‘I saved up enough money to go to Madrid for the Champions League final’

Everyone manages their money differently. And we come across so many useful tips, smart hacks and inspiring stories from people in our community about how you handle your money and work towards your goals.

So we’ve asked you to tell us how you use Monzo, to help us learn from each other 💛

This week, 30-year-old Liverpool fan Emini explains how rounding up transactions and saving the spare change helped him save enough for his trip to Madrid.

I’ve worked for the NHS as a clinical officer for the past three or four years.

I live in Liverpool with my girlfriend Amanda and our daughter who’s two and a half. I think Liverpool is the best place on earth, for sure.

I’m going over to Madrid to see Liverpool play Tottenham in the Champions League final. I’m a huge fan. This game is just enormous for both teams. There’ll be thousands of us going from Liverpool and London, so it’ll be a big occasion. I can’t wait.

I always had problems trying to save properly. But then I heard about Monzo and had another go.

It’s using Monzo with IFTTT that’s really turned up my savings properly. I started doing it in February this year, and the difference it’s made has been remarkable. I like how it’s about making daily savings. Even if you’re spending money every day, you’re still saving it as well.

The first applet I have saves £1.50 every day, so it’s a routine. It transfers the money from my Monzo account into a locked Pot every day at 8 o’clock.

I’ve got another one that saves £1 on a Monday, £2 on a Tuesday, £3 on a Wednesday and so on, until Sunday.

Then the last one I use runs on a Monday and transfers money based on whatever week of the year it is. This week is the 24th week of 2019, so it saves £24. By December, it’ll be taking out £48 one week, £49 the next week, and £50 the week after. Although that’s around Christmas and my daughter’s birthday, so I might have to turn it off then!

I also use the round-ups feature to round up my purchases to the nearest pound. It puts the spare change in a Pot.

Along with the odd transfer of cash from my main account to my Pot, I’ve saved about £260 so far. I’m going to use it in Madrid at the end of this month. It’s all come together handily.

If Liverpool hadn’t qualified then I would have saved the money. But I feel like it’s a good enough reason to use it all! I’ll just start again after the final.

The goal is to save enough for a deposit on a property. When we found out about our daughter we were living apart, so we quickly moved in together and started to rent. We’ve done that for almost three years.

The aim is to get a mortgage by August 2020. We plan to move home next month and save, save, save. We worked out that if we save what we spend on rent, bills, food, wifi, Sky etc. over 14 months, we should have about £18,000. We worked out that we’ve spent that much just in rent over the past three years, it’s ridiculous. But to be fair, that’s just life isn’t it.

To be honest my girlfriend’s parents aren’t in a position to help financially, but they're helping in other ways.

I’ve got African parents who were born and raised in the African culture where you're taught to fend for yourself and be diligent with money. That's how I was raised - even though I may have strayed on the diligent with money side! So I wouldn’t even ask them! If I did, I can guess the answer anyway.

She's made up. She’s very family oriented so having our daughter around will be great for her. Her other grandkids live very close. Also it’s her way of helping us out financially as we’re moving in rent free. She’s very keen on me as well, she’s like my second mum so it’s all good. Oh, and we can help mind her dog Lola when she's in work.

Do you use Monzo with your housemates to avoid arguments? Or maybe you have a strategy for saving you think everyone needs to know about?

Email [email protected] to tell us how you use Monzo! We’ll pay you £25 if we interview you 😃