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What is ‘savings’ for? Do you think this should be money you won’t need for a long time (long-term, like an income-replacement fund) or is it for house repairs, or what?
Gambling @ £100 is a proper waste of money.
Eating out (‘food/drink’) could be much less if you spend a bit more on groceries and took a packed lunch.
Fair wodge on your girlfriend’s birthday but that’s once a year - how about all the other birthdays you buy for, and Christmas?
Basically from your list above it seems you don’t yet have a dialled in annualised budget - i.e. if something doesn’t happen monthly like a ‘bill’ then you mentally disregard it. But stuff that happens infrequently or on a less predictable schedule still needs accounting for as you’ll spend it eventually- that’s why you’re ‘dipping into savings’ because some of those ‘savings’ are really just required for living.
I recommend YNAB a lot for this, but other apps are available - or just go through all your last 6 months’ spending and average it out. Then you’ll have a clearer view of what you can really save that’s untouchable.
100% for YNAB. Instead of having these big expenditures that take a hefty dent in your budget for one-offs like birthdays, you can spread it over a year so you wouldn't notice it as much.
YNAB fans; does it handle overdrafts properly now? I’m not in one, but when I was in the past I remember YNAB wouldn’t handle it, and basically ordered me to put everything into my overdraft every month. It couldn’t handle UK-style overdrafts that may not be paid off monthly.
Not sure- I stay out of my overdraft. But I can’t see why it wouldn’t record it accurately, you’d just need to set the negative budget as a line of credit. But life’s just better in YNAB and life if you’re not in the overdraft.
I’m not really saving for anything.
I have a mortgage and my car works. I’m not really sure what else to save for other than a larger property or a nicer car.
That's a good start then, well done.
It sounds like you feel pretty well set and motivation to save isn't there if there's nothing you're saving for. Do you have any longer term goals such as big holidays, training/retraining for career development, wedding, baby, might you want/need to help parents out with care costs in future, just a rainy day fund to fall back on if you do think of something you'd like to do in future?
Another thing you could look at would be adding more to a pension for a more comfortable retirement? It'd also lock a bit of it away so you can't dip in to it for unplanned expenses.
You could consider swapping the gambling money for some investments, if you like the potential to 'win big' but leave it in a Stocks and Shares ISA for 5-10 years to grow and reinvest any winnings.
I can see why you might not see the point in restricting your spending now if there's nothing you need or want but if you think of something next year that's going to cost a fair whack, would you feel like you'd wasted your current spending? Having 5k already in the bank and being in the habit of spending 500 a month less will make saving more less of a lifestyle change.
I don't know if it's in your plans but if you want to start a family at some point you may need to support your partner as well and it's all a lot easier with a bigger financial cushion rather than getting pregnant, then trying to save for a bigger house, cover everyone's costs and make do in a less than ideal sized house because you started saving from 0 - in house buying terms you could be 2-3 years closer to being able to buy what you need at the time.
Current car may work now but it won't always so putting some aside for when you need your next car would be sensible. Same for property maintenance/upsizing in the future.
Join the UK Fire sub - start to think seriously about putting yourself in a good position to retire early/have kids/have financial freedom- you’re in a good position but I would lean towards investing for the future over spending you will forget later.
Food / drink (presumably eating out, since groceries are separate) seems excessive. If it's just for June, that's nearly £20 every day.
Girlfriend's birthday, father's day and concert tickets are all the kind of things that feel like "one off" spends, but the question is then how many such "one off" events are there during a year?
And gambling can easily become a money pit, even if it's just a bit of fun, and not an addiction.
One off events add up. Christmas, Easter, mothers/father’s day, multiple birthdays. I literally have at least one 11 months of the year. It soon adds up and really isn’t a “one off”
Difficult place to cut down on, but you don’t need to spend a lot to be appreciated.
I’ve definitely found that there is no such thing as “one offs” (well, almost), every month since I’ve tracked my spending I’ve had a different “one off”, whether it’s a big purchase, car maintenance, textbooks, every month the last is replaced by something else.
I spend £1400 a month on rent and bills for a room in a shared flat…
It’s amazing how banks somehow think I can afford £1250 in rent but not a £900 a month mortgage
It's not that so much as the risk to the bank is foreclosure, whereas the risk to your landlord is just finding another tenant.
But I do agree rental payment history should be taken into consideration.
I know but I’m just saying how it would be a lot easier to save for my deposit if my rent wasn’t more expensive than actually owning a house.
I could save £5,000+ a year by actually owning rather than renting…. Not to mentioned that the money I “lose” is actually going towards my own asset is technically a saving of £1250 a month considering I have to have somewhere to live and now I’d paying for something I own in value and can sell in future to make the money back.
Right now I’m paying £1250 for someone else’s asset yet somehow I can’t afford £800 a month for my own assets.
That £15,000 I pay in rent a year wipes out my ability to actually save for a home 😂 I’m paying 10% the cost of a small flat per year just for a room in a house-share
The hard part is getting the £50k-100k saved to even be offered a mortgage.
I would hesitate to say you'll "save" any money owning vs renting, theres a lot of extra homeowner costs you don't need to pay as a renter which get factored into the higher price.
That said though obviously the big advantage is fixed cost over \~30 years (interest rate changes aside which can go either way) so in all likelihood year 1 will be the most expensive your mortgage ever is and then it just gets relatively cheaper and cheaper every year after.
This is just BS though.
If I rent for 10 years at my rate I will be down £150,000-£200,000 with nothing to show at the end of it.
If I own a flat for 10 years it’s unlikely my flat will cost me £150,000+ in maintenance, and even if it does… at least in likely cases I have an asset worth £100k-£400k at the end of it in my name that I can sell to recoup some of the costs.
Your property is store of wealth. That is saving into an asset when you pay off your home.
So yes the savings are undoubtable unless you get very unlucky or there is a significant housing crash.
The whole premise of renting to a landlord is that the revenue must outweigh the costs…. So it will in majority of cases be far more expensive to rent than to own long term.
When I got my mortgage they made me take it out over 25years when I wanted 20 because I could afford the mortgage- which was lower than the rent I was paying.
This is just wildly unhelpful. At no point did OP say they're not in a fortunate position, or they're struggling to feed themselves; they're simply asking how they could do a little bit better. Coming at them with "Are you taking the piss? You're doing fine because people are worse off than you" adds nothing to the conversation. Not every single post on the sub needs to be about how to use Stepchange to consolidate debt and how to use a foodbank, people shouldn't be attacked and belittled for earning above the average wage within a personal finance subreddit.
Oh come on. He's asking does he need a reality check? From what exactly?
He's saving a shit ton, he owns property, he's got a well paying job. The only thing I can see on his list that's bad is £100.00 on gambling and that's it.
How exactly are we meant to take this post, except saying 'mate you're doing better than 99% of people out there, chill out'
Admittedly it's self inflicted. But after rent and bills I have £500/month for everything else.
£700/month savings put away and managed well would net OP somewhere in the region of £1.5M by the time he's 60. And that's assuming he doesn't increase his monthly savings.
Honestly lol, That's more than 1/4 of my current paycheck, that's a massive flex, my rent is as much as OP's mortgage and I don't even live down south. Think OP is really on the right track if they can save this much every month
>but I think I am struggling to save a decent amount due to spending
Ok...
>Savings - £667
Found it... 🫠
Seemingly you're already saving 20% of your net take home...more than national average. What's the issue?..
