Saving, and I love it!

A question about : Saving, and I love it!

Hi everyone So my current situation is, I have graduated from Uni with a Law degree, and have just started a job in a bank. I want to save as much as I can, partially because whenever I am ready to buy my own house I want to have as big a deposit as I can, rather than a giant mortgage, and because having seen first hand how my parents have been affected by illness and how they will have to work longer, I want to start saving now towards retirement. I also don't want to be working forever.

My pension situation at the moment is I contribute 5% and work contribute 13%. So I contribute Ј46 a month, I get Ј11 tax relief, and the company contribute Ј151 a month. I may increase my contributions a couple of %, I haven't decided yet.

I have Ј3192 in savings.
After tax, pension contributions, and N.I contributions, rent to my parents, phone (Ј15 a month), contact lenses (Ј15 a month) and NHS prescriptions (Ј8.66 a month), I will have Ј866 a month left. I plan on putting it all into savings, and anything extra I need (which will rarely happen, I make lunches from home, I rarely eat out as I am gluten and dairy intolerant, I don't drink and go out, I walk to work, don't drive, have plenty of clothes) will come from anything I sell such as on eBay, or from my etsy shop selling make up bags that I sew. Any money that I make from this that I don't need, will go to my savings.

The reason why my rent figure is so low is because my parents have paid off their mortgage, I went through all their finances for them and saved them loads of money switching things around, and I do a lot of the housework and care for my dad who has epilepsy.

Things I need to do
-See if it would be more cost effective if I were to get contact lenses as and when.
-Shop around for better savings accounts
-Ring up Three and find out why my bill is always more around Ј15 rather than the Ј12 it should be.

Happy saving

Best answers:

• Well just a little update! Found out it will be cheaper to get my contact lenses as and when I need them at Ј18 for 20 pairs. And I can claim some of that back on my simply health plan.
  I found out that my bills are always a couple more pound than they should be because of 08 numbers, so did a bit of research and found an app which circumvents these.
  However I have now taken on the ancestry website subscription, for a couple of months until I get a spare moment to sort it all out.
• Just another update. This week I will hit 5k when I get paid! Christmas made my bank account take a hit, so I'm learning to transfer a little each month into another savings for Christmas/birthdays.
• I adore saving! I feel confident in future when I save. But I'm ready to spend money for traveling as it is so great to discover new cultures and countries!