To think most people could save a small amount regularly if they prioritised it?

[BoldRubyShaker]

Obviously there are people in genuinely difficult situations who simply don’t have anything left to save and that’s not who I’m talking about. But for many workers, I do wonder whether saving even a small amount regularly is more achievable than it’s sometimes made out to be. Even something like £50 a month builds up over time - around £3,000 over 5 years (plus interest) and much more over the long term.

AIBU? I think that for a lot of people it’s more about prioritising than possibility.

Personally, I would treat myself over stashing my last fiver. But that is me.

Well that's your generation's issue and you do get some help with that generally. My generation's issue was high mortgage rates, short maternity leave and no childcare subsidy.
Every generation has problems, just not the same ones.
As an aside, i walk past a nursery in my extremely down-at-heel town every morning, and am constantly amazed at the size of the new SUVs being used to drop the children off. So high childcare AND high car costs.

Right, but life is pretty fucking shit if you can never treat yourself with something as basic as a takeaway coffee, some fish and chips or a haircut occasionally.

Fish and chips stopped being a "treat" when they crossed 15 quid imho🙈 fucking big spend now

Around here you can get a large fish and chips for £8

.

😂excellent GIF usage.

im desperately trying to focus on paying off credit card and loans. That’s a priority to me over savings, currently

How do you "budget for emergencies as best you can" without saving?

If you mean you deliberately make sure theres some money left aside every month then, um....thats what savings are!

If your boiler broke today, how would you pay for it?

Tell me about it...
DM and me recently had a beef curry and chips each from a takeaway and it cost £20. I remember when it was about £5 (which just goes to show how long ago I had one).

Saving is never pointless and everyone should have emergency savings of some sort plus ideally budget for things like Xmas, holidays, car repairs and broken washing machines etc.

I put a big chunk of my salary in my savings account when my direct debits have gone out straight after pay day, and take a chunk of it back out by the end of the month, but for that time it's in my savings account it's earning nearly 4% interest. In my current account it's earning nothing. What I don't take back out gets left in there and becomes savings. Some months it's only a bit, but some months it's a couple of hundred pounds. If the money is not in my current account, I find it easier not to spend it on stuff I don't need because the money is not instantly available - I have to think about moving it first - but when I do need it, with phone banking apps it takes seconds to move money between accounts, so to me it's a dead easy way of saving. If I need it for a new washing machine or an unexpected bill, the money is there, but while it's not being used, it's earning decent interest. We generally have enough in there each year to pay for a holiday for the 4 of us. I don't earn lots, but it's amazing how it adds up when I'm not frittering it away on amazon stuff I don't need.

Yanbu. I've always been a saver though......even when we ended up on benefits for a short time I'd manage to squirrel a little away every week. Back in the day I'd have to physically go into the bank to pay in the £3 or whatever it was. It's never pointless and it always builds up. I've never been a high earner and never will be but I'm damn sure I'll do everything I can to make sure I never have a safety net of money to tide me over.

It can be £50 isn’t worth it to get £3000 in 5 years time if that £50 means always saying “no” to an ice cream at the park, having one pair of decent shoes, never meeting a friend for coffee. I don’t know that I’d feel 5 years of only buying essentials was worth £3k.

While I do think the expectations of expensive cars and days out are unrealistic, many, many people aren’t doing that and have little left at the end of the month. To take the little that is left and never buy anything not deemed essential is a hard life to live.

Exactly.

£3000 in 5 years is well, nothing really. I certainly wouldn't give up all my fun monthly treats for it, anyway.

Agreed.

Also, I think the people suggesting that others should live like that are not living like that themselves

Yep, they never are.

It's really easy to say "save your last £50 after you've paid your essentials" but actually living like that, month after month, year after year, is really fucking shit.

Itchthescratch
I just feel lots of us in the developed world feel we have entitlement to nice things. We are being marketed to constantly and can't really believe that some people have to live within their means and that could mean no luxuries. We find that almost cruel and unacceptable.

But what is life for? Why do we work? Are you saying only certain people deserve to have holidays or own pets or do experiences? Should the rest of us work our thirty nine hours but after do the most basic food shopping and not spend any additional money while others working the same hours don’t get judged because they’re earning more?

Because been there done that for seven years, not a holiday, not a Christmas fair, pretending the kids were sick when birthday parties came up because we couldn’t afford petrol or declining wedding invitations …. If people need to get into some debt or use up the only possible savings well maybe that’s what they have to do to put one foot in front of each other and smile instead of cry.

You have obviously never gone round a supermarket adding up the shopping as you go to make sure you don’t embarrass yourself at the till. I can assure you that there were times when we could’t save £10 pm and I;m sure a lot of people will agree with me.

Did you completely miss the very first line of the thread....

I agree. Same as trying to overpay a loan or mortgage by a small amount each month. It does add up.

I don’t think she missed it, I think she probably just understands that this is a far greater proportion of ordinary working people than OP realises. If you’ve never been below a certain level financially, it’s very easy to just pigeonhole “the poor” as a small and unfortunate minority who don’t really count, and everyone else as just a bit inefficient and able to save/afford necessities if they just tried a bit harder. If you’re in the sector of society that knows how ridiculous that is, it gets a tad frustrating sometimes.

But in fairness to the OP... they have blatantly started the entire thread to acknowledge that not everyone has leftover money and that this thread doesn't relate to those people. Obviously if people genuinely don't have £50 left over or aren't actually spending £50 on non-essentials then they won't be able to save or set aside that money. Those are all different cohort and the OP isn't being dismissive of that at all.

The OP is specifically referring to people who are spending £50 on non-essentials. Many of whom complain they are poor or on the breadline, but in reality they aren't and a small lifestyle change would mean they could build a little buffer.

There have been several threads like this in the last week, so why start another one?

My generation's issue was high mortgage rates,

Lol!

I’ll swap for those rates and house prices and wages