have you got a 'cushion' of cash behind you for 'just in case'

hummingbird

Oh, I forgot about my Christmas bonus!! I've been saving up for that.... and I guess that counts, sort of, as an "Emergency"!:rotfl:

DebtFree2012

The OS boards are the way forward hummingbird - they have seriously got me out of hot water. Welcome and I agree, it will be nice to have a small savings amount.

oldtractor

I started saving a few months ago, I dont have one months wages yet,would have had more but we have been buying some big stuff like furniture and stuff at farm sales,only things we needed though. I hope to have 3 months wages stashed away in an ISA in case of emergancy. Getting there, slowly.

hummingbird

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

The OS boards are the way forward hummingbird - they have seriously got me out of hot water. Welcome and I agree, it will be nice to have a small savings amount.

Thanks debtfree2012! Very encouraging

imogen-p

Nothing at the moment. Although if the worst came to the worst there's a bit of equity in the house or should be, as even if the value has stayed flat at least the best part of seven years has been paid off the mortgage.

I would like to start building up a rainy day fund, but at the moment it's mostly going on clearing debt - although I'm putting £10 a month away just to get it started.

I'm hoping to start building it up properly from next July when the mortgage comes off fixed and goes onto variable, which should see the interest on it go from 5.79% down to 3.5%, all the money saved on that will go into the savings pot. (This is providing the interest rates don't go up - although given the present state of the economy very few people are predicting even as much a 0.5% rise by the end of end year. Until the base rate rises to more than 2.75 I'll be saving by staying on variable.)

More will go into the savings pot once the loan is paid off too, although that's a couple of years away

Looking forward to then as between lower mortage payments and no loan I'll be better off by £40 per week, so even if I don't get a pay rise for the next few years I'll be okay. (Not had one for the last 3 and below inflation ones for the 2 years before that. And we've been told we're not getting one next year either.)

Until then it's a case of getting on with it and hoping for the best.

shelley_crow

I've been out of work since DS was born so no rainy day money here either. Once I can find a job we need to do some serious saving. I want to save a deposit for a house and also have a decent rainy day fund.

Patchwork_Quilt

We have about 2-3 months' salary stashed away, which we then use to pay things off. In effect, we are borrowing from ourselves. It's down at the moment as OH insisted on a proper holiday - we have had lots of lovely family holidays in cottages and so on, but nothing for ourselves - so we went abroad for 5 days in Spring. However, this has messed the year's finances up a little!

I also keep a small stash of cash in the house. The likelihood of the whole banking sector being disabled is small but there are times, like New Year's Eve, when it's possible that local cash machines will run out. I used to have £310 (two bonuses from work!) in an envelope but we bought a laptop and it is now only £50 ish. I am working to build this up over time to £300.

Welcome to all the newbies, by the way. I think we are all having to look seriously at our finances these days and MSE is definitely the way forward.

minerva_windsong

I have a cushion of 'just in case' savings in my ISA - it started out as money to live off if I moved to London without having a job, and I've kept it going partly in case I get made redundant but also as a bit of spare money if my OH and I get married or buy a flat. It's quietened off a bit at the moment as I'm putting money aside for Christmas, but I'll start again properly in the new year.

CompBunny

Three months income behind us is our goal - for now we are saving to move. We are living with my mother at the moment (long story) but now my partner has a new job we will be moving out Jan/Feb/March time with my mother's agreement - she would much rather we moved out with plenty of money to cover first two months rent, deposit, phone line connection, TV license and enough for a cheap "new" car when our banger dies so we can still visit her lots! Instead of rushing out to be independent again but using an overdraft for a deposit and living paycheck to paycheck. We're very lucky.

We also have a pound saver jar, every time a pound coin falls out of jeans or work trousers it goes straight into a jar instead of back in pockets and onto the floor again later!

Cash wise we keep around £50 in a jar on the mantlepiece for emergencies - don't think it would go very far if the banks failed though! However, we both keep a very close eye on current affairs and I have a degree that heavily featured global economics so would hopefully be able to see the telltale signs of impending doom! By which point my money would be fairly worthless anyway :P A well tended veg patch would be more useful!

Sweet_Pea_2

I have set us a challenge of trying to save 6 months worth of OH's salary, as he is the main breadwinner, I don't earn that much as I work very part time and we could manage without my money. We are half way there at the moment. We "blew" the emergency savings a year ago on a big purchase, although would not have done this if we didn't have other savings in the bank just in case (in the form of OH's car replacement savings) We had to call on OH's car fund unexpectedly when it appeared his car was going to need some very expensive repairs, luckily there was enough in there to buy another "new to him" car and we bought a smaller one this time too, which is saving around £50 a month on petrol. Luckily by this time the "emergency" fund was refilling up again, but we still have another year to go before it reaches the 6 month salary mark, it is getting harder to save it because this year everything has gone up even further. Biggest increase has been a massive rise in water bills.
I usually draw a months worth of money at the beginning of the month and put it all in labelled envelopes in a lockable tin hidden in a safe place, so if the banks shut their doors tomorrow we'd be OK but only up until 30th of the month, then it would be panic stations!