Am I striking a sensible balance between saving and living now?

[Workingmum85]

I currently bring home £2200 a month after deductions and I am trying to balance saving for the future/retirement and living life now. Below is a breakdown of where my money goes currently and I’d love any feedback to if this is a good balance or any advice to do better

take home: £2200
mortgage/bills/food: 900pm (my half DH puts in the same)
stamp duty pot as looking to move in 5 years: £300pm
accessible savings: holidays/home repairs/xmas and birthdays: £300pm
LISA: £150pm (I also have £40k in an isa from inheritance/redundancy payouts so I’m topping up my Lisa each year to the full 4K from this)
car repayment: £290 due to end in July 2027 and hoping to keep car for another year or two after before replacing
my bills/spends: £270

for context my husband saves around the same amount and we have about 70k in savings (excluding LISA/pension). He’s got a civil service pension and I’ve a (relatively poor) private pension which stands at £53k and total contributions are 8%. LISA is at 6k and I’m 41 years old.

when we move in 5 years our mortgage will increase significantly from £600pm to around £1200pm given we want to upgrade and will have a reduced mortgage term based on our ages (I’ll be 46 husband 50).

any advice? Or am I doing ok?

What kind of holiday do you get for £2k that includes 4 people including flights and expenses etc in school holidays?

If you’re saving pretty much everything and only have £270 a month for your spends, that honestly doesn’t sound like much fun. Does that cover hair, clothes, a few treats? Personally I’d stop paying the car loan back - seeing as you loaned yourself the money. Have a bit of fun! You’ve got healthy savings, you’re continuing to save, your mortgage is nearly paid off - and well, life is for living. No one is guaranteed an old age!

And for the kids!

Baffling they’re not even refered to in the initial breakdown

The more I read, the more it seems like you’re living an intentionally frugal life - kids have hand me down clothes, you don’t go to theme parks, you make £80 stretch to 4 people for food each week, rely on grandparents to provide a meal each week, have a very cheap holiday and only allow yourself the teeniest bit of contingency for ‘spends’.

But in reality you’re in a very comfortable financial position compared to the average person - a mortgage nearly paid off at age 41, combined savings in excess of £100k and you’re saving loads each month on top.

If you’re happy living that way then keep it up. But I personally wouldn’t want to be squeezing every penny out of today in order to plan for a tomorrow.

This.

I don’t see much “living” going on. Not much fun. What do you do with the kids over the weekends? What sort of holiday is your abroad one for £2k and what does that include?

£80 for a family of four for groceries in current times is…. Frugal to say the least.

but ultimately - are you happy? Do you feel like your kids are getting decent injection of fun in their lives? If yes…. Then it’s working. However if you’re staying a thread asking this question - it means you have doubts on that front

You’ve done really well with your savings and have a great buffer now; I think your house move plans sound affordable.

My big concern would be that the pension pot is very low, even factoring in the LISA, so I would divert some savings to that, and then spend more enjoying life!

Im also curious about the holidays as we seem to spend a fortune even just doing U.K. breaks in school holidays.