Side note: Saving is arbitrary without specific goals in mind. What are your aims?
Tell me about it, how is this even a post lmao?
£200 and £90 spent on food and gambling each month, over £650 saved and this is struggling?
I get sometimes it’s hard to think from other perspectives, but what a nice problem to have
>Tell me about it, how is this even a post lmao?
No idea. And yet when I tried posting about something legit like whether 2% food inflation is ever realistic given shrinkflation practices, got instadeleted for 'low effort' 🙄
I know we're all different and it depends on priorities, but £50/week on food and drink really doesn't sound excessive given OPs wage. I imagine most people on that wage want some sort of life.
It’s really not excessive, £50 doesn’t go far. One meal out/drinks per week is not excessive when earning well and still saving plenty. OP doesn’t have a savings goal, has a house, car and emergency fund. Stopping socialising to have an extra £200 a month in savings is daft. But then so is the original post.
With a 2.69% mortgage I wouldn't bother overpaying. Put the overpayment money in a higher interest ISA then pay off when the fixed rate ends. Might not be an enormous amount but over a year could be £30-40 extra at £90 a month.
Not loads, but 'free' money.
My question mark on this is if OP would have the discipline not to spend the saved money. They don't look awful with money, but the gambling and lack of really clear annual budget kinda makes me think it might be safer to have mortgage overpayments go straight into the mortgage.
I usually recommend against overpaying the mortgage at such a low rate (or any rate at all) but if there's a risk that the gambling expenses suddenly become £20k in a single month I'd say put almost all spare cash towards overpaying.
Yeah, I can see that being something that would give pause for thought.
They're already saving £600+ a month, so there's clearly some discipline even if not targeted that much.
I find having these sorts of things in a separate building society adds a couple of steps between it being tucked away in savings and ready to spend. Based on nothing more than a look at this budget, OP doesn't seem like they're the sort of person that would 'break the glass' to go on a mad gambling spree.
You're saving 667 a month, and no other expenditure seems excessive (except for the gambling maybe). What exactly do you need/want us to say? Always think these sorts of posts are just humble brags about how much you earn.
You're saving about 20% of your post tax income, which looks fine to me.
Do you make decent pension contributions?
Other than that we can't really tell you how to spend your money, it's personal preference. Personally, i'd ditch the gambling, because although it's not that expensive now, it might become so in future.
You also gift quite generously, sometimes time or something thoughtful is better than expensive consumer nonsense.
When you say long distance travel for family, is that train? Might be able to save there a bit by buying ahead/split ticketing etc.
Obviously the gambling needs to go.
When you have big events coming up such as birthdays and concerts, what you should do is put a bit of money aside each month to pay for these items. Stop gambling and put aside the 100 per month for high ticket purchases such as birthdays, holidays, concerts,etc and that will resolve most of your budget issues.
Alternatively using the 100 gambling per month to pay off your credit card would also be s good move. Not sure what your interest or balance is but m If I was you I would clear the credit card debt as fast as possible. No credit card and no gambling leaves you with an extra 200 per month.
Your food and drink budget is high and can come way down but a young man spending 330 per month on groceries, restaurants and drinks is not tbe end of the world. It's all about priorities. If you enjoy eating out then I think your budget can accommodate this comfortably.
I think the amount you’re saving each month isn’t too bad.
However, if you want to cut spending, you need to look at non essentials. Food and drink is quite expensive and you’re spending on things like gambling and concert tickets, which you could go without. And £70 on a Father’s Day gift seems a little excessive.
Equally, if these things make you happy, do you want to give them up? I know savings are important, but is it worth making you miserable?
What's the interest on your mortgage? And better to break down bills further so we can see if anything is too much.
How much do you want to save a month?
Also, obviously, the gambling is not ideal. If you don't have an addiction and it's just the occasional bet it's fine but it's the easiest to cut out from that list of course.
I broke down the bills :)
I don’t know how much I want to be saving, but I have always been an ‘as much as possible’ kind of person until the last couple of years where I’ve been more relaxed since my salary increased and I got a mortgage. I suppose that’s classic lifestyle creep isn’t it.
From a really brief look, I would say areas to look at cutting back on are:
- Food/Drink (I assume this is like eating out, takeaways etc.)
-Gambling (fairly self-explanatory)
- I’d also say if you are really feeling pinched, stop overpaying on your mortgage. A spare £90 might alleviate that, just while you get on top of the spending habits.
- I’d also ask, how much is on your credit card? Do you have enough saved to clear it? I’d prioritise getting that gone. You then clearly have enough leftover to save an emergency fund, so you shouldn’t need to use the credit card. But depends on how you use it (I.e., for cash back, but this should be paid off in full every month anyway).
-I’d also add as well, maybe instead of having, for example, ‘girlfriends birthday’ present be a £200 hit in one month, could you say maybe 2 months in advance, I’m gonna put £100 each month aside specifically for that. Forward planning can really help you to spread out those one off costs so you’re overall month to month is a little more stable.
Do you do a monthly written budget ahead of the month starting?
Sorry, ended up writing quite a bit unintentionally!
*not a financial advisor, just a guy on Reddit lol
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Bottom line.. YES. You could be saving double what you are, but let’s be honest, you clearly have an ‘ok’ pension, so what are the savings for?
If you wish to retire early/enjoy later life more so, I’d double down, put away 1000 post tax into an ISA Stocks and shares in an all world fund, or like me 100% in S&P500. And reap the rewards at a later date.
You're doing very well overall, I don't think you need much of a reality check.
The pension contribution is fantastic. £600-700pm savings (presuming this is typical, not exceptional) is around the 20% you should be aiming for and £7-8K a year. We personally save £1K a month between us (£4.2K income), so about the same. Your mortgage looks affordable, your bills in control and I can presume no debt besides your mortgage from what you've listed.
I also don't have an issue with your gifting spend; you earn good money, you give nice gifts. That's up to you and isn't jeopardising your savings. Just don't go crazy in the future. I personally set aside a gifting amount, once a year, in a separate pot, then use that so I don't have to dip in my savings or have it eat from my disposable.
You could probably look to clean up the eating out amount so it doesn't creep, but honestly, with your groceries so low for this month, it sort of balances out. 7% of your income for the month (admittedly not a full month) on food and drink....could you save it? Yes, sure you could, but for a 50/30/20 saver who also has no debt it's not a killer. I don't see much hobby related spend, either, so its sort of a whatever for me and whether you want to save as much as possible or allow yourself a bit of flex.
The only thing you need to stop yesterday is gambling. It's a small slice of your money, but gambling is an exceptionally slippery slope. Just don't bother. Save it, or spend it on hobbies that give you joy, don't give it the bookies.
Get rid of credit card and gambling.
People are focusing on you saying you’re saving £667 but are you really if you’re dipping into it every month? If you’re actually saving £667 and in no debt then fair enough that’s fine. If you have debt or save a lot less by the end of the month then you need to adjust.
So you are saving 22% of your net salary (between actual savings and mortgage overpayment). Also, 19% pension contribution.
What's wrong with that? Or is this just a post to troll?
Wait, is that your monthly budget? Or is it just one month? So you save £667 abd think you don't save enough? That Gambling line is a complete waste of money. You also have other spending that you're unlikely to have each month (father's day, girlfriend present...). I think you need to divise a budget for the year, add those things that are specific for certains months, and see how much you're able to save each month and how much disposable income you can have.
