Yesterday and today were extremely low key days with us not really doing much or going anywhere. But even though we didn't spend anything per se the bill is going to be coming. That's because on Thursday and Friday we had our roof replaced! Yes, remember a few posts back I spoke about having to use our Emergency Fund? Well that would be on a new roof. It was a tough winter here at the Saskatchewan Savings household. We had some extremely bad leaks that we had to deal with. But we did, and kept the damage to a minimum -- the only room in the house to get damaged was luckily (?) the one room in the house that needs to get completely redone! Although it sucks, things could have been a lot worse. Anyways, so once the snow started to melt we called a few contractors in our area to get quotes. We ended up going with a guy that lives right in our town because he gave an honest quote (G went to the hardware store and priced out everything to make sure and actually ended saving us a few hundred dollars by negotiating - that was a very proud wife moment for me) and we basically flat out told him that if he does a crappy job it's his name on the line because in small towns you can't hide behind a company name when everyone knows your family (that sounds a lot more harsh then how we said it lol). Anyways so they worked Thursday & Friday and I am extremely impressed with how professional he is. He has called G up on the roof a few times to show where the trouble spots were and explain the process, etc. It's nice because some companies don't think it's necessary to teach their clients, but G & I are both learning a lot and now know what questions to ask and things to look for if we ever need to purchase a house again.
Although we still haven't gotten the bill yet we know we are going to have to dip into our emergency fund. Luckily we have enough in there to pay for it in full and still not drain the account. Our plan is once we have our LOC paid off in a month or two we focus on bumping up on EF for a few months until its at our comfort point. This shouldn't be difficult to do given that the LOC payments eat up at least 40% (if not more) of our budget each month. I think to prevent this from happening in the future I am going to open another savings account for anything to do with the home, that way the two accounts have very different purposes and it doesn't get messy/confusing.
If you are reading this post would you mind telling me in the comments if you have different savings accounts for different reasons or end goals? Is it helpful or more confusing keep track of everything? Thank you in advance if you share!
- M
I have three savings accounts. One for intermediate items like annual home insurance, life insurance, property taxes, and auto insurance. One is our regular savings which would be our EF. Another is for a new pick up for my husband. I think that three is more than enough for us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing! I love how each account has a specific use and goal, makes things super clear.
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteFiguring out how many and what kind of accounts I need is also my dilemma. I currently use 3 accounts. One is for chequing, my main one were my paycheque is deposited, second one is a savings that I use for planned expenses that are not part of my normal budget (i.e. plate registration, winter tennis lessons. oil changes etc.) and the third one is a TFSA that I currently use as a emergency fund. So far it's working but I know the system will be tweaked in the future to accommodate my future savings goals.
I really like that your planned expenses are separate from your emergency fund. I think that is definitely the way we are going to go. I just made so much more sense but both are still very accessible incase you need access. Thank you for your feed back! :)
DeleteMy main account is at BMO...a chequing and a savings. That savings is more for indulgent things like saving up for a pedicure or hair colour as well as saving for home renos (very slowly saving)
ReplyDeleteMy secondary accounts are at the CU. That savings is where the money goes as I save up for RRSP, TFSA, College expenses, Summer, Xmas etc.
I like that separation and I've been pretty darn good about not going into those accounts, just because.
Ya, we have definitely agreed the separation is key for us. I always thought it would be a lot more confusing to have a lot of account, but I'm finding recently it's the opposite: each account has a very specific purpose.
Delete