive holiday. because for all the latter things, you'd probably need a few hundred pounds a month at least.

Sounds like you need to look at your budget from the beginning. Go through all the advice here and do everything that's relevant:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/

Should help you maximise your income, minimise outgoings and hence maximise the amount for saving.

£400 ?

Cross posted. You could probably get that mobile phone cost down for a start. Ouch!

I was thinking £1000 a month which will leave us with £400ish to play with. Not saving for anything in particular just sick of wasting money each month on junk for the kids and general crap we don't need. For argument sake if on of the dc lost their winter coat and needed a replacement I would happily transfer £50 out of savings for it. So I guess I want to save instead of waste my money.

Our income and outgoings are broadly similar and we aim to save £1000 a month (just whatever we have left over) it's usually about £800/£900. £10k a year

I think it would also depend on all your other outgoings too. How much does the following total up each month:

Mortgage repayments
Food shopping
Council tax
Are your children in extra clubs
Mobile phones
Clothing
Makeup
Internet
gym?
Car insurance?
Anything else ?

I saved £25 a month easily without even noticing it.

That's £1700 on basics but doesn't include all the other stuff that happens like clothes, shoes, school activities, etc. So you could probably save £1000 per month but would you be dipping into it for the non-essential purchases or would you be saving for a specific purpose, e.g. family holiday? And if so, what's the target amount you need/timescale?

We have all the direct debits go out around the same time and on payday I have £500 and dh has £300 for the month to spend on ourselves, food shopping, petrol, uniform, clothes etc. I get more as I do more of the spending. We use monzo accounts for the spends and have a joint one that we keep about £100 in for Amazon purchases.

Oh see you've already done that!

Bills come to £1413 + £400 general spending money totals £1813, which leaves £1237. If I was to transfer £1000 into 1 savings account and £200 into a clothing/christmas/birthday account that would leave me £437 a month for general spending. Does that look realistic or a bit miserable?

Although £400 sounds a lot to 'play with' as a family of 5 that could go quite quick especially if something needs repairing/replacing, seems a bit silly to transfer a large amount then potentially keep dipping into it.Do you do free stuff at the weekends with the dc or costly activities, do you have takeaways and meals out ?

Cross-posted with everyone else there. Stopping wasting money needs a slightly different mind-set to building up savings. You maybe need to shift your attitude to "do we really need this?" Otherwise you'll siphon off the savings into a separate account but you'll just end up subbing yourself when the current account runs short.

How can your water bill be £23 for a family of 5?? I pay £28 for a single person household!

We mainly do National Trust at the weekends, there is a lot of places close to where we live. 2 dc do an activity for 25 hours a week they are good at and get full scholarship for it. We take them swimming once a week but it is free during public swim in our area on weekends.
There would be £200 going into a saving account for clothes etc and £437 for bits and bobs.
We don't have takeaways as one child has allergies so don't risk it and for the same reason we really eat out.

Bills come to £1413 + £400 general spending money totals £1813, which leaves £1237. If I was to transfer £1000 into 1 savings account and £200 into a clothing/christmas/birthday account that would leave me £437 a month for general spending. Does that look realistic or a bit miserable?

The bills you posted above come to £1623, not £1413.

I'd do what you've said 1000 in savings, 400 budget a month to spend- if you need to nip into savings then as it's not for anything specific you ah w it there handy just in case.

We're starting to put 700 in each month- but not saving for anything in particular so will dip in if needed or use towards holidays ect

We are on a water meter and it is capped at £22.50 (I rounded it up to £23) due to a medical condition @userxx

Whether that's enough depends a lot on your outlook. Some people don't mind doing free things, taking packed lunches, using vouchers to get discounts, others find it beyond grim.

But the fact is that the difference between freely spending without thinking and being a bit more careful can be literally hundreds of pounds a month for a very similar lifestyle.

You just have to look at what's comfortable and enjoyable for you and how to make the best of your money. For example, I see you have a National Trust membership, which suggests that you like days out in the country, at the beach or gardens. So if you all ate in the cafe while you were there, it could cost £30+, but you might decide that's not great value for money, and take a picnic instead, and save most of that cost.

So it does @DontMakeMeShushYou

Your bills are £1413 so you are left with £1637 so how about transferring £600 then you are left with just over a £1000 a month, that should be fine.