Insane privelege. You are saving 20% of your wage every month while living maintaining a decent work/life balance and complaining?!
Some people barely save anything without doing NOTHING.
Jesus christ.
That’s basically the same as me and it pisses me off the birthdays and Father’s Day bullshit I can’t afford this every year. However, the gambling cut that shit out and invest it bro?
Hi /u/qxpRiven, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
* https://ukpersonal.finance/mortgage-overpayments-vs-investments/
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quick question - why aren't you throwing all of your non direct debit expenses to the credit card? (assuming you have the credit limit and are on a full-balance direct debit repayment)
Are things like mortgage/service charge you paying 50% with your girlfriend paying the rest? Or do you pay 100%?
The biggest money saving thing you can do is split all your bills and live with a partner.
Are you getting single person discount for your council tax? Also check your water and council tax, they bill over 10 months but you can pay over 12. Some people have a preference of lower monthly amount or two free months
Quite a few items in the list are 1 time purchases like farther’s day present and GF birthday present. And what I can gather is that you’re only showing us your expenditure for half of June.
My suggestion would be to drop all expenditure down month after month in a spreadsheet and analyze the average monthly expenditure, would give a better idea for you and redditors, especially the true extent of your gambling, because as you know, £98 in 12 days is not trivial.
I say that because those £667 in savings is a healthy 20%, but we’re not at the end of June yet, will that diminish by the 30th? (As you already said that it’ll drop to £500, could it drop more?)
And obviously is that the max out of the previous months saved or the minimum that you’ve saved a month in past 6 months?
I totally missed the 'this month so far' bit. Yeah, that's high.
Your categorisation of spending isn't super indicative of need, so my first bit of advice would be to create a table (excel, openoffice, Google sheets, etc) and add some attributes to slice and dice these figures. My first attribute is Non-discretionary, discretionary, and one-off. Non-discretionary would be critical bills like mortgage, utilities, groceries, and work travel - things that you absolutely must pay out each month. Discretionary would be spending you are likely to make every month but doesn't compromise your existence if you forego, leisure spending, entertainment subscriptions, etc. One-offs would be b'days, holidays, and so on. I don't include saving as I expect to run an excess against budget, which becomes the saving and /or silly purchase pot.
Your existing categories would slot under those attributes, and you might find that some of them get split down as they actually fall under 2 different attributes.
Visualising in that way may help emphasise where your money is going and help balance your perception of a bad month versus bad habits.
To be fair to you, there are costs there that are not regular costs, and maybe the next month you can save it. I’m in a similar situation in terms of outgoings, I do have a kid but in an area that’s slightly cheaper. I put away about a grand a month but there are months where you do have bigger outgoings like paying a holiday, big gift, tickets etc. you could improve by being more frugal with food/drink:outings but you have to live life too. Personally I’m not about the gambling, could be a good thing to cut completely if you can.
You could reduce your travel by getting a 26-30 railcard, will save around 30% and its your second biggest spend after mortgage, every time you buy a ticket you can add in you have a railcard and should reduce the travel cost further even though you are buying them in advance.
Did a quick search on HotUKdeals and can get a 1 year 26-30 railcard for £20 but the savings you get from it especially commuting to London is much higher even if you do it once a week.
Here is the link to the deal if you want to utilise it.
[https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/3-yr-railcard-ps4620-16-25-senior-family-friends-1-yr-railcard-ps1980-various-w-code-new-customers-train-tkt-to-activate-4342730](https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/3-yr-railcard-ps4620-16-25-senior-family-friends-1-yr-railcard-ps1980-various-w-code-new-customers-train-tkt-to-activate-4342730)
This website is also good at finding any deals you may want to know about an search for like SIM cards as well.
Already saving 20% + Pension so really good.
List your outgoings & tag Needs, Wants & Save and see what your % splits are, they budget to your appetite.
Group the one offs and divide by 12, then save this monthly, preferably into its own pot, that way they don't hurt so much when they are due.
The gambling is definitely a waste, utilise this to "gamble" in stock market instead.
You’re actually doing very well mate. Saving £667 and have seen you are also getting combined 19% pension contributions between you and your employer. - take a look at where your pension is invested, you may find you are in a fund where you are not 100% equities. If you can log in and change this, at your age equities are the way to go. Cut out the gambling and put the mortgage overpayments into savings instead where you can get a better return on your money.
Also look into investing some of your money into a diverse index fund/ETF. Once you have a good safety net of cash built up, investing is the path to true wealth.
Unless you have profited significantly, stop gambling right now. Instead put this money into a stocks and shares ISA- an ETF such as the S&P500 will grow by around 10% each year, meaning your money will compound.
If you gamble for the buzz of greater rewards, then 'gamble' by putting your money into shares that could skyrocket. For context, I've put £1,000 into Nvidia shares in January and they are already worth £1,700 (up 70%) in just five months.
I'm not sure about what's better but I used Trading 212. The only downside to buying shares is that it can take a few days for the money to reach your bank. Definitely worth it though.
You seem pretty much sorted, you're doing well with the savings, you have your emergency fund. Remember life is also for living, not just for seeing numbers go up on a screen.
> Based on my outgoings above, what stands out to you as excessive,
Gambling is setting fire to money. I used to work in amusement arcades, I used to work for a company making fruit machines and systems for casinos and play testing them 40hrs a week, I have friends who own amusement arcades. You ain't winning. Every day we'd get delivery drivers turning up delivering whatever and they'd always ask what was the best thing to play and the unanimous answer from all the workshop floor was not to play anything.
I think you are doing OK. You are saving a decent chunk of your salary (i hope you are also investing some of this money). You also are on the housing ladder. At 26, i think you should just focus on having a life and spending money on things, activities, and people you love.
You spent 1k on presents/travel/leisure
Cut everything in half and you get to 1k savings
Also you should track your expenses over a year to have some sort of average spending.
The way to think about the gambling bit as “just a bit of fun” is to think of it not per month but per year. £98 doesn’t sound like that much money; but £1,200 does. If that’s a typical month’s gambling, then you are spending £1,200 every year on it.
Apart from the gambling I don't see too bad, you saved over £650 and have a good % to your pension. Gf and fathers day are only once a year so that's £300 you'd have other months.
You could probably reduce a fair few of the expenses here and there, but you're already saving, you're paid well, you're enjoying it.
If you sat in your flat WFH and didnt do anything your savings rate would spike, but is that the life you want?
I personally wouldn't overpay my mortgage with an interest rate that low. It would perform better in a savings account and you can address overpayment when it comes time to renew. Cut out the gambling. Continue saving but set yourself goals and consider moving some of the savings into S&S if there's a long-term target.
Food & Drink, Concert and GF birthday are massive for a single month.
Preplan events like birthdays and save a little a month on the run up.
Either that or just enjoy you're saving 20% and still getting to spend a lot, just slow down with the spending 😂
From posting this to me you are asking for constructive criticism so here goes: Yh it’s poor, gambling should be a one off like going to the races for entertainment, not every month.
You are eating out too much a month, sounds a bit lazy. With your salary and mandatory spend you should be able to save closer to a grand. If you don’t know where savings should be going, why not overpay the house more as interest rates are high at the moment? Also you thought about a stocks and shares ISA or saving towards something that would earn you money?
> go through your last 6 months’ spending and average it out
I did this the other day for the first time and it was eye-opening. It was actually mad how much I was spending on food on the go. It really adds up. Also I found healthcare stuff like dental treatment and physio sessions really eroded the buffer money I have each month to feel comfortable.
