The Ups and Downs of my Emergency Fund

42 Posts

After many years of being in debt, from my early twenties to my early fifties I (well we) managed to get out of debt, including paying off our Mortgage. But I still can't manage to get a decent Emergency Fund under our belt. Each times we get a half reasonable sum ie. £500 some expense comes along and we are back down to zero again. We live on quite a low income, DH is retired and I work part time and we still have a dependent teenager at home, so we try to save £80 to £100 per month for emergencies, along with other little savings pots for holidays, birthdays, Christmas etc. Anyway after a leak in our roof in March, our Emergency Fund was back down to zero, payday in April topped it back up to £100 and then our tv aerial decided to depart ways with our chimney and today the £100 and a little bit more is gone again. On top of that the aerial man said our chimney wasn't in a good state of repair (something my DH had already noticed) and our roofer has quoted £300 to take it down into the roof and replace the roof area (its unused) so now we need to save all over again, knowing in a couple of months it will all disappear again.
I know every home owner has the same problems but its do disheartening when its two steps forward and three steps back.
My only other debt is on a 0% credit card of around £400 which I have been paying £100 pm off and the annoying thing is without looking at my bank account I don't really know where that money has been spent.
So its time to be more stricter with our spending and put away as much money as we can for the next couple of months to pay off the card, pay for the removal of the chimney stack and build up an reasonable emergency fund, alongside saving for birthdays, Christmas and our contribution to my daughter's wedding next year. Think I have been robbing Peter to save Paul too many times and its backfiring on us now. Its a good job we have no holidays booked for this year (we have had three short breaks cancelled due to Covid up to now and have given up thinking about holidays for this year - just having some good days out - the cheaper the better)
So now I have a diary in place I should feel more accountable for our spending and saving.
Onwards and upwards !!
I know every home owner has the same problems but its do disheartening when its two steps forward and three steps back.
My only other debt is on a 0% credit card of around £400 which I have been paying £100 pm off and the annoying thing is without looking at my bank account I don't really know where that money has been spent.
So its time to be more stricter with our spending and put away as much money as we can for the next couple of months to pay off the card, pay for the removal of the chimney stack and build up an reasonable emergency fund, alongside saving for birthdays, Christmas and our contribution to my daughter's wedding next year. Think I have been robbing Peter to save Paul too many times and its backfiring on us now. Its a good job we have no holidays booked for this year (we have had three short breaks cancelled due to Covid up to now and have given up thinking about holidays for this year - just having some good days out - the cheaper the better)
So now I have a diary in place I should feel more accountable for our spending and saving.
Onwards and upwards !!
4
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2022: ongoing
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🌊 A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor 🌊
2023 challenges - (1) £8k savings challenge = £2k (2) 2 stone 3lb weight reduction = 12lb
My WW and friends diary is here 😁 …
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6259606/must-try-harder/p1
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Debt-Busting Progress: 2020: £13,200 | 2020: £9,200 | 2021: £4,900
2022: ongoing