To ask how much you have in savings and what you are saving for?

[Watermelonade]

Before anyone jumps on me, this is not a boasting thread. A few years ago we had nothing and felt like we were drowning, so now I am very cautious with money and save, save, save.

I have 8000 which is strictly for emergencies and is never touched.

Then I've just started a holiday fund which has a small amount of 550 in it.

What about you?

I have premium bonds - the maximum holding - and every first of the month, I am absolutely convinced I am going to get a visit from agent million. The odds are 850,000 to 1 but it doesn’t stop me hoping.

In our late 60s and own our own house, no mortgage. Spent most of our capital on giving our daughters house deposits and paying for weddings. Have around 20k left for ourselves. Need a new roof for the house so some of that will go. Pension doesn't go far. Covers living and one modest holiday a year.

Us baby boomers have it made. Not.

Not really bothered though. Money does not equal happiness.
Seeing my daughters settled and thriving is worth more than cash in the bank.

I have around 1000ish. I also have a lot of debt that will take around 2-3 years to pay off. I have consolidated them intonation loan and have not spent on my CC since Christmas. I am happy to have one afgordable payment to make each month toward the debt, and then I round all my money down to the nearest £1 on all my spending which is how I built up a grand this year. Hope to start saving harder as I would love a holiday and to do my garden but £1k wont go far to any of them.

A reasonable sum, and, probably for my retirement, if the arse doesn't drop out of the pound in December because of a no-deal Brexit, which I fully expect to happen.

I do have some Euro savings, which I shall attempt to put beyond the grasping hands of the British state, who I assume will introduce currency controls to stop the full scale collapse of the pound.

I have £9000 in savings

My house is worth £115,000 and I have £40,000 left on mortgage. My husband has a flat worth £80,000 with £40,000 left to pay so we intend to sell both properties and put £40,000 each towards new house.

This should free up about £35,000 for me.

For the first time in my life I've actually managed to save! 5yrs ago I was bankrupt which took me about 3yrs to clear and the student loans to pay off and finally have 3.5k and I'm very prod of this!was originally saving to take my daughter to maybe the caribbean for a holiday but then lockdown happened so I've got more because not going out and now enjoying actually having some savings so may just do a european holiday so I don't use it all. Then again I fancy a car and buying a house so who knows!

Single mother here.

I have £1k saved, desperately trying to make it to pay day without spending it because I know I'll need things soon. I also have money tied up in a work saver thing, I'd say about £800 and also work pension but unsure how much in there.

Immediate needs for the money will be :

Uniform for dd
Teeth (I know I need expensive treatment soon)
Paying off overdraft
Anything else that may unexpectedly come up

oh yes should probably add in NHS pension, although no idea what that translates to in terms of savings but but I've been paying it for 13 years and it's final salary.

I did have 300,000 bells but I just spent it all on turnips.

About £30k but the mortgage is paid off and I might downsize when DD 22 leaves home. I feel panicked if my savings are less than £20k. It's always been "my" not "our" savings - DD's father didn't pay maintenance and my own parents didn't want a single parent in the family at the time. That's not "poor me" at all because it forged a desire to save for my own and DD's security, so I have had a bit of an ant mentality since then.

We have a business so what we have sounds a lot but the vast majority is our tax payment scooped off (I save our tax every time we get paid. Both corporation and Self assessment) and then we currently have 3 months income saved in case we lose work and have a quiet period.

"Normal" useable savings is under £1k at the moment.

Around £50k in investments
Instantly accessible cash only around £2k

Would have been more but dh had a year of poor health which meant a greatly reduced income, £20k to extend house last year

Not saving it for anything now though would love to take the kids to Disneyland Florida in next few years so want to start saving Specifically for that

I am early(ish) 30s and DH is older than me. Our house is paid for so no mortgage.

I don't want to put a figure for how much we have saved as I don't feel comfortable doing so, however, we have considerable savings. We are planning a few things on this house,although nothing major.

Currently, our son is in a nice state primary and the plan is state secondary but I like having the option to go private.

I've never really thought much about what the savings are for tbh. Mainly for our future and for our son.

My parents weren't great with money and we didn't have a lot, particularly during my teenage years. I had a part time job from 14 and paid my own way through uni. It was fine and it worked out well for me but I would like to make sure that my son doesn't have to struggle. I'll teach him the good work ethic we have but if he is stuck,I want to be able to help him.

I’m a high earner but have very little in savings (probably 2 months worth of outgoings) as we took on a renovation project a few years ago (still not done) and have a toddler so childcare costs are huge. I’m saving for mat leave at the moment so I can have a year off.

I have a good amount in my pension pot for my age (22% of salary per year) but really need to start trying to save for emergencies. This thread has been a good incentive!

We have around 100k however we live abroad, DH is about to lose his job and so we need to move back home.......Shipping our stuff and getting set up again will cost a chunk and then who knows when DH will find another job??

It was supposed to be for DCs university but needs must! We’re lucky to have the buffer

We have around a years worth of mortgage payments saved. I have about £700 of my own for stuff. And jointly DH and I have around 25k that is earmarked for a new patio, new en suite and bathroom and carpets/flooring.
We just add any commission DH earns to the savings if we can and overpay the mortgage when we can.
I have an app (Plum) that saves random amounts from my current account and the £700 has been accumulated since Jan from that.

