Rainy day money.. do you squirrel anything away?

[Wildbuttercuplass]

If so, how?

Contingency fund, rainy day…

Every woman should have one, from their first salary, even if its a tenner a week.
It is the principle of saving so that you are never stuck.

Thank you for your reply - Where do you save it? In cash? Secret bank account?

Yes we do. We have an annual budget and a Monzo account with pots for everything from groceries to household bills to rainy day fund.

We save for annual bills, Xmas, holidays and emergencies equally through the year, so there's never a tight month/splash the cash month.

It gives me a lot of peace of mind to know we're covered for most eventualities.

We also have a larger emergency emergency pot, to cover us for job losses or serious illness. It's not as large as I'd like, but we're in the maternity/nursery few years at the moment so it's been depleated

Yes, I've saved into work credit union from my salary before I get it since my second week in work after Uni.

It's been used for Christmas, holidays and various emergencies over the years, but I have always made sure there was enough if I needed an emergency fund of my own.

I have a few pots I hide money away in. Monzo takes the most which then goes into an easy access ISA. I've recently started using Plum which has an automatic saving system. It's linked into my main current account and works out what I can afford to save each week based on the payments and automatically puts that aside. If I spend more, it'll save less, if I spend less, it'll save more.

I just opened a specific savings account which I never touched.
I put in a nominal amount from my salary.
I viewed it as buzz off money.
So that if anyone or any job pissed me off enough, I could walk.
I never needed it fortunately but I believe it helped me carry myself in a way that I was neither messed with in my relationships or career.
At nearly 60 its a very large amount today.

Saving is absolutely critical for both sexes, but especially women.

My sons are superb at it, but my daughter has a clothes and make up habit🙄.
She has time to develop better habits.

The boys both have serious money saved from part time jobs, despite having busy social lives, holidays, skiing etc.

Pick a safe amount that you can save that could be a direct debit every month and then forget about it.
Not to be touched except in absolute emergencies.

Holidays, nights out, a fab dress etc., are never emergencies 😁

observer.com/2016/01/a-story-of-a-fuck-off-fund/amp/

This is a good read!

No.😐
Our money is split evenly across multiple accounts & PB's but equally shared between us.
Nothing "hidden" from each other and we make sure we use each others ISA allowance, share dividend allowance etc.

I do. My wages have never been high but I’ve saved every single month since I was 16, even just £5 sometimes. I have done without the latest phone/car etc to do so though.

If pensions ever become means tested, I’ll spend the lot in a few weeks!

Wow…

@Wildbuttercuplass

I think it should be ( or some sort of variant) obligatory curriculum reading for teenagers (girls especially).

So many insights here.

My elderly aunt gave me sound advice when I was young- never rely on anybody financially and have a FO fund that nobody but you know about.

My FO fund literally has saved my life.Long story short even when in committed relationship like marriage your other half can screw you over you won’t even know how.

Transparency and trust are beautiful things but are easily hidden and manipulated.

FO fund means you have options and security of food and roof over your head when you have to leave.

My mum taught me that, my parents were together for 70 years (teenage sweethearts).

It came in handy having to leave my DS's dad who became violent.

This is a good read!

One long boring story from America that has no relevance to a UK website.

Never mind a running away fund. Get the fuck away from these men before ever getting involved with them!

I have a bunch of different savings accounts.

An emergency account/fuck off fund that has six months of living expenses but that I will dip into and top up if, for example, the car needs a major repair.

Home maintenance and improvements fund for any “permanent” house improvements or repairs (eg fixing a blocked pipe or painting the house comes out of this but buying new pillows comes from a different account.

Savings funds for both my kids.

I always keep a buffer of a couple of mortgage payments in the mortgage account but also pay extra through the year to cover rates and insurance.

A travel/holiday account.

A Christmas/general nice things account for when I see a piece of furniture I want or want to upgrade a rug or buy one of the kids a long-lasting expensive item like a new overcoat.

Of course! I followed my DH whilst he has an amazing career opportunity which has taken us overseas for 2 years. While great for him, it means I am unable to work for 2 years. So, no savings, no pension for me for 2 years. DH gets an "allowance" for my sacrifice, which he 'pays' me. Its not a lot, but absolutely I squirrel away a small portion every fortnight when its "pay day" into my savings account. Mostly, so i've something to fall back on when we return to our home country, as it may take me a few weeks to find employment.

Why does it have no relevance ? Do you lack the imagination skills to replace macys with something more UK based? Are women in the UK not prey to the same sort of traps in life?
Really. Please explain. I'm trying to understand why it has no relevance because I live abroad ( not in the US) and it's certainly relevant to where I live even if the culture of my country is much farther to that of the US than the UK is. So if the UK is such an eldorado for woman I'd like to know more so maybe I can move there ....

Not just women - everyone should have one.

Yes. Credit union to start with as they take small cash deposits and I wasnt embarrassed to just hand over a couple of pounds sometimes.
Also keep a small cash fund somewhere where you can get at it quickly if you need to,with a v trusted friend perhaps?

This is a great example, I will remember it when I start teaching DD about these things in a few years - thankyou!

Yes I do. I went through 2 relationships without one and it finally dawned on me that money equals choice. Since then I've built it up.

I've encouraged both my DCs to have one although they both know they can come to me if they haven't got enough.