Savings

TENHNY

Myself and DH are trying to save to get a mortgage.

Any tips how to save more we are currently on combined wage of 52k per year

We save 125 combined per week, and have only 8 k saved.

We Rent and have all the bills that go with it.

any tips on how we could save more money

Thank in advance

TheBody

TENHNY wrote: »

Myself and DH are trying to save to get a mortgage.

Any tips how to save more we are currently on combined wage of 52k per year

We save 125 combined per week, and have only 8 k saved.

We Rent and have all the bills that go with it.

any tips on how we could save more money

Thank in advance

How much is your rent per month?

My wife and I moved to a much cheaper part of the country and now pay €600 per month for a lovely 3 bed house. For us, the high rent (in Maynooth) was eating up our savings.

We also cut back on socialising and in general being silly with our money. It really does all add up.

We have recently signed contracts on the purchase of a house and hope to get the keys at the end of the month.

Good luck!!

TENHNY

Thanks for your reply,

Our Rent is 500 which is cheap considering Dublin.

Congratulations on find your new home.

By 125 combined I assume you mean 125 between you so about 500 per month overall.

To be honest with rent of only 500 between you your savings amount is on the low side unless you have other outstanding debts etc, particularly if you want to push hard to save.

MrMorooka

So if you are on 52k(about 3000 a month after tax?), and only 500 is going on rent, and another 500 on savings, where is the other 2k a month going?

Caliden

MrMorooka wrote: »

So if you are on 52k(about 3000 a month after tax?), and only 500 is going on rent, and another 500 on savings, where is the other 2k a month going?

If their joint income is 52k they'll be earning more than 3k after tax.

wardides

Caliden wrote: »

If their joint income is 52k they'll be earning more than 3k after tax.

Was just going to say. For example assuming both are on 27K a year, they would be taking home about 3,800 a month.

Michael D Not Higgins

wardides wrote: »

Was just going to say. For example assuming both are on 27K a year, they would be taking home about 3,800 a month.

No mention of kids, but that could be part of it. If there's no kids, then OP needs to review their budget (or start one).

celligraphy

I don't work but fingers crossed maybe I 'll get work soon but I can afford to put away 40 a week in savings from 140 a week , start budgeting! Write down what you bought everytime you spend something and start buying cheaper brands food wise , I'm a stingy person though you should be able to put away much more than what you already do

Conor20

I was in a similar situation a few years ago and I ditched my car in favor of a bike. I thought it would be difficult, but after a few weeks cycling the 12km to work became relatively easy. Running the car was costing us about €5000 a year between petrol, tax, insurance and maintenance, so any downside in terms of the odd day when it was raining was more than offset in watching an extra €420 a month rolling into the mortgage fund. It's certainly added up - we have a house at this stage but cycling to work over the last 8 and a bit years has now saved me €42,500 and counting.

Squall Leonhart

Even if you were both earning even 20K a year, that's a combined income after taxes etc of 36K.

Subtract 6K for your 500/mo rent, and a further 6K for your monthly savings, you've still got an income of 24,000 euro going somewhere. Even both running cars and feeding yourselves, bills etc, you seem to be losing a lot of money somewhere.

And the odds are you're earning more than that, so..... if you're in saving mode, you're not doing too well it seems. Are there loans being paid off? Children being paid for?

acon2119

I'm not belittling your €125 per week saving but you'll be a long time getting enough money at that rate of saving.
Some people can't bring themselves to cut back drastically but I believe that if you watch your everyday spending you can save a lot of money, it all adds up, for example: cups of coffee, magazines, snacks, takeaways, unnecessary driving, use cheaper brands where appropriate, cut back on going out, assess your choice of service providers, go through all your outgoings (even the little ones) and see if there's anything you can get rid of, shop around for best prices, cook at home, bring a home prepared lunch to work. Every time you are thinking of buying a non necessity item...ask your self do you need it or is it more important to save for the house.

I know lots of people cant live with this mindset (and its not much fun) but its worth doing it for a while, the little cutbacks do add up to a lot of money over the year.

acon2119

Conor20 wrote: »

I was in a similar situation a few years ago and I ditched my car in favor of a bike. I thought it would be difficult, but after a few weeks cycling the 12km to work became relatively easy. Running the car was costing us about €5000 a year between petrol, tax, insurance and maintenance, so any downside in terms of the odd day when it was raining was more than offset in watching an extra €420 a month rolling into the mortgage fund. It's certainly added up - we have a house at this stage but cycling to work over the last 8 and a bit years has now saved me €42,500 and counting.

That is a fantastic saving, well done, thats a huge amount of money. Unfortunately I couldn't do that because I live in the country with no option of public transport.

