Are many of you able to have savings??

I have a savings account that has no debits set up on it, it also has no card to withdraw money on, so if I want money out of the account I have to go into the branch, and as the branch is at the other end of town I can never be bothered to go to it and so the money I put in remains there! I too did not have much spare that I could afford to put away, but I started off with £2.00 I would put £2.00 away every single week without fail. As I got into the habit of doing it, I found ways to cut down on other things and so I was able to put more away. Once it becomes a habit to do it you find it easy to keep it up. I also put all my change away and then bank it every so often so I gain the interest from it. But if you set up an account specifically for saving then your money will not be swallowed up, I have a mini cash isa that I use, it has no minimum amount and I can draw on the money if I want plus the interest on it is very good.

I have not been able to save nearly as much as I would like - it seems like the prices of everything keeps going up, or you get hit with an unexpected expense. We had planned on putting a good chunk of our tax refund into savings, but our heater went out and we had to replace it (for $2400).

The exact reason I opened a PayPal account. I send as much money possible from what I earn on line to my paypal and just watch it grow. I tell myself that there is no way I can get my hands on it (not true, but it works for me). I do not have a fortune and probably never will, but at least I have a few dollars set aside; before I had nothing. I also save my change. I found that it grows if I do NOT deposit it into my account, if I do that I just spend it. Also I joined sites like bondrewards.com and upromise.com; I get savings bonds from one and save for my child's college education with the other. I do whatever takes the money out of my range in order to save for the future. Get creative, you'll find a good fit for the way you save best.