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To save or spend?

2 replies

Nesteregger · 13/01/2024 14:43

We had children quite young, live in a small house with a huge mortgage in a nice area (35 years left int he mortgage) Both earn ok, I’m part time and happy with my hours. Household income around £80k combined.

We eat out, we go on decent summer holidays, we take trips out, our kids have a decent life. But I’m becoming aware we’re not really saving anything. We wouldn’t be able to move and get a mortgage on a bigger house, we don’t have nice cars or put money away without a purpose for it.

Is this reckless? Should we live more frugally to get a bigger nest egg?

My mum thinks we should. Problem is we’d need an extra £100k to move to a better house in this area and that would probably take 12 years to save if we completely cut back, by then house prices could be even higher and it would take longer. After that, the kids would be thinking about leaving home anyway!

Interested in what the mumsnet wisdom thinks?

OP posts:
Serencwtch · 13/01/2024 18:52

Cant you have an in-between saving goal. Rather than saving 100k or nothing can you put aside £100 a month.

LadyLolaRuben · 13/01/2024 19:16

As PP has said, save small. Set up a few accounts online with your bank. Say one for emergencies, one for long term savings and one to create funds for one off big purchases.

Pick an amount you can afford to save without it being a big pinch, say £100. Then put 60% in long term savings and 20% in each of the other two accounts. So £60, £20, £20.

Within 12 months you'll see it build up. You then start to find you want to top it up to round up the figures.

When you buy fuel, rather than buy £50 worth, buy £47 and while stood in queue to pay, transfer the £3 online to your emergencies account. It'll build up enough over time to cover next MOT or spare tyre.

You could assign the long term allocation of money into premium bonds so you stand a chance of winning money each month.

It's small habits. It's insurmountable to go from saving nothing to £100k and people don't save because that approach. You need to live and enjoy life so don't save so much it stops you doing that x

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