How To Start an Emergency Fund

At one time a cash-strapped work friend asked for my help in how to find ways to get her emergency fund going. The company we work for at the time still payed overtime but based on the economy that was not to be counted on. There are plenty of ways to get it started. Some say you should have at least 3 months expenses set aside. I have also seen others who say 9 months. Each person will have to decide for themselves what the amount should be. It will take some time to reach the goal but the following ideas should help to get it kick started. Please note: You are trying to make money not spend it. Any idea involving the starting of a side business or craft should only be used if there is little to no money required to get it going - or you are defeating the purpose of the exercise. No one idea will necessarily bring in enough cash but used together a couple of these ideas should work for most people.


25 ways to Start an Emergency Fund
1. Sell old belongings on Ebay/Kijiji/Craigslist
2. Take a temporary part-time job (census taker/work at fair)
3. Work overtime if your company offers to pay it
4. Deposit your tax refund
5. Deposit Birthday Cash/Anniversary Cash/Christmas Cash
6. Save change, roll it and deposit
7. Have a garage sale (for best results organize a street or group garage sale)
8. Have a spend no money month (deposit what you would have spent)
9. Increase the deductibles on your home/auto insurance - deposit the savings
10. If you use coupons deposit the amount of coupons saved into emergency fund
11. Take the bus versus driving to work for a month=deposit the insurance/gas savings (park car)
12. If you live in an area that has deposits for cans and bottles take those in for refund
13. If you enjoy garage sales stock up on high quality low priced items, resale at flea-market
14. Make crafts or baking to sell (works best at Christmas)
15. Use an existing skill and set up a part-time side business (clean houses/mow lawns/cut hair)
16. If there is an extra bedroom in your home consider taking in student on short term basis
17. If you receive any dividends deposit those straight into the emergency fund
18. Have a free entertainment only month - deposit savings into emergency fund (research free concerts, free museum days, outdoor free city festivals, have a potluck)
19. Teach a class at local resource centre or school
20. Plant an extra garden row and sell extra garden produce
21. Join a car pool and bank the savings
22. Have a no latte and bag lunch month
23. Clean out closet and take unused items to a consignment store
24. Sell old unused gold and jewellery items to a pawn shop or gold purchaser
25. Part with part of a collection (stamps, antiques, comic books, hockey cards)

How to Survive on Little

Mental security: knowing you can live on nothing and not only survive but thrive!

Several times in my life through circumstances both forced upon me and by my own hand have I been in a position where I have had to live on nothing. I am not talking poverty level. I am talking no heat or no food.

Each time I have come out ahead a stronger better person and now take pride in knowing myself - no matter what kind of financial situation I am in I will be fine. Although I am currently in a better place I sleep well at night knowing the following:

How to Survive on Nothing (or almost nothing)

1. Shelter: This is the most important factor. You can live without new clothes. You can live without a phone. You can live without cable. You will never come back from nothing without shelter. If you are forced into a position where you cannot afford the shelter you live in make a choice to live somewhere else. If you are declaring bankruptcy and know that you will have to move out of your home shelter should be your first concern. Find somewhere fast to live before someone else makes that choice for you. Sometimes peoples stuff come between them and cheap living - who says you need all that stuff! Sell it, use the money to get into small cheap accommodation. If family is an option ask to move in with them. Offer to pay rent and do so on a consistent basis. If you take advantage of family members they will never be there for you again and you will have difficulty living with yourself. Pay your way! Second option - ask friends. Perhaps someone is in a similar situation and would like help paying their mortgage or rent. If you don't ask no one can say yes. If your friends do not have living space available they might know someone else who does. Third option: Ask the community. If you belong to a church or organization use them as a connection resource. Post a notice on an electronic bulletin board such as Craigs List or Kijiji. Understand the smaller shelter you choose the better. All bills are cheaper the smaller the accommodation. More space means more money. Those with tiny budgets should try for accommodation that includes heat and electricity. Therefore once you pay your rent you always will be warm and when on a limited budget you cannot handle fluctuations in bills. Everything else will fall into place after that.

