How would you budget £30k grad scheme salary (no kids,rent)

[levanti]

In September I started my first year of a 2-year grad scheme. Luckily my first two rotations are in a commutable distance from my family home. My parents don't believe in charging rent but I contribute by paying for weekly shops, meals out, treating mum etc.

Despite hardly having any bills I don't really have any savings, my philosophy, for now, is that after having to scrimp and scrape for the past 3-4 years I just want to enjoy myself a bit.

AIBU to ask how you would manage your finances/do things differently if you were at the start of your career again. I can't help but feel a bit wasteful and guilty. At the end of the month I don't really have anything to show for myself.

Would you consider weekend breaks (once a month-ish) a waste of money?

Enjoying yourself is never a waste of money! But every month is a lot and for me the novelty would wear off fast.

I'd go for much less frequent.

Make the most of your frugal mindset. I'm 27 now and DH was saying tonight that he didn't want to get duck pancakes because the price of them makes him want to weep, had to remind him we earn good salaries and £7 is affordable once in a while..! We are managing to enjoy our money more now, but we were careful early on. Saved £1k a month and got on the housing ladder when I was 23 and he was 27. We upsized two years after that and are in a four bed period cottage now, reasonably comfortable and both paying into pensions.

I think it's so easy to over enjoy your money, just be careful you don't go too far that way and find it hard to pull back.

I'm in the similar position as you @levanti have a holiday account, a house deposit account (if you want to buy you own home), a parent/home expenses account, a personal expenses account and emergenxy account and put designated amounts into each.

Presumably you want to leave home at some point. I'd be making a longer term plan to teach that position if I were you. You're currently have a great opportunity to save for a house deposit. You could save most of your net salary and still have fun money over.

Really appreciate all the input. I usually just glaze over when my parents start discussing savings. Just thought I would give myself 1/2 years "off" but it does seem foolish to waste this opportunity to save. I have attempted to put something aside but I ALWAYS find a reason to dip into anything I accumulate.

If you have separate accounts for various things will be able to afford going out and savings etc and self discipline will always be key. Learn from your work colleagues that do have to pay rent.

Put aside what you would roughly pay in rent if you weren't living at home into a savers account, perfect opportunity to save up for a deposit for a home!
I'm on the same wage and recently got my first house, but took years of saving for the deposit which you could get a terrific head start on!

You’re in a great position. DS’s first job after uni earned him something like £1350 a month take home.

He gave us £200 rent and spent £100 on his commute. And after a spendy first few months of buying nice clothes and toys he save £500 a month.

When he moved out for a much better paid job he had £6k in the bank. But he can’t save nearly as much now he’s renting.

Don’t waste your chance to accumulate some savings.

@levanti can't you see it yet? You're already managing to splurge all your cash if you've been trying and failing to keep any aside. You need to be strict with yourself to prove you can save, otherwise you'll never have any savings because you'll always have a reason not to. Think of this time saving as your time off. I don't think our generation are big savers, I imagine we will be shocked when rates rise etc

Whilst it would be nice to splurge, really you will be much happier in the long run if you save as much as possible and try not to let your new wealth change your life too much yet.

You will find over the next 50 years that whatever your income, it is perfectly possible to expand your expectations so that you feel a little bit less well off than you want to be. This will be the case whether your income is £15k, £30k, £60k or £120k. The only antidote to the constant nagging wish to be a bit better off is to manage your expectations. With £30kpa you already have an income greater than some two-income families.

Put at least half of each wage packet into savings. Spend what you need to on essentials but be honest with yourself about what is actually essential and do not buy every nonessential "nice to have" even if you could theoretically afford it.

Whatever you spend on luxuries/nonessentials for yourself, spend a similar amount on a gift or treat for others - especially your parents and others who were generous to you during your childhood, or give an equivalent amount to charity if you prefer. Being generous cultivates an inner happiness much greater than spending the same money on yourself.

It won't be long before you start feeling ready to move out of the parental home. You need a big lump of savings to make that happen and when it does obviously your cost of living will go up massively. The more extravagantly you live now, the more difficult that change will be.

Bluntly, you need to save.

'I want to enjoy myself' is a cop out for not saving, because you can easily afford to do both.

£1000 into savings.
£500 fun money.
£400 necessities.

That fun money could easily cover a weekend away for £250, and still leave you with £250 to mess around with!

Stop telling yourself 'I deserve this' and start asking yourself 'Can I afford this?'. It's honestly the best financial habit you can adopt. It's nothing to do with punishing yourself - it's giving you a life that's sustainable without frittering on things you don't actually need.

Affording something ISN'T JUST ABOUT MONEY IN THE BANK. It's whether the purchase fits with your entire life goals. For example you could afford to buy a £400 handbag a month on your wage and expenditure. No problem. But you can't afford to do that and buy a house, and commute, and have a pension etc.

Also to be blunt again, your parents are probably not charging you rent in the hope/expectation that you will be saving. It would be incredibly disrespectful to continue living at home living the high life whilst not putting by a penny for your future because they are providing you a home.

1/2 years off is a terrible idea you set a terrible pattern

Make a realistic! budget and take saving out from salary at the start of the month as you creep towards payday you have to start making choices (drinks on Thursday OR dinner on Saturday)

Also packed lunches and no coffees.

Get in good habits now

When I earned that much I saved £1000 a month, and that was with paying £360 rent. Why wouldn't you save?

Regular weekend breaks aren't a waste of money unless you don't really enjoy them or you don't shop around for flights, hotels etc.

The sorts of things that are a waste of money are buying lots of food and drink out of the house because you can't be arsed to shop, plan or make your own food. Or buying food that you don't eat and throw away. Clothes, make up, accessories etc that you never wear. Bank charges and interest because you don't organise your finances. High end mobile phone contracts.

