Recruit and encourage others to save money from each pay check to provide for recurring expenses such as Christmas, Insurance, Retirement ETC.

I intend to keep on saving long into the future.

As we’re doing a fairly large house renovation, I’ve been looking into joining cashback sites such as Quidco and Topcashback (sorry – I just can’t get the links to work) to get a little bit extra off the price of blinds/curtains/cookware etc. I’m not planning to use them indiscriminately, but if I can get a real bargain then I will certainly make a transaction via these portals, rather than going direct. Apparently, it takes 2 months for the savings to come through and I’m planning to let this build up to create a nice little pot.

I find that the best way to save is to set up direct debits as soon after payday as possible. Recently, after thinking about this particular goal, I have decided to channel £50 per month into an account specifically towards birthday & Christmas presents/doctors/dentists/vets bills. It will be interesting to see how far this amount goes over the year.

Before even starting out on a quest to save money, I think it’s vital to create a certain attitude towards spending and saving. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had to self-teach myself about my finances. Luckily I started to take an interest in them when I was quite young and therefore paid off my debt early. I’m not perfect, but I’m mindful and always trying to weigh up how much I REALLY need to spend and save in order to achieve balance. It still astounds me when people moan about lack of cash and then go out and blow massive amounts of cash on new cars, weekly clothing shops and multiple holidays without considering the wider perspective. Saying that, it’s also important to continue to enjoy life without becoming a complete tightarse too!

To self-educate, I read money columns and forums every week. My faves are www.moneysavingexpert.com (UK-based) and www.motleyfool.co.uk. I also dip into various books and check out the newspapers.

Thanks for the invitation to this goal. I’ve been doing this in an ad hoc way for years now and my finances are fairly organised. However, I would like to structure my money even further so I’m using this goal to review and revise my fiscals.