How do you motivate yourself to save?

[OhioOhioOhio]

My financial situation is changing. Its better because I'm getting rid of an idiot wasteful husband but there won't be as much actual money. I want to get my head in the right gear so as to enjoy saving, rather than grudge it.
Any tips?
And how do you organise still having treats?

How do you motivate yourself to save?

I'm quite pessimistic - so for me I'm motivated by the worry of what I would do if I didn't have a safety net.

If I were you I'd do a plain old fashioned budget and work out how much disposable income you should have left at the end of the month. Then decide how much is a reasonable amount to save, and how much is a reasonable amount to have for treats.

That's just it. What is a reasonable amount to spend on treats?

Try to save at the start of the month, rather than the end. View it as another bill that has to budgeted for.

Work out your budget the previous month and see how much you have to spend after you've saved a certain amount, rather than how much (little) you can afford to save after spending.

If you decide on no treats, you will probably cave and end up overspending. But if you set a certain amount, you might find up that you no longer actually crave the treats, weirdly. That's how it has worked for me. Since I got into the habit of saving, I don't feel the desire to buy things anywhere near as much as I crave seeing the money sitting in my bank account.

Within reason, I hasten to add. I'm not totally joyless! But I just find that I think more before I spend, and often I just think 'yeah, I don't actually want that enough to part with money for it...'

What is a reasonable amount to spend on treats?

50:50 seems like a minimum in my eyes. But there are probably guides on this that you can look up.

Let's say you have £100 left at the end of each month. If it were me I'd probably start somewhere along the lines of £50 to savings, £50 to treats.

If you had say £500 left at the end of the month then maybe I'd save £350 and keep £150 for spending. But that's because I know that it'd be very rare for me to want to spend £150 a month on treats so this would work well for me.

Keep your treat money separate if you can, and definitely transfer your savings into another account as soon as you get paid. Overtime you might even see that your treat money starts to grow too so you'll be able to splurge a couple of times a year. Remember that whatever you do keep for treats is a limit not a target. So you don't have to aim to spend it all every month.

I agree with @Curiosity,
work out a realistic budget , figure out what you normally spend on bills / food/ fuel / treats then add on around 5% to cover increase in prices.
Once you know your monthly outgoings, set up a second bank account to automatically transfer some of your 'left over ' wages into a day or two ( to account weekends and bank holidays )

So for example if you earn £3,000 per month and your bills come to £2.500 add 5% = 2, 625 for all your bills . that leaves £348, I would leave £148 in your main account this should be more than enough to cover most eventualities and auto transfer the other £200 into a savings account .
After a while you wont miss the £200 as you are not use to having it .
Them figures are just to give you a example it could be just £5 a month that you can afford to put away , the important thing is that you put away a bit each month.
Right now I would not go in for investments, as you could lose all the money you put in , and I believe you should only ever invest what you would not mind losing .

I'm trying to save as much as possible each month as I bed a lot of home improvements done. I'm a single parent so it's hard to save. But I got myself a book. I write down wages and any others income, take off all bills and see what I'm left with. Then I decide how much I want to save. If I'm quite tight I can manage around 400 a month. Out if what's left I budget 50 a week for shopping, which I'm trying to reduce. Batch cooking helps as I am building a freezer stash of food which will eventually drastically reduce my food bill.

You could try listening to the Dave Ramsey podcasts for motivation.

i need to type faster i cross post with a few there !

Direct debit at beginning of month - budget what's left.

We do
50% bills and necessary
30% days to day wants
20% savings

Obviously this only works if 50% covers your necessary spending, I know these days it doesn't always.

Having a goal in mind has helped - we've been saving for the house we're buying. Once we've bought the house, savings will be split between doing up the house, holidays / weekends away and expensive one off items, ie new tv.

Although we'll probably need to build a savings buffer back in there too, as buying a house will somewhat wipe us out!

I got w savings app that calculates your outgoings automatically and then does savings top-ups weekly, with spending rounds ups weekly too. It gives me a daily update in my bank account and my bills to see if I'm being overcharged. I can also use it to invest my savings too. I like it because you can adjust the rate at which you save depending on how aggressively you want to get some money together. It's also great to see it add it. You have the choice of adding additional amounts daily if you're feeling sensible. Which, most days, I'm not! But I have saved a fortune doing this since last year where I saved nothing in the past. I feel quite righteous about it!

Transfer money to a separate savings account every month. You’ll soon see it increase which is quite motivating.

