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Let's build up some savings!


cardamom

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I really enjoyed this thread that Cimbom started a few years back - thought I'd recreate it over here :)


Some back story:


I've always been a pretty focused saver (sometimes too much - I can get a bit compulsive and need some encouragement to loosen the reins) and this thread really helped me stay on track and feel hopeful when I was saving for a house deposit.


Since joining that thread about 18 months ago, I managed to get together enough for a deposit - something that felt like an impossible dream - and now we've been in our home just over a year. It's been so nice making it our own - we've added air con, window shutters, polished the floorboards, fixed the roof, managed an emergency plumbing drama..


Thanks to this thread I was also able to accept the opportunity to go on a last-minute overseas trip as part of my volunteer gig which I wouldn't have been able to do if it weren't for the savings buffer :)


I'm re-reading that other thread now and smiling to myself seeing a post from late July saying "buying a home just feels so unattainable", knowing that about 10 days later we bought. It was so lovely to share that with the other savers and feel so supported.


Since then I've been trying to build my savings back up. I rejigged my budget recently and at the moment am trying to save $750 a fortnight - I might need to revise that down if it's not manageable, but we'll see.


Totals for this year:


Jan 20 - Goalsaver: $10000

Oct 22 - Goalsaver: $19657; COVID savings: $4000


Hoping others will jump in and join!

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I enjoyed the last thread too. Despite covid we're actually doing fairly well this year since I massively overestimated our incomes for last financial year we got stacks of FTB back, plus CCS, and I managed to get centrelink PPL, so I've stashed a heap away in the redraw (we're up to 36k) while also investing in some quality stuff for the house. It'd be awesome to have 40k in the redraw by the end of the year. Especially since we'll need to get a second car when I finally get my Ps, a goal which had to shift to next year because of covid.

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Oh, I really need some focus for my finances! Ill join in.


The last few years have been very expensive. I built a house, had a baby, sold the house, bought a new house, renovated... Im just about finished the renovations (though still some improvements Id like to do in time). Its a good time to take control again, Ive been very lucky to get a few cash infusions this year, but not expecting anymore this year or next year, so need to stop spending and start saving now.


Today: $10,000 in offset

Future goals: $15,000 for rainy days, a new car, house improvements, extra mortgage payments and a holiday

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YodaTheWrinkledOne

DH was out of work for 6 months, just started a new job last month. I want us to get on track with our mortgage repayments as I had planned for us to pay it off in less than 10 years. That's where all of our savings are going atm, although we could redraw if needed. If possible, I'd like to get us back on track over the next 4-6 months. While interest rates are low, I want us to throw as much money as possible on the mortgage. It's been 2.5 years so far, we've paid off 24% of the principal, so I am happy with that.

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Thank you for starting this thread.


We are currently saving a deposit for house. We've only been saving for around 3 months and managed to save $30k, thanks to some little windfalls, and me starting a new job after being at uni for the last 4 years.


We hope to have around $80k by this time next year.

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I like this thread too!


Savings $60k. Goal $75k.


I am looking to renovate our kitchen in mid 2021 and even though I think I only need $30k I am not comfortable depleting savings below $40k to achieve this. So basically I need to save $15k before we can go ahead.


Savings at the moment are $700 per fortnight but this will increase to $850 per fortnight in 2021 with scheduled wage increases and tax changes.


Xmas shopping is all done but I do anticipate possible blow outs in entertaining family and friends over next couple of months.


We are doing some minor renovations $3.5k next week also so I need to claw that back also.

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Thanks for joining in everyone! Looking forward to seeing how we progress with our goals, whatever they may be :)


Nothing to report this fortnight - I've been a bit spend-happy buying things for my nieces for Christmas, gifts for a friend who's just had a new baby, had takeaway a couple of times (normally a rarity for us). I also treated myself to a new food processor after conceding that the fancy pants one I bought a few years ago is pointless as it's too heavy to drag out of the cupboard, so never gets used. Rationalising it all as good for the COVID economy... (and good for challenging my compulsive saving tendency - sometimes I get so fixed on saving that I find it really hard to spend money on anything!)


