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?

My motivation is that when I'm told my job is at risk I don't have to think "Ah, shit! I'll be broke within a month," but instead can think "Ok, I have X months to take a breather and find a job I actually want."

Treats is hard but I don't tend to scrimp on things that are under £5. If I want a coffee out maybe twice a week while DS is napping, I have one. If I fancy a bottle of wine on a weekend to go with whatever we're cooking, I get one. I have however stopped doing things like passing the clothes in Sainsbury's and buying a cardigan for £15 because it's half price and I quite like it.

Your looking at it the wrong way..

Pulling random fig out of thin air what can I save.

1. bills, essentials, rent, mortgage

2)petrol, food
3) dc expenses. School meals, weekly actual payments
4) what's left.

5. divide up what's left onto weekly social money eg taking dc out...
   ) have multiple pots for all big annual fun expenses eg Xmas bday.

6. then treats per month.

I have all the above plus car fund, tax fund, insurance fund.

Ohio where would you want to go?
. People spend thousands on here... No holiday has cost us more than 2 grand... Book myself. South of France camp sites, holidays homes, Spain, beautiful self catering cottages France...

When saving for a house deposit,I worked out how much I had left after essentials to save every month. I then worked out if I saved that amount every month, how many months it would be until I could afford a house.

Every month I updated my financial forecast with how much I had actually saved, so it gave me an updated view of how long away my house would be. I found that being able to count down to a goal in months (rather than dollars) was much more motivating.

I love holidays too and have done lots of air bnb or homeaway places for a reasonable price here and abroad. Book flights as early as possible. They can be fairly inexpensive or you can do hotels and flights for around £2k upwards.
Just depends where.

Congratulations on your new living situation! For me, what is reasonable to save depends on what is left after you've paid all your bills and what you want to save for. If you have 10K left after bills and no house of your own, personally I'd want to save more than 50%. But if you have £50 left and your mortgage paid off I'd probably save much less than 50%.

Our family holidays average at around 2.5k. We're not into long camping trips and prefer to go abroad so that there is at least a week a year when I don't feel cold!

I’m probably not the best saver but I find having a specific goal is the only thing that works for me. For ex. Save £500 for x item, £200 for y event, £3000 towards a certain project by a certain date.
I know my income would cover all bills and living expenses including children’s necessities so whatever is left over is usually spent unless I have some targets in mind. Sometimes I try to reduce the regular outgoings to reach my specific saving target sooner but it’s quite exhausting so don’t always bother (for example, save of groceries or car expenses).

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

Yes, every month we move some by standing order to various pots including a school one. In high school there are plenty of trips etc and so we started from reception year.

We see saving as a bill, non negotiable. I’d worry far too much with no safety net should life throw a curve ball.

I don't have much spare but I do a 'Council tax' save.

When I get my council tax I round up the monthly amount, so if it's £85.00 a month I will pay £100.00 until it is paid, then I switch the standing order for the same amount to a savings account.

I have a number of accounts, some it is easy to get money out of, others less so. I also have an account with Oak North, it shows you the interest you are earning on a daily basis and credits it at the end of the month, there is something very satisfying about seeing a few pence extra every day.

Slightly off topic but as a little girl I was given a compartmentalused pocket money tin. Parties, funfair, sweets, toys, holidays, christmas, etc. I still squirrel money into accounts: christmas, car, holidays, shoes/coats/bags.

Going back decades now to a very broke Christmas since the advent of the gift card I now put £40pcn on a saibsburys card and that covers the extra Christmad spends - we host

I set up standing orders to my savings to go out on payday and never think about it.

spring has set the priorities out well, but before thinking about 'what can I spend on treats' you need to make sure you are putting money away each month for annual and irregular essentials like school uniforms, Christmas, insurance, and things like broken cars, pets and washing machines as relevant to your circumstances. You need to have considered the broken boiler or new brakes on the car situation before non essentials.

How much is reasonable for treats depends entirely on your income and essential costs and really is a how long is a piece of string question. Some people don't have anything and others have thousands a month.

Look at the money saving expert money makeover to review your whole budget in detail.

It’s chicken and egg for me - when I’ve got savings, I want to save more!

I'm paying off a hefty credit card so my focus is paying that off over savings at this point, however I have a spreadsheet showing income and expenditure over the month - at the very start, even before payday I make a note of how much to transfer off for my credit card and leave myself £200 - I get paid commission so the card repayments can vary. I have a target to repay which is a scary £1500 per month - if I manage to repay £2k a month then anything extra is split 50/50 between me and my card. So if I had a bloody good month, paid my £2k off AND had an extra £500 I'd pay £2250 on my card and give myself the extra £250.
It's probably worth saying debts a due to starting a business and I'm only just getting to the stage after 6 years of earning nice money. The motivation is knowing how good it'll be in a year's time to have it all paid off and be able to overpay our mortgage. I have long term plans which keep me motivated - it depends on how big/long you need to think as to how far you need to project

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

This is a good way to look at it.

