Well the first of the month and psychologically a new financial start, as a fresh supply of money has been organized J. I have 3 bank accounts – the main joint account where both our salaries go in to and all our bills go out from. The bills from this account are fixed i.e. mortgage, direct debits for utilities etc and as such is calculated within an inch of their lives. I then move money into a working account for our fluid spends (this is the only debit card me and darling hubby have in our wallets)which pays for petrol, food and household necessities and “spends” – I have tried to put a frugal yet realistic amount in this account and work hard to ensure we don’t spend anymore. This is the account that I hope over time to reduce as I become better in my frugal ways. I then pay a chunk off our credit card debt and then 10% of our joint salary into our 3rd account, our slush fund.
Now you really shouldn’t save whilst you have debt, but you do need to put some working capital aside each month. I have learnt the hard way with this one. Every time I would be close to getting my head above water, something would happen to duck me under the waves i.e. car breaks down; roof leaks; washing machine dies etc and as I didn’t have any savings would have to rely on my credit card and e voila back in debt. My slush fund is designed to stop this particular merry go round. So whilst I work hard to chip away at debt, I do so in the safe knowledge that I have a safety net to pay for the unexpected.
Today the unexpected occurred – I had to take my beautiful cavachon to the vets, she has been scratching like crazy, gnawing on her leg which had got very sore. Vet believes its allergies and with cream for the sore leg, antihistamine and an injection I came out 5 mins later and £90 lighter in the pocket. She’s my baby and for her I would sell my kidney so money is not an issue, but had I not had my slush fund I would have struggled this month to pay the bills and remain committed to my debt clearance plan.
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