Living life, loving life.......hypno's having a ball!

MrsMoo2U

Cheery, I seem to remember Alvin Hall suggesting that a safety net should be equivalent to 3 months wages (allows time to get back into work etc whilst still being able to live) but I guess it is whatever the individual finds comfortable.

hypno06

I'm looking to have 3 months equivalent to the basic mortgage/bills/essential outgoings by the end of the year, which would hopefully see me through any job changes if such a thing is ever thrust upon me.

Ideally, I would like to build this up to 6 months - that isn't 6 months of salary equivalent, but 6 months of "survival budget"....but that is going to take a little time.

I currently pay £250 a month into a regular savings account. With my house being a new build, there is little expectation of having to spend on major repairs/new kitchen etc there. But my car is almost 10 years old, and as I have found this year is costing me more each year.....and so I do also need to be able to fall back on these savings for things like that too.

However, whatever the "aim" is, the main thing is that I am saving *something* - and am still reducing the amount I owe the building society, and still having a life with me and the kids. That's good enough for me at the moment

short_bird

cherisong wrote: »

Cheery, I seem to remember Alvin Hall suggesting that a safety net should be equivalent to 3 months wages (allows time to get back into work etc whilst still being able to live) but I guess it is whatever the individual finds comfortable.

Morning! Hope all are well.

I think a lot of financial people - especially in the U.S. - have revised the 3 months savings to 6 months or more:eek: in light of the US job market being in A Bit Of A State. (And, not only would you lose your job over there, you'd also lose health insurance which, at the moment, isn't something we have to think about here in the UK.)

I can see how 6 months savings might be a really scary figure if you aren't :money: about life. And, as Hypno said, it's survival budget.

hypno06

Doing my "survival budget" was one of the exercises I did via memory girl's thread last year - it was definitely a good one to do because, done properly, it really does make you think about what you NEED, truly, to get through each month. That can be quite a different figure from the SOAs that we have prepared in years gone by, for various reasons, and is definitely an exercise to be repeated periodically!

Today I am having a slow morning, reading and mooching, before heading down to Wembley to see Take That....have been looking forward to it for ages so can't wait to be there - everyone who has already been says it is a fantastic show

I have received final confirmation of my sponsorship totals from the Marathon too - £1478, which is an amazing total given the difficult times we are in, so thank you to everyone on MSE who gave a few £££ :T

Have a good weekend, everyone x

MatyMoo

Wish I was going to see Take That, but I did get to see them on their last tour (without Robbie) and I did get to see Paul Simon last night Thank you iTunes :T

The discussion about a safety net is interesting. I read recently that it takes an average of 5 months to find a new job, so a 6 month pot may now be prudent :eek: OK, you can cut down to essential spending only but for most of us the mortgage/heat/light/power/council tax/food probably take quite a high percentage of our income already so it can be flippin hard to save.

When my sister was made redundant a couple of years ago and found out how much she was entitled to on Jobseekers she said "that won't keep me in beer and fags a week" :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

thanks folks I'm figuring my £10,000 patchwork life fund will keep me for an entire year if I don't get a new job after this one, so I reckon I'll be alright :T And I reckon £1200 is enough to pay half of whatever falls apart in the house (although perhaps not if everything falls apart at once! :eek: :eek:) so I'm going to muddle along as best I can

hypno06

morning all.....I hope you had a good weekend and that the sun shone for you x

Take That were amazing - put on a great show, as expected, and it was just a lovely way of spending a day with DD and two of my best friends. We didn't get home until gone 3am, though, so yesterday was spent reading, watching the tennis, and generally doing very little.

Moneywise, the trip wasn't too bad - we didn't spend much while we were out, and the cost of tickets and travel etc was accounted for long ago, so that was good. DS was skiing yesterday but I got him a lift there, so my contribution to petrol was less than the cost would have been if I had done the journey myself.

Also, I didn't go out on Friday night, having a quiet one instead, so no cost involved there.

So, all in all, a good weekend.....and ready for the week ahead. I will sit down with my budgets again for the rest of the month shortly and make sure that I am, indeed, on track but I can't see any real reason why I shouldn't be. Mustn't get complacent though!

lucielle

Sounds ace H. What else have you coming up?
L

hypno06

In a couple of weeks I am off with the girls to see Westlife :rotfl: One of those things that will be full of cheese but rather a giggle I expect!

Other than that, not too much planned....still a couple of ski race weekends to do, and also am aware that my holiday is coming up next month and I need to put some spending money in the pot, and need to shop for holiday clothes at some point too!

millionaire_in_training

I'm going to see Westlife too on 23rd . I love their concerts. As you say pure cheese but a very enjoyable evening. We got our tickets for £15.50 :eek: so we were well chuffed.