How do people manage to save much these days?

[Jemster]

My dh & I earn decent amounts although I am part time now so not as much as it was.
Once we've paid all our monthly bills, debts we owe, food shopping, childcare we have a fairly small amount left for everything else to get through the month.
I feel awful that we have no savings as we just don't have anything left to save. I know this is not good and it makes me feel financially insecure.
We are not frivolous, it's just enough to get by each month.

I hear of people having 3-6 months worth of salary in savings and I just don't know how they do it. I worry that it's only us of our friends who are in this position although of course I don't know that is the case.

How do others manage to have a decent (but not extravagant) standard of living and still save?

We have never had debts except mortgages.
So we always lived within our means and had some left over which we manage to save every month.
Before DC, when we both were full time we saved loads and chopped years off the mortgage too.
That might be too late for you but the point I'm making is to plan .
Do a budget- I'll bet you can make savings on something that could go toward paying off the debt quicker.

Winter - it depends what kind of borrowing you have, and how much spare money you have.

Even while we had debt I still saved some, for christmas and for car emergencies, because short term borrowing is very expensive. There is no point paying £100 off the debt, then sticking £110 back on a credit card.

Actually, I just mentioned this thread to DH and he pointed out thatwhilst he is allergic to debt, there are times when it is cheaper to buy big ticket items on finance than paying cash.

For example the last car we bought. It worked out a few grand less to use finance than cash, because the finance company pays the car company a commission and they passed most of it on to us. Obviously the finance company would like us to take ten years to pay it off and make oodles in interest, but we will pay it off in a year (minimum period)...

It's always worth looking at the detail of any purchase.

TBH I love my credit card and max it out at least once a year.
I put absolutely everything on it (sucker for the John Lewis points - but they did pay for my iPad)
and pay it off in full every month so have not paid interest for many years.
I regard it as a cashflow management tool

And yes, the cash benefit of big ticket items is tricky - we are looking at cars and actually considering rental as it may work out more economic just have to persuade DH that the one with the pussy cat on is NOT worth the extra

the main thing is to never, ever stick your head in the sand about debt
and make sure that any credit card repayments are NOT on direct debit, so that you are in control.

I think you'll find there are a lot of people who were brought up to abhor debt, and who would / will only spend money once they've saved it. (Generally except for mortgages) People who have always lived within their means.
You have sort of answered your own question within your OP by saying you are paying off debt each month - imagine how much you could be saving if you weren't. However, that's not the deal you got in life, but then you can't really compare yourself with people who don't have debt in a "how do people manage to save" question.

Plus, people on MN are at all stages in their lives - when my dc were pre-schoolers, and we were much younger and nearer the beginning of our careers, believe me, we weren't saving much, but, life moves on, you stop paying out for childcare, you both move on in your careers, etc., and you find you are more comfortable than you were when we were in your position.

Of course, some people are just on enormous salaries.
Some people are born into monied families
Some people are comfortably off financially because they have sadly got insurance payouts from losing loved ones too young.
Some people win the lottery.

there's all sorts of reasons why some people can save and others can't.