How to amass money?

[emotionwreckage]

This is a bit of a loose question! I am continually mystified by people's ability to pay for holidays and still save money. I see so many people who appear to have endless money to go out, holiday, new cars,even though thouhey can't be earning huge amounts. Also how do people amass saving? We both work full time, albeit not earning big wages. I save £100 a month but things break and need replacing so the money never grows. I find it so frustrating and wonder what I'm doing wrong! does anyone have advice/insight?!

Every time I check my bank online, I will take the total to the nearest 5pound I.e...if the balance said 348.52 I transfer 3.52 to a savings account in another bank (that way I can't see the balance and start thinking of all the things I need to spend it on. It's like putting money in a black hole and forgetting about it but to the value of loose change and it adds up!!! I pay for Christmas and one off things such as new uniform...things that I'd normally be scrabbling around for. I check the balance only a handful of times through the year and it can be amazing at how much can be saved without feeling like your saving.

if finances weren't so tight I'd transfer more. My friend who gave me the tip is in a better position and she will take her balance to the the nearest 20. I.e if her balance says 348.52 would send 8.52 to savings.

It all adds up

Allguns .that is so organised. I am just looking at our budget and you have inspired me! There was a psychologist on radio this week who said money does not bring happiness . It is the shared experiences with people you love that make you happy so I guess there is a happy medium. I love to travel and take DC and DGC on holiday or for days out but I need to find the best way to save the money.

For us it was keeping our outgoings very low.
So we lived in a room in a shared house, whilst saving for a deposit, took lunches to work, no takeaways, very basic phones, and time spent on MSE looking at deals etc for spends- this allowed us to save a healthy deposit.
When we came to buy we purchase a mortgage which was based on 1 persons wage rather than 2, we have over paid mortgage for 5 years and kept to minimal/wise spending.
During this time our home and household spends came out of one persons wage, whilst saving the other persons (obviously all money is shared but easy way to explain), there were times when DH was working 3 jobs and sleeping a few hours a day at weekends (not recommended).
The saved money was then put into a business which over the last 9 months ish has started to return a healthy income to us, we have still not upped our spends and saving this money for another business (where DH does not need to be on site 7 days every week).
We will either sell the first or get someone into manage it.
So at the moment we are not where your OP is asking about (though I suppose thinking about it we could technically be) but if all works out we will be (and not with the ridiculous work/life balance we currently have) and this is (briefly) how we got there.

A couple of things - we live "below" the standard of living you might expect from our salaries - e.g. only have 1 car, have a smaller house than others of our friends, have cheaper furniture, don't buy adult clothes unless something is entirely worn out.

Plus we don't really spend money on anything unless we can prove it is necessary.
Interestingly although we are one of the more affluent families (based on jobs) in our area, our DC report that they feel that they have a lot less "stuff" than their friends at school - other children have more clothes, latest gadgets/games, always go to see films at cinema as soon as they come out etc.

Earn more, spend less, save more. That's it.
When we were in debt we both worked seven days a week. When you work all the time, you don't have chance to spend money, hence us re-paying the debt, and then being in good habits going on from there.
If you have children, it's a little more tricky, with the childcare , getting them to school, activities etc.

Quidco and Topcashback, change suppliers of everything every year. Shop at Aldi, meat from Muscle Foods. No credit cards, cars bought with cash. No store cards. Only debt is mortgage debt, overpaid when we can.

A trick I'm using is helping loads, we saved about £10k in a year and this year so far we have saved £7,000. We seem to spend a lot and are not as careful as we could be so I can't work out how we've saved so much. Although we didn't have a holiday last year and sold a small second car as we no longer needed it. DH's bonus covered this year's modest holiday.

I've done this by setting up an account and paying out a transfer at the beginning of each month. The amount I transfer is the total of all annual costs like insurances, car tax and MOT, holiday, Christmas and birthdays plus a bit extra to save. Paying annually for insurance is a lot cheaper which helps too. I also get cashback for some bills in this account so I use it to pay for those bills and include more money to cover them. This means that the two months we don't pay council tax the money is saved here rather than spent as it would be in the current account. Additionally, if we can manage to pay for the annual costs from our monthly income then we also save that amount by not dipping in to the savings pot.

I find borrowing is helpful sometimes too. We got a car loan which we knew we could afford but meant we kept the savings as it feels harder to save that amount up again than pay the loan. Money just seems to get spent if it's there. We've also taken up a loan for DH's annual travel card. We won't notice this as it comes out of his salary but I get to put the £2k straight into the savings account and earn interest.