2. Food: Some would say food should be number one on basic necessities of life. I disagree. There are always resources for food once you have your shelter covered off. No matter how bad it gets you can always find a meal at a friend, family, church, food bank or even nature depending on the season. Most places have some kind of free food available: berries, mushrooms, sea kelp, clams, fish. Often Freecycle (do an internet search for Freecycle in your area) is a good place to find extra free produce. Free apples, potatoes, and garden produce are often up for grabs. Don't be shy - everyone who uses Freecycle gives away for free and accepts for free. That is the nature of it. With what little money you do have ensure you always have large quantities of the basics on hand: pasta, rice (brown fills you up and has more nutrients than white), oatmeal, potatoes, carrots and onions. These ingredients are simply the cheapest and can be supplemented with whatever you are able to afford. Keep your eyes open for free samples at stores. Meat should be the smallest portion of your grocery bill. Vegetables are the cheapest and buy only what is in season. Meat should be looked at not as the main course but as an ingredient. Nutrition is sometimes difficult to worry about when you are more concerned about just getting some food but try and ensure you are nourishing your body as well.

3. Telephone. Think pay as you go cell phone or cheapest possible land line with no features. You must be available if you expect to dig your way out of living on nothing. You cannot benefit from a job offer if your potential employer cannot reach you. You cannot offer to pick up that free produce from some nice farmer if you can't call him to tell him you are coming.

4. Clothes. People spend so much money on something to keep you warm and to cover you from the elements. Really that is the function of clothing but we often forget that. Do not think of clothing as an investment. Best options: garage sales and thrift stores. Garage sales are the cheapest but thrift stores allow you to try goods on and have the widest variety of items. All clothes should be washed before wearing but the benefit to buying used clothes is that you often can buy items you could have never afforded otherwise ie. $45 Ralph Lauren T-shirt for $3 at my local Salvation Army (purchased March 9/09) and generally you get an idea of how the item will wear as it has already been used. If good clothing for a job is required you often can find brand name items to make you into a fashion plate for $10 per outfit. Enter a Freecycle post with your size and what type of clothing required ie. work clothes or winter jacket or kids clothes and wait for your emails to come in for contact. If you don't have a computer set up a free email address (gmail or hotmail or yahoo mail) and use the local library computer for free.

5. Furniture. Now you have a place to live, a way to be reached for employers, clothes to wear to your new job, food to nourish your body and now it is time to make your new place a home. Many items are available free for asking. How? Post a request on Freecycle. See if you have a friend who has a truck to pick items up. If you have no way for delivery then post that as well. Freecycle is good people giving items away for free and keeping them out of landfills. As soon as you have any item (and I mean anything) that you no longer use or need then post those items for others on Freecycle. For every item you ask for or receive you are to post an item and no money is to ever change hands. Beds are often available as they are difficult to sell. Desks seem to be plentiful. Flowered couches perhaps might not be the most modern but usually still in good shape and easily disguised with a blanket or sheet. Another choice would be Kijiji or Craigslist as year round options to buy used furniture. Prices range from extremely low to extremely high and occasionally the seller is willing to deliver either for free or a small fee. Garage sales again are a great option but you must have a way to cart your goods home. Ask friends and family what items they might be thinking of giving away. Almost everyone has a stash of items they are ready to part with from furniture to kitchen items to blankets and sheets.

Just remember, you are strong and this situation is temporary. Everyone at some point in their life experiences trying times. Keep your chin up, as this is the time for you to understand what the people around you mean and how strong you really are.

Deals of the Week

For the past 10 days I have battling the worst case of the cold and flu that I have ever had. Needless to say there has been little shopping. All deals shown are from a week and a half ago when I had much more energy.

Goodwill:
Ralph Lauren Ladies Sweater $5.99
Janet Evanovich Finger Licken Fifteen $2.49
Blue Glass Urn (1.5 ft high) $6.99












Rexall Drug Mart
Sunlight Green Clean $2.96 - $2 coupon = .96 per bottle x 2











Freebie this week:
Free pack Dentyne Ice



Spring is a great time to find good quality sweaters at second hand shops as people are purging closets for Spring and Summer clothes. Hopefully good health is on the horizon soon....and more bargains!

Is Retiring Early Possible? FIRE Yourself

Yes, it would appear so. Hubby and I have plans to do so. With a shrinking mortgage and 4 teenagers to put through college (13, 15, 17, 19) FIREing ourselves in the near future is a real possibility. What is FIRE? Financially Independent Retired Early.

I recently stumbled across the earlyretirement.org website and have been lurking around reading their forums. A wealth of information from people off the street, no financial advisers here to tell you where your money should go.

Our household works as follows:
I am in charge of groceries,coupons,freebies,vacations (I used to be a travel agent),insurance (I currently work as a property underwriter for an insurance company).

