Do you have any money?

[beardedladydragon]

I just wondered if those of you with big families were able to save? We earn a good salary but we never seem to have any money left over to save. Is it even possible or do we just prioritise other things?

How big is a big family?

We are trying to save a house deposit. We do manage a bit each month. We have four children. We haven't been abroad for a few years, don't have takeaways, use martins energy save club and always search for voucher codes for anything before buying.

We save for our annual budget.

Family of 6 with 5 birthdays between Sept-Christmas. So all our spending happens between August - December. I therefore save from Jan-July ready to start spending on holiday, birthdays and Christmas.

But we don't save longer term than that.

We have three. Same as pp, save for annual expenses and that's all we can manage at the moment.

We have 4 children and earn £56k between us but never seem to have anything left at the end of the month. DC's include 3 teenage boys though so food and clothing/ shoe expenditure is high. We have just paid off the mortgage so I'm hoping that the excess money will mean we can have a few more treats/ holidays etc. We have just scrimped by or had minor debts for the past 17 years and it's a stressful way of living !

Sorry just realised I didn't answer the original question ! We have never had savings until recently when dh inherited some money so we now have some savings but nothing we have saved ourselves.

I have 3, so definitely on the smaller side of a larger family, but we are doing ok financially. They are in private school, so obviously that is a huge chunk, but we still manage to live pretty comfortably. I think a fourth would push us into the realms of struggling a bit though (assuming they stay in private).

We do have some savings - I like to have a years school fees in the bank, just in case - but it is difficult to save for anything else. I suppose, like anything else, you decide what your priorities are and act accordingly. We will never have pots of money (despite a very good salary), but I am very happy with my dc's school and it feels worthwhile.