How much do you save each month?

[glastomummy]

Bit of a random one... I am trying to get my partner to get better with money and saving. We have decent salary's - me £58k and him £50k - neither of us are great with money but I have worked hard to get out of debt, my credit score is good and I am saving each month. He still has debt and his credit score is dreadful! I do often wonder how my friends always have so much money - some earn similar to us but some much less. I know it depends on circumstances/outgoings but I wondered how much people save each month/how much you earn. I am pregnant and I want us to get into good habits before the baby comes. I also want to buy a house as we are still renting. TIA x

Me and my husband’s salaries together roughly equal just your salary!🙁
We have 2 children that we need to pay for small amount of childcare and then at least £150 per month on clubs plus school dinners, clothes etc.
The way we do it is plan our weekly shopping so we don’t overspend then after we’ve paid bills, mortgage, food etc we take out money to cover Christmas each month and a small amount for children’s savings accounts. We then look at what’s left and most is for us to spend on whatever we want but tends to be days out, things children need etc and we save any leftover.

Pre-children we had more money and were in bad habits of eating out loads, doing lots of mini top up shops, buying whatever we want etc. I feel quite proud of how well we manage our money but still have a nice lifestyle.

Have a budget, look through everything you’re spending. Set yourself up with a pocket money account after all bills and pay into your savings account on pay day every month, so you get used to it not being in your bank account. Effectively it’s another bill

I save 75%of my disposable income

Very simple system here which seems to work for us is that we shift our savings target out of our bank account as soon as we get paid, not at the end of the month. So, we put x straight into the housekeeping/bills account, y into the savings account and then we know what we have left. It works for us.

I'm going to try to start saving a tenner a week.
Low income.

I take home £2200 pcm, I'm single and renting. Manage to save around £1,000 monthly, but I'm boring! Don't go out, cheap UK annual holiday, look for bargains constantly, budget for everything. Trying to build up a deposit desperately!

Interesting that you think this is a random question, it comes up most days in this topic as it's very important to a lot of people.

Have a look back through and you'll find thousands of posts but if you do that you'll see that there's no such thing as a normal amount which tbh is what you'd expect as there is no two individuals or families have the same circumstances

Don't worry about what anyone else does, work out your own budget and choose an amount that works for you

There are thousands and thousands of people who can barely afford to live never mind save, to them not saving a penny is their normal.

What are your outgoings op? It's like
Comparing apples and pears really but we save 900pcm on pay day, overpay mortgage by 200 pcm and anything left over on next pay day Chuck in holiday for loft fund. Around 80k income and no car payments or anything.

On that level of income I would be saving about £1500/month. Our joint income is just over half of that and depending on what is going on (we are doing a lot of home improvements at the moment) we save anywhere between £500-£800/month. During lockdown it was more like £1100 but I wouldn’t want to go back to not spending money!

@givememykeys thanks for your reply! I meant 'random' in the sense it is difficult to compare my situation to other people with varying salaries and commitments. But it has been really helpful to see how people split their money. Thanks all!! X

@1AngelicFruitCake this is exactly us!! We've just got lazy and into really bad habits- if we can't be bothered to cook we just get a takeaway or go out to eat. Similarly if either of us want something we just go get it. It makes birthdays and christmas' quite challenging actually!!

I am really committed to changing our habits and teaching our children how to manage money responsible. I don't think either of our parents are great with money so I guess it's partly learnt behaviour. I really hope by reading this thread my DH will be more on board with my way of thinking. It is causing me a lot of stress which is no good for our relationship or the baby. And yes I know we should have sorted ourselves out before starting a family, but you can't change the past! I have tried with him many times but hope this is the kick up the butt he needs thanks again all! X

We've just got lazy and into really bad habits- if we can't be bothered to cook we just get a takeaway or go out to eat. Similarly if either of us want something we just go get it. It makes birthdays and christmas' quite challenging actually

Well done on recognising a problem area. You can easily plan to overcome the takeaway problem by keeping a couple of nice pizzas in the freezer or getting nicer supermarket curries or ready meals or whatever. Costs about a third to a half of what a takeaway does.

On the matter of birthdays or Christmas, just stick to token gifts, consumables or days or meals out. No need to spend a lot to mark the occasion just for the sake of it.

I earn £50k and DH earns £53k so not far from your salaries. But, we have two small kids, one at school now and one at nursery three days a week (we both work four days so the above is our pro rata salaries). Our youngest has the 30 funded hours now so the nursery bill is quite small and our eldest does just two days a week at after school club. So our overall childcare bill has plummeted from what it was a couple of years ago meaning we feel flush as we got used to paying about £1k a month on childcare.