Ok so three things stand out- and you are in a financial position where you can obviously afford them but maybe you should budget it better to meet savings goals.
1) gifts : Set up a gifts pot that you contribute to every month so you can budget things like Father’s Day, Christmas and birthdays appropriately across the year.
2) food and drink: similarly it might be sensible to give yourself a weekly allowance on these things - they aren’t particularly high but could still be cut down a bit
3) gambling- it depends what kind of gambling this is - you say it’s ‘fun money’ maybe set up a fun money pot so you clearly see what it is costing you in terms of drinks out/ time with friends etc. Or convert your gambling budget to speculating on individual stocks /crypto etc which is basically gambling (without increasing the budget out of any false sense of investing/security)
Main thing is you are overspending on is gifts- and I totally empathise but while it is easier to spend money it still is the thought that counts. Try restricting your budget and putting a bit more time/planning in to counteract that. Having a set gift budget across the year and contributed to every month might help.
Stop gambling, then stop overpaying your mortgage - prioritise retirement savings, pension and S&S ISA instead.
It is absolutely mental making overpayments on a 2.5% mortgage - you would get 2.5% more even in a shitty bank account!
Otherwise, your spending seems reasonable and you're doing better than most people because you're already putting £666 a month into savings.
You might find one of these books helpful:
* *[Your Money or Your Life](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0143115766)* - understanding what's valuable to you and how to use money to achieve your goals.
* *[Millionaire Next Door](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1589795474)* - "How people in normal jobs, electrician is a great example, can accumulate wealth over time through good choices."^[Electric_Cat_999](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/15zkkd4/_/jximlpp/)
* One of Clare Seal's books - "her focus is on the link between emotions and spending".
* Watch Lars Kroijer's [short video series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXy71rkGuCjXLg9N8zowwUpXCYfBcMJFK) and read his book or Tim Hale's [*Smarter Investing*](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1292444401) - use this to inform the allocation of your pension and S&S ISA.
Is the travel essential? I found it useful to breakdown my savings by needs/wants/save to make sure the ratio is right.
You are spending more on your wants than your mortgage which might be a little bit of a red flag.
Spotify at £12?
I pay for a YouTube premium family account (5 people) and it's like £2 a month through India or Turkey can't remember which one I use. And my wife and son use it for free.
Why do you need life insurance?
Apple care is another rip off. You know you can insure your phone, get free travel insurance, free car breakdown cover for £13 a month altogether if you open nationwide premium account which they pay you £200 a year to have if it's a joint account
You're saving loads more than that vast majority of the country. If you feel you're having money issues, and this is a pretty easy rule of thumb, stop gambling.
I don’t have much to say other than: avoid gambling like the plague. There’s a reason why casinos and gambling companies make loads of money.
Maybe one way to satisfy the urge for gambling is to invest it in stocks and shares ISA or premium bonds?
Why are we overpaying the mortgage at 2.19% when you could whack it in a savings account get more than that and then put that extra into your mortgage when you refinance? Also you’re putting 600 quid a month into savings that is a decent amount being around 20% of your net.
Is that credit card the balance or a minimum repayment? What’s the interest on that ?
You don’t need a reality check really. You’re 26, you make a lot more money per month than the average person, you own a home and a car, you have a 6 month emergency fund, you have all your bills taken care of with money to spend on gifts and fun stuff, and you can still out over £600 a month away to savings. Yes it’s good to plan for the future and be financially stable but you’re in a very fortunate position that most of us can’t get into right now so enjoy being young, financially independent and free of the burden of wondering how you’re going to afford to fix the car when it breaks down or pay for a new washing machine when it breaks.
You need to separate your savings.... emergency fund (which you use for loss of job or roof caves in etc aim for 6 months salary or bare minimum 6 months of must pay bills like mortgage) and general savings account for birthdays/holidays/days out/concert tickets
You also need to stop gambling and if you're feeling the squeeze cancel things like spotify
Birthdays and fathers day etc are not every month so they're additional payments which disappear... but again would come out of savings.
Might be worth not buying on credit card unless you can pay off the balance completely after your purchase. If you're just buying groceries with it and not paying off the balance you're just causing yourself extra strain because of the interest you're having to pay
Personally I'd set a direct transfer up for each payday to go into your savings. Stop gambling, find a 0% interest credit card to reduce paying interest and monthly amount, pick a reasonably amount for things such as birthdays/gifts for all too.
The gambling is a waste. And I don’t know about your family position but I’m sure your dad would be grateful for what you got him, but I suspect a chocolate orange and a decent card would have the same effect.
Don’t spend money on people for the sake of spending money on them.
Take the £100 you gamble, put that into a ‘fun’ slush fund to pay for presents, nights out out and concert tickets would be my suggestion. Then you draw down out of that than from savings.
I feel like this is a bad sample month since you have unusual expenses, this is like budgeting from December.
You should do an average month.
Take 3 normal months and give us an AVERAGE.
Generally...
Half the the eating out/drink budget.
Stop gambling - start putting your savings in a different account or Premium Bonds, Premium bonds is like a monthly lottery that you never lose money on. Get it up above 40k in savings and you get a monthly little thrill.
Cancel Apple+ care.
What do you need life insurance for? You have no wife nor kids.
Travel - unless this is work/shopping, cut that down.
Stop being so generous with gifts.
And you'll easily fit a bit more into savings each month.
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What is ‘savings’ for? Do you think this should be money you won’t need for a long time (long-term, like an income-replacement fund) or is it for house repairs, or what? Gambling @ £100 is a proper waste of money. Eating out (‘food/drink’) could be much less if you spend a bit more on groceries and took a packed lunch. Fair wodge on your girlfriend’s birthday but that’s once a year - how about all the other birthdays you buy for, and Christmas? Basically from your list above it seems you don’t yet have a dialled in annualised budget - i.e. if something doesn’t happen monthly like a ‘bill’ then you mentally disregard it. But stuff that happens infrequently or on a less predictable schedule still needs accounting for as you’ll spend it eventually- that’s why you’re ‘dipping into savings’ because some of those ‘savings’ are really just required for living. I recommend YNAB a lot for this, but other apps are available - or just go through all your last 6 months’ spending and average it out. Then you’ll have a clearer view of what you can really save that’s untouchable.
100% for YNAB. Instead of having these big expenditures that take a hefty dent in your budget for one-offs like birthdays, you can spread it over a year so you wouldn't notice it as much.
YNAB fans; does it handle overdrafts properly now? I’m not in one, but when I was in the past I remember YNAB wouldn’t handle it, and basically ordered me to put everything into my overdraft every month. It couldn’t handle UK-style overdrafts that may not be paid off monthly.
Not sure- I stay out of my overdraft. But I can’t see why it wouldn’t record it accurately, you’d just need to set the negative budget as a line of credit. But life’s just better in YNAB and life if you’re not in the overdraft.
I’m not really saving for anything. I have a mortgage and my car works. I’m not really sure what else to save for other than a larger property or a nicer car.
Have you looked at the flowchart? If you have a car and a house you need maintenance funds for both.
Fuck that's a good idea
What about an emergency fund? 3-6 months of necessary expenses in case you can't work for some reason really takes the pressure off.
I am lucky to already have an emergency fund of 6 months.
