Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

How We Save for Financial Emergencies

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First aid bag and stethoscope on a white background

A financial emergency, large or small, can happen at any time. Maybe you have a $2000 car repair that you hadn’t expected. Or, worse, you get laid off. You should save for financial emergencies to prepare for life’s unexpected expenses. We’ve been working on bulking up our savings for the last few years. Here’s how we’re doing.

Utilize Sinking Funds

Our first step was to create a budget that realistically represented our expenses. So, we save $138 every paycheck for home improvements. Then, we save another $138 for home maintenance. That gives us $3588 yearly for home improvements and $3588 for home maintenance. Honestly, that’s likely not enough, but it’s the best we can do for now.

We also set aside $92 per paycheck for car repairs/maintenance, giving ourselves $2,400 annually for this category. So, if we have a car repair, we pay for it from this sinking fund.

The sinking funds allow us to pay for expenses without dipping into our emergency fund.

Budget a Month in Advance

Next, we worked on budgeting a month in advance. As we earned money above what we had budgeted, we started applying it to next month’s expenses. We now have enough money to cover an entire month of costs. So, when we get paid in May, I don’t use the money in May. Instead, I use it to fund June’s expenses. Now that we’ve accomplished this goal, I’m working on budgeting two months ahead. (This might take me another year to complete.)

Have an Emergency Fund

Beyond sinking funds and budgeting in advance, we also have a separate emergency fund. I want to get this up to at least $10,000, but right now, it’s sitting at $3,500. We will use this if we have a significant home or car repair that exceeds our sinking fund. We could also use it if one of us lost our job.

Consider Credit Cards

We don’t have credit card debt, and we’d like to avoid having any in the future. However, we could use our credit cards if we had a significant emergency, such as a personal injury or a long-term unemployment situation.  We have tens of thousands available, though we’d only use them as a last resort.

Additional Safeguards

We have additional safeguards in place for financial emergencies.

  • My husband and I both work, so it’s unlikely we would lose our jobs simultaneously. Therefore, we should always have some income stream.
  • Second, my husband has short-term and long-term disability insurance since he’s the primary breadwinner.
  • Third, we have life insurance in place for both of us.

Final Thoughts

Our strategy to save for financial emergencies is an ongoing one. We will continue to save, focusing now on budgeting two months in advance rather than one month. We will also work to grow our emergency fund. Finally, when either of us gets a raise, we will use some of the increase in funds to increase our sinking funds, so we will have to rely less on our emergency fund.

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4 Meals from the Pantry to Save Money

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Woman looking at her pantry shelves and grabbing a jar

If you’re like me, you may find it harder and harder to stay within the grocery budget as food costs skyrocket due to inflation. So I try to find nutritious recipes that aren’t expensive. In addition, to save money, I try to have one week where I don’t make a complete grocery shopping trip and instead only buy some fresh fruits and vegetables and make my meals from the pantry to save money. Doing this allows me to use up what I have and stretch my grocery dollars.

Our Favorite Meals from the Pantry to Save Money

These are the pantry meals we make during the weeks I skip grocery shopping:

Spaghetti

My kids don’t mind a pantry meal when the meal is spaghetti. So I buy pasta and pasta sauce when they’re on sale, and I purchase canned mushrooms at Costco. I mix them together for a quick, cheap meal.

We recently upped our spaghetti game by making Pizza in a Bowl (I left out the creamed soup and only used half the cheese.) I was amazed at how this meal stretched—we had it for two meals!

Breakfast for Dinner

Omelette with mushrooms

Another favorite is breakfast for dinner. We might have omelets with green peppers and cheese and a piece of toast. Or, if we have many bread heels in the freezer, we make French toast and eggs. Sometimes we make a breakfast sandwich with ham, egg, and cheese on toast or an English muffin. Another economical recipe is Ham, Broccoli & Cheddar Frittata. (If money is tight, I leave out the ham, and it still tastes good.)

