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“I have a letter mum” T proudly held a white envelope up to us. And she was right, it was addressed to her. It was a summary of her ISA savings Account which we started when she was barely a month old.
“How much have I saved?” She excitedly asked. Note the “I” and not the “we” as if it was her who deposited monthly in her account. Ah bless.
We read the Amount to her. She gasped. “I’m rich!” Till we explained that this account was for her University fees. My husband and I both actually sighed, with this rate, we’ll be nowhere near the £37,000+ it takes for a degree here in the UK according to this article. To think, that’s only the cost of the Uni fees, they haven’t even included accommodation, food and clothing allowance. Good grief. And of course, by the time she’s old enough to go, it will probably be double that amount. Thank goodness T is only six, we still have time. Do we really have time though to scrape and save enough to ensure that our daughter can go to Uni without a massive student debt to burden her? And how are we doing this?
Scrape and Save
By scraping and saving of course. I’m lucky I’m married to someone who is ever so careful with our finances. We both are. We actually have an emergency fund we can dip into goodness knows, something unforeseen happens (knocks on wood, hopefully that will never happen). It may not be a huge amount, but at least we have something to cushion us even for just a bit.
Have No Credit
My husband and I don’t own credit cards, no loans, no mortgage to think about. Whatever we need goes out of our current account. I don’t judge anyone and perfectly understand how for some people credit cards are a safety net just in case the numbers don’t add up at the end of the month. And I know it can easily happen to anyone.
Buy only What You Need
Thank goodness my husband and I are both simply folks. We don’t buy expensive stuff. I don’t own signature brands and shun away from most things expensive. If I see something I like, I wait till it goes on sale and if I find the price reasonable enough, that’s the only time I buy it. We do like to splurge on each other during special occasions mostly on books though, especially Folio books. As for other necessities, I usually wait for the sales before buying anything.
Small Joys and Simple Pleasures
Lastly, my husband and I are both homebodies. We like the simple pleasures in life like a good home-cooked meal instead of eating out or watching movies at home instead of going to the cinema. We both like to potter around in the house during the weekends. We’re members of the National Trust and English Heritage which means, we don’t spend much most of our days out especially if we bring a picnic with us.
All these may just be little things, but when added up together can amount to something and surely we’re doing the right thing right?
What about you?
Do you also prepare for the future?
