Do you have a little nest egg/rainy day fund?!

Hey wollies, Myself & hubby were chatting last night about our finances & while we're not on the poverty line or anything we are certainly not loaded! But we were trying to work out if we could start saving for a long term nest egg type thing. Rainy day money if you will!! It will be killer but were just gonna stop buying take aways which are our luxury & try & save on the weekly shop by not buying as much crappy food!! I wonder what would be a good amount as in would 12 months of mortgage repayments be a good figure? What would be your realistic kinda achievable perfect amount?? Hope my post kinda makes sense! I know it's all relative but even a ball park figure would help.

Hmm. That's a tough one about what's the ideal amount. For me the ideal amount to have squirrelled away right now would be about €60k! I have some money put away in an a/c that doesn't mature until December. It's part of a lump sum that I got five years ago. It would amount to about two years worth of our mortgage (our mortgage payments are fairly small though!) and will be moved out of Ireland to our savings in Brazil as we plan to build a house and move out there in the very near future. I'd say anything at all that you can save will be a help. We are pretty much on the breadline and I can tell you what a difference it makes having even €100 saved in the Credit Union when an unexpected bill comes in.

We are actually planning on setting one up in the very near future, we had one going for the wedding, obviously that's gone now!! So hoping to start again with whatever we can put in.

We don't have one and aren't even close to position of being able to set one up. Maybe in a year or two... Famous last words

We were just discussing this about an hour ago. We are going to do this after the wedding put a few hundred into the credit union each month. Would have been nice to have it to fall back on now, when we need it so we aren't gonna get stuck in a rut again

We are pretty living from pay cheque to pay cheque. We have zilch by the end of the month. We really don't have much to spare to put into savings. Then again I do think if we could even put €20/50 aside at the end of each month, eventhough it would be tight, it would be handy. After awhile we wouldn't even miss it (I hope) and we'd just adjust to that bit less. As it is we have no slush fund or contingency. We had €4,000 in a savings account but we had ot dip into for the house insurance, DHs college fees, tv license, bin charges etc over the last couple of years. It's dwindled to afew hundred now. We really find those yearly and half yearly bills a stretch. We'll see how we're fixed when my next two personal loans are paid off this Septmber and next May. That should help abit.

We do have a rainy day fund but we are probably at the stage where this might be eaten into over the next few years. We don't have a big mortgage but we have one all the same so want to have a fund there in case along with cost of raising baby and all that comes with it. There is always a concern that it may be devalued if the euro crashes but sure that's one of life's uncertainties No harm in putting a little aside if you can.

We have the wedding fund but it's in different accounts and I'm hoping some of it wont be touched for the wedding so will carry on as the rainy day fund I think I would be happy with three months salary sitting somewhere that could be easily accessed

Thanks for replies. I know it should make no difference but I always like to see what other people do coz it's so hard to know. Like my sis & her husband have 30k in the bank as a rainy day fund. Now in saying that they are about 10 yrs older than us,mid to late 30's so I suppose it's something that takes time! They never take it into account for hols,home improvementsChristmas or everyday bills....it's just "there" as such. They live extremely modestly,both have cars that are like 5 & 8 yrs old,their house could do with some work & they haven't had a holiday in a long time. I suppose I would find it very easy to dip into it & always think my spending is justified like for example I love doing bits with our house coz it's still not finished,it's a new build. I wonder should savings take priority over house etc!! Ah I hate being an adult at times?

We do have a two saving accounts and I would highly recommend even €10 a week if you can to be put away and never touched. I have been trying to tell this to the younger ones in the Office to save something every week. €10 over 52 weeks is €520 and over 5 years is €2600. Imagine if you could do €20? Then it's €5200 over 5 years. I save more than this a week but I am making up for all my years of saving nothing. My Oh has always been a good man with money. My Saviour! I am looking at moving some of our savings but have to start the research. If you can, even a small amount adds up and gives you a security and something to fall back on when you really need it.