Turning spare change into future champagne one smart move at a time!

[Savingadime]

If you could give one piece of advice to someone about saving/ investing, what would it be and why?

I will go first. This is how I hold on to my savings. If it’s not something I need, can I afford it 3 times? If the answer is no, I will save that money and re-evaluate. Now that I have worked hard to save that money, do I still want to spend it on that item I wanted x number of months ago or has the moment gone?

This isn’t about investing, it’s what I taught my kids when they started working. If you want to buy something, work out how many hours you’ll have to work to afford it, then think if it’s still worth it to you.

I think of the cost as pretax earnings. So simply put if its £10 I have to earn £15 to have that £10 do i still want it? Recurring costs I try to think yearly. Starbucks coffee and croissant every day is horrific if you think yearly.

Set a budget and save for annual and irregular expenses (and a pension/house deposit if relevant) before spending on non essentials.

Also be aware of how seemingly small inconsequential spends add up. £10 a day on lunch/coffee is £50 a week, £200 pm, nearly £2.5k pa, £25k per decade etc. Someone on another thread has just worked out that if they stopped buying their daily lunch in Pret for the remaining 16 years that they expect to work, they could save £53k. Just by making their own lunch.

To save for things you will really value and earn some interest at the same time and enjoy the anticipatio. Don’t be tempted to pile up debt on a credit card and suffer the worry and stress of having to repay it with interest long after the pleasure has faded.

I find banking apps where you can save money in pots really useful. I have pots for savings, holidays, insurance, MOT, Christmas and presents, dentist etc. I sort it all out on payday. It really cuts down on stress.

Pension, pension, pension, that worked for us and that’s what we advised our adult DC.

All super helpful tips! I find it so interesting listening to how others spend/ save their money. I read that the average Brit has over £16k debt (excluding mortgages and student debt) and given the COL, that is only set to rise so think discussing finances has become even more important now.

I'm not sure it's useful to think of an average level of debt. Some people have lots of debt and live with it others have almost zero and wouldn't ever. I don't think there is a relevant average its different mind sets.

My tip is to save some money on pay day, not just whatever you have left at the end of the month.

I read, years ago, that if you saved the price of 20 cigarettes a day from age 18 and invested the money you would be a millionaire by 60. However on current prices you would need to save at least £13 a day.
I asked a friend how people could afford to smoke. She replied that when she smoked she would go without basics to get a nicotine fix.

Pension. Start at the earliest opportunity and ring-fence the money out. At 35 I had the equivalent of 11 years' private pension contributions. After a career break with the DC I went back to work in 2003 and joined the LGPS. In 2012 I changed jobs and transferred across the LGPS pension and the previous 11 years. All pension pre 2014 is linked to final salary, post 2014 career average. Although I couldn't join a company pension until I was 24 (those were the rules then), and had 7 years off with the DC, I'll retire next year on three quarters of a full occupational pension.

My other tip is to peg your tastes within or lower than your income. Champagne money and chardonnay tastes = happiness. Chardonnay money and champagne tastes = misery. The Micawber principle really.

Oh, and work - as much as possible. DD has the knack, whilst a teacher - three tutees every week.

Psy yourself first so I put £300 into my savings account and £200 into premium bonds after pay day. My savings account is easily accessible in case of emergencies but my bonds are long term savings. I also invest £200 into a stocks and shares isa monthly.

By deliberately restricting available spending money is the only way I can afford to save. Otherwise I'd spend it on absolute rubbish and waste my money. I've built up £10k in premium bonds with little effort and that would have been wasted on takeaways.

Also I don't drink or smoke which has really helped me save money. Those are expensive habits, my weaknesses are lunches out and takeaways. I've curbed those so have the odd treat now.

I do exactly the same. I have direct debits set up for everything. Much easier to budget if everything goes out on pay day. You know where you are in terms of disposable income.

When you get a pay rise do t automatically increase your standard of living. If you can live how you did before and save the extra. Or if possible split the increase 50:50 so you get some benefit in saving and standard of living. It’s worked for us.

If I'm buying myself extra treats I put the same amount spent in my savings, essentially buying it twice.

If I can't afford to buy it twice I don't buy it. It's also a great way to track what your splurging on.

And another vote for an online account that has spaces/pots, I sometimes panic I've got no money but my bills and essentials are all taken care of in these pots, saves the stress of finding money for a big bill

This! 👏

Never be too quick to keep up with the Jones’.

If I have items that I know I use frequently (e.g. daily perfume, serum, foundation, etc) I purchase the year’s worth on Black Friday every year, whilst the prices are cheapest. I never pay full price for any regular product that I use.

My dad says it might only be £1 but you can only spend it once. I.e is that the best use for the £1?

Agree with working out how hard you have to work for it.

I'm not so good at it now (becuase I'm comfortably placed because of years of living frugally) but I used to never buy food or drink out, unless it was a celebration meal. It's startling how much you can spend in a weekend if you're buying snacks and drinks everywhere you go.

Now I take the view that food or drink with friends is money well spent. Coffee just because, less so.

The biggest thing my parents taught me was ‘pay yourself first’ - I’ve always seen savings as a ‘bill’ that comes out as soon as I’ve been paid so it’s been part of the budget since I was a student and discretionary spending comes after. I also had it drummed into me that pensions were important and to contribute from day 1.

As I’ve got older, I’ve become more comfortable with debt if used well. I was always of the mindset to overpay mortgage etc but it doesn’t make sense for us to do that when money could be getting a higher return in a pension. But, I’m glad I was more wary of debt when I was younger

Half my pay goes into savings the day I get paid , I transfer enough for my share of the bills and mortgage into a joint account and leave myself about £500 a month for misc - most months I end up being able to save some more at that at the end of the month

I track my spending - also make a list of all the things I considered buying but didn’t. That’s a twofold thing - if I still want them in a few weeks and I can afford them I may purchase them, although seeing how much I haven’t spent is quite motivating

if I want something big I save for it

I have a list of all major expenditures for the year (eg car tax. MOT, house and car insurance) and save up for them. Same for birthdays and of course Christmas

Lurking

I did this when we were saving so my DH could retire when In did - also if you had debts and pay them off then add 50% of that repayment imto your savig as well. Also agree with paying yourself first