Savings 101: The Easiest Way To Build A Nest Egg And Why You Should...

Disclaimer:  This is not financial advice.  I'm just sharing what Hubby and I have done these past few years in order to (hopefully) make our future a little easier.

Hi Honeys,
Do you save regularly?  Put a little money away for rainy days?
"What, Rosie?" I hear you say.  "Who can save when it's hard enough making each pay cheque last till the end of the month?"

I know honeys.  I work minimum wage, in retail, so I understand only too well the concept of too much month and too little money.

What if I said that (with a teeny, tiny bit of effort) you could not only save (even if it's just a little) every single pay cheque but even completely forget you're doing it?

This is definitely a bit of a chatty post dear ones, why not go grab a cuppa☕ (and maybe a cookie🍪) and I'll meet you back here in a few minutes?  See you after the page break...💖


Welcome back honeys 😊 Do you have your cuppa?  Me too☕  Why not put your feet up and get comfy and I'll share how we went from not having any savings at all to having the security of our still-small-but-it's-growing-a-wee-bit-every-single-month nest egg.

Wishing We'd Started (Much) Earlier...

Being Young And Carefree...

When we're all young, if we're very lucky, money is really only given any thought at all when we don't have enough of it to pay for whatever it is that's absolutely vital to us at the time.  Trips to the cinema with friends can be the most important thing in the world to a teenager (at least when I was young, it was an innocent time.) Especially so when you have the luxury of living at home and have never seen a household bill with your name on the front demanding payment.    

Money becomes a more pressing concern, of course, when we leave home and face the shock of those pesky, regularly arriving bills.  There are so many skills to learn in our first home but household (especially financial) management has to be among the most important.  Laundry will pile up if no one does it, there are a limited number of coffee mugs to drink from if nobody washes them and those bills won't pay themselves after all.

Coping On A (Very) Limited Budget...

For most of our married lives together, we've been blessed to have had (just) enough money to bob along and keep our bills all paid... and I really do adore doing that laundry 😍  My sweet Hubby has been a dedicated civil servant for almost thirty years and, while no civil servant will ever boast of their salary, we've been blessed to have a regular income all these years.  Every penny has usually had two places to be, but we've always managed somehow.

I think Hubby and I might belong to the last generation who would have expected to spend the largest part, sometimes all, of their career in the same place.  Many in our age group left school, started work and stayed there till they retired with a clock.  We live in a much less static world now honeys, full of exciting possibilities and opportunities.  I'm so proud of Hubby's achievements in his career.  Civil servants like him keep the world turning for the rest of us and they all do it in spite of long hours, low salaries and a shockingly low pension without even the clock at the end now.
    

Number Crunching...

I know everything appears to be done online these days honeys but Hubby and I were married quite some time ago, before the internet was even created! Gasp! 😲 I know! 😃  To this day I prefer to write out our monthly budget on paper.  I prefer to see the figures, add them and see where every pound and penny is going to.

Hubby prefers to keep a running Excel spreadsheet on his laptop.  He's the tech person in our little family.  Jade and I are happiest in our garden or sharing hugs on the sofa.  Now don't misunderstand, I love surfing online, pouring over Pinterest (still in search of the best pasta sauce recipe) and chatting with friends on Twitter but writing this blog is as techie as I get.  If I was told tomorrow I had to write using a quill and parchment instead of a keyboard... I could live with that.  I've always written, I just used to fill notebooks 💖

Making Plans...

Once Hubby & I had made the decision to give our finances a make over, just a few years ago,  the whole process really wasn't all that difficult and after just a couple of tweaks, everything really just fell into place.   We changed our goals, and even set a couple of new ones, and it was the best thing we've ever done.

We began by sitting down and taking a close look at where our money was going every month.  This meant getting paper and a pen (I told you honeys, I'm old school 😃) and listing every single regular financial transaction, both incoming and outgoing.

Once you've gathered all of your relevant financial information, such as a list of your current, active, direct debits, other bills and expenses such as travel to work and anything else you can think of, then you can get to work on a budget.

Creating A Practical Budget That Will Last... 

A practical budget has to be one you are able to stick to.  Of course, it's important to make sure that all of your essential expenses are paid every month, but any budget that's so restrictive as to prevent you having the occasional treat, that night out at the cinema for instance, just won't last.

Even with the best intentions you won't stick to a budget if it feels like a punishment because you'll get fed up working hard and never having any fun.  So a practical budget should have some kind of  "wiggle room" to allow yourself a reward for being responsible, even if it's not every month. 

Planning That Budget And Cutting Down Waste...

So, when you have all of your figures to hand,  you can make a start on your budget and no matter how you choose to lay it out, whether on paper as I do, in an excel spreadsheet or any other method,  roughly speaking, the equation will be mostly the same.

Total income minus essentials (rent/mortgage, bills, food, travel costs to work etc) equals disposable income. 

Saving Regularly With No Effort At All

Your disposable income, the amount left over after the bills are all paid, is the amount available to plan with.  From this disposable income the first thing to do, in order to save regularly, is to pay yourself first.  

Decide on a figure you could easily save, that you won't miss each month, and then set up a direct debit that's paid straight into a savings account as soon as you're paid your salary.

It doesn't have to be a lot because over time even pennies all add up.  Like most of your other direct debits, you'll probably forget about it over time but your savings nest egg will keep growing every single month. 

Finding Savings In Your Budget

Remember I said to write down every single thing you spend money on regularly honeys?  You'll be surprised by how much of it isn't really essential and by how much you can save just by making a few changes.

That morning coffee on the way to work?  Why not invest in a thermal travel cup and make coffee at home to take with you.  Need more convincing?  You'll save maybe £2.50 each morning x 5 = £12.50 a week.  In an average four week month that's 4 x £12.50 = £50.