I know PP have asked what the point of this thread is, and although I've quite enjoyed reading it, I think it would have been more beneficial (for me at least) if posters gave a little info on how they saved?

I have around £700 and my children have savings accounts which they will use for uni. I have never had money, although I bought a house with exdp when I was in early 20s, which I signed over to him. I have two degrees but work PT as I am a single parent. I'd really like to learn more about money and save, I private rent, and I am desperate to buy.

@FirTree31 the easiest way is to move savings on payday. This is how DH and I work it.

I manage the money in our house.

So DH and I both get paid and tax credits also go into the joint account and all joint expenditure comes out of here, so literally all bills from mortgage to gym membership inc food and fuel.

I have a spreadsheet that tells me how much each bill is and totals it up (I work a month behind) I then remove that total from how much we get paid (salary so same every month) and look at what's left over, I transfer between £100 and £200 into our own accounts for own spending, so nights out with friends, buying ourselves new clothes, days out with dcs etc.

And the rest is put in joint savings. The reason I work a month behind is because food shop and fuel changes, this means that I look at what we spent in March at the end of April, take bills out, take personal spend out and save the rest. Its approximately £300-£500 a month.

But since lockdown that personal spend has been going into joint savings as we've not bought much so just used the joint account, think takeout when we can't be bothered to cook.

In usual times, I put £50 into my personal savings and dh puts whatever he wants into his. Also as I mentioned up thread, he also had an add on with his bank account which rounds his transactions to the nearest £1 and saves the difference.

We've always tried to maintain a years salary in savings across the 3 accounts, however, new car and having children have eaten away at it.

I think it's down to money management skills. Although I'm a spender and dh is a saver, he has no concept of actually controlling his money, which led to some fun conversations when we first started renting.

Geralt, same here re. tax. in fact when furlough came out (which I don't get as sole trader, not do I get covid self employed help as over £50k before tax income) the Government had to say that for universal credit all the money we honest tradesr have put aside for tax and in my case also VAT every month is not counted as our savings (because it is there to go to the state in vast quantities when due).

Like Firtree our children had savings accounts. Every time any family member gave any of them money I put it in there from birth and they all found it useful at university stage (the last 2 are there now)

@FirTree31 I'm in a very different situation so not sure how much I can help but happy to explain how I save. As I said upthread the majority of my savings are from a gift I was very lucky to receive last month, but the 17k I've saved myself was as follows.
The day after payday each month I have a standing order into my savings account and once it's in there I REALLY try not to touch, I check my bank most days and know what's a good/bad balance at certain times of the month so will adjust my spending habits accordingly if possible.
Once a year I transfer as much as possible into a LISA but as you aren't a first timer buyer you won't be eligible.
What's really helped me though is I've stopped using my debit card Monday - Friday unless it's an absolute emergency (use my CC for fuel otherwise this would be the only thing I'd let myself buy). I meal plan and shop on a Sunday and if I don't have something during the week I make do without. I now take my lunches to work and dont nip to the shop for snacks (and end up spending £10+ on other bits) and if I see something on the internet i want during the week I stop myself buying it until the weekend, 90% of the time by the weekend when I'm 'allowed' to use my card I've realised I don't actually want/need the item.
That 17k has been saved over the last 2 1/2 years but I'm lucky that I still live at home, I do only earn £16k though.

In terms of how you save, premium bonds are actually a relatively good bet at the moment, compared with bank interest (they haven’t always been). I get on average £50 a month from a holding of just under £50k. It’s secure but also hard to access in terms of effort (although you can get your money out instantly if you need to). I have my prizes applied to buy more premium bonds.

They are very clever by using the language of ‘prizes’ ‘you’ve won’ etc. You can set up a standing order and there is always the remote but satisfying possibility of a big life changing win. Every month they publish online a big long list of the geographical locations of prize winners above £5k and I often scan it (although I have never won more than £100 in one go). It’s nice to have a bit of hope!

Our savings are purely from being abroad - DHs package includes our housing/schooling etc so we have been able to save a good amount over the last 6 years we’ve been away. We didn’t save a penny when we lived in UK! Our salaries were never enough

Nothing

@FirTree31, I second that. I earn about £2100 a month. The day after payday £400 goes into HTB ISA and a regular saver, £750 goes into joint account. Joint account covers rent (£720), bills and any joint expenses like presents, meals out, holidays, food shopping. There's usually surplus in it at the end of the month.

From my account I buy lunches for work and any stuff for myself. At the end of the month I put any surplus into savings, usually about £500-750ish. We keep our savings separate but obviously will pool them for house deposit and stuff.

I've always done something along these lines since I started working. When I earned £1720 a month and £1150 immediately went on rent, commute and bills, I still saved about £100-400 a month, but was obviously a lot stricter and had a spreadsheet where I wrote every single purchase. I think the month where I saved £400 I didn't really leave the house, made all my own lunches, walked everywhere and drank tap water at work drinks!

General tips:
-Secondhand as much as you can
-Use Groupon for days out, haircuts or beauty treatments
-We try and avoid driving
-Don't replace stuff unless it actually breaks completely
-No pointless monthly payments. For example I don't buy any sort of insurance as I don't really see the point....just my attitude to risk though, most people won't agree!

Slowly but surely this is how I've saved about 34k on a salary ranging from 26-45-35k. My husband was shite with money when we met but now he is almost matching me (though he earns more now!)

Took about 4 years ^