Tips for saving 59% of your income.

[tiddlywinkles]

I am 24 years old. I rent a flat in a big city. I have received absolutely no financial help from my parents apart from a bit of Christmas and Birthday money each year. I have £20,000 in savings.

Since I was a teenager my parents would teach me money management. I am very frugal and I like to think I am super smart with my money and I have a few tips.

1. Have two bank accounts. A saving account and a spending account.

I use Santander for all my savings and Monzo for my spending. The day my wages come in I transfer 30% of my wages into my Monzo account for spending. This spending includes my fuel money.

1. Have a daily limit. I know how much I can spend daily to avoid running out of money. At the weekends I hardly spend any money so, I continuously do maths to work out how much I have left.
2. Remove money in cash which you definitely can't spend. After I move my spending money into my second account I withdraw my fuel money and keep it in my car. I know roughly how much money I use monthly so, there is no risk it will be spent accidently and I walk more if I start to run light on fuel money at the end of the month. I also take advantage of low prices where possible.
3. Don't be afraid to wear and return clothes. This one is very controversial but, with my job I have to go to a lot of events. I have never been afraid to buy a dress and tuck the tag in but, return it the next day. Of course I ensure the dress is kept in pristine condition. Clothes companies make a lot more money than I do so, I have no worries about this one.
4. Save your pennies. On my second account my pennies up to the nearest pound are saved in an account and I have locked it until December 31st 2019. It means even on my little purchases I save money. I also manually skim my accounts every night to save even more. I don't even see the pennies go and they add up quickly.
5. Bulk buy and freeze. A lot of people my age don't freeze food. I buy foods I can freeze in bulk and do 'Pantry Challenges' to ensure everything is eaten and I don't be tempted to buy take out.
6. Buy items that have multiple uses. ie soap
7. Buy an eyebrow dye kit, boxed hair dye and gel nail sets. I am an average 24 year old girl and I am very much into self care. I tan at home and I do all my own waxing and hair dying. Of course some things are worth going to the hairdressers for (cuts) but, this one works for me and saves me £50 every 6 weeks.
8. Be critical about what you are spending your money on. This one is very hard for me because I of course like spending money on things I like. I'm not afraid to complain about quality of items. If I am spending my hard earned money on anything I want it too be worth it. In some cases I have received voucher codes or full refunds for items where they are genuinely horrible instead of taking the financial hit.

10. Challenge yourself. I set myself challenges when I am out and about. Such as making sure I don't pick up anything else I don't need when I go out shopping and walking more places.

I have a few more things I do but, I see a lot of people looking for tops and these are things which have helped me save so much money. Probably nothing that nobody else knows but, hope it helps someone.

I can't get beyond the returning worn clothes
I'd rather be skint than deceitful
You are just a CF
If other people weren't so honest there wouldn't be shops around for you to rip off

You need to.save exactly the same as someone else needs to save- and you have no dependents! You have a minimum wage now (what, something like £7.98 p.h.?) I started work on £2.08 an hour. House prices doubled in the time I was saving for a deposit- the current situation isn't a new one.
Which city are you in? It's likely you could get a flat for less in mortgage than you pay in rent, when you already have £20k saved. That's assuming you're not in London, Cambridge, Oxford.

Not many my age know anything about money management and even the most 'obvious' tips.

I've not met one yet that doesn't tbh. I think it's great you have your head screwed on and you are saving, but why on earth do you think others your age and younger aren't doing this?
We teach our children financial management in their teens, my 15 year old dd knows what you do, because we have taught her from an early age.
Weren't you taught growing up?

If not many people your age know about money management, why don't you go and share your thievery tips with them, instead of middle-aged parents?

Enjoy your pile of cash & complete lack of moral fibre, OP.

So smug....

I imagine you’re the friend that dissects the bill after a meal to ensure maximum saving opportunities aren’t lost and end up looking tight rather than thrifty.

It will set you up with a good deposit and if utilised effectively you can also make your money work for you.

Switching current accounts to cash in on offers, setting up savings accounts and using savings to drip feed them to get better interest rates. Use the vouchers and introduction offers to boast your savings.

