3-6 Month Emergency Fund Challenge!!

Dobbibill

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Sorry I haven't dropped in for months:o and I hope I'll get a chance soon to catch up on all the posts I've missed. I expect some of you will have done really well since I was here last and others may have had to cope with life's emergencies and spend their savings. Either way, as Dobbibill advises us, keep on keeping on:beer:


I had a few months earlier in the year when I was ill but I'm now 100% again and have been spending my time scrimping to increase my savings to get my debts finally paid off by the end of this year. I've made settlement offers to my creditors and am just playing the waiting game now. I'm not very patient over this and get fed up when the postman comes each day with no letters from my creditors:(. Once upon a time I was glad when they didn't write to me but now I'm upset when they don't:rotfl:


These settlements will wipe out my savings but I'll be back to rejoin you all in January building on anything I have left or starting afresh if I have to use it all.


Take care, all:beer:

Lovely to see you pop in CBC.

Sorry to hear you've not been very well but glad to hear you are much better.

Finger's crossed for a speedy repsonse from your creditors soon. Hopefully they will accept your offer so you can move on to your next chapter.

Dobbi

x_raphael_xx

£100 added to mums pot today, made it to the end of the month with a little spare.

Mums Fund £800/£1200

The_Only_Girl

Hello all, I am back after a looooong absence. I’ve been away for more than a year, I can’t even remember when I last posted.

A lot of things have happened in my life during the last year or so of my absence from the forum. I managed to reach my goal of £12,000 but life happened and this year, my family and I have been hit by a string of emergencies that drained our EF.

The last 3 emergencies were particularly bad ones and big spends 1) my car was involved in accident which lead to it ring written off (somebody parked his car 7 doors up the road, forgot to put his hand brake on and his car rolled on to mine creating a massive damage.) As my car was 10 yrs old, even though we received some money from the insurance company of the other driver, it wasn’t enough to pay for a decent car, so we had to dip into our EF savings 2) my dad was critically ill in hospital for 3 weeks in a country without a health care system like the NHS and my 3 brothers and I had to foot the bill 3) sadly my dad passed away a few weeks later which meant my family and had to take emergency flights back home and attend his funeral, which we had to pay for as well. Coming back to the UK after this sad event, the last thing on my mind was keeping a tight rein on our spending.

My husband and I have just finished doing our December budget and we are both utterly disappointed to discover that our spending was so out of control in November and everything was more than twice what we intended to spend. Take aways and eating out being the number one culprit. As a result, our emergency fund has now dwindled significantly and now currently stands at £2100 😩.

I am wide awake at 3am in the morning filled with worry that we are heading towards the slippery slope back into debt. So I decided to log back in and I hope that the friendly and supportive community of fellow DFW and EF savers will keep in the straight and narrow. So wish me luck.

Dobbibill

Hi The Only Girl - so sorry to hear about life giving you such a hard time.

Welcome back though We are always here to listen to the challenges as well as cheer on the successes.

You have been through alot but you still have an EF, albeit less than it used to be, but you have it so you are not starting from scratch. This is a positive.

You and your OH are both on board with the budget. This is another positive.

You've got support here that's for sure.

Keep on keeping on and you'll replenish that EF. You did it once so you know that it's doable and I have no doubt you'll reach that target again.

All the best.

Dobbi

The_Only_Girl

Thanks so much for the warm welcome and the encouraging support dobbi.

You’ve made me realise something very important. Yes our EF might have dwindled, but that’s what it’s there for - to cover life’s hard knocks. Without the EF, we could have ended back in the hands of creditors.

I remember when my car was written off, the car insurance sent us a brand new, all-singing-all-dancing courtesy car. Immediately I thought: these companies -the insurance, the car hire, and the car dealers - must be all in it together. It’s a psychological thing. They send us these kind of cars to lure us and to whet our appetites for luxury. But before long, driving the car for a week, the magic has worked on us: we loved the car so much, both me and my OH wanted to buy the same car. So, a few days before the courtesy car was taken back by the car hire company, we looked for a similar car in the market and found one locally. Oh how we rationalised the need for the car, you wouldn’t believe it was coming from a DFW. We said, it’s value for money, we could get a lot of life out of it for the entire time we intend to have it, we will not change cars until it dies which is probably by the time we retire, etc etc etc. We couldn’t get a slot for the test drive that day, so we slept on it. The next morning, when OH and I woke up, we looked at each other and said Nah! We’re not buying that car, we’re sticking to our budget! We just couldn’t stand the thought of being in debt again. No to car loans! We settled on the same make, model, and slightly newer model of our old car, even though it has cost us slightly more than the insurance payout and dip into the EF.

