In a previous post I shared how Hubby and I have a long term emergency fund and a short term emergency fund, so far, using the same account.
Our account are separate on paper, so we can keep track of the cash and were we want it to go. We’ve also got a written list of items that aren’t part of our monthly expenses, but we need to save for each month:
Presents: Christmas, Birthdays etc. These type of items come up almost every month. My toddler gets invited to a birthday party – a grandchild has a birthday – it seems almost every month I’m out buying a present for a friend or family member. We put quite a bit aside each month for presents. We have lots of people to buy for, and we like to have enough extra cash so I don’t have to scrimp too much. Most of the money will go towards Christmas. This year, we didn’t start saving in time, so our budget is pretty small, but I found a way to get a personal need met, have some fun, and save money!
I’m making some of our presents, and any classes I take, (crochet, painting etc) comes out of this fund! I can use the knowledge towards making the presents and I convinced Hubby that the supplies must come from this fund as well. Sneaky huh!
Vacation and family visits – a quarterly expense. Since my family lives all around the country, and part time in France, (ahhh), I watch the airfares carefully.
(Back in my previous life, before budgeting, I used my credit card for everything so I could earn lots of miles. But guess what? I have noticed that I am saving a lot more by not using the credit card, and I can afford the ticket. When I used to spend spend spend, and then redeem a $300.00 ticket, I’d feed proud. Now I’m saving more than the $300.00 by watching where my pennies go!)
So, every month cash goes in to the travel fund so I can visit my family. And that includes a yearly trip to France!
A car for Hubby – He hopes his car will last about another four years. I kinda doubt it. It’s ten years old now, and has lots of miles, but we’ll stay hopeful. In the meantime, we’ve started saving. We won’t be buying a new car, but will take our time to shop carefully and find something a year or two old in great shape. As you can imagine, putting cash aside each month for a ‘new’ car and then paying cash will be very satisfying!
No more car payments here we come.
Television – Ours crackles and hisses when we turn it on. The TV takes about fifteen minutes to warm up each day, but then seems to work just fine. We’re holding off buying one until we absolutely have to. (Did you read my blog post about putting the TV in our allowed list of items to tap into our emergency fund for? We still hope not to have to do that, we’d like to take our time to buy one, not run out the same day to replace our TV).
So far, that is all we are saving for. But I can think of a lot more we’ll need to add to the list:
Replacement furniture, Computer, Clothing, A party dress –
What about you? What are you saving for?
Read here for more saving ideas.