Getting a little bogged down!

[MummyStruggles]

Forgive me if I sound immature and dense here. I've never posted in here before. Sorry if I go on a bit.

I'm getting a little bit overwhelmed with money at the moment and I wonder if anyone may have some advice?

Between DH and I we bring in £55k a year. I know this is a good sum of money and I am, by no means, complaining that we don't have enough money.

What I am however, getting in a bit of a tizz about what we should be doing with our money.

We rent our house and it's £795 a month. Bills including car payment, insurance, normal household utilities, phone bills, after school club fees, pet insurance, loan repayments etc. amount to about £2k. One thing I am looking into is cancelling sky, reducing phone tariff etc.

We'd ideally love to buy our own house but we need around a £22k deposit and I don't even know where we'd start to get that sort of cash together.

There are so many other bits that I hear people mention, for example, private healthcare, dental, life insurance, savings, ISAs to name a few.

How do people afford to do all of this other stuff? I'm not being nosey, I just do wonder. On top of holidays, days out and the odd meal/night out here and there?

I'm 34 and DH is 45. The realisation that we have nothing in the pot for any future or retirement (a long way off I know) is depressing and scary. We both pay in to peoples pension but our contributions are only the obliged percentages so could look into increasing these.

If I'm honest also I'm probably feeling a little under pressure to have all these things in place too as I don't want to get to a point where we have nothing to fall back on, especially savings.

I don't actually know what it is that I'm asking here but suppose I just wonder what people would advise I start with? ISA? Just save into a separate account? Try our best to save a house deposit first?

Any advice would be appreciated. TIA.

I would check out money saving expert and the money make over on there as a starting point. He also has good information on ISAs there too. Also make sure you are saving into a pension!!

I felt like you till a few years ago. 55k is a decent income but you are not loaded and saving will take discipline.

Make a sheet of your incomings and outgoings so you know exactly what you are spending. Have a look to see what you don't need to spend - coffees, lunches, eating out regularly, whatever it is that are 'indulgences' and start to put this aside.

Save at the start of the month - not the end, and get it into an ISA. Other mumsnetters will have better advice on these than me.

If it's a house deposit you're saving for, maybe sacrifice a holiday for a couple of years.

Can you or your DH take on extra work? Tutoring? An evening of bar work? Babysitting? Save all extra income from this like it never happened.

Look into ways to reduce your shopping bill. Eat less meat - learn to cook with lentils and chickpeas. Maybe go to aldi or Lidl. Get good at yellow sticker bargain hunting for meat or fish if you do have it.

I used to be shit with saving money but a concentrated effort for a few years taught me how much I was wasting that I could have saved.

Getting rid of the car/s will save you a lot of money.

Just a minor comment - I don't think many people pay for private health insurance. Some people may get it as a benefit through work but I don't think many people actually pay for it.

Otherwise I agree with a PP about making a spreadsheet of all your incomings and outgoings to see where you can cut down. Savings won't just 'happen' - you have to decide to do it and figure out where it's going to come from (either by increasing your income or decreasing your outgo).

You start by cutting out the holidays for a couple years, stop the meals out and watch those incidentals like getting a takeaway latte (for example). I’d question the pet insurance - or at least make sure it’s worth it. Do you have two cars? Can you get by with one or trade one in for a cheaper runaround? Can you borrow some money from your parents? Can you downsize your current accommodation for something cheaper for a year or two?
Meticulously go over your current expenditure. Forget about private healthcare or dental - I don’t know anyone who has either. But after you raise money for your house you do need to seriously plan for retirement.

Agree with the Moneysavingexpert recommendation

The Money Makeover to overhaul your finances and check what you are paying for everything

The first time buyers guide for saving for a mortgage - as you are under 40, you are eligible for special ISAs where the government will top up your deposit.

Tips to increase your income - change your bank account to get £150 to £200 bonus and save the money towards a deposit. Cashback via Quidco and Top Cashback on just about all your normal spending, it all adds up.

Would it be possible to move closer to work so you can get rid of one or both cars? That can be a huge saving.

Food and drink out of the house can really add up, so make sure you take a packed lunch and your own coffee to work. People can be spending hundreds of pounds a month on this without realising.

It's going to be tough as you're paying rent, but a couple of years of frugal living might get you there.

Look into shared ownership. You won't need to have a big deposit