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Getting a Month Ahead

February 8th, 2022 at 06:00 pm

We are super lucky to have some money in the bank. We have about 4 months of bare bones expenses plus close to another month's expenses in cash on hand. However, my car is on the fritz in a BIG way so we are going to need to buy a new one soon. Our down payment will come from the money we have in the bank (we do not have a separate down payment savings, though I wish we did!) 

We will use about half of our current total savings to use as a down payment on a car. We are very lucky in another way, too. My mom lives with us so I am able to use her car until we get a new one, so we don't have to make any rash decisions and buy one quickly, but we still need to figure things out.

All of this to say... I want to try to get a month ahead on my bills, in addition to our emergency fund!

One of my children needed money for something the other day and when I was getting it out for them, I found a $100 bill in my wallet. I have no idea where it came from or what it was for, so I decided to start my "month ahead" envelope with it. I use the envelope system so it is very weird for me to have money floating around in my wallet without a home.

I know $100 isn't much towards our whole month's budget, but it is a start and since it's "found" money, I thought it was a good place to start. I also found an envelope with $20 in it. It was supposed to be a birthday gift, but we ended up getting something else, so the money is extra, too! (It was from months ago!)

I have a goal to save $5500 to get a month ahead in all bills and I am $120 (a little over 2%) of the way there! The goal to get a month ahead is in addition to my regular savings goals, bills, and debt payoff and will probably take me 18 months (or more) to complete. To be able to be a month ahead and have an emergency fund would be awesome!!!

Going forward, I am going to try to put little bits of found money and a tiny sliver of our monthly budget towards that goal. I know I'm not the only one who always feels like there are more bills and goals than there is money, but we will get there! 

2 Responses to “Getting a Month Ahead”

  1. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1644346181

    Sounds like a plan

  2. rob62521 Says:
    1644778714

    That's a grand idea! Do you use coupons? Granted, I haven't found many good ones lately, but I read where one person would credit herself when she used a coupon and put that extra "found" money in an envelope to save it. I thought that was a clever idea.

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