Sinking funds are awesome!

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-10-2003
Sinking funds are awesome!
31
Tue, 01-19-2010 - 10:23am

Hi all,


I am finally at a place where I have a float in my sinking funds/planned spending accounts and its great! Yesterday I had to pay $60 for dodgeball. I was trying to figure out where it was coming from until I remembered I have an account that I drop $20 each week into for fun stuff for me. It had $80 in it, so I wrote a cheque and life was good.


Then last night after Toby chewed up a baseball (it was my sister's MVP ball from when she was 6, yikes!) we decided that obedience needed to be fasttracked. Happily, there is a class running at the community centre by our house for 7 weeks and it cost $76 (the private places want $150 for the same thing!!!). At first I was thinking I would have to forgo my gym membership, but then I checked the pet account and it had more then enough money to cover it, his check up next week AND


Bex -

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Wed, 01-20-2010 - 11:27am

To add to your confusing, BOTH.




iVillage Member
Registered: 04-10-2003
Wed, 01-20-2010 - 11:44am

What Marie said, lol.


In my case, these funds are a line item in my budget. I KNOW that Kita and Toby will need dog food every 6-8 weeks at a cost of about $100 for both. However, I budget $50 every two weeks for the Pet Category. This covers the things I know about (food, vet checkups 1x a year) and the things that pop up (obedience classes for Toby, extra vet checkups if something is wrong etc etc).


Same with the car. I just bought a new one (as in three weeks ago!!) so I reduced my Car Category to $30 every two weeks. This should be more then enough for oil changes and swapping out the winter tires for the all seasons, registration etc. Since the car is under a bumper to bumper until the car is paid off (in


Bex -

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2010
Wed, 01-20-2010 - 3:20pm

Yep, clear as mud. Thanks! LOL

No I get the general idea...it's like my M&R fund for my rental...I have no idea what's actually going to come up but the money is going in there every month regardless...
and then for hair cuts I save the money away every month for mine because I only go every 3 months or so (cuz I'm a fake blond & it isn't cheap but it is my only luxury I indulge in...)

So I do grasp the concept(s) I think of the sinking fund.

And no worries, I do have budgeted amounts for clothes. I have 5 kids, somebody always needs something lol. But I'm also the queen of thrift shops so I do well that way...I will continue doing it as long as my kids are young enough to not care so much about labels lol.

I'm getting the E-fund going now, regardless of my debt. Not sure if that's recommended or not by the professionals, but it scares the crap out of me that my DH could get laid off or get hurt & we wouldn't have the money for food, mortgage, etc.

~ Melissa ~ ‎"We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us, if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity." - Barbara de Angelis
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Wed, 01-20-2010 - 4:26pm

And no worries, I do have budgeted amounts for clothes. I have 5 kids, somebody always needs something lol.


Since this thread has gone sideways a couple times already, what is once more?




iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2009
Wed, 01-20-2010 - 5:23pm

I am so glad for my

Lila
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2009
Wed, 01-20-2010 - 11:12pm

Hi there...thank you for jumping in...


My current orange tabby is a girl but shes pretty alpha lol....shes a real sweetie and gets along with my friends' small dogs and other kitties....


She gets really aggressive with the big dogs lol....


I really love shelties and pomeranians...always wanted one but I wonder if they might be too much work...I'm also a clean fanatic so I would have to groom them everyday prolly


Tell me about ur kitties....


Duke

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2009
Wed, 01-20-2010 - 11:15pm

Ty so much for your response....


I really appreciate it...


iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2009
Wed, 01-20-2010 - 11:20pm

Haha...


Thanks for your response....


My sweet orange is actually a female...She is the third orange female tabbie I have had in my life....(20% of oranges are female)


I adore orange tabbies...the females are especially affectionate but darn moody and feisty....


I call her Tina Louise

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-15-2003
Thu, 01-21-2010 - 8:42am

I am so happy to hear that sinking funds are so great. I just incorporated them into my budget starting this month and really hope they "pay off" in the future. I got the idea from this board and am very thankful for it. I use ING accounts for savings too. I have one that will eventually be my emergency fund, one that is the Christmas fund, and one that is my "non-monthly expenses" sinking fund. For now, I am thinking of the non-monthly sinking fund as being for pet, medical/dental, and car expenses. Those were the three categories that worried me the most, if something went wrong or came up in any of those areas I wouldn't have money in the bank to deal with it, and I'd hate to withdrawl from my long term savings. A christmas fund is just a brilliant idea I will be very thankful for come December. My "funds" are extremely small right now since I'm just starting out ... I tell myself I'm in a "transition" phase for the first few months of 2010. During the transition I'm just trying to get used to transferring money to the funds and letting it sit and build. Once I have a good cushion in them I'll feel really secure. :)


In the future once I've got this budget thing down I'll have to sort out a better way to handle things like clothes, haircuts, gifts, travel, etc. I like the idea of


 


Daisypath Anniversary Years Ticker

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2007
Thu, 01-21-2010 - 9:39am

LOL ... Tina Louise ... great name!


Why haven't you posted a pic yet?

Kate



Kate


empty purse