To ask how much/what percentage of your earnings goes into savings? I think I’m going massively wrong!

[Hmmwhato]

Excluding pension, I save 300. I often wonder what’s the point! I have 1,900 to my name which wouldn’t even pay for an emergency. Should I be saving more?! I am stretched as it is

Do you mean you never build up more than that because you have to dip into it?

I've heard you should spend 50% of your income on needs, 30% on wants, save 20%.
I really can't do that as I have to spend more than 50% on needs. I manage 15% savings including debt repayment, but I do often need to dip into it to just cover month to month or unexpected expenses.
It has hard to see it never really grow much...but keep at it, every little helps in an emergency.

You can't say how what % of income you should be saving, it depends on your overall financial situation.

There have been times when I couldn't afford to eat and clothe myself properly, let alone save anything.

I'm now saving about 10% of my total income, which is roughly half of what I have left after bills and putting a bit aside each month for things like MOT and annual car service, my annual professional membership fee etc, which I also see as bills rather than savings money even though it builds up and then gets spent.

Don't compare yourself to others on this. What's the point? Some people will have loads in savings, others won't.

If you can afford to put anything away at the end of the month, you are doing ok, even if it's just £50.

I apologies if this has sounded gloaty as one poster said. I am just worrying as my savings get wiped out as fast as I put anything away

*apologise

This is where some folk go wrong, its not how much you save but what that amount enables.

You've got enough for multiple essential appliances being replaced, without loading up on debt, which makes gaps in employment harder.

You don't need much savings to avoid slightly expensive months that leads to unplanned overdrafts & the charges incurred there.

Calling it "not much" sounds like social comparison. You're not competing with anyone but yourself, so what you have does for you is all that matters.

Saving for everyone is a balance between jam today or jam tomorrow. The right amount is what you can do while still being happy. How & where you save is the question, to make sure you're maximizing your earnings on it, whilst also being able to withdraw as much as you'd need for anticipated scenarios

Every month I want to save, and try to put £100 away, but pretty well every month I've run out of money for food once the bills are paid, so I end up having to use anything I've "saved"
I've just accepted that at least we're keeping a roof over our heads and can eat even if we aren't able to save anything.

Exactly.
Even if everyone came on here and said they put a grand a month away, what difference does it make to you? Many people don't have enough for their essentials as it is, living paycheck to paycheck.

A better question would be, what percentage of their disposable income do people save? If they even have any in the first place. And how do they calculate it?

I aim to save at least the higher of 50% of disposable income or £200 a month, . Things like clothes etc I have an 'essentials' figure for that gets worked into the budget and spread over a year. That's already subtracted. Disposable income is money for me to spend as I please.

The other question is 'do you have social capital/debts?'

Friends and family with a spare room/sofa. A partner also earning. Any dependents. If it all went tits up, do you have people?

In life it's great to have both social and financial capital. You can get by with one of them. If you have neither, that's precarious.

At work we have a credit union the money that I am saving in the credit union automatically comes out of my wages so I don't count it as money I have for the month IYSWIM.

My car was 1.5k so your expenses would cover that. It has been running brilliantly for 8yrs. Taking us to school, work and holidays. Is a 2001 Yaris. Bloody brilliant.

I think try and work out what is manageable to you. I save 150pounds for myself and 25 per kid. Recently because of cost of living crisis I am having to use my personal savings but I still save for the kids.

Find a high interest account and it will soon help build it up as well.

I think the statistic is 1 in 5 don't have any savings so to even have a bit is good going.

Personally it depends on the month, some months I can save about a quarter of my salary other months it's zero.

I do love a spreadsheet and keep finances on a tight level.

Have you got a pension? If it’s cash only savings, then inflation could severely affect its value in the future.

I have zero lol.
because nursery (not at funded hours age yet!)
after that will hopefully save more! So maybe in a few years 😝

I save around 1/3rd of my take home pay most months, sometimes a bit more, sometimes less if I have additional bills to pay (eg. Car repair.)

Hasn't always been that way, for a number of years I wasn't really able to save anything. It's maybe only the last 6 years I'd say I've been able to save, and to start with much less than I do now.

£300 a month is pretty reasonable OP, if you can mostly leave it alone and not constantly need to dip into it, it will soon grow to a much more substantial sum.

I used to save 500-1k per month. But right now my circumstances are very different and I’m saving nothing. I have 35k in savings and I’m not used to not actually saving so I’m freaking out, but at the same time very aware I’m ok. I had to buy a new car also this year so that took a chunk off my savings. But that’s what we save for right??

There is no fixed amount or percentage in my opinion. In my case I make the decision largely just after payday each month.

You need to look carefully at your outgoings. If you have one, the size of car, the way you drive. Clothes should not be about following some latest idiotic fashion for example. Many other things no doubt.

@Hmmwhato obviously it's a good thing to stop and have a hard look at your finances on a regular basis but I doubt you can learn that much from what other people do - everyone's situation can be so different and the devil is in the detail - You've got to be very careful when comparing - if anything I think it's only likely to depress you - the fact that you're looking at it is a really good thing. If you're feeling overstretched then you are probably doing the best you can already - just try and stick at it.

ATM we have only one part time salary and one pension coming in - a total of £2800pcm. Over the last year we have saved £12,900 - an average of £1075pcm. But we have no mortgage, no kids living at home now. So we must be spending £1725pcm which seems a lot to me so we save 38% of our income. We don't have any streaming services - no Sky, Netflix, Spotify, etc and our mobile contacts cost £5pcm each, internet costs £35pcm, gas and electric was £98pcm (I've just increased it to £119). We own a campervan (3k miles pa) and 2 cars (3k and 8k pa) so have all the costs associated with those. We have quite a lot in savings - we're 62.

As for cars I'm just not that into them - I've never spent more than £1500 on a car - my current one is a small 09 plate diesel - had it 4 years now.

I pay in 1/5th of my salary a month into my ISA so £500. Then I eat beans all month as everything else is so expensive.

No two people/households are the same, even the same person will be saving a different % depending on their stage of life.

By my early 50's I had no mortgage, was paying 45% into my pension and also saving about 50% of my (remaining) accessable salary.
If you go back a decade to my early 40's, I was about to pay off my mortgage (having worked hard on overpayments) and although I was starting to make extra payments into my pension (via AVC's), I was managing to save but this was mainly through employee schemes that were deducted at source. Actual cash savings usually came with the (annual) maturity of such schemes and relatively little from actually putting cash into a savings account on a regular basis.

I've never saved, and spent most of my adult life in debt until relatively recently. If o had a household emergency, I just used a credit card to pay for it.

£500-£2000 a month depending on our spending eg last month we had a car bill of £600 and booked a holiday.

Zero

At the moment I pay £300 to clear a credit card. This time next year, when it’s paid I’ll use it to save. I have no savings