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?

Yes, this was me too, for decades. Somehow managed to juggle my way out of it using credit cards but I’ve drummed into my DC to do as I say, not as I did!

Non-earner, as a SAHP: I have £8,000 my husband doesn't know about. My sister always said hiding money from your partner was wrong when our mum recommended it - having never needed it herself. I decided then and there, it wasn't wrong. It's mine from my earning days, and has never been factored into family life as it's not known about. It could be a boiler replacement nest egg at some point, or salary replacement cushion, or a fuck off fund. I know mumsnet frowns on this shit, but whatever.

I have nothing but we rent. My husband has about £12k in savings, so he’s my emergency fund which isn’t very smart as a woman I know! Could you maybe pay into a boiler insurance? That might take your mind off one thing.

We did have a big pot but spent the bulk on moving house. So now about 2k each. My young children now have more in savings than I do 🥴

About £4k in savings accounts / premium bonds. Then £40k ish in S&S isa. Whilst not technically cash in the bank we always say we’ll use it if the shit hits the fan.

The recommendation is 3 months bills/essential expenses. We have 8k in savings atm. I won’t let it drop below 5k. I view the 5k as not spendable money, it’s 0 if you like and then savings are on top of that, and we’ll spend it on hols/house stuff, save it up again and then the cycle repeats.

£362 in savings account
if I needed money for emergency probably would get another credit card

Keep going with Dave Ramsey. It’s worked for us.

We followed the Dave Ramsey plan. We are debt free and mortgage free with 6 months worth of expenses in an emergency fund. Our household income is around £45k (self employed so fluctuates), so we’re not high income. We have worked and worked for years though to get to this point.

Thank you, it's good to hear it's worked for other people! We earn about the same as you so there's hope that one day we can be debt free and maybe even mortgage free before we retire (that's the dream anyway!)

I am not sure where my income sits in terms of low/medium earner but I am on £53k per year husband earns similar. I have £36k in savings but it is in a stocks and shares is so I have gained quite a lot of interest. I don't have anything that is easily accessible though so might need to have a normal savings account. Not sure how much dh has in savings as he invests so makes quite a bit of money. I think I would be stuck if there was an emergency and would have to borrow it as it takes 5 days to come out of my ISA.

I used to find managing money very hard when DC were younger then at Uni. Now they are young adults and have their own places we have more savings. I found we cut back on quite a few things like speed of light internet no longer needed, Sky Movies no longer wanted etc. I've certainly saved massively on food and hot water. I think this is typical that once DC are through Uni and leave home you can build your savings.

I had nearly 7k (for the first time ever!) but so many things needed for the house that it’s dwindled down to about 3k now. However that still feels like a lot to me because previously nothing!

If you haven’t already, it’s worth getting the app and listening to the Ramsey show podcast. We find it really motivating.

Same here

I'm single, work in public sector so not particularly well paid! But excellent job security. I think my wage is a bit above national average. DC are adults.
I have 5k in a do not touch except in dire emergency fund.
2k for things like bigger household items or towards a holiday.
900 to spend if I want/need. (This amount fluctuates a fair bit).
Also have 5k on credit cards I could access in an emergency. Don't owe anything on those. I tend to use them and pay them straight off.

I feel ok with that level of savings. I've had times in my life of being truly skint so this feels comfortable for me.

I listen to the podcast, I did have the app but found it really difficult to navigate. I had to scroll constantly for the episode I was up to, definitely not easy to use like Spotify so I just stick with that instead

I've been Ramsey-ish for years, dipping in and out. Now we're definitely rice and beans drinking the koolaid and joining the cult 😁

Several financial advisors advise 6 months of your expenses it the right amount to have in savings. So if you both lose your job you have 6 months to survive and if one of the two does you have more than 6 months

about £300. Just back to work after an unplanned mat leave, so savings wiped out by that.

i have approx £3k that DH doesn’t know about. My mum gave it to me and I hid it in premium bonds. If he knew he’d basically spend it.

Another 3k in a S&S isa that I don’t count as savings. I’m leaving that for 10 more years and hopefully will help out with possible uni costs.

4k which is about to be wiped out by christmas and house renovations.

£6K at the moment as we are saving for something but obviously if there was an emergency this is the money we would use. I try and keep about £1K in my savings account all the time just in case.

My husband and I also bought our home in early 2021. We are working towards having our own individual three to six month emergency funds, but I am nowhere near there yet. I have around £2,800 saved for emergencies. To help us get better at budgeting and saving, together we decided to follow a 65:20:15 principle, whereby 65% of our income is for bills and everyday living, 20% is for ‘fun’ and 15% is saved. We calculate these numbers every single month as we do not always earn the same figure. One reason this works well is that I earn just over half of what my husband earns. Although we have a joint account for all our expenses, we are paid into our personal accounts and so contribute into our joint account proportionally to what we earn. It feels fair and works for us. We also made a conscious decision to pay off all of our debt (except our mortgage) before focussing harder on saving. Now at least the money we earn is our own and we do not have to consider paying last month’s credit card or a car finance payment. This in itself makes us very fortunate, as I know it is not possible for everyone to make ends meet without a credit card. Times are so tough.

About £400 plus a credit card with £1500 available. We are in a similar situation, renovating our house without any loans/remortgaging etc so putting everything into that currently. I’m also gearing up for maternity leave soon so trying to get atleast £1000 saved up to help top up my maternity pay whilst off

Another evangelical Dave Ramsey fan here.

18m ago I had £6k credit card debt and no idea.

Today I’ve paid off the debts, built my £1k baby emergency fund, had sinking pots for car service, summer and Christmas, and am about £2k into building my full emergency fund which will hopefully be £10k.

Honestly it’s changed my life.

Cash - nothing I can get at right now, but I’ve about £2k in overtime and expenses that should come in in the next week or so, which is for Christmas and next year’s holiday, £371 in the 1p savings challenge that I can get in January, and we do have a credit card with the balance basically paid off and a fairly high limit.