When I started this blog "the plan" was to pay off my car and become consumer debt free by the time I turned 39. Well I am now 39 plus a few months and we accomplished my/our plan. I can't imagine that I will suddenly become some spendy person. That is just not in my nature. I don't plan to change any of my habits as of now. I like my frugal lifestyle and the way we live.
So now what will we do???
I will continue with $200 per month we already put into savings and throw any extra money at it until our emergency fund hits $2,000 right now it sits at about $1200. That is where I feel comfortable with it sitting for a while. We have started a home improvement project on our kitchen floor. We are still in the demo stage of it ( post on that to come). When we reach the point of needing to purchase new flooring I plan to be able to pay cash for it. Once that is done I will go back to building up our emergency fund. I would like to have at minimum of 3 months bare bones living expenses saved.
Tomorrow I will be setting up an automatic transfer so that the money that was allotted for our car payment will automatically be transferred to our saving account. My husband drives a very old car ( not by my choice, he loves his old car) and the reality is he is going to need to replace it very soon. We are hoping to make it until the end of tax season in April/ May next year. We plan to use the money we are saving now from our old car payment plus whatever he would or could make doing taxes to purchase him a new to us car with cash.
I also need to start saving for new heating and air conditioning. Our units are almost 20 years old. It is time to get those replaced hopefully by the end of next year. If my husband should make enough doing taxes next season to purchase a car and the new furnace/central air that would be great but I am not going to count on that solely happening. I have not really allotted a set amount to this fund yet. I need to sit down and run some numbers again to see what I think would work. I hope to finish the kitchen remodel first before I start this savings.
On top of all of this I need to finish up my shopping for Christmas. Yes I have already started! Have you??
I feel your pain. Last year it was the heater and central we replaced plus one or two windows at a time..this year the roof...in the spring we need to have our driveway redone. But you have a plan and you are working it.
ReplyDeleteA kitchen floor isnt in our future until sometime next september since I am hoping that the fridge holds out til then..but we will see..when the fridge goes the new floor goes in
I think when you own a house it is always something! We replaced our frig last year. My hubby is an awesome craigslist shopper and found us a 6 month old black frig for $200. It was a super great deal! The woman who sold it to us moved in with her boyfriend and didn't need it. This spring we replaced our washer and dryer with the same sort of deal.
DeleteWow, you are so far ahead of where I was at 39. Good work and your plans sound great. What an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteSounds like you got a good plan started. I have not started Christmas shopping yet but I have been getting some ideas and looking at prices.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim!
DeleteGood stuff!! I think slowly building up your EF is a good plan, we're doing the same thing. :)
ReplyDelete