The £1,000 emergency fund challenge.

[Deleted User]

Thanks very much for the welcome, patman:T

Yes, I'm with StepChange, thanks to a lovely poster on one of the DFW threads PMing me and telling me of her experiences with them. I'd buried my head in the sand for so long and had never heard of StepChange or DMPs up to that point:o.

As you'll see from my signature I had/still have a massive amount of debt and being of 'mature' years just don't want to feel I'm still struggling with it when I may be infirm and unable to earn/make a bit extra money from various things. I'd rather struggle now rather than donkey's years down the line. As it is, paying my 7 debtors a total of £732 every month, I won't be debt-free until September 2019.

I spoke to StepChange a couple of months ago when I did my annual review (decided to do it over the phone rather than online) and the advisor told me I shouldn't be struggling on a DMP, it's designed to make things easier and asked me if I wanted to tweak my budget. I decided not to at that point but will if things become impossible.

I joined the Make £10 extra a day Challenge in October (only committing to £5 a day to start but was surprised that I surpassed it). This month I'm going for £7 a day and might just manage it. This extra makes up the shortfall between my DMP payments and what I actually need. If I keep on like this I won't need to cut my repayments.

I've joined your challenge because I'd l like to build up a small emergency fund, mainly because my car is pretty ancient and who knows what might go wrong? This is a very rural area with no public transport or shops for miles so a car is an absolute necessity not a luxury. Not sure how quickly I can afford to put anything aside for it but will do my utmost.

[Deleted User]

Eurghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I so wish I had an emergency fund sitting already because my car broke yesterday & the only thing I could do was add it onto the credit card.

One day these things will be all paid for before they happen.

Dxxx

Debt_Free_Desires

Hi all
Been AWOL from the boards for a few days & hadn't been able to add anything to the EF, but its pay day tomorrow so I have moved over the money left from my November budgets

Happy to say my EF now sits at £76.38 (7.63%)

Simply_Saving

Hi

Can I join too please?

I won't be able to join until I get paid at the end of December but I'm reading the post with great interest. I'm a single mum and I work part time managing a local charity but due to funding it's not the most stable of jobs.

I have absolutely no savings and it scares me to death. In theory I should have money to spare but each month something comes up although I don't live lavishly at all. It basically comes down to bad planning and not so great budgeting. I'm fine budgeting for bills and food etc but not for the little extras that soon add up. I've worked out a new budget for the end of December and I should be able to put away approximately £150 into savings so I should be able to get my emergency fund in approximately 7 months. I've already opened a separate savings account for this not linked to my current accounts. I should also have about another £100 to allocate towards other pots - summer childcare, Christmas/birthdays and car repairs. Hopefully this method will work.

I look forward to joining you all

N x

Dobbibill

Hi,

Could I join this challenge too please?

This is a goal I have set myself and am currently putting £40 a month in it but this is going to take some time, I like the idea that there is no time limit on this challenge so would love to be a part of it.
I am so focused now and have a nice pot growing for a new car but that's not my EF as I am saving this on my own.(me & OH have a car each which is vital for work but my car is my responsibility) My EF is separate to this and something I do with OH.

good luck to everyone on the challenge too :T

DB

stiltoncheese

Welcome to all the new joiners :wave:

Oh Dolly, what a nightmare. That's pretty much why I joined this challenge...although the car didn't break in my case, it suddenly dawned on me that if it did, I had no way to fund fixing it. Never really had an emergency fund before, but I did save £1000 to cover my last maternity leave so guess that was the same thing really. Most of that got spent on the baby-bits we needed as DS got bigger though and covered the shortfall some months once my SMP had kicked in.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. We woke up to the first frost this morning. Looks lovely outside but making me want to stay in and snuggle up in the warm all day!

[Deleted User]

stiltoncheese wrote: »

Welcome to all the new joiners :wave:

We woke up to the first frost this morning. Looks lovely outside but making me want to stay in and snuggle up in the warm all day!

Thanks everyone for the welcome (to me and all the other newbies). So glad I joined this challenge now:j

Pretty sharp frost here too, stiltoncheese, but OH is so stingy with the heating that it isn't much colder outside than it is in:eek:. Enjoy your snuggle.

Muser1

#30 120.14/1000

[Deleted User]

There was I, so chuffed at having found this challenge and really fired-up to build up an emergency fund (which as yet has nothing in it:o ).

Suddenly I have desperate need of it because an hour ago, through nobody's fault but mine, I turned too sharply and scraped the back nearside against a metal fencepost:mad:. The 'crunch' was horrendous, luckily there was no one else around. There's nothing majorly wrong just paintwork damage and scrapes and a dented rear door. It's perfectly driveable but looks a wreck and whilst I don't care about my cars being 'pretty' and am perfectly happy to drive around in a 12 year old car it needs to be attended to before it rusts. the scratches are down to bare metal.

And I haven't a clue where I'm going to find the money:eek:.

MessyBetty

Deleted_User wrote: »

Eurghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I so wish I had an emergency fund sitting already because my car broke yesterday & the only thing I could do was add it onto the credit card.

One day these things will be all paid for before they happen.

Dxxx

Hi and welcome to all newcomers (although very new myself)

I know just how you feel Dolly Rocker and carbootcrazy this happend to me recently and it is so frustrating to add to the cc but needs must when I rely on my car for work as most people do.

I hope one day to not only be debt free, have a healthy EF but to replace my car. It's uphill some day's but there will ba a day when we all meet at the top as we all share the same goal, I can imagine the role of honour and my name amongst others up there x