Saving for something big - 7 top tips.

I always think it's very unfair how your mid-twenties are normally the time you need to buy your 'biggest' things. Getting married and buying your first home require big savings and unless you have money tucked away somewhere, this means saving for a long time. Not just saving here and there, big HEAVY saving.

Tom and I have been putting money aside each month properly for about a year now, but it's only when we got engaged it all became very real and we fully realised how much money we needed. I have set us a pretty small budget for our wedding. Humongous when you think how much is going on one day, but pitiful in the wedding world. If we already had our own house then I imagine it would be different and obviously we still want to have an amazing day and not look back with regret, but we feel uncomfortable throwing all our savings on one day, then heading back to our rented house and starting from scratch on a deposit. It would be so easy to spend £20-30k though and still not even have gone that mad.

But saving IS hard, when you're already paying so much on rent and bills it hurts to put all the rest into your savings account. I'm 24, I want to go on holiday to Bali and buy a Mulberry handbag from Selfridges and buy ALL the Jo Malone candles. But I want a house more, because those things in this house would be wasted. The feeling of knowing we're renting our house drives me mad, I can't cope with how temporary it feels. I want to get stuck in and make my own home and that is impossible when it's someone else's house. It's just uncomfortable all the time.


We've got pretty good at saving now though and we're putting a considerable amount to one side each month. We already have enough for the wedding and we're on track to have the house deposit (and all the stamp duty, solicitors fees you need as well) sorted by the end of next Summer. It has become an obsession to me now, when I get something in my head I will not let it go. I am also very competitive and goal-driven so following as many interior and home blogs as I do definitely keeps me on track (also a bit depressed because I want it NOW).

If I could scoop all super-saving prowess out and share it with you, it'd look like this.

1. What is it that you're saving for? Your first step needs to be to sit down and work out what it is you are saving for (house, wedding, holiday etc), how much money you already have and how much money you're going to need. If you have a set date you want the savings for, you can figure out how much you will need to put aside each month to reach the goal in time. 

2. Go through your finances. We moved banks recently (next point) and this was a good time to go through all our monthly bills. Write down EVERYTHING that comes out of your account each month and take this away from your in-comings to see what you're left with at the end of each month. Don't forget quarterly and annual payments like car insurance and water bills, and estimate food bills and petrol costs based on what you'd normally spend (be realistic here).

3. Check your bank account. We switched to a joint bank account after getting engaged, we were meaning to do it for ages but just never bothered. There's a few accounts at the moment which have good offers, we changed to this one with Santander who offer cash back on bills and interest on your savings. We have a joint account which all the bills and spending things come out of and a savings one which obviously all the savings go into. It's much better to keep them separate so you're not tempted to dip into your savings at the end of the month when your current account is getting a bit thin on the ground. Our savings account isn't an actual 'savings account' because the Santander 1 2 3 current account is actually offering a better interest rate than a lot of savings ones, so we just have two of them.

4. Online banking. I check our online banking CONSTANTLY. Like, every day. Even if nothing has changed it helps to keep me feeling like something is happening when I see how much money we have sat there and how much more we have to get. But then I am really crazy with it all at the moment so that is probably definitely not normal. I also like the goals that you can set on the money management section of your online banking, it tells you what percentage you're at and creates little diagrams to show how well your doing *dreamy eyes*.

5. Swap and change your providers. I'm at risk here of sounding like my favey Martin Lewis (Money-Saving Expert - to give his full title), but you can save super bucks by swapping gas/electric/internet/car insurance/breakdown cover etc etc providers. There are loads of comparison sites now so it doesn't take long and you can save hundreds to put in your ever-growing money pot.

6. Haggle. You can haggle on anything and everything, so make sure you do. Tom changed his car insurance the other day and when he rang up and quoted what someone else had offered they dropped their price by £150, just like that! I've got a massive discount off my orthodontist bill (post on that little clanger later) because I quoted a groupon voucher I'd seen for the same procedure but half the price. Just call up and ask, the worst thing that will happen is they say no.

5. Plan your meals. I either do this at the weekend or on Monday morning, depending on how organised I'm feeling. It means you can get things out of the freezer in the morning and start prepping so in the evening you know what you're having and it's ready to go, otherwise we end up eating beans on toast or chicken stir fry EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT. When you do your food shopping you can buy exactly what you need for each meal and don’t end up with a random butternut squash in your cupboard for months or 3 packs of feta cheese that have gone off because it was on offer 2 weeks ago. {Top tip: NEVER go food shopping hungry. EVER.} Take a list and STICK to it. I just write our meals out on a piece of paper and stick it on the fridge at the moment, but I am eyeing this up so it looks all pretty and I can pretend I live in a little café.

6. Stay on track. If something is important enough to you, it will be worth the effort and the cut backs. It's not nice to not be able to do whatever you want with your money, but it will be worth it in the long run. But those paradise holidays in the Maldives look really tempting when you have a good few thousand in your account. So every time it gets too hard and you just want to be a normal person and buy ALL the dresses rather than just one and you want to eat a £10 burger and £4 fries at Five Guys, even though you already have things out for dinner at home, go and look on RightMove at the houses you could be buying (if that's your aim) or look at all the pretty weddings on Pinterest. Whatever it is, think about how happy you'll be when you get it and remember how long you suffered for it!

7. Don't make yourself miserable over it. Contradiction here, but saving for something big is going to take a while and you can't just sit in the house for the next 18 months in your threadbare pyjamas, refreshing Pinterest, getting more and more depressed by the day. You still have to be able to socialise and enjoy yourself, your hair isn't going to cut itself here and you do genuinely need new clothes every now and again. It's easy to get so focused on savings that you end up in limbo and aren't actually living. Moderation is the key to everything in life, just don't go wild and 'treat' yourself to a Mulberry handbag. Your savings (and fiancé) won't thank you for it.

Basically, Martin Lewis (money-saving expert) is the money God and we should all worship him.

Anything I've missed? Please tell me your saving ways so we can all live in beautiful homes with bay windows , The White Company duvet covers and raised vegetable beds together!

Gemma

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