Join your company pension if you haven't done so already. If not, you're turning down free money, as they also contribute and there's a tax advantage. You'll never miss the money. Doesn't matter if you don't plan to stay in that company for a long time, it will still pay out something when you retire.

Sharesave schemes are usually also a good idea, but obviously there's the risk of your company going bust, so I'd investigate the whole thing properly.

You can currently afford to have fun and rack up some serious savings. You really would be foolish to blow every penny you have right now, because, unless you end up earning many many times what you earn now, you're disposable income is probably as high as it will ever get. thecats post above makes a lot of sense.

The possibility of having £24000 in the bank at the end of my scheme is very alluring! I don't want to set myself up for a fall so I think in the next few months I will adjust my spending in order to save £500 each month which seems very doable.

A problem I have is feeling like I'm making absolutely no progress despite making the necessary cutbacks. E.g. seeing a balance of £500 in savings always makes me think "fuck it"

Pension - talk to your pensiuon advisor and increase your input. You can change that whenever necessary

ISA or similar. Put in the maximum every year you can - talk to your bank to sort it out. You can change that whenever necessary.

Weekends out? Go for it! Just make sure you sort out first, so that £500 is all yours to spend!

Sorry, one went missing - also talk to your bank about higher interest locked down savings accounts and/or other saving mechanisms. I say bank as at least you will get someone who will not be high pressure!

Saving is easy, it's just a different mindset. For example:
-Make your own lunch or buy it from the "reduced" section the night before
-Don't get involved in rounds of drinks, just politely decline and buy yourself 1 or 2 drinks
-Don't order 3 courses, sides and drinks when out for a meal. Just get a main.
-No pointless subscriptions or insurances
-Don't run a car unless you really need to. Walk/cycle short distances.
-Meet friends at your house, park or coffee places, rather than dinner or drinks
-Shop on eBay or charity shops
-Buy less stuff and be brutal with what you really need
-Buy stuff like toothpaste or shower gel on deal
-Always get refunds/Delay Repay if products are faulty or trains are late

I've always had a frugal stingy mindset but my partner found it really hard to save when we first met - we were on same salary and I was saving £££s every month and he saved nothing. He eventually managed to also save the same amount, without feeling like his life has suffered in any way.

I started my career on a similar amount in 2007. When I was in your position I moved into a house share, paid my bills then pissed the rest up the wall for 5 years or so (with the exception of pension contributions, always put in enough to max the employer portion) I'd do the same again if I were starting out tomorrow but I guess it depends on individual circumstances.

The possibility of having £24000 in the bank at the end of my scheme is very alluring!

Good. Best start saving then.

I don't want to set myself up for a fall so I think in the next few months I will adjust my spending in order to save £500 each month which seems very doable.

How exactly will you be 'setting yourself up for a fall'? What fall? Why will it happen if you don't save more?

A problem I have is feeling like I'm making absolutely no progress despite making the necessary cutbacks. E.g. seeing a balance of £500 in savings always makes me think "fuck it"

That's because you ignore perfectly sensible advice. Your poor parents must be tearing their hair out.

Enjoy your mini breaks OP. They must be beach holidays, because you seem to enjoy sticking your head in the sand.

You could try locking your savings away, out of sight, out of mind and all that.

For example, many banks do a regular savings account where you can save £200 to £500 pm. They have different rules about whether you can get the money back, but it's not in an account that you can spend from, so it's harder to spend.

Also you could buy premium bonds. It's risk free and you can get your money back at any time, but I don't know how quick it comes back, or how to do it either. I have a few thousand in PBs and I know that if I needed the money, I could get it back in a few days/weeks, but in reality I'd have to read up or phone them to find out how, so it's a bit of a faff.

If you manage either of the above, and do build up a bigger lump sum, you could put it in a fixed savings account, so again, not easy to get back.

You say that you think 'fuck it' every time you see £500 in your savings account? But you already have quite a lot of spending money, if you are earning close to £2k pm and don't really have any outgoings. Focus on that £24k or certainly building up a decent sum.

Do you ever want to own a property? You are currently in the perfect position to save a deposit, which will be a lot harder if you move out and are paying rent. If you don't save a decent deposit now, you might be giving up the opportunity to own property for decades to come and you'll be more likely to be paying rent, ie paying off someone else's mortgage, not your own.

I second all the above. I qualified in 2011 so that’s nearly 8 years of a good salary now. Because I was earning well I covered a lot of expenses in the house and didn’t think much about being taken advantage of by my partner at the time. I put £200 a month in a help to buy ISA but that’s it! I could have done so much more.

Since splitting from that previous partner I’ve set up another 3 regular savers with good interest rates, taken advantage of a bank account switch deal, reduced bills where able and not bought anything wasteful. I’m still not perfect but I’ve doubled my savings in just over a year.

Take an afternoon on moneysaving expert, get some good bank accounts and learn to budget.

I wish I had done this at your stage so so much!! The fact you’re even asking is a good sign

Weekend breaks are wasteful if you are going abroad, because they make 24 single flights per year very bad value in terms of number of days spent on holiday.

£500 pcm is not really enough to save given that you might never be in your lucky position again in terms of income v expenses. Put it somewhere you can’t get at it.

If you will be interested in buying a flat in tne future, look at First Time Buyer ISAs, with the £3k bonus on £12k saving.

You can have a good life without wasting your money. And it’s harder to cut down than go large, so save more and budget better.

Definitely have fun. Soon enough, you'll have loads of responsibilities and may not have the option.

BUT...
Always pay yourself first- always save. Direct debit it across as soon as you get paid.

( then have fun, but you may need to save for extras )

PS- what lovely parents you have. I bet they're so proud 😊