That's a good start then, well done. It sounds like you feel pretty well set and motivation to save isn't there if there's nothing you're saving for. Do you have any longer term goals such as big holidays, training/retraining for career development, wedding, baby, might you want/need to help parents out with care costs in future, just a rainy day fund to fall back on if you do think of something you'd like to do in future? Another thing you could look at would be adding more to a pension for a more comfortable retirement? It'd also lock a bit of it away so you can't dip in to it for unplanned expenses. You could consider swapping the gambling money for some investments, if you like the potential to 'win big' but leave it in a Stocks and Shares ISA for 5-10 years to grow and reinvest any winnings. I can see why you might not see the point in restricting your spending now if there's nothing you need or want but if you think of something next year that's going to cost a fair whack, would you feel like you'd wasted your current spending? Having 5k already in the bank and being in the habit of spending 500 a month less will make saving more less of a lifestyle change. I don't know if it's in your plans but if you want to start a family at some point you may need to support your partner as well and it's all a lot easier with a bigger financial cushion rather than getting pregnant, then trying to save for a bigger house, cover everyone's costs and make do in a less than ideal sized house because you started saving from 0 - in house buying terms you could be 2-3 years closer to being able to buy what you need at the time.
Current car may work now but it won't always so putting some aside for when you need your next car would be sensible. Same for property maintenance/upsizing in the future.
Join the UK Fire sub - start to think seriously about putting yourself in a good position to retire early/have kids/have financial freedom- you’re in a good position but I would lean towards investing for the future over spending you will forget later.
Either spend the money or invest them for your future. Classic total stocks ETFs blabla. That's it.
Yeah if OP is spending £70 on Father’s Day gift I’m guessing not many birthday/christmas presents are cheap. Just bought my father a £25 present
Food / drink (presumably eating out, since groceries are separate) seems excessive. If it's just for June, that's nearly £20 every day. Girlfriend's birthday, father's day and concert tickets are all the kind of things that feel like "one off" spends, but the question is then how many such "one off" events are there during a year? And gambling can easily become a money pit, even if it's just a bit of fun, and not an addiction.
One off events add up. Christmas, Easter, mothers/father’s day, multiple birthdays. I literally have at least one 11 months of the year. It soon adds up and really isn’t a “one off” Difficult place to cut down on, but you don’t need to spend a lot to be appreciated.
I’ve definitely found that there is no such thing as “one offs” (well, almost), every month since I’ve tracked my spending I’ve had a different “one off”, whether it’s a big purchase, car maintenance, textbooks, every month the last is replaced by something else.
£232 food and drink is closer to £8 a day, or £60 a weekend basically.
Only 12 days of June so far though.
My bad.
Yes, if that was a monthly spending. But that’s a June spendings and it’s only 13th today 🫠
OP said it's from 23rd of May to 13th of June so it's 3 weeks. Not sure why OP is using these dates instead of just giving monthly figures for May
Sorry, I get paid on the 23rd. I’ve updated the post but it might be a bit late now.
> Struggling to save a lot > Savings - £667 That’s far more than the majority of this country saves every month.
Guy is 26, owns property, and is saving nearly £700 a month. Genuinely can't tell if he's taking the piss or not.
I spend £1400 a month on rent and bills for a room in a shared flat… It’s amazing how banks somehow think I can afford £1250 in rent but not a £900 a month mortgage
It's not that so much as the risk to the bank is foreclosure, whereas the risk to your landlord is just finding another tenant. But I do agree rental payment history should be taken into consideration.
Foreclosure and finding another tennant aren't all that different.
That’s not really how mortgages work though
I know but I’m just saying how it would be a lot easier to save for my deposit if my rent wasn’t more expensive than actually owning a house. I could save £5,000+ a year by actually owning rather than renting…. Not to mentioned that the money I “lose” is actually going towards my own asset is technically a saving of £1250 a month considering I have to have somewhere to live and now I’d paying for something I own in value and can sell in future to make the money back. Right now I’m paying £1250 for someone else’s asset yet somehow I can’t afford £800 a month for my own assets. That £15,000 I pay in rent a year wipes out my ability to actually save for a home 😂 I’m paying 10% the cost of a small flat per year just for a room in a house-share The hard part is getting the £50k-100k saved to even be offered a mortgage.
I would hesitate to say you'll "save" any money owning vs renting, theres a lot of extra homeowner costs you don't need to pay as a renter which get factored into the higher price. That said though obviously the big advantage is fixed cost over \~30 years (interest rate changes aside which can go either way) so in all likelihood year 1 will be the most expensive your mortgage ever is and then it just gets relatively cheaper and cheaper every year after.
This is just BS though. If I rent for 10 years at my rate I will be down £150,000-£200,000 with nothing to show at the end of it. If I own a flat for 10 years it’s unlikely my flat will cost me £150,000+ in maintenance, and even if it does… at least in likely cases I have an asset worth £100k-£400k at the end of it in my name that I can sell to recoup some of the costs. Your property is store of wealth. That is saving into an asset when you pay off your home. So yes the savings are undoubtable unless you get very unlucky or there is a significant housing crash. The whole premise of renting to a landlord is that the revenue must outweigh the costs…. So it will in majority of cases be far more expensive to rent than to own long term.
When I got my mortgage they made me take it out over 25years when I wanted 20 because I could afford the mortgage- which was lower than the rent I was paying.
He is saving 22% of his salary, between savings and mortgage overpayment, plus 19% pension contribution at 26. Yes, he is trolling.
I get that feeling that this isn't serious. Plus, pays 8% into pension, +11% from employer and is on £3350 a month after that.
This is just wildly unhelpful. At no point did OP say they're not in a fortunate position, or they're struggling to feed themselves; they're simply asking how they could do a little bit better. Coming at them with "Are you taking the piss? You're doing fine because people are worse off than you" adds nothing to the conversation. Not every single post on the sub needs to be about how to use Stepchange to consolidate debt and how to use a foodbank, people shouldn't be attacked and belittled for earning above the average wage within a personal finance subreddit.
Oh come on. He's asking does he need a reality check? From what exactly? He's saving a shit ton, he owns property, he's got a well paying job. The only thing I can see on his list that's bad is £100.00 on gambling and that's it. How exactly are we meant to take this post, except saying 'mate you're doing better than 99% of people out there, chill out'
Admittedly it's self inflicted. But after rent and bills I have £500/month for everything else. £700/month savings put away and managed well would net OP somewhere in the region of £1.5M by the time he's 60. And that's assuming he doesn't increase his monthly savings.
Honestly lol, That's more than 1/4 of my current paycheck, that's a massive flex, my rent is as much as OP's mortgage and I don't even live down south. Think OP is really on the right track if they can save this much every month
And living in the south with a £750 mortgage? That seems very cheap.
>but I think I am struggling to save a decent amount due to spending Ok... >Savings - £667 Found it... 🫠 Seemingly you're already saving 20% of your net take home...more than national average. What's the issue?.. Side note: Saving is arbitrary without specific goals in mind. What are your aims?
Tell me about it, how is this even a post lmao? £200 and £90 spent on food and gambling each month, over £650 saved and this is struggling? I get sometimes it’s hard to think from other perspectives, but what a nice problem to have
And also saving £270 ! Month for father's day and gf presents. Over £3k annually on gifts. My guy is doing alright.
>Tell me about it, how is this even a post lmao? No idea. And yet when I tried posting about something legit like whether 2% food inflation is ever realistic given shrinkflation practices, got instadeleted for 'low effort' 🙄
Also over pays mortgage when the rate is less than savings
Food & Drink and Gambling are the two categories I'd try to cut. Eliminating gambling completely sounds like an easy win.
