How much do you have in your emergency pot?

[brownbearbrownbear123]

Modest incomes only please! Kindly, I don’t need to hear that you’ve got £20,000 stashed away for a rainy day. Id love to hear from low/mid range earners please.
how much do you have saved for emergencies?
we bought our home 5 years ago and we seem to be spending any little savings we make on things that need doing to the house, I feel like we’re never going to get anything saved for emergencies and it makes me so so anxious.
im constantly worried that we’re going to be hit with a big repair bill for the house, like new roof, new boiler etc and it fills me with dread that we don’t have the cash in case this happens.
can anyone make me feel a bit better and let me know I’m not alone on this?

I received an inheritance which enabled me to buy my home two years ago, I didn’t put everything into the deposit and chose to have a bigger mortgage and keep back £10,000 for emergencies or any house repairs. I’m at about £8000 now as I’ve dipped into it a few times and although I have paid back in I then seem to need it again before I can build it back fully. I’m single, a teacher and would say I’m on a middle income (£40,000) but no dependants (other than pets!) and I don’t really spend on any luxuries.

2.5k as a single parent of 2 who are 8 and 5.
Was 3k until recently but i had to dig into it for a necessary house repair.
I also have 11k of debt so working on paying that down before adding much more to it. Although I do often panic about what if I ended up really unwell etc, but I guess that's life.

Im so glad im not alone! We sold a newbuild as this was our dream. I have so much regret. I hope we can start squirreling away in about 6 months but we wont have any savings sufficient enough if anybody lost their jobs. My husband would find work quickly again but it would be harder for me, who has to factor in childcare etc.

Just got 5 more years of it! Thanks for being kind x

Im so glad im not alone! We sold a newbuild as this was our dream. I have so much regret. I hope we can start squirreling away in about 6 months but we wont have any savings sufficient enough if anybody lost their jobs. My husband would find work quickly again but it would be harder for me, who has to factor in childcare etc.

Just got 5 more years of it! Thanks for being kind x

Single income household, middle income and supporting DC at Uni. I have around 5k tucked away that I never touch it is my security blanket. I am trying hard (it is a struggle) to add £400 a month to it as I want to ge my mortgage paid off in 12 years when I am 60. I am having to make big sacrifices though (no luxuries, no holidays, watching the food budget). Once DC is out of Uni things will improve.

Me & DH earn about £80 grand between us high rent in SE, 1 DC. We have about 5 grand in savings, 2 grand cash in a safe at home, nearly £400 in bank reward account although decided that money will go on DDs new bed/desk for bday coming. Currently only have 2 car payments left 🥳so that’s nearly £300 extra will have & in Feb & March will have about £700 extra from 2x council tax staying the current account - which needs building up a bit.

£250 in savings for Xmas but owe £1200 on credit card!

£0 and a couple of credit cards

i was doing ok until ex husband stopped paying maintenance for 3 children at £350 per month - childminder put rates up 20% so any savings have been obliterated
i got notice of an £80 per month pay rise this week (I earn £75k) so well below cost of living rises - I may try and save some of that but realistically that will just cover 2026 rises in council tax / gas / water and so on

We have 2k designated (slightly over that but we won’t allow it to drop below - we need another long term non emergency por really!) a credit card and the security that parents would never let anything truly terrible happen to us which we’ve never called on but I’ve realised how lve felt very secure with that in the background.

it worries me a bit because it wouldn’t keep us going very long at all. But our jobs are pretty secure with decent notice periods or redundancy package so…

I’m now 60 and the mortgage has gone. I have access to about £8k for emergencies. Other savings are locked up.

In our 40s we had very little in savings. Just enough to cover repairs.

I’m the same, my career has suffered due to working part time thanks to childcare.

On our income you would think we would be okay but nope! We have nothing left for anything nice, just endless bills and repairs.

Feel for you though!

Earmarked as an 'emergency fund' - £625.
Started as £500 but we keep it in Premium Bonds and we've won £100 and £25. Not really going to cover much but may get us out of a pickle if we need a new appliance or something.
DP and I share it but keep separate finances. We're fairly low earners, 34 and 36, 2Dc and a mortgage.

Mid income family, both work full time , 3 children with one still in nursery. Thank God for my employer’s Sharesave scheme, took 150 a month from my salary after tax and after 3 years, I was able to buy the company’s shares at a discounted price and sell immediately. Now we have just over 17k in savings thanks to that scheme. I’m still continuing with that scheme as having it deducted before getting paid has made it possible to save.
Otherwise, most of all our salary gets spent and we just started having £200 a month to save when the 30 hrs free childcare kicked in last month though most of the ones saved now will be spent on Christmas etc. It’s just a cycle

Anywhere between 3-6 months salary. I also put EVERYTHING on my credit card nd pay it off on time and in full, so I have a good line of credit available if I need it.

Until the 20th we have £95 in our savings. On the 20th we’ll have 3k we’ll put into our savings. We have 2 credit cards we have for emergencies which we ensure we pay off in full each month.

I have about 2k euros, plus about 1k in investments. Nowhere near enough if we need to do house repairs as we live in an old wooden house and the repairs we'll eventually need to do (will need a new roof within the next ten years I think, will need repainting at some point, and if we ever want to sell we'd have to renovate the entire heating system and the shower room) so I need to try and save more but its hard.

£78k (most of which was a family gift) but most of that is ear marked for a house deposit and fees next year. I want to keep £5k back. The thought of taking on a mortgage alone is scary as well as depleting almost all of my savings, but it’s better than being in grim houseshares.

Every time we get up to around a 1000, one of three things is guaranteed to happen. A surprise bill, something big breaks or the cat gets sick.

That's life.

@Illbefinejustbloodyfine going through a divorce too, it’s grim isn’t it.

Ive got about £6,000 but some of that is ear marked for an overseas trip with one DD to see the other DD who is on her uni year abroad.

Bought our place 7 years ago and am attempting to buy H out so I’ll be skint forever!

When we only had one income and it was around £21,000 before tax we saved £13,000. No kids or pets though.

It’s varied at different stages of life. Whilst I have always been a saver, savings were low or virtually non existent when I was younger and in the early child rearing days. As DC got older, I worked more hours, got promotions etc and savings became higher. Ditto when the mortgage was paid off and retirement started to appear on the horizon rather than it being something that happened to old people.

(And that was over around 2 years!)

I'm a 39yo divorced mum of one, we do 50/50 so no money from ex-husband. I try to save/invest £800 a month, accessible today for emergencies, I've got about £10k, £40k more in a week or so if I pull from investments. I earn £36k with 30h/w, child benefit and small side hustle makes my take home £2.4k.

But here's the big difference: I'm still renting at nearly 40 because I live abroad where you need 20-30% deposit plus another 15% for legal fees and taxes. Unlikely I'll get a mortgage unless my income increases significantly in the next couple of years. So I save/ invest a bigger % of income for retirement because I'll likely be paying rent until I die.

Lived with new partner for 2 years, flat is small 2 bed, all rent, utility bills and insurances comes to £1000 between us (he doesn't have savings and is 50 so not mortgage candidate either). We don't have (or need) a car, no debts and work from home which makes saving easier.

So I don't have the worry of a boiler breaking down as the landlord would have to pay it but I don't feel settled and secure as a renter, have no free choice to decorate how I like, make improvements etc.

Nothing and maxed out credit cards

This is a fascinating insight into the cost of private education in Australia. Presumably why a lot more people go for it there than in the uk.