How much is in your emergency fund?

[Skelfy]

And in what circumstances do you dip into it?

We have £13k which is 5 months of absolutely bare bones essentials (high mortgage).

I'm in a secure-ish public sector job, part time, my salary could just about cover absolute essentials. DH higher earner but much more precarious job security though has in demand skills & experience.

@Lilly11a we are like you, each month every penny goes somewhere.

We have dh kitty for children which covers school lunch and school stuff. My kitty for them covers clothes and classes piano etc.
We have a joint holiday and Xmas fund, i have pb savings and stocks isa.
We have a car fund and a bday fund.
I have another separate savings fund for my car.

Currently have 5k in the 'dire emergency ' fund and 3k in the more dippable savings account.
Employed on contracts at the moment after leaving a horrendous permanent job so its a bit of a scary time but we have income from property to cover the barest necessities like mortgage food and bills.

A lot, £200k but we are hoping to quit work relatively soon, perhaps for good though I will likely take temporary jobs from time to time when we aren't travelling.

Why???
Put it into a high interest rate savings account!

£1k, which I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to have as there’s been many times I’ve ransacked my house for loose change for bread and milk. DH has around 2k. The combination would cover 2 months bare essentials.

£15k which is enough to cove me for one yr if I lost my mortgage and basic bills and food. I want a yr because after being in situation when I was made redundant I took a big pay cut because I didn't have much emergency y money and I don't want to ever do that again, took me ages to work my way back up. So I'd rather take my time finding a job.

I now split my £1k savings in half, half for holidays the other half for emergency house repairs as I know one yr my boiler will go.

I used to work on front line benefits before UC was more widespread.

there were times when people would come to the office, having spent their emergency fund and didn’t have anything left. They were unaware that they could have possibly claimed benefit and council tax relief from day one.

they would have got a small amount of benefit and council tax relief, as the 5 months passed and the savings - under £16k as in the Op case

things like job seekers allowance are not means tested and are something you can claim if you’ve paid enough NI

the problem most of the people sat in front of me faced, was they were going to have to wait 2/4 weeks for benefit to kick in and literally had run out of money.

if you lose your job, get sick and can’t work - check what you’re entitled to

there are millions of £ unclaimed each year

5 months if benefits might total for example £400 a month coming in, but it all helps. You can’t claim it retrospectively through ignorance

I have £200 in savings always

Sounds idyllic!

You're mortgage can't be particularly high

Op is this separate to your savings? How do you decide how much goes in each? We just have a savings account, no separate emergency funds.

Zero

About 75k. I'm planning on taking ill health retirement though and my pension is only 24k.

I have £200 saved for my MOT in October. Does that count?

Yes it's separate to savings for known expenses.

I'm trying to figure out priorities between: discretionary spending, known expenses eg Christmas &holidays & annual insurance, house & car maintenance unknowns, possible uni funds, emergency funds...

Our monthly mortgage payments may not be huge compared to eg rental but it's the size of the debt and term until SPA that concerns me. Again, I'm probably comparing with friends who bought earlier and are now or nearly mortgage free. Not helpful to compare I know.

I know there's no right or wrong answer but different perspectives are useful.