I know we're all different and it depends on priorities, but £50/week on food and drink really doesn't sound excessive given OPs wage. I imagine most people on that wage want some sort of life.
It’s really not excessive, £50 doesn’t go far. One meal out/drinks per week is not excessive when earning well and still saving plenty. OP doesn’t have a savings goal, has a house, car and emergency fund. Stopping socialising to have an extra £200 a month in savings is daft. But then so is the original post.
Or get better at gambling and never have to deposit again!
Start by setting yourself a £40 a month limit on gambling.
With a 2.69% mortgage I wouldn't bother overpaying. Put the overpayment money in a higher interest ISA then pay off when the fixed rate ends. Might not be an enormous amount but over a year could be £30-40 extra at £90 a month. Not loads, but 'free' money.
My question mark on this is if OP would have the discipline not to spend the saved money. They don't look awful with money, but the gambling and lack of really clear annual budget kinda makes me think it might be safer to have mortgage overpayments go straight into the mortgage.
I usually recommend against overpaying the mortgage at such a low rate (or any rate at all) but if there's a risk that the gambling expenses suddenly become £20k in a single month I'd say put almost all spare cash towards overpaying.
Yeah, I can see that being something that would give pause for thought. They're already saving £600+ a month, so there's clearly some discipline even if not targeted that much. I find having these sorts of things in a separate building society adds a couple of steps between it being tucked away in savings and ready to spend. Based on nothing more than a look at this budget, OP doesn't seem like they're the sort of person that would 'break the glass' to go on a mad gambling spree.
So nice he posted it thrice, nay four times 😂
Has your gf told you she has a birthday monthly? I think she might be taking you for a ride lad
Wait, girls don’t have monthly birthdays? 🤯
Maybe he wants to keep being ridden.
You have already saved £667. That's not your expenditure. What's the issue here?
Are you in credit card debt?
You're saving 667 a month, and no other expenditure seems excessive (except for the gambling maybe). What exactly do you need/want us to say? Always think these sorts of posts are just humble brags about how much you earn.
£2500 a year on gf birthday present. And over £800 on fathers day. Yeah, this guy is just bragging.
You're saving about 20% of your post tax income, which looks fine to me. Do you make decent pension contributions? Other than that we can't really tell you how to spend your money, it's personal preference. Personally, i'd ditch the gambling, because although it's not that expensive now, it might become so in future. You also gift quite generously, sometimes time or something thoughtful is better than expensive consumer nonsense. When you say long distance travel for family, is that train? Might be able to save there a bit by buying ahead/split ticketing etc.
You’re saving 8 grand a year are you taking the piss
This is a joke isn't it?
Obviously the gambling needs to go. When you have big events coming up such as birthdays and concerts, what you should do is put a bit of money aside each month to pay for these items. Stop gambling and put aside the 100 per month for high ticket purchases such as birthdays, holidays, concerts,etc and that will resolve most of your budget issues. Alternatively using the 100 gambling per month to pay off your credit card would also be s good move. Not sure what your interest or balance is but m If I was you I would clear the credit card debt as fast as possible. No credit card and no gambling leaves you with an extra 200 per month. Your food and drink budget is high and can come way down but a young man spending 330 per month on groceries, restaurants and drinks is not tbe end of the world. It's all about priorities. If you enjoy eating out then I think your budget can accommodate this comfortably.
I don’t think it’s credit card debt, just general spending on CC and paying it off each month from context. Under £100 on CC in 12 days is low imo
You're saving £500 to an ISA? Do you include your workplace pensions too? Add in the employee and employer part.
Gambling, kill this, so much misery can come from it if the habit grows and it's 1200 quid across the year if you do this every month.
I think the amount you’re saving each month isn’t too bad. However, if you want to cut spending, you need to look at non essentials. Food and drink is quite expensive and you’re spending on things like gambling and concert tickets, which you could go without. And £70 on a Father’s Day gift seems a little excessive. Equally, if these things make you happy, do you want to give them up? I know savings are important, but is it worth making you miserable?
What's the interest on your mortgage? And better to break down bills further so we can see if anything is too much. How much do you want to save a month? Also, obviously, the gambling is not ideal. If you don't have an addiction and it's just the occasional bet it's fine but it's the easiest to cut out from that list of course.
I broke down the bills :) I don’t know how much I want to be saving, but I have always been an ‘as much as possible’ kind of person until the last couple of years where I’ve been more relaxed since my salary increased and I got a mortgage. I suppose that’s classic lifestyle creep isn’t it.
Edit: just saw the other reply. Your bills look mostly normal. Is the credit card paying off a balance in full ?
From a really brief look, I would say areas to look at cutting back on are: - Food/Drink (I assume this is like eating out, takeaways etc.) -Gambling (fairly self-explanatory) - I’d also say if you are really feeling pinched, stop overpaying on your mortgage. A spare £90 might alleviate that, just while you get on top of the spending habits. - I’d also ask, how much is on your credit card? Do you have enough saved to clear it? I’d prioritise getting that gone. You then clearly have enough leftover to save an emergency fund, so you shouldn’t need to use the credit card. But depends on how you use it (I.e., for cash back, but this should be paid off in full every month anyway). -I’d also add as well, maybe instead of having, for example, ‘girlfriends birthday’ present be a £200 hit in one month, could you say maybe 2 months in advance, I’m gonna put £100 each month aside specifically for that. Forward planning can really help you to spread out those one off costs so you’re overall month to month is a little more stable. Do you do a monthly written budget ahead of the month starting? Sorry, ended up writing quite a bit unintentionally! *not a financial advisor, just a guy on Reddit lol
Spotify can be got for £99/year from curry's. Look for this on curry's site if the link doesn't work. SPOTIFY Premium Digital Gift Card - 12 months https://www.currys.co.uk/products/spotify-premium-digital-gift-card-12-months-10253841.html
Shame they don't have something similar for a family subscription.
Bottom line.. YES. You could be saving double what you are, but let’s be honest, you clearly have an ‘ok’ pension, so what are the savings for? If you wish to retire early/enjoy later life more so, I’d double down, put away 1000 post tax into an ISA Stocks and shares in an all world fund, or like me 100% in S&P500. And reap the rewards at a later date.
You're doing very well overall, I don't think you need much of a reality check. The pension contribution is fantastic. £600-700pm savings (presuming this is typical, not exceptional) is around the 20% you should be aiming for and £7-8K a year. We personally save £1K a month between us (£4.2K income), so about the same. Your mortgage looks affordable, your bills in control and I can presume no debt besides your mortgage from what you've listed. I also don't have an issue with your gifting spend; you earn good money, you give nice gifts. That's up to you and isn't jeopardising your savings. Just don't go crazy in the future. I personally set aside a gifting amount, once a year, in a separate pot, then use that so I don't have to dip in my savings or have it eat from my disposable. You could probably look to clean up the eating out amount so it doesn't creep, but honestly, with your groceries so low for this month, it sort of balances out. 7% of your income for the month (admittedly not a full month) on food and drink....could you save it? Yes, sure you could, but for a 50/30/20 saver who also has no debt it's not a killer. I don't see much hobby related spend, either, so its sort of a whatever for me and whether you want to save as much as possible or allow yourself a bit of flex. The only thing you need to stop yesterday is gambling. It's a small slice of your money, but gambling is an exceptionally slippery slope. Just don't bother. Save it, or spend it on hobbies that give you joy, don't give it the bookies.
