Thought for the Weekend...Savings.

Money- how do you save yours?

With so many gorgeous things to buy in the shops right now, saving money is probably the last thing on your mind (most of the time I know this is true for me) but for those of you who are good and save, how do you do it?

Personally, I’ve tried several methods…

- A money box in my room (gets raided for spare change frequently)

- Saving coppers and changing them at the bank when I have a substantial amount (works, but it is SLOW)

- Savings accounts (which frequently get raided because I just have to have something)

- A separate purse where I put cash on pay day, saving for my next trip in to town…(works well, as I do tend to forget it’s there until next pay day)

I remember opening my first bank account as a child, back in the day where you could open an account with 50p and were sent merrily on your way with a plastic case full of colouring pens and other related paraphernalia. And the excitement, as a prospective student of the freebies on offer when you opened a student account; I never did become a uni student and those offers seem to have long since vanished!

If you do have a savings account, what kind have you found to be the best? Really, mine is just a standard bank account complete with debit card. I take out the cash I need for the month on payday and try not to spend on my card unless I really want something, but recently I’ve gone shopping mad and the plastic is coming out a bit too often for my liking!

Also, are you a budgeter? I confess to OCD, especially around money and budgets and look in my desk drawer you’ll see page after page of budget related scribbling and a proper little book full of incomings via outgoings.

I guess this has been my secret to success. I don’t believe in spending what I don’t have and although it seems like I shop a lot, it is all within what I can afford and I go through phases where I don’t buy anything at all. I’m guilty of saying “I’m broke” or “I want it but can’t afford it”…because say it often enough and I start to believe it!

I’d love your feedback on your attitude to money, and how you save, if you do at all.

Or, in this economic climate do you see it pointless to save with so little return?