Books4you

I think budget, budget, budget. You may already be doing this but really this is the best advice I could give. I use a program called Ynab and it really is amazing to see where your money is going (and being wasted). Then you just cut back on things you really don't need. Do you need that takeaway? No Netflix? No Sky? No

Just cut all non essentials and you will get there.

TENHNY

Thanks for all the constructive quote combined income per month after tax is 3520k,
I Have done all tally of all our bills outgoing including savings just now ,loans esb, heating diesel (we both 45 minute commute) health & car insurance phones, internet, tv etc not including grocery shop which i know we spend to much on by shopping locally and not bulk buying
comes to 2550 and remaining balance of €970 i dont now where does standing this week i will noting every spend.
We have no children at present.

Do ye good savers just take amount of of wages and live on that no matter what, our what practices do you find work best?

Squall Leonhart

I wouldn't class myself as a good saver, but I have set up a direct debit monthly for a few days after pay day where I have Xeur go straight to a savings account, it's like a self imposed tax.

My commute is an hour a day each way, costs me about 250/mo in petrol.

Money I have after X amount goes to savings (plus another sum in pension payments) is my new 'salary', i.e., I half trick myself into thinking I've less money than I have so I can allow some go to savings, and then I've to consider carefully other purchases throughout the month rather than spend aimlessly.

With 970eur per month unaccounted for you stand to make significant savings, more than double your saving levels, by identifying and fixing the leak in your finances.

Uriel.

TENHNY wrote: »

Thanks for all the constructive quote combined income per month after tax is 3520k,
I Have done all tally of all our bills outgoing including savings just now ,loans esb, heating diesel (we both 45 minute commute) health & car insurance phones, internet, tv etc not including grocery shop which i know we spend to much on by shopping locally and not bulk buying
comes to 2550 and remaining balance of €970 i dont now where does standing this week i will noting every spend.
We have no children at present.

Do ye good savers just take amount of of wages and live on that no matter what, our what practices do you find work best?

For me, I have a an online notice account setup (have to give 7 days notice to withdraw any funds) - great for avoiding any dipping into on a whim - I get paid fortnightly and I have a set amount to DD out of my current account on payday and straight into the Online Notice Savings account. In that way, I can and do only budget for my wages minus the savings, as technically I never see the wages without the savings deduction... it's a bit of a "if I never had it, I can't spend it" scenario. Works for me anyway.

Michael D Not Higgins

TENHNY wrote: »

Thanks for all the constructive quote combined income per month after tax is 3520k,
I Have done all tally of all our bills outgoing including savings just now ,loans esb, heating diesel (we both 45 minute commute) health & car insurance phones, internet, tv etc not including grocery shop which i know we spend to much on by shopping locally and not bulk buying
comes to 2550 and remaining balance of €970 i dont now where does standing this week i will noting every spend.
We have no children at present.

Do ye good savers just take amount of of wages and live on that no matter what, our what practices do you find work best?

The best rule of thumb is limit essentials to 50% of net pay, wants to 30% and saving a minimum of 20%. You should be aiming for at least 700/month in saving (although this should cover your pension too).

Squall Leonhart

Uriel. wrote: »

In that way, I can and do only budget for my wages minus the savings, as technically I never see the wages without the savings deduction... it's a bit of a "if I never had it, I can't spend it" scenario. Works for me anyway.

Same idea as myself so. If it were up to me to manually transfer to savings monthly I'd be haphazard at best. Automatically monthly transferring to a 7 day notice account is a good idea (or 30 day, or 90 day!). Mine is a 7 day notice.

TENHNY

Uriel. wrote: »

For me, I have a an online notice account setup (have to give 7 days notice to withdraw any funds) - great for avoiding any dipping into on a whim - I get paid fortnightly and I have a set amount to DD out of my current account on payday and straight into the Online Notice Savings account. In that way, I can and do only budget for my wages minus the savings, as technically I never see the wages without the savings deduction... it's a bit of a "if I never had it, I can't spend it" scenario. Works for me anyway.

Which banks offer 7 day notice account

Thanks

TENHNY

TENHNY wrote: »

Do ye good savers just take amount of of wages and live on that no matter what, our what practices do you find work best?

Might not be the way a lot do it but what I do is on pay day I manually transfer anything left in my current account from the previous month into savings. The amount I save varies because of this but I have set a minimum amount in my head that I want to save and very rarely go below this unless I've had an expensive month and as I sometimes save more than it on average I save a figure I'm happy with. The other advantage is my current account never has a large balance so if I get hit by fraud (which happened last year) they get very little.

To be honest I actually don't try very hard and spend money more or less as I want (within reason of course) during the month, eating out, nights out, driving where I want etc but I just keep an eye on my balance and if I'm looking like I won't reach my target I might have a cheap week at the end of the month etc to try make it. I'd earn a good bit less than your combined income but manage save more than you are per month. if I actually really tried I could probably save a few 100 more per month than I am.

