The £1,000 emergency fund challenge.

[Deleted User] · 8 July 2017 at 7:51AM

patman99 wrote: »

CBC, it could be the throttle position sensor is playing-up. Had this on an old Focus. It would randomly cut out then restart.
Mechanic replaced both the throttle sensor and knock sensor for around the £100 mark and the issue disappeared.

Never had any cutting out, nothing to suggest there was anything amiss with the car apart from the exhaust symbol being lit up and the message 'anti pollution fault' which was obviously unrelated to any throttle sensor problem.

It's all a mystery to me, I just drive the car without a clue as to what is going on mechanically:o. All sorted now though, whatever it was that sent me into a panic, and didn't cost me an arm and a leg to get fixed:j.

mossy · 8 July 2017 at 10:47AM

That's great news carbootcrazy!!

dreamtruce · 9 July 2017 at 10:28AM

I've put in £89.76 into my emergency fund.

I was paid a lot less this month as I had 2 weeks
off work due to really bad illness and so I'm down £300+

So I'm slowly working my way back up from the bottom.
Last month I miss underestimated a lot of bills & also had £43 to pay for medication.
So I had no money left at all in any of my accounts.

foxyloxy11 · 9 July 2017 at 12:21PM

dreamtruce wrote: »

I've put in £89.76 into my emergency fund.

I was paid a lot less this month as I had 2 weeks
off work due to really bad illness and so I'm down £300+

So I'm slowly working my way back up from the bottom.
Last month I miss underestimated a lot of bills & also had £43 to pay for medication.
So I had no money left at all in any of my accounts.

Every little bit counts

patman99 · 9 July 2017 at 1:25PM

I have all my bills go out in the first 3 days of the month with the exception of a couple. I like to have £1k in the account at months end to cover this.It then takes 2 weeks for my pay to increase the level above this, so I only really tx money across on wekk 2 and 3.

Might set myself a lower month end limit in order to help build up my EF quicker.

Calling14 · 10 July 2017 at 11:17AM

Had to dip into my EF. Car repairs came to 500 pounds the other week. EF will hopefully be back up to 90 pounds on Friday. Never spent much on my car and had it for 13 years just hope it keeps going till I can save some pennies up. Quite low mileage 77k and I still love it.

Can leave my total at 120 as set up dd so the following week I will be back where I started. Just thought I would explain my absence Patman.

Thanks for running this thread.

[Deleted User] · 10 July 2017 at 2:30PM

Calling14 wrote: »

Had to dip into my EF. Car repairs came to 500 pounds the other week. EF will hopefully be back up to 90 pounds on Friday. Never spent much on my car and had it for 13 years just hope it keeps going till I can save some pennies up. Quite low mileage 77k and I still love it.

Can leave my total at 120 as set up dd so the following week I will be back where I started. Just thought I would explain my absence Patman.

Thanks for running this thread.

Sorry you had a hefty car repair bill:eek:. My car is old too (2002 registered) but I still love it too. The old ones are the best IMO. New models are so high-tech they scare me. OH is still struggling with all the tech on his brand new car, even the SatNav is a mystery to him as he never had it before. Being dyslexic he finds user manuals totally undecyperable. I can't help him much with his SatNav as I've never had it in any of my cars. I like the old-fashioned way with a map and common sense;)

Calling14 · 10 July 2017 at 2:51PM

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Sorry you had a hefty car repair bill:eek:. My car is old too (2002 registered) but I still love it too. The old ones are the best IMO. New models are so high-tech they scare me. OH is still struggling with all the tech on his brand new car, even the SatNav is a mystery to him as he never had it before. Being dyslexic he finds user manuals totally undecyperable. I can't help him much with his SatNav as I've never had it in any of my cars. I like the old-fashioned way with a map and common sense;)

Way I look at it the car has paid for itself if it gives up the ghost today. Looked at new cars however seeing my neighbour managed to dent her car with a wheelie bin, think my Ford gives a lot more protection on road. Made them tougher then.:rotfl:

datlex · 10 July 2017 at 6:24PM

After having been watching Dave Ramsey I have been reading through these posts. Some actually sadden me as they unfortunately missed the point of baby step 1. Baby step 1 is there so that you don't add to your existing debt if for example your car breaks down or the washing machine goes wrong. Under his plan you put aside an emergency fund of $1000 (£775) if you earn over $20,000, $500 is you earn less. Then you go on to tackle the debt. I was particularly saddened by the folk who were planning on paying off their credit cards and then using those as emergency funds which is completely not the idea! Now I am not anti credit cards I use them most of the time but pay IN FULL. Mr Ramsey however feels you should only use cash and have under go "plastic surgery", of course we need to keep in mind US financial systems work differently to here. Baby step 1 is meant to enable you to go on to Baby Step 2 the debt snowball. I was also saddened by those folk who got caught out by the not so unexpected event of being paid early at Christmas, which most salaried folk seem to be..... As for my own "emergency fund I have £3500.

patman99 · 12 July 2017 at 9:26PM

I can only thank 3dogs for mentioning Dave Ramsey and his methods.

Starting the EF challenge only came to light as the firm I was employed at was looking at going monthly with their pay. At the time I was just letting the wages I earned drop into my regular account.

Starting the EF enabled me to get by when things went a bit wrong.

The £1,000 emergency fund challenge.

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