Saving for a new house

The one thing that’s rubbish about being an actual proper grown-up is having to save, and not just spend all your money on pretty things or holidays! To be honest, it’s the one thing we’ve never been that great at. For one, we’ve never had much spare cash to save and what little we did have always went on a rare treat. The past few years we have finally gotten a little better at managing our cash, budgeting and *gasp* saving for things!

It’s handy to have some savings behind you, for emergencies {like washing machines suddenly breaking} or even just being able to go away for a weekend. Now we’ve grown to a family of six we’ve outgrown our house and are looking to move. While we’ll be sticking with renting for now, and saving for that, in the long term we’d like to save for a deposit on a house of our own.

We’ve been tightening our belts this year, putting every spare penny asides ready for moving house {soon I hope!}

Here are our top tips for saving:

1. Use online banking – Being able to check our bank accounts on the computer means I can keep a close eye on our income and outgoings. I have a couple of saving accounts linked to my current account to make it easy to put money aside for certain things. I have one account that is for Christmas Savings, another ‘rainy day’ fund and one that is for Rent and Bills. There are even apps for your smartphone so you can check your balance on the move.

2. Set a goal – If you know exactly how much you need to save, it’s easier to save… Use a savings calculator to help you work out how much you need to save each month.

3 Consider investing – If you’re looking for longer term savings, something to give you a safety net or to use for a business investment, investing your money is a great idea and not only for the super rich. A platform such as Nutmeg can help build a personal portfolio based on your requirements. You can open a Nutmeg ISA or personal pension and set up as many funds as you like, perhaps to invest for the childrens future or to save towards a deposit on a house.

This video explains how it works far better than I can ;)

4. Budget! Once you know how much you need to save, use a budgeting planner to help you figure out how much you can afford to save each month.

Are you a saver or a spender? Do you have a savings safety net behind you?