As for treat money, what would you like as treats? Is it for you only? Any dc?
You need stuff to look forward to so it depends what you like. You can do really cheap treats regularly like favourite foods and and a Netflix subscription, going to free places especially to get out and about in nature.
If you try to do free stuff most of the time then you have money for more expensive treats like a day Or a meal out once in a while.
Use vouchers and sites like groupon.
Make sure you regularly shop around for best prices for utilities and insurance and meal plan. Meal planning saves a lot of money.

Surlycurly what app do you use..??

Get a regular saver plus use an account like revolut or Monzo so you know where your money is going. The function that rounds up your spends and puts the excess in a savings pot is good for small treats.

It comes naturally to some people, others find saving really hard. I feel very uncomfortable if I don't have a certain reserve in my savings and will scrimp/eat lentils a lot/not buy clothes or treats while at that point.
One of my children is the opposite, scared of looking at their bank balance and hence regularly gets overdrawn.
So my tips are:

• recognise your spending/saving nature
• look at your balance frequently
• have a goal (what are you saving for)
• allocate money to treats but recognise that if you don't spend all that, more to go in savings IS actually the treat
• have a no-spend or minimum-spend week every month - use up what you have in the cupboards, go without wine or eating out etc
• meal plan (this is a big one, it really focuses you on proper essentials shopping rather than impulsive browsing, stocking up and special offer grabbing (which is what the supermarkets are designed to throw in front of you)
• think twice about every purchase, especially things like fancy phones and clothes. Read Money Saving Expert website (Martin Lewis)
• make sure you're getting the best deals for things like internet, tv (now tv the same as sky and way cheaper) and energy. Set up reminders for when the contracts expire to get a new deal.
• look into the apps, Mondo etc.
• If you qualify for the government Help to Save account (certain benefits and income levels) chuck a monthly £50 (I think that's the max) at it, it gives you a 50% bonus after 2 years which is the best savings rate anyone's going to get right now.

50:50 sounds an awful lot to be going on treats. What's the definition of treats, anyway? I splashed out on a bag of licorice allsorts today - a whole pound (in money!) Next week I might buy a magazine. If I'm feeling nervous about spending commitments coming up - car service for example - I would skip those! That sounds miserable but I enjoy my smaller treats much more now for the feeling I deserve them than when I had a higher income and used to spend without thinking.

Agree with everyone saying to transfer an amount to your savings account on payday and work as if you've never had it. Like you never 'see' the money that goes in tax / NI / pension - you only really think about what your 'net' salary is. Make your savings the same, and consider your 'money available to spend' to be after that amount has gone out.
Even if you have to take something out of your savings at the end of the month now and then, you are making a conscious decision to do that, rather than it 'just being available' , so you will think twice about if you need it.
Then seeing that pot start to build up is motivating in itself.

Personally I save in a number of ways but others wouldn't count it so much as saving. My biggest is that I over pay my mortgage by £200 a month. That makes a huge saving overall but obviously I can't see a balance building up. I'm motivated to do it though by seeing how many years I'm knocking off my mortgage.

I also save £25 a month in a lifetime ISA and £50 a month in a cash ISA. I then have a Christmas saving club that I pay into and draw out each November.

I don't often have a lot left at the end of the month but if I need extra I just use up all the freezer food and cupboard stuff to save on shopping.

I think I might try £12 pot of savings a week. That's £48 a month for new house stuff that's not essential.

Do you have a pot for all the money that goes on school stuff?

Well you need money for school stuff including presents for any Birthday parties so put some aside for that.
If you need to budget for everything then you do need to look at things like birthdays, school holiday spending, Christmas or other occasions/celebrations.

Set up a Chip account and you can spread what you save between as many pots as you like. I have 2 at the moment labelled xmas 2020 and Holidays and have chosen a 50\50 split between them. The app calculates a saving every few days (which you can always reject).

Like pp I move a savings amount into a different account on payday (don’t have a direct debit as the exact amount can vary) and then budget the rest. The account hasn’t got a debit card etc, it’s a dedicated savings one. I don’t touch this account, although I can see it on my online banking etc I’ve trained myself to think of it as money I can’t spend.

Occasionally I do think ‘oooh what if I just go wild and book a holiday’ but generally I don’t even think about it. Also as it’s grown it’s become easier not to dip into it because I can see how it’s progressed and it motivates me to keep it up.

If I have any cash leftover the day before payday (even a few quid) I will transfer this over before I go to bed. It all adds up!

So. Having lived with a miserable sod for years, how much is a decent family holiday for 4?