have an emergency fund

Now that I have a bank account, I suppose I will have to start putting some money in it. Time to figure out if I should start with a lump sum, or with monthly payments, or what. What makes it difficult is that don’t have a budgeting process.

Today I opened the bank account for my emergency fund.

It has been nice to deal with a new bank, and it’s also good because it is a locally controlled bank.

I plan to open a new bank account tomorrow. It’s not something I do often, so it should be interesting.

In doing my research about this I wondered about the kind of account I should have. Should I just keep the money in one of my other accounts and earmark it? Or should I get a new bank account?

In the process I discovered exactly the amount of money I’ve been paying in banking fees, and it’s a scary amount. I believe I will rather get an account at a new bank with lower fees than carry on with a traditional bank.

Earlier this year I had to replace my laptop at short notice. I was lucky enough to have the money, but fairly upset that I had to use it. If I had put away the money beforehand it would not have hurt as much.

I have a baby emergency fund of 1000 euros now, and I’ve set “save 3 months living expenses” as another goal so it’s a bit redundant. Now I just need to make sure my savings don’t go backwards. I’m doing a lot better now than when I set this goal – that’s for sure.

I’ve found a bank I like for my emergency fund, and in September, I’ll make my last credit card payment. I’m excited about starting my emergency fund in October!

Steps toward having an emergency fund:

1) Pay off one credit card.

2) Use the money allocated to that credit card’s monthly payment to start an emergency fund.

I’ve been having trouble getting started on this. I’ve just moved countries and my new pay turned out to be worth less than I expected. I was better off as a PhD student! I only wish I’d saved more then – maybe that’s the richest I’ll ever be? I’m becoming a bit obsessed with my lack of pay.

So the other day I applied for an online savings account with an automatic transfer of 25 euros each month.

It’s not very much. I think I’ll be menopausal before it adds up to a “baby fund”. But I guess it’s better than nothing, and I didn’t want it to be so much that I’d really notice it. I’ll work on adding to it once I’ve figured out how to live within my new income. :)

Yesterday my budget was looking pretty good. I’ve stopped eating any food out or take away. I’ve given up buying books, and clothes/shoes, and fruit juice and chocolate… But I had a huge setback this morning.

I’ve been sleeping just on my mattress while I save up to buy a bed. Then it turned out there was mold in the gaps between the floorboards in the bedroom of my new flat. It got onto my mattress. I thought that was okay – the mattress has a cover I can wash. But it took me a while to get around to it (I don’t own a washing machine either…) and today when I took the cover off to wash it, the mold had got through to the foam inside!! Now it’s officially ruined and I’ll need to get a new one when I buy a bed – which I want to do before my boyfriend comes to visit next month. So, I think I might have to give up on the emergency fund for a while.

I feel like I just can’t get ahead.