I set aside 4 hours to do this 2/3 years ago and managed to make £600 over a year - that paid for my week away all inclusive.

Do you have any 5 meal chicken tips? Could I return the chicken after every use?

Refurbish the clothes you return? That’s your excuse? Pull the other one. For someone who wants to present themselves as soooo enlightened you offer a paltry excuse for your behaviour. Have a thought for the next mug that has to wear your castoffs that you’ve sweated in all day.

There are lots of money saving tips now eg money saving expert, Alvin Hall, Money Box, blogs Some people find finances boring, have no time or are just not interested (see recent post saying that they dont know what their husband/partner earns)

I will swap some tips;

Clothes - try second hand, car boot sales, swap with friends, hire shops or websites, use same clothes but accessorise

Do you pay into a work pension ? I pay in & my employer also contributes

Some bank accounts, credit cards, websites offer cash back on some purchases & utility bills. Over time this adds up to a significant amount

Never auto renew any bill or insurance, shop around for a better deal

Use refer a friend schemes

This must be the most smug & patronising thread on Mumsnet

It would be interesting to receive an update about how much you are saving every 10 years. It is much easier to save when you have no dependents or mortgage

What have I just read?

I don’t like to take tips from criminals thanks. I hope you get your comeuppance.

Most of us pay 41% of our salary just on income tax and NI.

No, most people don't pay that. In fact, I can't think of any scenario where anyone's tax and NI is 41% on all of their salary (in England or Wales).

But, I would assume she means the savings are from net pay, so tax is irrelevant anyway.

Personally I pay 50% into my pension and save a third of my take home. But that's because I'm a high earner with very low outgoings. The reason I have listed outgoings is due to having lived frugally when younger.
Though I can confirm I have never returned an item of clothing I have worn and, aged 50, had my hair dyed for the first time ever last year! Must have saved thousands over the years.....

Recent items purchased were from charity shop & from a shop in the sale

Ive never worn and returned clothes, except when I hired a fancy dress costume from a shop
or
Hired ski wear, water sports wear etc

How much do you earn OP? And how much is your rent?

Could you BE any more condescending and up your own arse?

If my DCs did number 4 I'd be really disappointed in them.

It's wrong on so many levels. Refurbished? Okay.

Refurbished?? These are the ramblings of an idiot.

How to save 59% of your income?

1. Earn enough that you only need 41% of your income to survive

What a laugh op

Your top tips would mean nothing to the people like me who earn just enough to cover rent, bills and essentials

Same question as PP how much do you earn and how much rent do you pay?

If I saved 59% of my net income, I wouldn't have enough left to pay my mortgage/bills and to feed myself.

I have teenagers. This means about 159% of your income disappears. Even going out for a coffee is very expensive; a meal for four adults is ruinous . Teenagers do not like wooden toys from charity shops for Christmas and neither do they care for sharing one bath of water a week or eating one tenth of a chicken.

Actually your life sounds joyless, counting the pennies all the time. It is fine to be careful, but this can so easily spill over into being miserly and, as you have admitted, actually stealing. We have all encountered the person who tries to swerve leaving a tip at a meal, or leaving the exact money for a pizza, "forgetting" their drinks, the service charge and the tip. We all know the person who never goes out with their purse or who loiters at the back or in the loo when their round is due at the pub.

Of course frittering money away is silly, especially if you have a savings goal, but loving money for the sake of it, and being prepared to shaft others in its pursuit... not commendable.

You lost me at number 4. Can't have any respect for someone who does this. I don't spend a lot on clothes but when I do I would hope that what I'm spending my hard earned cash on is brand new, not worn previously by someone else and returned i.e. basically second hand. As for thinking returned clothes were refurbished - what planet are you on? Returned items that can't be resold as they've been worn previously are a cost the store bears that is then passed on the rest of us, but unfortunately not CFs like you as you prefer to act in a disgracefully immoral way. You should be ashamed of yourself.

If you stole all your food, you would save even more money!

My top tip: don't have kids. Or.if.you do, monetise them ... instagram or working.up a chimney. Hey ... shoplifting might work. Put stuff in their pram, let them play with it, return it later for some other kid to buy