Savings?

[torontokids]

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.