What are your financial goals for 2023?

[TTCm]

I thought I’d start a light-hearted thread for those who what to share their financial goals for next year. I know money is tight right now, so people sharing their goals may give some encouragement to meet them.

I will be on maternity leave for 10 months next year, so my goals are:

1. to save £3,000 by the end of next year from my salary before mat leave and a bit of my enhanced pay.
2. save on Christmas / birthday gifts by being organised and buying in the sales and planning early rather than panicking last minute and spending more on presents!

Here’s to a good year next year 🙂

Do a proper meal-plan and grocery budget

Win a million on the premium bonds

This is my wish/goal/dream!

Save for a new car! I'm self employed and have taken on extra hours to do this.

This year was spent having a massive financial cleanse and organisation. I feel much more in control of my money and I'm spending more mindfully.

I'd like to save £1000 to help towards starting uni next year however I'm currently stealing from Peter to pay Paul.

My plan is to use only cash

Move all DD to the same date of the month so I can see what I have (if anything) each month

I plan to claim my expenses back at work

Apply for CSA for youngest child

Cancel or reduce any contacts I can

Sell more online

Increase income where possible

£84 per month to find..... I'll be damped if I don't do it!!!

In April I paid for a new roof from my savings. So far I've put £7,000 back in the savings account. I'd like to add back another £7k but it's getting harder to do.

I definitely want to increase my pension contributions this year.

Get on top of our outgoings, low spend where possible and save as much as we can.

Been doing YNAB for the last 2 months and has made a really significant improvement to our finances, hope we can continue the good work.

Have 2 x ds to fund at university so life is expensive right now.

Fill my savings pots - sinking fund, holidays, energy crisis (!), Christmas 2023, car.

Over-pay mortgage as our low interest rate mortgage is up in early 2025.

Fund a bathroom refit.

My main goal, although I'm not sure as yet how to achieve it, is to combat lifestyle creep that we've succumbed to over the past year.

As I am staring down a holiday in May where I will be in swimwear, I am currently looking to losing weight. The financial part is related to sourcing clothes for my (hopefully!) slimmer body, so I'm going to vow to shop in eBay/Vinted where I can, sales next and then full price only if I can get an extra discount (either via discount code or gift card discount via work).

Also need to try and maximise saving where I can, as after shelling out 2k for a fence in October they need building back up.

Continue to overpay the mortgage - fixed rate ends in 3 years and I'd really like to have as small an amount as possible so that the increase isn't too high.

Try and make overpayments on the car loan. This would free up more money to overpay the mortgage.

Pay off remaining cc debt by the end of March.

Start overpaying mortgage by at least £500pcm from April. We have 4 and half years left but want to try to pay it off by July 2025.

To be able to keep warm.

Really, I'd just like to get through the year without heading into my overdraft before the end of the month. If we could manage to live within our means I'd be happy.

Finances are going to be my big focus this year. After years of just about breaking even, we've both had payrises so need to get things in proper order. I've paid off a loan and my car since the summer and now looking to divert that saved money to productive places.

1. £5k emergency fund so that we don't need to put unexpected costs on credit cards. Ultimately I'd like to grow this to nearer £8k over the next few years but £5k will give a lot of peace of mind.

1. Pay down 0% credit card. Aiming to pay the minimum and save the overpayments into a higher interest Regular Saver account to take advantage of those rates.

1. Open a LISA for each of us.

Beans on toast!

Glad he's your ex..... arsehole.

You absolutely can do this, stick to your plan, yes it will be disheartening at times but you'll get there. You are young so have energy and time on your side.

Use a recent inheritance to pay off remainder of mortgage.

I'm fortunately debt free, so want to concentrate on getting my retirement plans in order and finance in place to support DD with a pension and secure finances for whatever plans she has for her future.

I've never been able to save. Ever. I want to save £500 by the end of the year. Any more would be great, but I normally get to around £100/£200 then spend it all on crap!

Get out of debt. Somehow.

Open a Zopa smart saver account and lock it away for 3 months at a time. Money can be added but not withdrawn.

Get a limited access saver account so that you can't touch it. They have better interest too.

Need to break these down into more specific goals, but at the moment my thinking is:

• rebuild my savings, I leant on them heavily during maternity leave and I’d like to start building them back up
• get better at budgeting so I know what I’m spending and where I can cut back
• simplify our joint finances
• set up savings accounts for the children

I've got a good spreadsheet if it helps.

• sell any unwanted clothes on ebay/ vinted
• plan low cost days out and save for a holiday next summer
• stick to a food budget and avoid top up shops