Earning £30k, living payday to payday and struggling to build savings? Me too, lets save!

[Bookaholic73]

Anyone else have what they consider to be an OK wage, but always struggles to make their money last the month, and has £0 in savings?

If so, do you want to join me in saving as much money as you can this year? Could be a tenner here and there of a few hundred, all are welcome if you earn £30k or less.

I want to save money for a new camper van, a new kitchen and also to have a safety net.

Where are you based ? What outgoings do you have ? If you are young and still live rent free with parents it's ok I guess otherwise I wouldn't call £30k an OK wage in 2026. I'm not surprised you're struggling.

I don’t even earn 30k as I work reduced hours - I could increase them to the standard 40 hour week but reducing my hours when my son was little was the absolute best thing I ever did!

Having said that, I absolutely need to save money though…. I’m trying! Albeit rather unsuccessfully.

I was earning well but I'm on maternity leave at the moment and will be going back part time earning £24k a year. My husband is also part time taking home a bit under £12k a year. Our biggest bill is food, we really need to try and save money on that. I want to stick £50 a month into my son's bank account so he's got a nice little sum when he's 18.

Im on less then 13k - I can still save

My my circumstance are completely different from yours

So a general "below £30K earner " means nothing as in my advice wouldn't be working for someone with 2 kids and a mortgage

Can you increase your income? Unless your bills are very low and you have a partner's income, you're likely to struggle on that wage.

But in any case, you're right that a tenner here and there will add up. For example, if you find you have £12 at the end of the month, you could think 'I could get a takeaway' but if instead you make something at home, or get a pizza from the supermarket and put £10 in a savings account, you'll save over £100 by the end of the year if you do that every month. Lots of little decisions like that can really add up. Look at what you spend the most on and see if you can reduce the cost.

Also look at the Moneysaving Expert money makeover and get the weekly email. Lots of tips to make extra money and get things cheaper. Recently I've had a £155 M&S voucher when I've signed up for a cheap broadband deal with Vodafone, meaning we'll only pay £23 a month for fibre broadband for the next 2 years - the BT deal we'd just had was going to go up to about £40. I'll use the M&S voucher for groceries mostly - lots of things are quite decent value there. I'm also getting a £10 Amazon voucher just for putting £100 in a Santander savings account by a certain date.

Has anyone heard of Plum? Ive been using this way of saving and I don't notice the money is gone. It basically rolls up any transactions to £1 and takes that difference weekly I think, and saves it. I also nominate a (low) figure every pay day. So its dribs and drabs going in all the time. I guess eventually you would want to withdraw the money and put it somewhere with better interest, but as a stealthy savings tool its amazing. In 8 ish months I've saved £500. This would not have happened otherwise or I would have dipped into it. This feels completely separate.