To ask for help NOT spending money!

[wetfloor1]

It’s pay day today. I have transferred my portion of the bills to the joint. I have put a small amount into my savings. I have 1840 left. I want to save 1k of this! What do you think? Do I lover it into savings now…or do I leave it there. It’s easily accessible even in savings and I’ll be annoyed with myself if I have to move it back! Wwyd? Am I being realistic? Appreciate this is a first world problem. Just looking for opinions.

Not enough information.

What comes out of that account?
What do you need to buy?
What are you spending on?

If all bills including food and transport are covered I would stick 1 to 1.5k straight into savings

one approach would be to save big and see how the month goes and then revise next month

if it’s not in savings i suspect you will spend it !

Have you done a realistic budget for everything else?
All your outgoings for the month/ year

Transport
Food
Haircuts
Yearly expenses
Car tax, insurance,servicing?
Clothes
Shoes
Kids stuff like uniforms
Dentist?
Glasses?
Christmas/ Birthdays

Rainy day/ emergency fund?

I use Monzo pots and work out how much goes into each pot
Eg yearly expense ÷12
Then savings

Then work out treats/ personal spends
Generally people who dont budget tend to lurch from month to month and end up spending everything or worse dipping into savings

From this I need to pay for
car fuel
save a bit car car tax and insurance
I have 2 dc so anything for them too.
I do need to get a haircut for me and dd
my medication.

And also any coffees, lunches etc that are for me.

Take a flask and a pack lunch

car - how much?
prescription ? One or two items ?
haircut - again you know that cost

tax and insurance - divide the total by 12 and save that separately

sounds like a couple of hundred on essential stuff, so have a couple more hundred for fun stuff and nuts and pieces

i transfer my savings to a restricted access account, maybe do that or a notice account, both make it more difficult to dip into

edited to add that I have it at a different institution to my main account. That way I ‘forget’ about it

Make an actual budget.

I think you have 2 extra accounts

One which is the savings then a dip into account

Maybe transfer £800 into savings

And £200 into the dip into account.

And depending on how much is in the dip into account maybe next month you could transfer the full £1000 into savings

Exactly my thoughts. I need a plan.

The way I work is.

I have the account i get paid into.

And have roughly budgeted how much i spend in a month- obviously sometimes it more if have to pay insurance or other big bill- like this month paid off holiday and glasses.

Anyway.

So should be able to last a month on about £2200.

And I transfer £2200 into a different current account and thats the account i use for the rest of the month for my bills/ spends. And i have to try and stick to the £2200.

If I have left over I move to a quick access account. And can use that if I have extra spends in any other months.

Obviously the main account has the cash which I divide into different pots- short term savings/ long term.

I really hate having to transfer extra cash from the main pot.

And the £2200 is quite frugal so budgeting a lot with that and can be quite difficult to stick to sometimes.

Put it in savings that require notice to remove

If you want to save it put it well out of reach.

How do I set one of these up?

I have savings and an emergency fund account. But the real issue is that I always WANT to save more, but it just ends up getting spent. 😫

You need to do a proper budget as I outlined above
Exactly how much do you need for your haircut, prescription ( would a prepay cert be cheaper) fuel.

Everything needs to be accounted and budgeted for otherwise you just keep spending.
So how much on clothes,make up etc
Lunches how many can you afford, ditto coffees , budget for them
If you just keep tapping your card, before you know it, its all gone

You need to make a list of «necessary expenses» vs «I would love that.»

Write both down with the price tag for each.

Everything that’s necessary, account it for from the £1840 after bills. If it’s less than £840, you can consider buying something off the “wishlist” with the leftover. If you can still try not to spend the whole leftover and do put extra £1000 in savings. If the necessities already add up to over £840 then nothing from the wishlist for this month and put whatever is left over from the £1840 into savings, and do this every single month.

Put it in savings right now. If it’s in your normal account then it will disappear- the fact you would have to move it back may make you think again about what it is you want to spend it on!

YNAB is the GOAT budgeting software/way of managing money, I’m an accountant but it is so intuitive. It makes you allocate every £ but only what you have available so it’s very intentional. I’ve used it for well over a decade and wouldn’t stop!

But it doesn’t really, if I feel it’s necessary I will move it back. I’ll be annoyed at myself for putting it in there in the first place though tbh. I think Aldo because it’s mostly for discretionary spending I just don’t think about it too much

I think at least transfer 500 out, so no matter what that 500 is savings. See where you go from there

That's an easy opportunity to save money. Takeaway sandwiches etc are v expensive and rarely good value for money

This month I will reduce my spending down to £700, including food and some fuel.
I bought a £200 gift card for Tesco via Jam Doughnut for groceries. (It’s just me, DDog and DD). £53 left until next Friday.

Every single other little thing I spend I’ve logged on a phone note, with my main balance reduced accordingly. It’s surprisingly effective at stopping you spend!

I’ve still visited friends, gone out for food and we’re out again tomorrow for lunch. 40% off mains in the local has been handy for that, plus I bought a Giggling Squid £50 gift card for £25 before Christmas. What I haven’t done is mindless mooching round the shops or shopping sites.

I’ve made lots of food, cakes and sweets from scratch, which has been fun.

I’m hoping to save £3k this year this way.

That’s literally what some people earn in a month for working full time.
Of course you could save more - don’t eat out for a month, being coffee from home for your commute to work/ out walks etc.
work out how much you “have to spend”…how much are you in fuel a month, how much are the hair cuts, prescriptions, what do the kids “need” how much are their classes etc.

all dc classes are paid for. I just remembered I need to pay for my yoga class. I’ll need to make a list.

If its for discretionary spending
Complete a budget of rolling bills as your baseline each month
Set up pots with savings for yearly/ one off payments for the year.

Then, look at what's left and what you have coming up that month
Decide how much you want to spend on lunches/ coffees

If you cant shave anything off your discretionary spending or dont want to then its a bit pointless also trying to save it
You cant spend it and save it!

Im sensing you don't really want to monitor your spending or make a budget