Part of being a grown-up and together human being is learning to save money. Putting away a lump sum each month may not be the most fun thing to do with your cash, but it’s a darn sight more sensible than holding out for a lottery win.
But saving money can be difficult at the best of times – at the worst times (like, say, during a pandemic) there are a whole list of reasons why there may not be spare cash right now. Happily we have some ideas for how you can make a bit of extra money to tide you over. Whatever your situation, it’s important to give saving a go – even a fiver left over at the end of the month is better than nothing. And if you’re feeling bad because you haven’t started saving at all, don’t worry about it – there’s no time like the present.
We’ve got plenty of advice on the best ways to save money but for some people, setting goals is what really inspires them to knuckle down. To get some inspiration on what goals to set for ourselves, we asked the members of our ever informative Money Diary Facebook group to tell us what they’re saving for right now – over three, six and 12 months.
Click through to find out what people are saving up for, how much they’ve got and when they expect to reach their goals. And remember, every goal is a step in the right direction; from the house deposit, to the holiday in India, to the £650 Dyson vacuum cleaner.
3 months – clear credit card.
6 months – pay all bills apart from rent for one year in advance.
12 months – have saved £2,400 in my help-to-buy ISA and £3,600 in my other half’s, and have saved about £1,000 in general savings. Also to be in a position to not have to get a maintenance loan for my third year.
Whether those will be achieved is [not clear] because I am definitely a spender…
–Ronnie
3 months – I’m very lucky to still be working during the Pandemic, so in the next 3 months I plan to try and save 1k a month. This is possible because we aren’t going on holiday or spending much day to day. I also aim to sort out my stocks and shares, which I have £3k invested and £900 ready invest in my stocks and shares ISA.
6 months – After 3 months I’ll reduce my monthly saving to £500, as there’s some work in the flat we’d like to do.
12 months – At 12 months we might start looking to move. So with the initial 1k a month for 3 months, then £500 for 9 months, that is £7,500 which we’d need up front to do any work the new house would need.
–Rose
3 months – get my emergency fund back after paying a new rent deposit.
6 months – maintain that after paying for wedding stuff! (Having a verrrry cheap wedding.)
12 months – get up to £4k plus emergency fund and get a LISA.
–Sadhbh
3 months – build up an emergency fund since wedding will have wiped it out. My partner will also be going part-time at work to finish his Open University degree so need to think about that too!
6 months – get my bedroom redecorated and new furniture. The house we bought was my nan’s before she died and we still have all her furniture apart from the living room, which we decorated last year. Just trying to get rooms done one by one when we can so the place feels more like ours!
9-12 months – we’ll be planning to start a family so would like to have a bit saved up to cover maternity leave. I get four months fully paid, but after that being on SMP (statutory maternity pay) while partner is part-time might be a struggle so would like to have some money there to use if needed! And if there’s enough funds, get a driveway in our front garden. Parking can be a nightmare on our street and the thought of parking ages away from my house with a baby when the street is busy doesn’t sound fun.
–Ronda
6 months – save £8k to a house deposit (need about £45k in total).
12 months – have the garden makeover done, hopefully be pregnant with enough passive income from my blog to cover maternity and have £12k saved for house deposit and net worth heading towards £50k.
They are lofty goals but I think it’s doable
I don’t tend to think much further in advance.
–Julie
3 months – save a further £1,000 to get savings up to £25k.
6 months – get savings up to £26k.
12 months – pay off wedding and honeymoon and have £14k left for house and £4k savings.
–Erin
4 years – have enough saved for a deposit for a house. (If I can ever commit to something as adult as home ownership.)
–Ruth
3 months – goal is to have saved half of what I earned over summer and divide it between and budget the next few months ’til Christmas.
6 months – have saved enough for a new phone, although I should probably think about car insurance first (the cost for insurance for being newly passed and 18 is not fun).
12 months – to have some kind of healthy bank balance after my first year at uni and hopefully be working over summer next year as well and be able to squeeze a nice holiday in at some point too!
–Rebecca
3 months – enough to buy new car seat, printer, and Dyson hoover (£650).
6 months – add £7k to get savings to my end-of-year stretch goal.
12 months – save for long-haul holiday and trip back home to US (easily £5k for all the flights!).
–Lindsey
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