How much do you save a month ?

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I am looking to start saving as I am now in a better financial position.

What is a good amount to save a month for someone who lives and works full time in London ?

Between me and DH we were looking to try and put down £1000-£1500.

Any tips / advise would be welcomed!

What tips do you need if you can save that much?

Give or take... just any advice from people who save/saved and have been successful at it and managed to reach their goal.

I save what I have spare each month. I’ve always done the same.
It doesn’t matter how you start, it’s getting into the habit. I was at Uni in the days of grants, as a single mum. When a new grant cheque arrived on the first day of term I transferred anything left in my bank account, even if it was just £10, into a savings account.

Use an instant access savings a/c so you can withdraw savings quickly in an emergency.

Depends what you count as saving. I have sinking pots for multiple things (holidays, Christmas etc) as well as monthly mortgage overpayments, investments and normal savings but as we already have a healthy amount saved we prioritise investments and overpayments as we get a better return than it just sitting in the bank. Between all those categories probably £2000 between us, but some of them will be spent through out the year (sinking funds)

At the beginning of the month we both max out the regular saver and then save anything left at the end of the month so the minimum is £600. We’re a bit too good at spending though!

Depends how much you can afford to. Everyone is different.
Incoming and outgoing.
I can't help because l don't actually save anything.
I don't get a wage or claim benefits.
No incomings at all.
But years ago when l did.. l managed to save a quarter of my wage each month.

You need to think about the spread. Short term - holidays, bills etc so easy access/premium bonds. Medium - car fund, house repairs etc so limited withdrawal, higher interest or 12/18 month locked away. Longer term - S&S Isa & Pension. Work out what your risk profile is and yield or return. Don't forget there are tax implications on interest earned, but you can each invest £20k pa into ISAs. Also, you should build up funds to live off in case one/both of you lose your jobs.

As a single person about £500.

25% of your salary as a minimum

A grand a month as I live at home.

If you're new to all this, I think Martin Lewis website is a good place to start.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/

I save £250 a month to a rainy day fund, £50 a month in a pot for gifts, between £50-£150 in a pot towards school holiday activities, £70 a month in a pot towards DCs uni fees if and when they come, and about £100 in a pot towards holidays. That said, I only really think of the rainy day fund as saving, as I know the rest will be spent eventually.

I’m very regimented with it but DH is more sporadic. We keep our money separate so I’m just hoping and praying that he actually does know as much as he claims to about investments and stocks, because I that’s what he does with his “spare” cash.

About a third of our combined salary.

You'll gwt a load of hatred here for having that much spare.

We save between £1000-1500 a month. This is not all in long term savings. For us it works best to have accessible savings for things like car breakdowns, large bills like car insurance etc. Then we have long term savings in ISA's. We dont touch these generally unless its planned. We also have a savings account for DD.

To consistently save, on payday first thing we do is split money into savings accounts (300/300/300/100). Then we put a set amount in our joint daily expendure account for food etc throughout the month. Remainder is left in the joint main account all the direct debits come out of. We then have a date in the month when all direct debits have come out. We then assess remainder in joint main current account and usually transfer at least another £300 to savings. Sometimes more. We do this as some of the DD payments vary month to month.

Putting a set amount as spending money makes us think twice about just spending willy nilly. So we do probably actually live day to day like lower earners than we are because we don't really allow ourselves to go crazy on spending.

I also have a small savings account i put money i make from secondhand sales in. So if i make a vinted sale or whatever i stick the money in there. I then use that money for birthdays and christmas. It does add up throughout the year and also means i'm not using savings or shocking our current account around birthday and christmas time.

Works for us. May be complicated for others.

We check interest rates on our account regularly and move if needed. We utilise ISA's to get as much tax free as possible. Webalso have roundup on our account so that tops up our savings a little too.

To note, i am aware of how privileged we are to be able to save this amount and that we earn the amount we do. Neither of us are crazy high earners, but our combined income pushes us quite high.

I have pots for everything - holiday, each child at Christmas and birthdays, home decor, home decorating, car 1, car 2, electrical items, etc. All of that goes out at the beginning of the month (About £1500) we then have grocery money and our spends. When it’s gone it’s gone.

If there was an emergency where my husband was off work (he only gets SSP- I get full pay) I would dip into the pots but only in an emergency.

At the end of the year if there is leftover money in the pots (apart from cars and birthdays) and there is nothing we are saving up for I pay it to my mortgage.

I should add that we put £200 a month into long term savings.

we earn £60k combined and our mortgage is £825 a month. DC are young adults but still live at home.

We spend very little out of choice. I have enough stuff in my house and I don’t need anymore.

@Antsinmypantsneedtodance do you mind me asking what your combined monthly take-home is? (I understand if you’d rather not share).

I have a "limit" amount to get me through the month, including some fun money. On pay day, anything over that goes into savings. Once it's there I do not touch it.Some spendy months(Christmas, birthdays) I don't put anything in because of that rule. It works pretty well.

What’s really relevant is what are you saving for and what sort of account or savings product are you considering.

At a different time in our life did some riskier investing. But we were young enough to recoup and went in with our eyes open.

So do an exact budget of where your money goes and agree on the sort of lifestyle you want and go from there. Our end goals were great holidays, retiring early, extensive travelling once retired and relocating house.

We had quite a few years where we could both save our max ISA allowances.

@GretchenWienersHair I suggest you look at your investments together, we have separate ones but do this with reasonable frequency.

Our savings are about 15-24 percent of our income. Depending on the month. We also overpay on our mortgage by a set amount each month on top of our savings. But we set this up as a direct debit so it just makes our mortgage payment higher without us noticing.

To note, we do spend our savings on holidays and the like. It doesn't just sit there cumulating interest forever. We always have savings to cover around 6 months of the higher earners earnings. As their job is more precarious. Anything above that gets spent now and again for holidays or larger purchases. We value life. But also want security.

I grew up in a house where my parents lived in their overdraft, paycheck to paycheck, savings were a dream and money was sparse. It's always made me want to ensure I save some savings. Even from my first teenage job i saved and spent very little. I've never been someone for expensive purchases. I like value for money.

What do you define as savings?

For me savings means long term stuff, like investments and pensions. Not putting money aside to spend in the near term like on school holiday activities as someone mentioned above.

our savings plans for inspiration:

• 300 each for our two kids into investment JISA
• 300 into a 10% interest easy access regular saver
• increased pension contributions to 30% to avoid tax trap and retain tax free child care / free hours
• 500 investments per month

mix of tax efficient easy access and longer term savings. we have a small rainy day / emergency fund

We save between £1300 and £2000 a month depending on what's going on that month. This is a combination of cash ISA, regular savers and investment ISA. This is long term savings. We also put money away each month to budget for, car MOT, service, tax, maintenance, insurance etc. All our bills like insurance, council tax and the like are paid annually. I don't count this as avings though, just normal budgeting.

About £500. Single person. I prioritise overpaying mortgage and adding to pension though.
What is the goal? Mine is just to have an emergency fund really. Want to retire early so will do that once I have my pension goal and then my savings will be all I have for household repairs/new car/holidays.

I save £50 a month, then any additional money I make through selling on FB Marketplace or from completing surveys gets added to my savings pot too.