Hubby is in charge of finding and maintaining good used vehicles, and managing our finances which includes picking stocks.

We talk about household finances almost on a daily basis, as it is an area that we are both interested in. About 8 years ago we quit using brokers and investment counsellers and started doing trading and investing four ourselves. There were mistakes made along the way, but in the last 3 years have averaged a rate of return through two stock market crashes of eight percent. Some return rates are much higher and some were losses. When husband quit his job out of frustration after 17 years a year and a half ago(he has since found a different job), there was a fear of the unknown but no fear of starvation or no roof over our head. We are the King and Queen of cheap and know how to live on nothing, some times from necessity, sometimes by choice. We pay cash for everthing if possible but use our credit cards for airline points while paying off the balances in full each month. We could keep up with the Joneses but choose not to. Our clothing and furniture is a mix of new, bought on sale and used, found at Goodwill, Kijiji and garage sales. There is no differentiation for items bought new or used, both equally appealing and viable. The only debt left is a mortgage which is about 10% of the value of our home.

Why do we scrimp and save? The hope is to semi-retire in 2-5 years to a life that includes only part-time work when we want to at things we are interested in. No more JOBS for us!

Absolutely Nothing To Do With Money Post

Miscellaneous random thoughts today:

My hubby got me tickets to see Don Felder for Christmas (member of the Eagles Band for 27 years, co-writer on Hotel California), the concert was this past Monday night. Absolutely fabulous concert, wonderful Christmas gift and date night for a minimalist like me. What a great talent he is.

Vanity Plate seen on my commute this am on a 2010 White Dodge Ram: HAUNTED
Very interesting...must be a story there.

Dinner tonight with a girlfriend I haven't seen in six months: great to see her, note to self - need to spend more time with friends and less time working (don't we all)

Freebies this Week

3 free small cans shaving cream (hubby already has 15 large cans gotten for free over the last year, these will be saved for travelling)

Used Save $5 when you buy 3 at Sobeys on 10% off Tuesday - items were free but still paid 8 cents tax.

2 Free bags Thinsations Chunks Ahoy Fudge Drizzled Cookies and a coupon for buy 1 get 1 (one bag has already been consumed)

Snow Day - Clean Out The Cupboards Cooking Fiesta

Another crappy blizzard in the fine Province of Alberta so I am staying in today. Pot roast with veggies are cooking away in our crock pot so dinner is covered. I then decided to see what items in my cupboards needed to be used up. The result? Lemon blueberry/cranberry muffins. Yummo




Used up:
3 eggs (sell by date January 31/2011-did smell test and they are fine)
1 box Dr Oetker lemon box cake (bought about 1 year ago for .50 cents with coupons)
1/3 cup cranberry sauce-kind with whole berries (leftovers from Christmas dinner-frozen)
1/3 cup blueberries (frozen-found on sale last summer)
1/3 cup oil (pantry item)

Approximately 20 small muffins for approximately $1.75 out of pocket and one step further ahead in my quest to be less wasteful.

At the time of writing this post 6 were already consumed (kids are over this weekend)

January 2011 Coupon, Freebie and Contest Results

January Grocery Budget: $450.00
(same goal every month unless over prior month)
Actual $481.80.

February Grocery Budget $418.20

In an effort to keep to my annual grocery budget new in 2011 is when I go over the next months budget is reduced.

This month hubby helped with some of the grocery shopping. After some review of grocery spending we both "agreed" that I am the better grocery shopper, therefore am now 100% in charge of the grocery shopping :) He is a sweet helpful man, but never looks at a grocery price (but get a car part in front of him he comparison shops all over town).

January Coupon Savings: $74.66
I could have used more coupons but then the grocery bill would go up, and bottom line is the after coupon grocery spend.

January Freebies:
1 Pair pants for work - Haggar clothing freebie
Dr Oetker 50 Calorie Mousse Free Product Coupon
Vaseline Hand lotion Free Product Coupon
Kashi Cereal Free Product Coupon
$10 in free Amazon.ca gift certificate codes from Swagbucks.com (saving this up for Christmas 2011)

January Contest Wins:
$10 credit from Beyond the Rack winning from Sweetspot.ca

I really have not been entering contests much due to full-time work, blogging, 4 stepchildren and a very busy household. I am not sure if I will use the above credit as it does not include shipping but when added to last year's same win from sweetspot.ca contest I now have a $20 credit. Likely I will wait and use this in November for another goodie for Christmas for someone on my list.