Rainy Day Fund???

Avogirly

FireWyrm wrote: »

It does and before you know it, you'll have school uniforms, clothes and the neverending round of shoes to pay for. Best to start now :rotfl:

As for washables, I use them and dont even have disposables in the house. I use totsbots and PUL wraps which you can pick up on Ebay for not much. In fact, if you wanted to buy a complete set of Bamboo tots bots size one, I have a bunch to sell if you PM me. We can agree terms.

Crikey! Best I add a few £00's to my baby budget!

I'll have a look into the nappies and let you know. It's a minefield, there are so many to choose from and I am still trying to work out how they actually work!

FireWyrm

Avogirly wrote: »

Crikey! Best I add a few £00's to my baby budget!

I'll have a look into the nappies and let you know. It's a minefield, there are so many to choose from and I am still trying to work out how they actually work!

I've put three children through them...I think I have some small experience to qualify me to offer an opinion. And yes, they do work. Much better than disposables in my opinion and all three have been a breeze to toilet train since they already know when they are wet.

Bamboo if you can get them, Tots Bots are a must. Applix if you have to, but I have always preferred the old nippa-nappa types. PUL wraps are a requirement and dont even bother with the newest versions that are 'all-in-one', the absorbancy is rubbish. You want good old fashioned nappies of the type that you see on the cartoon babies minus the huge nappy pin. You'll need a bucket too while you are about it. Get yourself about a meter of fleece material and cut it into rectangles for nappy liners (nothing sticks to that stuff) and wash those too. Dont bother with paper liners unless they too are soft bamboo.

Toomuchdebt

I used washables for 4 of my kids full time and 2 part time. I'm only in disps now as my youngest only wears one at night and always always poos in it so it's not practical to save up all those nappies through 2 weeks to have enough to wash.I loved them-had all kinds of different ones ranging from terry squares to all singing all dancing patterned dispoable shape ones And they were all awesome

hohum

I would like to have money for a rainy day, and have just started using YNAB too.

At the moment we have a challenging month ahead, so I'm sticking with putting a tenner in and keeping the debt repayments in place (I am talking covering the interest and little more than a fiver actual repayment).

I'm not sure about cutting back on debt repayments to secure a fund, but often if you have debts you are in a very fragile position. One upset and can be really damaging. For example, our car needs repairs but we haven't the money to do it (can't even put money towards it in the budget this month). If one of us had to stop work we'd be screwed. If one of our suppliers went under we'd be screwed, etc.

On the other hand, the more we pay to debt, the less interest we pay, the more our monthly commitments reduce. So I am hedging my bets at the moment!

Avogirly

Its a tricky one isn't it Hohum...... Really interesting to read others views on it too.

yorpington

DH and I are Dave Ramsey converts, and his first step is to put together an emergency fund. For some reason we thought we'd keep a clear credit card for that instead. Why we thought we knew better than DR I don't know.

Cue a year in which we had to move, switch jobs, fund expensive dental surgery, find money for unexpected vets bills.....yeah, we need an emergency fund!!

We made a Herculean effort to cashflow the vet bills, and when the insurance money comes back we're going to put it straight in an emergency fund, along with monthly contributions. We're aiming for £1000, but £500 to start with as we don't want to derail our debt snowball too much.

MrsGSR

Avogirly wrote: »

Thanks FireWyrm. I have picked up a few bits as I've been going through my pregnancy and I am actually planning on using reusable nappies when at home and then disposables when out and about and also for night. Plus I have got a baby budget, putting a little aside for the baby each month. I've been reading up about having a baby on a budget and what little we are actually going to need at the start. I just wasn't sure whether your mindset changes once you become responsible for another.

I used reusable nappies with both my children, and they saved me a fortune! A friend of mine bought a few a month so ended up with quite a stash once her LO came. Also recommend washable wipes, they are brilliant!
Second time round I bought barely anything for my DS apart from a sling, most things were preloved or given to me.

Giraffeseeker

I am in month 3 of ynab. I am building rainy day funds and after month 2 I cleared my od and my only working non-dmp credit card so I have them as back up. I am making my DMP payments as usual and aiming for a £500 EF but meantime I am reassured that I have £900 of available credit for dire emergencies. After the £500 EF is in place I am saving for F&F's.

MrsBi

Maybe it's worth having money for a rainy day because if something might happen (like being made redundant, car breaking down etc) you might be tempted to use a credit card or mini loan to cover for it.
As a family of 2, one of our financial goals is to save 3 to 6 months of income at the same time we continue to pay off our student loan. At the moment we have two months income into our savings and around £400 towards an upcoming move.

FireWyrm

MrsBi wrote: »

Maybe it's worth having money for a rainy day because if something might happen (like being made redundant, car breaking down etc) you might be tempted to use a credit card or mini loan to cover for it.

If you have planned your budget properly (with YNAB, this almost happens without you thinking about it), you should quickly get to the point where you have the following :

1) one month of bills ahead
2) all annual bills saved and accounted for
3) at least one month of dry goods and cans in the house. It isnt pretty or glamorous to live off tinned veg and rice, but it'll fill a hole until you can get yourself out of yours.

Short of a disastrous situation which is almost impossible to account for ahead of time, there are few emergencies that require more than that to get through. No one should need a credit card, that is what logistics and planning are for.