If you had to save £6k this year, how would you do it?

[pinkfishbluefish]

Two incomes no DC yet, combined is circa 3800-4000 overall take home depending on overtime.

Essential outgoings are 2.1k. This includes rent, bills, food, one car loan, car insurance.

Left with between 1700-2000 a month. Within this must factor in fuel, days out, meals out, people’s birthday gifts, clothes.

We need to save £6k quickly this year - this would take us to £10k at which point we have an incredibly generous offer from my parents that they will match that amount and we can then use as house deposit. We’re desperate to own property!

We are trying to work out the best approach. If we lived off one income and saved the other this would mean no room for haircuts, holidays, clothes or meals out. I feel that might be a small sacrifice to make as then we would be at our goal in 3 or 4 months time. Is it unrealistic to try to do that? Other thoughts are getting a second job but not sure if that’s a bit futile after tax.

You need to save £600 ish a month if it's before the end of this year then? I think out of £2k that's really doable, spend less on days out and fuel and people's birthday gifts.

Sounds like you could quite easily save £1000 a month. Surely you don’t need new clothes every month and could cut down on meals out

Easy, cut out meals out altogether and cook yourself, You'll save loads and have much better and healthier food. Cut out days out and go for walks and bike rides and similar. Invite friends over for home cooked meals

You are only talking about a very short period of time so I would 100% sacrifice days out/haircuts/clothes etc if that will enable you to buy a house! You could still do some days out but male sandwiches and go somewhere that is free.

Could you give yourselves six months - save almost all of one income with a small amount taken out to allow one meal out/other treat each month?

Put the money aside at the start of the month and treat it as a bill then don't touch it.

Use moneydavingexpert budget planner to work out income and expenditure, then set up regular payments to separate bank account for £6k savings, Christmas, etc.

MSE budget planner

Live off the one income. Create a countdown chart e.g 93-1 then mark off each day as it passes. Three months isn’t a long time to go without, especially if you get to own your own home at the end of it.

Fuel for us would be around £150 pm (car only used for work, essential journeys, odd day trip - I do shopping on foot). Day trips/meal £50pm from joint funds. We each have £150pm to spend to spend on clothes, going out with our friends, buying gifts for eachother/our own friends, coffee etc.

Taking the above away from £1700, that'd leave £1200pm we could save, unless we had a household emergency.

I'd reframe this as a challenge.

How little can we spend in the next 3 months? Cook at home only. Only essential trips in the car. Minimising spending on gifts. No haircuts/beauty treatments etc.

Both agree on every single extra penny spent outside bills (and can you reduce any of those too?)

You could save £1500 per month easily after essential bills - think about your future when you might have nursery fees to pay for dc and this might be a good exercise in cutting back in preparation for that.

Once you start seeing the pounds add up it might become a bit addictive. £1500 a month over a year is £18k - almost the full deposit you were hoping to save. Better reducing the balance of your mortgage than wasting on random birthday presents or expensive meals out

Put simply, save first. Divide your £6k by the number of months. Pay that into an account you can't easily get it out of on payday. You have to make do with whats left. I know that is simplistic but no one pointed that out to me!

I'd treat it as a challenge, save the maximum amount that you can in the shortest possible time, sacrifice absolutely everything that you can and it'll soon be done. Good luck!

With no children to worry about this is easy as a short term project.

Just throw everything at it. No new clothes, holidays etc. Both of you get a second job or increase hours or start a side business (no investment). Make it your goal and have monthly "meetings" to review progress. I bet you could easily get to £10k+ if you try.

That’s easily achievable with that much money left over. Surely you’re not spending £2k each month on days out, meals, and gifts??

Thanks all. I think it is worth the short term sacrifice, I like the idea of a countdown too! We have no deadline as such more that we don’t want to be pouring all our money into a landlord’s back pocket each month. It would be great to move this year.

We've done this to pay for a house renovation. It's doable as it's a limited time period. Basically:
No new clothes (we have mended some, bought secondhand for DD growing)
No takeaway coffees etc. Take a travel mug out with me and make coffee at home.
We didn't eat takeaways anyway but avoid, swop with meal deal type things
No meals or drinks out. We explained to friends that we couldn't afford it at the moment. Many people are in a similar boat anyway. We've had a couple of lovely meals at a friend's house instead (bringing one course ourselves) and will reciprocate once we've moved.
We didn't buy birthday or Christmas presents for each other but did for DD and relatives we normally buy for.
Made the most of stuff we'd already paid for eg NT membership rather than paying to go in somewhere different.

It hasn't (mostly) been enjoyable but it's temporary.

So you'd be left with at least £1100 to spend just for 2 after you've paid rent, bills, food, one car loan, car insurance.

£200 fuel, £200 days/ meals out, £100 gifts, £100 clothes are all pretty generous budgets.

You'd have an extra 600 for other fun. I can't see why this will take you a year. You could do it in 6 months if you really wanted. Am I missing something?

Your disposable income is my actual monthly income and I’ve managed to save money from it.

Work out what your bills are. Put a bit more into that pot for groceries etc, then move the rest into a savings account. You can bring it out if you need it, but unless you’re buying designer every month and eating out every Friday and Saturday night, £1500/2000 a month on clothes and meals out is obscene. You could halve that number and still save a grand a month and still have too many clothes.

In essence, you need to cut down the materialistic wants in order to fulfill your need. T

We did this. No new clothes. No alcohol. No meals out or takeaways, including coffees. Car fixes and services at small local garage rather than dealership. Shop around for cheaper insurance deals. No buying fancy biscuits or crisps to have in the house. We did lose a bit of weight too, which was a bonus.

Wow. If it's not blindingly obvious how you can save money with that much disposable income you've no business taking your parents money.

If you are under 40 then open a LISA and put any savings in that as you save (if it is going to be used for a house as you say). If you can save 4k in the year the government will give you 1k and that will be a big chunk of what you need.

Easy save 1k a month leaves approx 700 fun money and fuel.
Go out once a month only.
No take aways, coffees out etc

Just set up a standing order to savings on payday of at least £750. In the worst case scenario you’d have your £6K in 8 months. Then try to spend as little as possible and at the end of the month transfer what’s left to savings.

If you can’t save £6K quickly at this stage of your like - DINKY, no house maintenance bills etc - then you’ll be in for a shock if/when your circumstances change. So get saving!

We have around £1800 a month after bills plus food too. It also needs to cover fuel etc. We are a family of 5, and recently have been saving £800-£1000 per month of that, and not feeling like we are suffering in any way. Husband still gets takeaway coffees occasionally. It really is very doable.

you have up to £2k spare money each month after necessities including food. I’m really not clear what you need help with. You could save it in 3 months or maybe 4 months maximum.