Anything you save or accrue extra is always good to transfer straight into savings too. Bonuses, pay rises, birthday money, selling on eBay, reductions in costs, money paid you were owed, any excess money at the end of the month.... Just keep squirrelling it away because it will all build up.

We have a joint account we pay into for all bills I then give my self spending money and save the rest.

Each time I use my debit card to spend my money £2 is transferred into a savings account. I also pay work expenses from my money and normally save when it when it is reimbursed.

The other thing that has probably helped is that DH and I both lived at home for a few years after uni and so we're able to save more (though we paid some rent to our parents, but obviously not as much as a private rental). We were able to get onto the property ladder without other financial help from them, and with low loan-to-value mortgages.

I do online surveys which slowly add up to £10 vouchers here and there. And myself and the DC all have birthdays fairly close to Christmas so if there's nothing particularly that is wanted/needed at the time, I ask for vouchers. DD is 2 and has had some new bedding, new clothes and a contribution towards a toy kitchen from the vouchers she got for her birthday. For me, it lets me have treats through the year, without spending my own money . I also use Kidstart for money back on online shopping.

Orangeisthenewbanana - what online surveys do you do?

People probably earn a lot more than you think and have lower outgoings or else have income from other sources or buy on credit. It's as simple as that really.

I am a high earner but I have the same attitude to money as I have always had. I won't pay over the odds for things just because in theory I could, I still price check things I buy, I don't buy anything I can't afford (I use the credit card but only for the points and it is cleared every month). As a result we have more money than we otherwise would.

wheely I signed up to Toluna, Valued Opinions and Nectar Canvass. The first two give you points/cash per survey (nothing massive!) and then you choose the kind of voucher you want when you have enough to redeem. Nectar Canvass you link to your Nectar card and they give you points per survey direct to your card for you to use in the usual way.

It is slow going and you won't make loads, but I tend to sit and do a couple of an evening on the laptop while I'm watching telly, and it does add up. I've had about £45 in Amazon vouchers, £30 each in John Lewis and Sainsburys, £10 each in Boots and Mothercare and about 7000 Nectar points over 18 months or so. Just nice little extras.

One the first of every month I transfer a sum to a linked savings account, which pays for:
all insurances
Christmas
Holiday fund (i'm hoping to go abroad every other year)
Boiler cover
emergencies
replacements

These may not be big amounts, but it means that there is SOMETHING in each pot, and they all build up over the months.

I then place the remainder into different budgets - household, entertainment, fuel, water, utilities, haircuts etc.

Somehow, this system seems to suit me - and using spreadsheets for it all helps immensely. However, i am not a spendy person, and so don't find it difficult to live within my means.

Thanks so much for all your tips! There are some great ideas here so I'm slowly going through them all. I work term time only and have wondered about how to make money during holidays. My dd is 12 so I'm a bit limited. I like the idea of surveys though. I'm paying an interest of 3.5% on my mortgage. Do you think I could get it cheaper?

Have NC for this as I don't want to out myself.

Mostly, we live below our means. We now have no debt other than mortgage and a credit card that is paid off monthly, run one (old!) car, have one foreign holiday a year where we travel to stay with family and one Sun holiday short break. We don't go out much (we have smallish kids and no family support/convenient babysitters local to us) and neither of us spend loads on "stuff".

I'm signed up to Quidco, Yougov and a couple of other survey sites, and the Mumsnet panel :o which has been quite good to me over the past year!

We track income/expenditure across all accounts (share dealing, ISAs, kids savings, estimated house price, mortgage balance etc) on a spreadsheet so we can see our total net worth fairly easily. In the past we tracked spending for a month, then used that to create a sustainable budget. We both earned fairly well and lived off one salary so saved the other (practise for having kids, as we intended that I would be a SAHM and wanted to be sure we could afford it). I walked away from my last job with about a year's salary after signing a compromise agreement - not something that will happen to many people, I grant you!

Currently, neither of us is working and this is sustainable indefinitely because we have invested enough in shares to be able to pay all our outgoings from guaranteed dividend income. It does mean we can't easily change our mortgage provider, although we're on a pretty good rate so it's not a concern in the short/medium term.

Mostly, genuinely, we got lucky - we invested in some shares that over the next 3 years or so, increased in value by 10x what we paid for them. We sold them, and are where we are. We are not increasing our investments, but when the kids are older and I have some time to find a part time job, and my husband goes back to work (planned in around 3 years time) then we will.

If you work term time only then that is a lot of hours missed earning potential.

It also depends if you have high costs of working such as smart clothing, commuting cost etc.

