Savings?

Do any of you keep any extra savings tucked away for rainy days/emergencies?
I feel like I am shopping too much with no savings is a little risky for a business like this especially one that isn't as reliable even with a contract (and of course, the dreaded dry spells!)
Do you have any savings tucked away? How much would you recommend? How long did it take you to get to that amount?
From now on I will try to budget but organic food is especially pricey so I'm not even sure how much I will be able to save as I feed on demand (I won't say no to a child who just ate but still asks for more) so some months I end up visiting the grocery store more often.

A good rule of thumb is to put away 10% of your net (after tax) income.

It really all depends on your own situation. Everyone is going to be different. If you work out how much you would need for just the very basic expenses for three months, that should give you an idea of your needs. It also makes a difference whether or not you have some sort of medical insurance coverage for disability, etc. If you can't work for awhile is different than if you have a couple of open spots for awhile.

I am very much a do it myself, kind of person. I would never walk into a bank, say, and talk to a finacial advisor. I would always wonder if they had their own agenda, or try to sell me something. Just watch CBC's Marketplace, yikes! But, having said that, there are people out there who's job it is to help with this kind of thing. I would just watch out for people who make a commission from selling you a financial product, like an RRSP.

I take the fees of one daycare child and automatically put them in my savings account so that I have savings to pay at income tax time. I also take $100 every month and put it into my general savings (would like this to be more, but it is all I can afford right now). I also budget to have about $50 a month available for daycare expenses (equipment, toys, toilet paper, etc), though I don't necessarily spend that amount every month.

I have 4 accounts: joint chequing account with my husband, my own personal account, savings and a daycare account.

All money received (husbands pay cheque, child credit etc) goes into our joint account. From this, we give ourselves spending money ($100 biweekly) that goes into our personal accounts to spend on whatever we want, no questions asked. We also pay our bills etc from this account. I put money into a personal savings account which is used for emergencies, trips, RRSPs, RESPs etc.

All daycare cheques go into my daycare account. I pay all daycare bills from this account (I purchase all items for daycare on a seperate credit card) and "pay" myself a pay cheque (which I transfer into my joint account). Any money left over is saved for tax time, daycare expenses and when I am down a kid etc. I don't touch this money otherwise and look at it as not even my money.

So, I have personal savings and daycare savings.

I save each year to pay my taxes but that's about it. We have minimal monthly expenses and our only debt is our car loan so I pretty much buy what I want, when I want....which is great but I need to change that!

I've decided I really really want to try summers off (starting 2016) but before I do that I want to save enough to cover that so that I'm always a year ahead. So this year I will be putting money away for my taxes and for the summer months. If I can, I'd like to save at least 3 months pay because summer is our most expensive time (holidays, gas, entertainment) and the months we have less money coming in (husband is on EI during summers)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 5 Little Monkeys

I save each year to pay my taxes but that's about it. We have minimal monthly expenses and our only debt is our car loan so I pretty much buy what I want, when I want....which is great but I need to change that!

I've decided I really really want to try summers off but before I do that I want to save enough to cover that so that I'm always a year ahead. So this year I will be putting money away for my taxes and for the summer months. If I can, I'd like to save at least 3 months pay because summer is our most expensive time and the months we have less money coming in (husband is on EI during summers)

---

I would recommend you take what you would make in a year (minus the summer) and allow yourself that much each month. Like you suggested, wait a year to take summers off then you will always have a cushion in your account for whatever. I did this when we were planning to have our first baby. We lived on what we would make while on mat leave (EI plus my husbands pay) and the rest of my pay went into savings. We had already adjusted to the pay cut when the time came and had a nice little savings account that we used to go to Florida while on mat leave and replace our windows just before going back to work.

That's a good idea!! I should get used to living on only 10 months. Thanks for the suggestion :)