The £1,000 emergency fund challenge.

Debt_Free_Desires

Hello DFD, :wave:

Welcome to the EF thread and congratulations on making a start towards your EF.

Thanks for the welcome , and wow to your EF fund :j

DFD

patman99

Welcome DFD, you now have your allocatted number.

Chris, glad to here DW was un-hurt.

Eyebright, I am a member of Colchester Photographic Society & Tuesday is when they meet. This week was an inter-club competition and one of the other clubs has a former workmate of mine in it, so had a chance to catch up on things.

The idea of the emergency fund challenge is that you build a pot of money anyway you wish. If you need to raid it for an unexpected bill, then that's ok as that is exactley what it is there for.

mobo1980

Good morning - hope everyone is well

my emergency fund is now at £17.83

Mobo xx (#14)

Eyebright

Debt_Free_Desires wrote: »

I would really like to join this challenge. I, like many on here have been wanting to start an emergency fund for ages & dream of having 3 months salary saved up, but somehow end up spending my spare cash on non-emergency items and never have anything to put in.
I like the thought of being part of a group encouraging each other to get to our goal.
So to start I have today cashed in my change pot and paid it in to a new savings account. I am really pleased to say that my emergency fund currently sits at £24.88 (2.48%)
Look forward to cheering each other on :T:T:T
DFD

Welcome to our little group DFD! I'm terrible at spending my savings whenever I want a splurge, so I know how you feel. I think the group environment, and having to confess to being "naughty", holds me back from using the money for silly non-emergency things!
Off to a great start!

Patman, sounds like you had a fun evening!

Just had to google to find out what this YNAB thing was. Somehow that has passed me by! Can anyone tell me their experiences with it, is it worth it?

PAYDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got paid a random 86p, so I've chucked that into the EF :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Will sit down and work out what all my outgoings are etc tonight/sat morning, and figure out how much to put into the EF this month.

Got a mega busy day at work and this evening, so better dash. Have a lovely day all.

P.S Sorry you have to work this weekend Chris, hope it isn't too painful!

Debt_Free_Desires

patman99 wrote: »

Welcome DFD, you now have your allocatted number.

Thanks Patman99 for my number - I have now added it to my signature - its really nice to see the figure in 'black and white' I think it will help me not to spend it unecessarily now I am advertising to you guys how much is in there

Eyebright wrote: »

Welcome to our little group DFD! I'm terrible at spending my savings whenever I want a splurge, so I know how you feel. I think the group environment, and having to confess to being "naughty", holds me back from using the money for silly non-emergency things!
Off to a great start!

Thanks Eyebright. i'm hoping this group really will help me not have those silly splurges too.

It's payday here too today so I have 'Tilly Tidied' the £1.84 in to my EF so I am now at £26.72 (2.67%) :T

chrisfreelander54

Another £200 in the pot this morning :j that will be it for this month now as anymore wages that we gat paid are to be allocated to next months buget.

Total EF so far: £875.57.:T

Eyebright wrote: »

Welcome to our little group DFD! I'm terrible at spending my savings whenever I want a splurge, so I know how you feel. I think the group environment, and having to confess to being "naughty", holds me back from using the money for silly non-emergency things!
Off to a great start!

Patman, sounds like you had a fun evening!

Just had to google to find out what this YNAB thing was. Somehow that has passed me by! Can anyone tell me their experiences with it, is it worth it?

PAYDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got paid a random 86p, so I've chucked that into the EF :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Will sit down and work out what all my outgoings are etc tonight/sat morning, and figure out how much to put into the EF this month.

Got a mega busy day at work and this evening, so better dash. Have a lovely day all.

P.S Sorry you have to work this weekend Chris, hope it isn't too painful!

Eyesbright, YNAB is the best thing that has ever happened to us, before YNAB we had never had any spare cash never mind an emergency fund.

YNAB is basically a budgeting tool, which you makes you give every £ a job, this way you cant spend money you dont have as you check your available funds in your YNAB catagories using the App and no longer have to check you bank balance everyday to seee what money you have available to spend.

Give it a go as you get your 1st month free, after which you have to buy the software for about £30, which then makes YNAB yours forever, which there is nothing else to pay after that. (you will save more than this in your 1st month of use).

Alternatively when you join any webnars to see how to use the YNAB tool you are automatically put into a draw at the end of the session along with the other 15 or so people in the class to win the YNAB software for free. (you can do any of the webnars as many times as you want ).

Or if you are a stundent you can get YNAB for free untill the end of the year buy emailling a photo of your student ID, then each year you study you simply send a pic of you new ID card.

It can take a little getting used to but they have a very friendly forum where you can get loads of help and advice.

We wouldnt be with out it now as its helped us to get an emergency fund together and help clear a few of out debts awell as making us cut right back more than we already were (which i didnt think was possible).

HTH
Chris

patman99

When I got made redundant in 201 I decided that after 6 months I needed to control my in/out-goings better and had seen YNAB mentioned on MSE.

I found it brilliant. I now know where every penny is and what it is being spent on.

Eyebright

Thanks guys, will have a look at YNAB then, sounds like just the thing I need!

Well it was Payday yesterday, and although my budget hasn't *quite* been finalised yet. I've transferred out all the money for bills, debt payments and my saving pots for various things. So I've just added another £30 to my EF. Another 3% in, taking me to 15% acheived. No doubt I will round it up to £160 before the weekend is out, so I claim another 1% :rotfl:

Hoping to have money left at the end of the month, or some more money from ebay that I can add to it. I'd quite like to hit the 20% mark by the beginning of December, but this might be a bit ambitious as this month is shaping up to be blooming expensive :eek:

Hope everyone else is doing well :D:D

abundant1972

Hi there!

Thanks for running this challenge... I managed to attain this once - and it gave me such a great feeling of well being knowing that was there... I'd like to experience that again...

Sign me up please!!! I start with £50 / £1000

Eyebright

Welcome Abundant, Patman will allocate you a number when he spots this.

It much be such a great feeling knowing that there's a financial security blanket stashed away. Can't wait to know what that feels like!

Well done at being 96% of the way to DFD, nearly there! That's fantastic :j