We never were able to save serious money until dh got a job with serious bonuses - we saved them from the start. I wouldn't say we got lucky - dh worked harder than I have ever seen anyone work to get where he is but yes he and I are both very lucky to have been good at school, good at academics and with stable families who supported us.

Before that we saved but painfully - as in literally watching every penny and cutting every possible thing to save up the house deposit. Even though we could have lived on one salary we both went back to work after children. At one point it wasn't worth our while on paper but in the long run it was - we both have decent and similar pension pots for one thing. So if we had no other savings, that would have been worth it.

We live below our means and probably look like we earn less than we do. We drive 6/7 year old cars bought second hand, don't live in a very lavish place - we often look at houses in the next town over that are really lavish and say how lovely. We could actually afford to buy one but we wouldn't - this house is working just fine for us. We spend money on education and holidays mostly. My goal is that each of our children graduate from college debt free.

I think a lot of people put stuff on credit, or get a lot of help from family. when we moved to the US, dh and I were living in a tenement flat more or less and had no car- it was great though. We had friends at almost exactly similar salaries - the husbands earned the same and I possibly earned more than the other wife. but they lived in a really nice apartment block with a pool and had a nice car. When I got closer to her she told me her parents were paying the rent on the apartment and had bought them the car.

It's often a case of "money begets money", I'm afraid. Starting to save even the safety net of 3 month's salary in the bank is really hard.
However, at that point you can start managing your money and using it wisely to save on wasteful interest payments (so once yearly payments for car insurance, credit cards paid off straight away, buying in cash instead of instalments etc,). You can also buy things more cheaply in bulk or out of season that you will use later.
Keep a record of your monthly outgoings for 2/3 months, then work with an imaginary "virtual" bank account which only contains enough for 2 months. You will soon see where your overspending takes place and you have to "borrow" from next month, or if you have money left over it's plainly visible. All this is happening "virtually", though and you do have money to cover emergencies!
Like a PP says, any windfalls go into your savings plan and make sure you are receiving all the tax refunds and benefits you are entitled to.
Analyse your luxuries. Does having a new mobile phone every year matter to you? Then it's one of your expenses and one twelfth of the estimated cost goes on the monthly list. An impulse buy doesn't happen that way, because you know you have to break into your savings.
Remember quality of life is important, so factor in the occasional treat if you can, especially if there is a windfall!

There are lots of apps and online advice, but those are the points I've found that make a difference.

A lot of it is often to do with the size of your house. We have a large house and get a lot of benefit from that but it costs us a fortune in mortgage payments. If we had stayed in our previous house (which was perfectly lovely) we would have been mortgage free four years ago. We would then have lots of "spare" money.

This doesn't work for everyone though. My friend is just moving to a larger house and getting a mortgage again because when they didn't have a mortgage to pay she frittered away their money on clothes etc.

Property market is also a big factor. If you bought your first house in the 1980/1990s you will be a completely different position to those who rented.

Reduce your outgoings.
One tip.... Work out your usage of things you use/buy regularly, such as toothpaste. This will tell you that you need, as an example, 12 tubes a year. Then note the price of your usual brand in various shops and make a "game" of buying "stock" at the best price.

I am always amazed how people afford to upgrade to say a swim up room on holiday.

And upgrading on flights can double the cost of a holiday.

The main reason dh and I are financially comfortable is that we didn't have school til we were around 35 (not by choice), so we had decent jobs and could live off one wage for our day-to-day costs, saving almost one wage.

Then when we brought a house we did so in an up-and-coming area. Dh had a good job, and our mortgage is around £1500 per month, which is very cheap compared to rent for the area we are in (London, zone 2).

It came at cost as we struggled with infertility. A few other shitty circumstances meant that we were not in a happy place, so didn't travel, go out. We just saved the money - not an intentional thing, just how things happened during a tough period on our life.

I think these key things are why we do have financial security.

I think it is very easy to conflate the spending habits of many to get an unrealistic view of what the individual should be achieving. You see friends either saving for a deposit or going on holiday or driving a new car or sending DC to a fee paying school or eating out every other night and imagine you could/should be achieving all that.

I also think there is a misapprehension as to what well off "looks" like. People imagine that the "rich" are easily identifiable whereas there are an awful lot of people with non descript jobs earning good 6 figure salaries who you wouldn't necessarily peg as "rich" but can afford nice hols and savings

Some very interesting views and ideas here. I haven't been in the best position due to divorce tbh. I think I handle the money ok but could do better. my brother seems to manage mortgage, two rental properties, massive house, two kids and multiple holidays a year. I just don't understand how he does it and I'm ashamed to say I'm envious of him. It's a total mystery!