Comments on: At the 70% mark: Thoughts on our emergency fund so far

By: AnnMarie

AnnMarie — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:38:02 +0000

That’s awesome! Congratulations on the progress so far!

With some extra money last year, we created our emergency fund. What a difference it makes in our lives to know we have it. And we have firmly committed to NOT spending it except for a true emergency. Even when something was facing up with the possibility of getting a HEL (home equity loan) or using the e-fund, we chose the HEL route because it wasn’t an emergency where we had no other options. (And, had we gotten the HEL, we intended to get a 3-year loan and pay it off in approx. 1 year.)

another cool side effect is watching the interest grow. I put most of ours in CDs, and have earned nearly $500 in interest in the past year! (Rates, sadly, have gone down, and the new rates are barely above the ING savings accounts. But when you are talking in the thousands, even 3% adds up.)

AnnMarie’s last blog post..First exta payment $4

By: Frugal Babe

Frugal Babe — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:53:15 +0000

Wow - that’s amazing how fast you’ve grown your emergency fund! Nice work :) We opened an ING account for an emergency fund early in 2006, but we kept dipping into it during that year, and didn’t really start to think of it as a real emergency fund until early last year. We committed to $100/month automatic deposit, and haven’t taken any money out since. Our balance is about $1500, and growing by $100 each month. We’ve been focusing on our HSA and our IRAs and paying off our HELOC, so the emergency fund has taken a bit of a backseat. Luckily we haven’t had to use it, and it’s been able to grow. But at $100/month it will take us quite a while to get where you are!

Frugal Babe’s last blog post..No Hybrid For Me

By: Fabulously Broke

Fabulously Broke — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:49:28 +0000

Thanks for sharing your story :)

I’ll share mine once my journey nears its end LOL

I’m linking to this in my next round of link love

Fabulously Broke’s last blog post..Furniture Galore!

By: Kacie

Kacie — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:00:40 +0000

Stay with it, Shevy! Don’t be discouraged. I really know that it can feel overwhelming at times.

My husband and I are at an advantage right now, in that we’re renters, and any time something in our apartment breaks, it doesn’t cost us anything.

That was really handy when our hot water tank exploded!

By: Shevy

Shevy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:59:30 +0000

You’re doing really well Kacie. I wish I could say I had that much put away, but I don’t.

We’ve had a number of unexpected expenses since we bought our other house.

First, the fridge flooded part of the kitchen, damaging the floor and subfloor. We replaced the fridge and fixed the floor.

Then a winter storm removed the rolled roofing on our addition and melted snow came through the ceiling in the master bedroom. Fixing that included drywalling and insulating in addition to replacing 2 rafters, the plywood and rolled roofing.

All told, those 2 incidents cost us just under $3,000. I put $10/week into ING and we’re sitting at $583.50, as of today. At this rate, we won’t have $1,000 until March 10, 2009 (assuming we don’t have to use any of it in the interim).

I don’t even want to think how long it will take to have 6 months worth of expenses put away. (For that, we have to get to a point where we’re putting away much more money than we are currently!)

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:35:05 +0000

That’s really awesome, Kacie. It’s particularly good timing that you’ll have the E-fund in place before the baby gets here. So much less to stress over. :)

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:37:30 +0000

What an amazing journey…you and Shane ought to give yourselves a HUGE pat on the back :)