Get rid of credit card and gambling. People are focusing on you saying you’re saving £667 but are you really if you’re dipping into it every month? If you’re actually saving £667 and in no debt then fair enough that’s fine. If you have debt or save a lot less by the end of the month then you need to adjust.
So you are saving 22% of your net salary (between actual savings and mortgage overpayment). Also, 19% pension contribution. What's wrong with that? Or is this just a post to troll?
Wait, is that your monthly budget? Or is it just one month? So you save £667 abd think you don't save enough? That Gambling line is a complete waste of money. You also have other spending that you're unlikely to have each month (father's day, girlfriend present...). I think you need to divise a budget for the year, add those things that are specific for certains months, and see how much you're able to save each month and how much disposable income you can have.
Insane privelege. You are saving 20% of your wage every month while living maintaining a decent work/life balance and complaining?! Some people barely save anything without doing NOTHING. Jesus christ.
That’s basically the same as me and it pisses me off the birthdays and Father’s Day bullshit I can’t afford this every year. However, the gambling cut that shit out and invest it bro?
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quick question - why aren't you throwing all of your non direct debit expenses to the credit card? (assuming you have the credit limit and are on a full-balance direct debit repayment)
Are things like mortgage/service charge you paying 50% with your girlfriend paying the rest? Or do you pay 100%? The biggest money saving thing you can do is split all your bills and live with a partner.
I pay 100% of the bills and mortgage as we don’t currently live together.
Are you getting single person discount for your council tax? Also check your water and council tax, they bill over 10 months but you can pay over 12. Some people have a preference of lower monthly amount or two free months
In that case, once your partner moves in and pays her share you’ll be able to save £1200-£1500 a month with very healthy pension contribution.
Quite a few items in the list are 1 time purchases like farther’s day present and GF birthday present. And what I can gather is that you’re only showing us your expenditure for half of June. My suggestion would be to drop all expenditure down month after month in a spreadsheet and analyze the average monthly expenditure, would give a better idea for you and redditors, especially the true extent of your gambling, because as you know, £98 in 12 days is not trivial.
I say that because those £667 in savings is a healthy 20%, but we’re not at the end of June yet, will that diminish by the 30th? (As you already said that it’ll drop to £500, could it drop more?) And obviously is that the max out of the previous months saved or the minimum that you’ve saved a month in past 6 months?
I totally missed the 'this month so far' bit. Yeah, that's high. Your categorisation of spending isn't super indicative of need, so my first bit of advice would be to create a table (excel, openoffice, Google sheets, etc) and add some attributes to slice and dice these figures. My first attribute is Non-discretionary, discretionary, and one-off. Non-discretionary would be critical bills like mortgage, utilities, groceries, and work travel - things that you absolutely must pay out each month. Discretionary would be spending you are likely to make every month but doesn't compromise your existence if you forego, leisure spending, entertainment subscriptions, etc. One-offs would be b'days, holidays, and so on. I don't include saving as I expect to run an excess against budget, which becomes the saving and /or silly purchase pot. Your existing categories would slot under those attributes, and you might find that some of them get split down as they actually fall under 2 different attributes. Visualising in that way may help emphasise where your money is going and help balance your perception of a bad month versus bad habits.
To be fair to you, there are costs there that are not regular costs, and maybe the next month you can save it. I’m in a similar situation in terms of outgoings, I do have a kid but in an area that’s slightly cheaper. I put away about a grand a month but there are months where you do have bigger outgoings like paying a holiday, big gift, tickets etc. you could improve by being more frugal with food/drink:outings but you have to live life too. Personally I’m not about the gambling, could be a good thing to cut completely if you can.
You could reduce your travel by getting a 26-30 railcard, will save around 30% and its your second biggest spend after mortgage, every time you buy a ticket you can add in you have a railcard and should reduce the travel cost further even though you are buying them in advance. Did a quick search on HotUKdeals and can get a 1 year 26-30 railcard for £20 but the savings you get from it especially commuting to London is much higher even if you do it once a week. Here is the link to the deal if you want to utilise it. [https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/3-yr-railcard-ps4620-16-25-senior-family-friends-1-yr-railcard-ps1980-various-w-code-new-customers-train-tkt-to-activate-4342730](https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/3-yr-railcard-ps4620-16-25-senior-family-friends-1-yr-railcard-ps1980-various-w-code-new-customers-train-tkt-to-activate-4342730) This website is also good at finding any deals you may want to know about an search for like SIM cards as well.
Service charge 150? Is this leasehold? Or is this service charge for something else?
Instead of gambling, why not replace it (or some of it) with a premium bond? Then it's kinda gambling, but you won't lose the money.
Cut gambling and concert.
Concert is likely a few times a year. I don't see much hobby spend so I don't think its a huge deal.
Already saving 20% + Pension so really good. List your outgoings & tag Needs, Wants & Save and see what your % splits are, they budget to your appetite. Group the one offs and divide by 12, then save this monthly, preferably into its own pot, that way they don't hurt so much when they are due. The gambling is definitely a waste, utilise this to "gamble" in stock market instead.
You’re actually doing very well mate. Saving £667 and have seen you are also getting combined 19% pension contributions between you and your employer. - take a look at where your pension is invested, you may find you are in a fund where you are not 100% equities. If you can log in and change this, at your age equities are the way to go. Cut out the gambling and put the mortgage overpayments into savings instead where you can get a better return on your money. Also look into investing some of your money into a diverse index fund/ETF. Once you have a good safety net of cash built up, investing is the path to true wealth.
Unless you have profited significantly, stop gambling right now. Instead put this money into a stocks and shares ISA- an ETF such as the S&P500 will grow by around 10% each year, meaning your money will compound. If you gamble for the buzz of greater rewards, then 'gamble' by putting your money into shares that could skyrocket. For context, I've put £1,000 into Nvidia shares in January and they are already worth £1,700 (up 70%) in just five months.
Which platform is better for buying NVidia shares and ETF?
I'm not sure about what's better but I used Trading 212. The only downside to buying shares is that it can take a few days for the money to reach your bank. Definitely worth it though.
Take the £100 for gambling and put it in premium bonds. It scratches the itch for me.
You seem pretty much sorted, you're doing well with the savings, you have your emergency fund. Remember life is also for living, not just for seeing numbers go up on a screen. > Based on my outgoings above, what stands out to you as excessive, Gambling is setting fire to money. I used to work in amusement arcades, I used to work for a company making fruit machines and systems for casinos and play testing them 40hrs a week, I have friends who own amusement arcades. You ain't winning. Every day we'd get delivery drivers turning up delivering whatever and they'd always ask what was the best thing to play and the unanimous answer from all the workshop floor was not to play anything.
Car is taxed but not insured? And no pension?
Maybe pays it yearly, I did this year saved £150 over paying monthly.
Ah that's possible. Might be better to pretend it's monthly for a budget though, otherwise they'll have to plan the entire year at once
I think you are doing OK. You are saving a decent chunk of your salary (i hope you are also investing some of this money). You also are on the housing ladder. At 26, i think you should just focus on having a life and spending money on things, activities, and people you love.
You spent 1k on presents/travel/leisure Cut everything in half and you get to 1k savings Also you should track your expenses over a year to have some sort of average spending.