Squall Leonhart

TENHNY wrote: »

Which banks offer 7 day notice account

Thanks

I'm with Bank of Ireland, have a 'monthly saver' online, it's a 7 day notice account.

https://personalbanking.bankofireland.com/save-and-invest/savings/online-deposits/365-monthly-saver-account/features-and-benefits/

TENHNY

Thanks again- Going to have a sit down with Hubbie tonight, see can we withdraw amount on Friday and live off that for the wk and anything remain goes towards savings

Mrs OBumble

AIB also have a 7-day notice account.

OP - quit shopping locally. Shop once a week in Lidl or Aldi, with a list. In the recession I had groceries down to E25 per head per week. We're probably spending more like 40 per head per week now, but that's with lots of luxuries etc. Somewhere in between is reasonable for someone focussed on saving.

Also, stopping eating out (assuming you are) can make a huge difference. Do it for special occasions and social reasons (farewells etc) only - not every week.

intheclouds

TENHNY wrote: »

Do ye good savers just take amount of of wages and live on that no matter what, our what practices do you find work best?

My ideal way of handling the wages is as follows:

Get paid.
Pay essential bills - rent/mortgage/utilities etc...
Pay my savings account - set amount per month.
Decide how much to pay off credit card - pay it.
Agree how much I need to live this month (I might have something expensive upcoming so I will allow for that) - set that money aside and then is there is anything left, save it.

Id rather deny myself in a given month in order to save.

As I said - the above is an ideal. Things happen, expenses happen, so sometimes its not possible to be so disciplined.

thisistough

Spreadsheets are your friend, I have one spreadsheet that syncs across all of my devices. When I get paid I input how much i have to spend on each category (bills/rent/food/transport/entertainment etc). I take out my food money each week and this is the only cash I have in my wallet, everything else goes on my debit card. As you spend money then you just put it into the spreadsheet and your balance should update to what you have in your account.

I personally find it a way better system than just trying to keep track myself

sebcity

thisistough wrote: »

Spreadsheets are your friend, I have one spreadsheet that syncs across all of my devices. When I get paid I input how much i have to spend on each category (bills/rent/food/transport/entertainment etc). I take out my food money each week and this is the only cash I have in my wallet, everything else goes on my debit card. As you spend money then you just put it into the spreadsheet and your balance should update to what you have in your account.

I personally find it a way better system than just trying to keep track myself

Would putting everything on your debit card look ok to a bank when you're trying to get a mortgage?

OU812

TENHNY wrote: »

Thanks for all the constructive quote combined income per month after tax is 3520k,
I Have done all tally of all our bills outgoing including savings just now ,loans esb, heating diesel (we both 45 minute commute) health & car insurance phones, internet, tv etc not including grocery shop which i know we spend to much on by shopping locally and not bulk buying
comes to 2550 and remaining balance of €970 i dont now where does standing this week i will noting every spend.
We have no children at present.

Do ye good savers just take amount of of wages and live on that no matter what, our what practices do you find work best?

That seems quite a lot of expenses for just two people, especially considering your rent is only €500 a month.

You need to keep a speeding diary for a couple of weeks, log absolutely everything you spend, no matter how trivial. Find out where your money is going first.

After that, start paying everything weekly if you can. If you get paid monthly, divide your money by 4.3 to get the true weekly amount & use that as a base figure.

Set up an account for your living expenses to come out of - utilities, rent, loans etc. - everything that gets paid on a regular basis goes into this account. If you have the money to seed it with the first month, then do so & from that point, pay into it, the weekly amount.

Get a fixed budget for your grocery shopping, you shouldn't be spending more that €100-120 a week for this. We have kids & a dog & the shopping is €140-150 a week in Dunnes, all brand names.

Are you running a car & paying for public transport? If so, why?

Follow the money... You should easily be able to save between €1500 & €2000 a month on that income with just two people & now making any serious cutbacks.

keane2097

Books4you wrote: »

I think budget, budget, budget. You may already be doing this but really this is the best advice I could give. I use a program called Ynab and it really is amazing to see where your money is going (and being wasted). Then you just cut back on things you really don't need. Do you need that takeaway? No Netflix? No Sky? No

Just cut all non essentials and you will get there.

+1 for YNAB, an extremely powerful tool for those attempting to find financial leaks and get in control of their money.

Conor20

If you're looking for a way to get into the saving frame of mind, there are a few excellent posts by the personal finance blogger Mr Money Mustache that may help a lot:

• News Flash: Your Debt is an Emergency!!
• Curing your Clown-Like Car Habit
• Luxury is Just Another Weakness

loveisdivine

The only problem with taking out cash and using it to survive on for a week, is I thought the banks wanted to actually see where you spend your money. For instance, you could withdraw €200 for the week, but really be spending it on gambling or something. That's just what I was told anyway.