To ask how people built up savings of £5k to £15k?

[ThatOpenPoet]

For those who’ve managed to build up savings of around £5k, £10k, £15k - how did you actually do it in practice? Was it consistent monthly saving, cutting back, a one-off boost or a mix of things?

I would like to hear what realistically worked for people rather than just general advice.

Thank you.

I so wish i had started investing earlier. Those calculations that show you what you could end up with at 60 if you start investing at 18 are painful to see when you’ve only started to think about it in your 30s. I never felt it was worth it when I couldn’t put a ‘decent’ (subjective of course) amount away every month but actually even small amounts would have made a huge huge difference over the years.

Consistent monthly savings.

Budgeting for EVERY spend (hair cuts, holidays, Xmas, BDs, school uniform) then ensuring we lived below our means. You really have to know to the pound where your money goes.

It's important to build and emergency funds first for if essentials break...like cars and washing machines. So a few thousand. The we increased to 3/6/12 months of bills.

So I know people won't agree. But I don't really consider gaining a lump sum and then holding onto it the same as putting money aside regularly. Hahaha