Pay day on Tuesday - all going well I should hit my $20k savings goal.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm happy, we've got 38.5k in the redraw so I feel really on track to get to 40k by the end of the year. I'm not sure what will happen with my work next year so consolidating that savings feels really important.

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I've been a bit spend-happy as we come out of COVID - eek. I did very little online shopping during COVID and didn't miss shopping at all, but I've been to the shops a couple of times since lockdown started to lift and was quite stunned/panicked by the overwhelming urge to buy all the things. Doesn't help with Christmas coming up, I tend to buy quite a lot of my nieces.


Anyway, have added a little to my savings:


Goalsaver: $20815; COVID savings: $3250 (went backwards slightly, bought a new fridge)

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  • 1 month later...

Quick update before we tick over into January:


Goalsaver: $23006


COVID savings: took a big hit post-Christmas, that's dwindled down to $1000. Oops.


Though, to be fair, I had put that money aside with the intention of taking a small regional holiday or something to try and support local business post-COVID; the holiday hasn't happened, but the shopping local definitely has, so I'll console myself with that. I might move that money over to the Goalsaver in the new year - or maybe I'll keep it there as disposable/"treat" spending money.

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We made it to 40k in the redraw, albeit briefly lol, I made some boxing day online purchases, but it still happened so in calling it a win. Aiming for 50k in there by end of next year which will probably be used to get a second small car if i achieve my license goal (the 10k extra that is not the whole 50!).

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This is my 2021 goal. Maybe joining in can keep me on track.

I currently have no idea what I have in savings, though guessing its around 1k. I spent a lot of money on my new house this year, so need to rebuild my emergency funds.

I need to do my budget, maybe Ill go do that in a minute. As for goals....


Goal 1. Save $15,000 rainy day fund.

Goal 2. Save $20,000 for a car (might take 2 years).

I have no intentions for anymore holidays for quite a while and at this stage have no big purchases I need to make...


So! Im hoping to save about $600 a FN for goal 1 and maybe $100 a FN for goal 2. Or... if I could win lotto Saturday night even better.

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My savings goals are well under what you are all doing (I don't even get the amount that some of you are saving) and I rent with no chance of buying a house.


It is just DS (17) and I. Our total income comes from DSP & FTB so low income. At the moment I have zero savings.


My goal is to save $2k this year. This will include saving the FTB supplements, the rest of the savings will hopefully come from saving $30/fortnight.


Not sure how I will go with saving it - I have to start paying my parents back for my car at the end of January. My parents are happy for me to save some money rather than giving all that I have to them. I'm hoping that when I pay off a couple of big to me amounts ($2k arrears on gas bill & $2.4k from some legal stuff that happened last year) I will be able to increase the amount I pay my parents.

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2k is an admirable goal. You'll feel much better with a buffer. I started by saving just 1k and even having that made it much easier to weather any storms. My parents never had any savings while I was growing up because my dad gambled, and my mum was always so stressed. Which made me want something different for myself.


I did my budget last night, so Im off to a good start.


Savings 1. $1,400

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Both my husband and I come from homes where our parents are gamblers 😢 we can sometimes can a bit crazy on the savings but we have clear goals in mind.

During 2020 we saved a decent amount (triple digits) and spent about $80k on keeping my husbands business viable. If we didn’t have to spend that our savings would of been amazing!


Having a self employed husband our buffer is much larger than others, I don’t include our buffer in our savings number as to me it’s not considered savings :)

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Welcome [mention]Vitsyra[/mention] and [mention]keirapep[/mention] :)

 

Both my husband and I come from homes where our parents are gamblers 😢 we can sometimes can a bit crazy on the savings but we have clear goals in mind.

 

That's so tough [mention]Blizzy[/mention], thanks for sharing. It's interesting to see how much our upbringing/family habits influence our attitudes to money, isn't it?


Growing up my dad was very black-and-white in his thinking and could be quite compulsive about things, and saving as much as I could was a way of being the "good" kid and winning his approval. Ironically now as an adult he criticises me for being too miserly! It's really taken a lot of work to give myself permission not to save every single cent. I also have a chronic illness and live in fear of a flare-up that might leave me unable to work, so that plays on my mind a lot too - I'm conscious of having as much saved as possible to cover expenses just in case it worsens.