It's truly shocking how much these tiny, daily expenses all add up honeys and wouldn't that £50 a month be better going into a savings account?  That's £600 a year right there and all it takes is for you to make a coffee before you leave home in the morning.☕

Paying More To Save Money...

Back to Hubby and I's financial make over then.  First thing we looked at was our mortgage.  It's our biggest expense but was there anything we could do to help "future proof" our finances?  To make things easier for us in the future?  As it turns out there was.  We decided to pay more to our biggest expense each month.

Yep, you heard me, dear ones.  We decided to pay more than our agreed monthly mortgage payment after hearing how this might lead to the mortgage being paid off earlier.  A decision like this is different for everyone though honeys and should never be taken without being sure it's right for you, even seeking advice first if you think that might help. 

We contacted our bank, explained what we wanted, to clear our mortgage as quickly as possible within the limits our income would allow, found out more about over-payment and, after trying out the bank's over-payment calculator, agreed to increase our monthly payment.

Our own, new, monthly household budget was adjusted to allow for the increased payment and very quickly we got used to the difference in the amount of money we had available to spend on other things.

We made the decision to "do without" now to reap the rewards later.  As I said honeys, this is a decision we made together.  By over-paying our mortgage a little each month, we'll be clear and free of our mortgage, God willing, in less than four years, that will be around five years early.  I know that doesn't sound a lot but it'll make a huge difference to us.  It's a short term loss of spare disposable income for a huge (to us) long term gain.

Check Those Direct Debits...

With our mortgage now shrinking a little quicker each month, we then turned our attention to the rest of our outgoings.  Most of our bills, such as utilities like gas and electricity, council (property) tax etc are set up as direct debit payments and are paid automatically each month.

I previously wrote a post on the dangers of forgotten direct debits.  As useful as direct debits are though, allowing things like home insurance to auto renew each year can become such a costly business.

Why not make a note on your calendar, or in your diary, each year of the renewal dates and a month or two before they renew, shop around for better deals.  Often if you call your current provider and tell them you'll be switching to another company they'll offer a better deal to get you to stay with them.  It's only a little effort and can save quite a lot of money.

Make an effort to go through your direct debits regularly honeys, even every few months.  Are you paying for a gym membership you're not using any more?  Insurance for items you don't even have anymore?  It's possible.  How often have you bought something, like a washing machine or a laptop, and taken out the extra warranty on it and then the direct debit auto renews each year? 

Persistence, In Pursuit Of Your Goals, Pays Off...

Building a nest egg, saving for a deposit on a home, working towards a qualification that will further your career, whatever it is that you want from life, persistence will carry you across any bumps in the road.

Why not write down what you're working towards and put it somewhere you'll see it every day?  On the fridge, make a printable and stand it in a frame on your desk.  You deserve to reach your goals honeys and every little step forward will get you that little bit nearer to them. 

The Easiest Way To Save Regularly, And Maybe Even Forget You're Doing It! - Set Up A Direct Debit!  

As I mentioned quickly above, with regards to savings, Hubby and I took the view that the easiest way to build a nest egg was to set up a monthly direct debit. We have lots of direct debits paying for things like gas, electricity and other regular bills so why not treat the monthly payment into our nest egg as a commitment, just like those bills.  So, that's what we did.

Like most things in life, timing is everything.  We've always had our direct debits set up to be paid on the first of the month.  Immediately after our salaries are paid into our account, everything is paid out.  Most companies will ask, when you set up a direct debit payment schedule with them, which date you'd like to pay it on or are happy for you to change it.

By paying all of your commitments, such as rent/mortgage, utilities etc, on the first day of the month, you'll have the peace of mind in knowing that they're paid and whatever is left is your budget for the rest of the month for food and any other expenses.

By making our savings a direct debit, we're setting that money away before there's a temptation to "not bother this month" and to spend it on something else.  We're paying into a little pot of money that will give our future selves peace of mind while also giving our present selves a safety net in case of emergencies, like a major appliance needing repaired or replaced.

To Sum Up Then.... 

1. Take control of your finances by knowing exactly how much is coming in and, just as importantly, how much is going out.

2. Decide what your goals are and make a plan to get there.  Break down the journey into achievable steps.

3. Set up a direct debit into a savings account.  Treat it like any other bill or commitment, it's a payment to your future self.

4. Seek out financial advice if you need it from a qualified adviser, often available from your bank or you can find lots of advice on making a budget and managing your money from the Money Advice Service in the links below.

5. Keep an eye on direct debits.  Check back every now and again to see if you still need them or if you can save money by switching providers of services such as utilities.

6. Know where your money is going.  With household costs like food and utilities going up all the time, it's important that you get the most from your money. 


Persistence is a wonderful trait to encourage in ourselves and in children honeys.  The determination to reach your goals will carry you through difficult days when it would be so much easier to give up.

Saving towards a goal, even if it's just to have a safety net, a wee nest egg so that you don't ever have to worry about anything that might happen, will become habit.  That habit is a good one to have because I know that I certainly sleep easier now, knowing we have our little savings pot there if it's needed.

Useful Links

Mortgage Over-payments:  Should I overpay my mortgage? - this is a really useful page from Martin Lewis at Money Saving Expert. Well worth a read honeys, the whole site is a treasure chest of information. 

Financial Advice:  A great website, with lots of information on budgeting, here at the Money Advice Service, a service set up by the government.

Over to you honeys.  Do you already save?  Do you have any budgeting tips?  I have to dash to work soon so, till next time, have a great weekend dear ones, stay warm, smile lots and hug even more 💖 Hugs always x