Personally I prefer not to rely on motivation or willpower. Both are hard to maintain over the long term. The money we want to save comes out of our current account straight after payday, into a savings account that can’t be accessed easily. Then it’s done, no need to worry. You can only do this as long as you can genuinely afford to save- so your first priority is a working budget.

I have loads of online saver accounts linked to my main account so start months certain amounts transfer to each saver so have them for the following for food, petrol, spending, school costs, childcare, car costs, insurances, clothes, general saver

Also think about how you can have treats that don't cost much money and make sure what you do is good value.

Don't go for a day out and just walk up to the gate, pay full price and then have lunch in the cafe. Look for deals on the entrance fee, if there's somewhere nearby you like to go, look at season tickets so you can go a lot for a fixed price. Take drinks and a picnic and perhaps just buy an ice cream. Most food at attractions is poor quality and expensive and the queues are often long too. See what is available for free in your area.

I want to get my head in the right gear so as to enjoy saving, rather than grudge it

If you save and your washing machine breaks, you can just buy a new one straight away without having to worry about finding the money or getting into debt. That sort of piece of mind is priceless and a very good motivator for saving.

I use the app for Plum. It automatically siphons off money from your account using an algorithm and does round ups weekly from all your transactions. Saved £900 something last year using it and it sends you daily updates. You can change the setting for how aggressively you want it to take money and it just livens the process up a bit! Think it will invest for you too...

Read back through your posts OP. You need a proper budget. So:

Add up all your incoming money for one month.

Subtract everything you have to spend each month (most important first) and be as accurate as possible:

Rent / mortgage payment
Council tax
Utility bills - gas, electric
Petrol / travel costs
Car MOT etc
Insurance - car, house, life, pets
Internet / tv provider
Phone contract / charges
Food and groceries, including toiletries
Clothing & shoes, including uniforms
Haircuts
Birthdays
Emergency fund (repairs, unexpected bills)

What you have left can then be split btw the fun / future savings pots - pocket money, holiday fund, savings etc.

Pen, paper and calculator are fine to get started, or a spreadsheet like Google sheets.

That sort of piece of mind is priceless

I have to agree. That peace of mind is my ”treat”, right there.

I don’t need to motivate myself to save. Quite the opposite, in fact. I have to motivate myself to spend money on non-essentials. I’m always asking myself ‘do I really need this?’ The answer is usually ‘no’.

No way could I imagine spending twenty quid a day on cups of coffee, snacks, bought lunches etc etc which some people regard as completely normal.

I just make sure that a set amount of money comes out of my account on every payday and goes into my Credit Union accounts before I have a chance to realise it's there. I do like a nice standard of living and don't scrimp on food, heat, treats for the kids etc.. so feel I have an ok balance. Also if I get a pay rise or if one of my items of expenditure reduces or ceases then I try to put that extra into savings as I don't need extra money to spend on lifestyle.

I just listened to my mum...

"treats" are occasional one off things - a meal out, a trip to the zoo. If you are having lots every month then they go down as "monthly expenditure" not treats.

(if you get a box of Krispy creme on a Saturday and order in Domino's once a week - those are not "treats", they are usual....)

I'm mid 30s and stumbled upon Mr Money Moustache's blog a few years ago and was totally inspired by it to save (invest) as much as possible. In his case he was doing it to retire early but I'd probably rather retire later with more saved. Depending on your circumstances it can involve some sacrifice, but mostly it's about realigning your attitude towards consumerism and needless spending.

I was saving about £150/month into a general savings account that was for holidays/emergencies each year, paying £250/month to service credit card debt and £250/month salary sacrifice for childcare vouchers.

Did a lot of work consolidating and paying off debts and children went to school so I started investing the above £650/month, and from other conserted savings across the board the 2 of us managed to get it to £1100/month (on a joint pre-tax salary of £85k)

The fund I invest in is returning a long term average of 5% per year, so in 20 years (obviously this comes with many variables and risk) at the same rate we should have invested around £264,000 and the pot should be worth around £485,000 - earning interest of around £22,000 every year.

If you could afford to invest £2000/month (and I don't think this is unachievable for a lot of people), you could have the thick end of £1m returning £45k/year interest in 20 years time

That's my motivation!