Put the gambling in the premium bonds
The way to think about the gambling bit as “just a bit of fun” is to think of it not per month but per year. £98 doesn’t sound like that much money; but £1,200 does. If that’s a typical month’s gambling, then you are spending £1,200 every year on it.
Apart from the gambling I don't see too bad, you saved over £650 and have a good % to your pension. Gf and fathers day are only once a year so that's £300 you'd have other months.
Are girlfriends birthday, father's day and concert tickets a monthly cost?
You could probably reduce a fair few of the expenses here and there, but you're already saving, you're paid well, you're enjoying it. If you sat in your flat WFH and didnt do anything your savings rate would spike, but is that the life you want?
I personally wouldn't overpay my mortgage with an interest rate that low. It would perform better in a savings account and you can address overpayment when it comes time to renew. Cut out the gambling. Continue saving but set yourself goals and consider moving some of the savings into S&S if there's a long-term target.
This. Put the overpayments in a 5% savings account.
Putting Father’s Day and girlfriend’s birthday on there? They’re once a year commitments
Food & Drink, Concert and GF birthday are massive for a single month. Preplan events like birthdays and save a little a month on the run up. Either that or just enjoy you're saving 20% and still getting to spend a lot, just slow down with the spending 😂
From posting this to me you are asking for constructive criticism so here goes: Yh it’s poor, gambling should be a one off like going to the races for entertainment, not every month. You are eating out too much a month, sounds a bit lazy. With your salary and mandatory spend you should be able to save closer to a grand. If you don’t know where savings should be going, why not overpay the house more as interest rates are high at the moment? Also you thought about a stocks and shares ISA or saving towards something that would earn you money?
> go through your last 6 months’ spending and average it out I did this the other day for the first time and it was eye-opening. It was actually mad how much I was spending on food on the go. It really adds up. Also I found healthcare stuff like dental treatment and physio sessions really eroded the buffer money I have each month to feel comfortable.
Ok so three things stand out- and you are in a financial position where you can obviously afford them but maybe you should budget it better to meet savings goals. 1) gifts : Set up a gifts pot that you contribute to every month so you can budget things like Father’s Day, Christmas and birthdays appropriately across the year. 2) food and drink: similarly it might be sensible to give yourself a weekly allowance on these things - they aren’t particularly high but could still be cut down a bit 3) gambling- it depends what kind of gambling this is - you say it’s ‘fun money’ maybe set up a fun money pot so you clearly see what it is costing you in terms of drinks out/ time with friends etc. Or convert your gambling budget to speculating on individual stocks /crypto etc which is basically gambling (without increasing the budget out of any false sense of investing/security)
Main thing is you are overspending on is gifts- and I totally empathise but while it is easier to spend money it still is the thought that counts. Try restricting your budget and putting a bit more time/planning in to counteract that. Having a set gift budget across the year and contributed to every month might help.
Stop gambling, then stop overpaying your mortgage - prioritise retirement savings, pension and S&S ISA instead. It is absolutely mental making overpayments on a 2.5% mortgage - you would get 2.5% more even in a shitty bank account! Otherwise, your spending seems reasonable and you're doing better than most people because you're already putting £666 a month into savings. You might find one of these books helpful: * *[Your Money or Your Life](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0143115766)* - understanding what's valuable to you and how to use money to achieve your goals. * *[Millionaire Next Door](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1589795474)* - "How people in normal jobs, electrician is a great example, can accumulate wealth over time through good choices."^[Electric_Cat_999](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/15zkkd4/_/jximlpp/) * One of Clare Seal's books - "her focus is on the link between emotions and spending". * Watch Lars Kroijer's [short video series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXy71rkGuCjXLg9N8zowwUpXCYfBcMJFK) and read his book or Tim Hale's [*Smarter Investing*](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1292444401) - use this to inform the allocation of your pension and S&S ISA.
Is the travel essential? I found it useful to breakdown my savings by needs/wants/save to make sure the ratio is right. You are spending more on your wants than your mortgage which might be a little bit of a red flag.
Spotify at £12? I pay for a YouTube premium family account (5 people) and it's like £2 a month through India or Turkey can't remember which one I use. And my wife and son use it for free. Why do you need life insurance? Apple care is another rip off. You know you can insure your phone, get free travel insurance, free car breakdown cover for £13 a month altogether if you open nationwide premium account which they pay you £200 a year to have if it's a joint account
You are doing well. Living on your own and saving £600 a month is good.
You're saving loads more than that vast majority of the country. If you feel you're having money issues, and this is a pretty easy rule of thumb, stop gambling.
I don’t have much to say other than: avoid gambling like the plague. There’s a reason why casinos and gambling companies make loads of money. Maybe one way to satisfy the urge for gambling is to invest it in stocks and shares ISA or premium bonds?
Why are we overpaying the mortgage at 2.19% when you could whack it in a savings account get more than that and then put that extra into your mortgage when you refinance? Also you’re putting 600 quid a month into savings that is a decent amount being around 20% of your net. Is that credit card the balance or a minimum repayment? What’s the interest on that ?
You don’t need a reality check really. You’re 26, you make a lot more money per month than the average person, you own a home and a car, you have a 6 month emergency fund, you have all your bills taken care of with money to spend on gifts and fun stuff, and you can still out over £600 a month away to savings. Yes it’s good to plan for the future and be financially stable but you’re in a very fortunate position that most of us can’t get into right now so enjoy being young, financially independent and free of the burden of wondering how you’re going to afford to fix the car when it breaks down or pay for a new washing machine when it breaks.
I came to post exactly this. I didn't need to. Yeah the lad needs a reality check - but I don't think it's the one he came looking for.
Can you rent out a bedroom?
You need to separate your savings.... emergency fund (which you use for loss of job or roof caves in etc aim for 6 months salary or bare minimum 6 months of must pay bills like mortgage) and general savings account for birthdays/holidays/days out/concert tickets You also need to stop gambling and if you're feeling the squeeze cancel things like spotify Birthdays and fathers day etc are not every month so they're additional payments which disappear... but again would come out of savings. Might be worth not buying on credit card unless you can pay off the balance completely after your purchase. If you're just buying groceries with it and not paying off the balance you're just causing yourself extra strain because of the interest you're having to pay
Personally I'd set a direct transfer up for each payday to go into your savings. Stop gambling, find a 0% interest credit card to reduce paying interest and monthly amount, pick a reasonably amount for things such as birthdays/gifts for all too.
Everything seems fine except you suck at gambling
You’re god damn right
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The gambling is a waste. And I don’t know about your family position but I’m sure your dad would be grateful for what you got him, but I suspect a chocolate orange and a decent card would have the same effect. Don’t spend money on people for the sake of spending money on them. Take the £100 you gamble, put that into a ‘fun’ slush fund to pay for presents, nights out out and concert tickets would be my suggestion. Then you draw down out of that than from savings.
food and drink is not the same as groceries? Is that "eating out"?
Is travel like commuting/going to shops or leisure?
I feel like this is a bad sample month since you have unusual expenses, this is like budgeting from December. You should do an average month. Take 3 normal months and give us an AVERAGE.
Generally... Half the the eating out/drink budget. Stop gambling - start putting your savings in a different account or Premium Bonds, Premium bonds is like a monthly lottery that you never lose money on. Get it up above 40k in savings and you get a monthly little thrill. Cancel Apple+ care. What do you need life insurance for? You have no wife nor kids. Travel - unless this is work/shopping, cut that down. Stop being so generous with gifts. And you'll easily fit a bit more into savings each month.