Broccoli, Potato, & Soup

I recently found this delicious recipe for Broccoli, Cheddar & Potato Soup. I like it because I can use frozen broccoli. (This recipe and the broccoli frittata recipe are the only ways I enjoy eating frozen broccoli.) Like Pizza in a Bowl, this recipe stretches and easily feeds the four of us for two meals.  Oh, and while I am talking about soup, another good recipe for meatball soup is here.

Fried Rice

Another frugal yet filling meal is Chicken Fried Rice. We use a rotisserie chicken from Costco and save the bones to make homemade chicken stock. Since rotisserie chicken at Costco is only $4.99, the meat is cheap, and we add rice, frozen vegetables, a few eggs, and seasoning.

How We’re Able to Keep Our Meals Frugal

For years, I’ve stocked up on items when they’re on sale, so I pay the lowest price for groceries. We have a pantry in our basement, two deep freezers, and two refrigerators so we can keep a full supply.

When ground beef is on sale, I may buy 20 or 25 pounds. We have food intolerances and can’t eat dairy, so when our favorite vegan cheese, Daiya, goes on sale, I may buy 20 bags. Then I won’t buy any more until it’s on sale again. If we run out before it goes on sale, we do without until the next sale.

Shopping this way makes having a pantry cooking week easy.

Final Thoughts

Keeping within our allotted grocery budget is getting more challenging every month. One way we rein in expenses is by making meals from the pantry to forego a weekly shopping trip once a month.

Read More

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5 Tips to Save on Groceries This Year

How You Can Avoid Loss of Income

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As a hardworking individual, the last thing that you want is to lose your income in a way that could have been prevented. Since most of what you do as an adult is towards securing your finances, you want to make sure that there’s minimal risk of something happening to them. Read on to see some actions that you can take to avoid a loss of income that could leave you in financial distress for years to come.

Maintain a Clean Home

One of the most important things that anyone can do for their continued good health is to keep their home clean and tidy at all times. Doing this could lower the chances of infections and diseases spreading to people in the home. This is backed by the fact that flu viruses can survive for up to 48 hours on hard surfaces.

There are many other disease-causing organisms that can linger around your home for a long time if you’re not careful. With health care being as expensive as it currently is, it’s important to take measures to keep the chances of coming down with something low for you and your family. When you do this, you may end up spending fewer finances on treating various issues.

Ensure Your Business Is Run Professionally

If you run a business either as a side hustle or it’s your main job, you must do it right. When you do, you’ll have a better chance of not just avoiding losing money, but you’ll also be likely to make more money. Avoid making mistakes such as failing to ensure your website is running optimally. This is important since up to 42% of people wouldn’t hesitate to leave a website whose functionality was poor. Clearly, it’s a good idea to hire the right professionals at every level of your business.

While doing this will see you spend money, you’ll have a great chance of getting this money back down the road. This should motivate you to plan your business operations carefully, ensuring that every last detail is thought about and dealt with the right way. This is going to help you avoid mistakes that could see you losing a lot of money and potentially even having to shut your business down in the end.

Take Care of Your Health

As mentioned, healthcare can be expensive. This makes it a good idea to practice prevention rather than wait to cure a full-blown issue. To this end, paying your doctor and dentist regular visits is advisable. This way, you can easily have any health issues identified and dealt with before they become expensive and time-consuming to solve. Keep in mind that almost 137.1 million Americans, according to CNBC, have gone through financial hardship this year as a result of medical costs.

Clearly, you stand to save a good amount of money by ensuring that you’re always in good health. The moment any issue is identified, you need to deal with it before it gets out of hand. Otherwise, there won’t be an advantage in finding out about issues early. Don’t try to cut corners where your health is involved. Pair regular visits to your health care professionals with eating healthy, nutritious meals, and staying physically active. These are all measures that can help you get your health in the best possible shape.

Taking these actions can help you avoid a loss of income in a number of ways. Start with one measure and practice it to perfection and then work on the others. In the end, you may be able to control your finances and avoid loss of income that could affect your lifestyle in a negative way.