If anyone else would like to share some of their thinking about money, by all means do! (no pressure though)


I hope 2021 is a productive year for us all, no matter what our goals might be :)

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Dh and I both grew up in low income homes, him probably lower than mine. We both value security financially because of that, but neither of us find much inherent value in money either. Dh is probably worse in that way, he's very easy come easy go in his attitude to money, which could be worrying if I wasn't more measured. I have goals and savings and put money where we can't touch it so it doesn't get spent. Because he will just buy what he needs/ wants if the money is there. If it's not there it's not a problem he'll go without unless it's a true necessity (like petrol for the car). But for bigger things i'm also usually the spender lol, I generally have to buy the clothes and stuff for the house and I sort out the groceries and the bills and work out the budgets for all these things. Then Dh will hold off on things like getting the car serviced asking can we afford it and i'm like yes, i have included it in the budget, get it done lol. Works well for us generally. If I went crazy irresponsible it'd be a disaster coz I'd be like 'i want to get xyz' and he'd shrug and go ok (course he'd then be pretty - understandably - mad if i spent all our money) But i prefer the security of building up the redraw and paying off the house asap so that keeps us on track.

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[mention]keirapep[/mention], I just had a thought - have you ever heard of the Saver Plus program? It's a matched savings and financial education program where you can receive up to $500 in matched savings. To be eligible a person needs to be receiving a relevant Centrelink payment and have some expenses related to education (eg. a school-aged child - uniforms, laptop, excursion fees, etc.) I wonder if that might be helpful in reaching your saving goal? Apologies if that's an inappropriate suggestion, just my workplace used to run the program and I know lots of people who've done it and found it really useful :)

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Im certain how we grow up around money has an impact on our behaviors, though how and what I dont know.


Growing up we were a lower middle class family, both parents worked full time mostly earning a combined ~70k p.a. or so. But neither were great with money and as I mentioned earlier my dad gambled terribly. So we never had money, we never really got new clothes, holidays or anything fancy, but we had enough. We also rented, but both my parents have always talked about owning a house.


As such I read a lot of personal finance books as a teen and taught myself good money habits. I follow Barefoot mostly these days. Ive managed to buy a house, so feel quite lucky. I have a full time role with a good company and have been there about 7 years with no plans to change anything. But I am a single parent, so I want my rainy day fund to be a little bigger than it might be otherwise. I had 10k saved which was great, but spent it all in order to finish my renovations, took a risk... now to save it all over again. My ability to save quickly has certainly decreased now I have daycare costs

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@keirapep, I just had a thought - have you ever heard of the Saver Plus program? It's a matched savings and financial education program where you can receive up to $500 in matched savings. To be eligible a person needs to be receiving a relevant Centrelink payment and have some expenses related to education (eg. a school-aged child - uniforms, laptop, excursion fees, etc.) I wonder if that might be helpful in reaching your saving goal? Apologies if that's an inappropriate suggestion, just my workplace used to run the program and I know lots of people who've done it and found it really useful :)

 

Definitely not an inappropriate suggestion - anything that may help is welcome. I just had a look online at the program - from what I can tell you need to have work income as well as Centrelink income unfortunately

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I totally forgot about this thread with Christmas and life getting in the way.


So looks like our savings are going to take a big hit. Our main family car decided to literally blow a gasket on boxing day. Bye bye $5-6k depending on how bad the damage is 😭.


Some good news though, Dp got a pay rise so we can put away an extra $1k a month so should still be where we want to be by November.

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Guest BusbyWilkes

2k is an admirable goal. You'll feel much better with a buffer. I started by saving just 1k and even having that made it much easier to weather any storms. My parents never had any savings while I was growing up because my dad gambled, and my mum was always so stressed. Which made me want something different for myself.


I did my budget last night, so Im off to a good start.


Savings 1. $1,400

 

How did you manage to do a budget just like that :clap: I go to start this and it takes forever to search out all the info I need. Any tips are welcome!

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