We’re now paying 15% each into pensions, £500/month into a S&S ISA and the remaining slack in our monthly budget goes to mortgage overpayments - we aim for £1500.

Our outgoings are reasonably low compared to income as we’re not big spenders so we’re trying to get ourselves into the best position possible while our kids are young and don’t need or want too much spending on them! We both really, really want to retire early and possibly downsize our jobs to less stressful ones before that, so we’re trying to make hay while the sun shines. I’m aware that we’re very lucky, partly because of our decent incomes but also because we’re on the same page with money and have the same goals and are both willing to work towards them together. I believe that’s absolutely crucial in a marriage.

I earn a little less than you, my husband earns 80k. We like to save but we're not strict savers who put away a set amount every month, its just whatever is left over but works out around 18-22k a year.

[quote glastomummy]@1AngelicFruitCake this is exactly us!! We've just got lazy and into really bad habits- if we can't be bothered to cook we just get a takeaway or go out to eat. Similarly if either of us want something we just go get it. It makes birthdays and christmas' quite challenging actually!!

I am really committed to changing our habits and teaching our children how to manage money responsible. I don't think either of our parents are great with money so I guess it's partly learnt behaviour. I really hope by reading this thread my DH will be more on board with my way of thinking. It is causing me a lot of stress which is no good for our relationship or the baby. And yes I know we should have sorted ourselves out before starting a family, but you can't change the past! I have tried with him many times but hope this is the kick up the butt he needs thanks again all! X [/quote]
You sound lovely and very positive 😊
I look back to my pre-children days and I’m amazed at the daily shop trips, takeaways, meals out etc all which we could afford but even missing a meal out a week and not buying a sandwich so often would have saved us £40 a week! Might not seem a big deal now but in the future you’ll be glad you saved as it gives more choice later. One of the reasons we can have a nice life on more modest incomes is due to me saving like mad in my 20s and early 30s. Good luck!

@1AngelicFruitCake aww thank you!!
We had a really good chat last night and worked everything out- we can save £2k a month so will pay off some of his higher interest debts first then save for baby/deposit. He's also going to ask his dad for a loan to pay off the rest of his debts which I was very surprised by!! It would be great to start a fresh 😊 xx

We save 30% of take home. I transfer it out on payday otherwise I find it gets frittered away

@BarbaraofSeville that's a great idea about the takeaways!! Thank you! Will definitely try that x

I take home £44k, DH £32k. I DC aged 5 so no nursery fees thank Christ.

We give ourselves £1600 a month for all food and fun spends then put £2k in savings. Saving for a house move.

The easiest way to start saving is to create an automatic transfer into your savings account as soon as you get paid, not at the end of a pay period. Mentally having less money makes it easier to spend less, even when you know the safety net is there. I would just pick a savings rate that seems reasonable for your family and put that amount aside and see how it goes.

@Blossom64265

The easiest way to start saving is to create an automatic transfer into your savings account as soon as you get paid, not at the end of a pay period. Mentally having less money makes it easier to spend less, even when you know the safety net is there. I would just pick a savings rate that seems reasonable for your family and put that amount aside and see how it goes.

Absolutely this. I get paid last working day of the month, My share to the joint account, personal standing orders for my own stuff (gym, Christmas fund, etc) and savings all go out on the first of the month.

So then I know how much I have to play with. Whatever I’ve got left on the last day of the month goes into my savings too, so I start each month on zero.

Should read, whatever I’ve got left on the day before the last day of the month I transfer over. I’ll do that on Friday this month as we get paid on the Monday.

Wow! I save £50 which often gets clawed back to buy food. Income of £3200 a month but nothing spare!
Saving £1k or more would be amazing but a real dream!

@Pinetreesfall

Wow! I save £50 which often gets clawed back to buy food. Income of £3200 a month but nothing spare! Saving £1k or more would be amazing but a real dream!

That's a really good income!

Let me guess, childcare costs screwing you?

We earn less than you and are saving 50% of our net earnings on a good month. I’ll be back in the office soon so it will go down but still at least 40%. We (DP and I, no DC) have £100 each pocket money a month for pub, clothes, haircuts, coffees, hobbies etc.

I definitely agree with others who suggested ‘paying yourself first’ ie transferring into savings at the beginning of the month. We save way more this way than by just transferring whatever’s left at the end of the month, it makes you waste less money. We do then also transfer anything that’s left at the end to savings as well to start at zero in the current account each month like pp.