My family and friends couldn’t understand our lifestyle. We were highly criticised and misjudged. They thought we were “depriving ourselves.” They said life is for the living, you only live once, you deserve a treat working hard as we do, etc etc. When my dad died and we had to buy plane tickets to go back home abroad, one of my brothers had to beg and borrow and leave two of his children. So sad.

We were proven right though when we got those string of big emergencies and my OH and I managed them with less stress than my siblings who didn’t have any EF.

Now that I’m back on board, I’m looking forward to being part of this lovely and helpful community of EF savers. Could somebody please amend my target and my current amount. Thanks so much.

[Deleted User]

The_Only_Girl wrote: »

Thanks so much for the warm welcome and the encouraging support dobbi.

You’ve made me realise something very important. Yes our EF might have dwindled, but that’s what it’s there for - to cover life’s hard knocks. Without the EF, we could have ended back in the hands of creditors.

I remember when my car was written off, the car insurance sent us a brand new, all-singing-all-dancing courtesy car. Immediately I thought: these companies -the insurance, the car hire, and the car dealers - must be all in it together. It’s a psychological thing. They send us these kind of cars to lure us and to whet our appetites for luxury. But before long, driving the car for a week, the magic has worked on us: we loved the car so much, both me and my OH wanted to buy the same car. So, a few days before the courtesy car was taken back by the car hire company, we looked for a similar car in the market and found one locally. Oh how we rationalised the need for the car, you wouldn’t believe it was coming from a DFW. We said, it’s value for money, we could get a lot of life out of it for the entire time we intend to have it, we will not change cars until it dies which is probably by the time we retire, etc etc etc. We couldn’t get a slot for the test drive that day, so we slept on it. The next morning, when OH and I woke up, we looked at each other and said Nah! We’re not buying that car, we’re sticking to our budget! We just couldn’t stand the thought of being in debt again. No to car loans! We settled on the same make, model, and slightly newer model of our old car, even though it has cost us slightly more than the insurance payout and dip into the EF.

My family and friends couldn’t understand our lifestyle. We were highly criticised and misjudged. They thought we were “depriving ourselves.” They said life is for the living, you only live once, you deserve a treat working hard as we do, etc etc. When my dad died and we had to buy plane tickets to go back home abroad, one of my brothers had to beg and borrow and leave two of his children. So sad.

We were proven right though when we got those string of big emergencies and my OH and I managed them with less stress than my siblings who didn’t have any EF.

Now that I’m back on board, I’m looking forward to being part of this lovely and helpful community of EF savers. Could somebody please amend my target and my current amount. Thanks so much.

What a lovely upbeat post:T. My heart went out to you when you posted before about all the horrible things that life had thrown at you recently. It's lovely to see that you are getting yourselves back on track and building on the valuable lessons you've taken onboard regarding debt:beer:


I've been in debt for so much of my life:o and I'm already retired:eek:. I'm hoping at long last I've learned my lesson and think I have because being on a DMP with absolutely no access to credit really does concentrate the mind at every single purchase decision. I've even come to enjoy the budgeting and, like your experience with the new car, I've learned what I really need and not just want. The only way to buy anything is with money I actually have and that's why these EF challenges are brilliant:j. I've had a few emergencies since I first joined and was so happy that I had a savings cushion to cover them. I never had a EF before in my whole life, or anything much by way of savings either. My best friends were made of plastic:eek:. I was very much like a yo-yo dieter, spending my whole life gaining and losing but never maintaining what I'd worked so hard to achieve. It was all very well when I was earning a good salary, I knew I could repay what I owed (eventually) but being on pensions means my income is far less and becoming debt free this time has been a real slog which I don't intend to go through ever again.


I wish you and your OH the very best of success:beer: and will probably see you around in 2019 when I'll be more of a regular on here as I try to rebuild my EF. I've had to put my EF on hold as the final push to clear my remaining debt has taken over my life a bit. The nearer I get to that light at the end of the debt tunnel the more obsessed I've become to reach it:o

The_Only_Girl

Thanks so much for the encouragement carbootcrazy.

x_raphael_xx

£50 added to mums pot today, and the monthly DD also came out.
So that leaves...


Mums Fund £850/£1100, just £250 to go!

lindez

Morning all
#100 currently emergency fund stands at £560/6000.00
welcome back the only girl x

x_raphael_xx

x_raphael_xx wrote: »

just £250 to go!

Everyone got given a cash bonus in work today. £150!! I paid it straight into my bank on the way home and transfered it to mums pot.
If I don't spend anything between now and Friday (payday), I will have the remaining £100 when my wages hit.


Mum will be paid off on Friday! :T