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2010 Sinking Fund Challenge

8K views 121 replies 18 participants last post by  peanut 
#1 ·
Anyone interested in this? A sinking fund is for yearly or more than yearly expenses. Things like house renos, replacing appliances, house insurance, etc. Things that sink your budget if you haven't allowed for them in it.

We have a sinking fund sitting at about $7000 right now. But it's far too little. We need a new kitchen, new furniture, and in a few years, a new car (we only pay cash for cars). We seriously need to get to work on our sinking fund!

Anyone else in with me?
 
#3 ·
I need this for our semi annual insurance payments. Am not going to have this be an automatic deduction - really want to actively participate in being successful here!! Mahalo for setting this up. By 1/2/10 I'll know the numbers I will need!!
 
#5 ·
count me in too! :)
 
#6 ·
I'm in this. I have money automatically go into this account every pay. Right now it covers my real estate taxes, homeowners insurance and car insurance. I'd like to put a little more in there because I need to save for a new roof which I will need in a couple of years.
 
#7 ·
I am using a separate account that is very easy for me to make deposits - ergo - no excuses!! And by making it separate, it's uses are easily identifiable!!
 
#9 ·
So tomorrow when I start reconciling 2009 finances, this is the first account that I am going to calculate. Am really excited to get this going!!
 
#10 ·
So for us...eventually we'll need...

$400/mth. for taxes and insurance

$15000 kitchen reno
$4000 entryway reno
$10000 new furniture (we'll probably buy secondhand, but good)
$15000 new-to-us car
$6000 trip to Denmark

All this has to be achieved in 4 years...sigh...that's $1041 into savings every month. Hmmm...could be tight. Might be cutting back in the area of the furniture and doing renos ourselves. We know we can save $1000 a month if we just do it.

That's $1441 into savings a month! Time to get serious!
 
#11 ·
So for us...eventually we'll need...

$400/mth. for taxes and insurance

$15000 kitchen reno
$4000 entryway reno
$10000 new furniture (we'll probably buy secondhand, but good)
$15000 new-to-us car
$6000 trip to Denmark

All this has to be achieved in 4 years...sigh...that's $1041 into savings every month. Hmmm...could be tight. Might be cutting back in the area of the furniture and doing renos ourselves. We know we can save $1000 a month if we just do it.

That's $1441 into savings a month! Time to get serious!
Wow!!! Serious goal. Wishing you all the luck especially in the next year just getting it fine tunes.
Anything you get accomplished tho will be that much less at the very end. Just have to keep plugging.
 
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#12 ·
i feel like julie powell in Julie/Julia.

The challenge: 5100 dollars in freedom account
The days: 365 days

let's begin.
 
#13 ·
Ceashels' and Greebo's Sinking fund goals

Disney:
Home Repair:

Amounts to be determined after our next budget meeting.

These are the 2 that we would really like to focus on (Disney for the first half of the year and home repair for the second half). Most of our other funds are smaller items like water, car registration and life insurance that we know will get covered first.

I look forward to seeing these funds grow.
 
#14 ·
I'm in. I have 2 sink accounts that I'm filling right now.

No work summer: $375/$2,000
Christmas 2010: $400/$1,000

I put in $100 a month for my no work summer fund and whatever we have left over at the end of the month. I'm also waiting on a rebate check for over $700 from a credit card that we over paid. I want both funded by May. Good luck everyone.
 
#15 ·
I don't have a sinking fund I have something I call my misc fund. The only real expenses that aren't monthly are oil changes, inspections, registration, and auto insurance. I don't really budget for them because they aren't that much money and our auto is twice yearly in Feb and Aug and Hubby gets an extra paycheck in Jan and July so that extra check pays it off in full. So our misc fund is more for if the tv breaks or microwave breaks. Not an emergency but if the tv breaks I would like to get a new one since we only have one to begin with. So would I still be able to do this challenge?
 
#16 ·
I am in. I hope to fund:

car insurance ($100 a month)
Vacation ($25 a month)
extra house payment($50 a month)
Christmas ($50 a month)
next baby ($20 a month now-will up if I become pregnant)
new car (hold off or add to big ticket items at $50 a month)

That is $295 a month.
 
#17 ·
Count me in!

Truck Tags & Taxes
New Couch

I will have to guesstimate the amount as
I have no idea what I will be spending on
a couch. I hope to find a nice one at the
auction.

Guesstimate amount: $850.00
Will be starting on January 1st.

Thanks, Peanut and Good Luck to all of you!
 
#19 ·
Glad to see so many making the sinking fund commitment. I should know today how much I need to add monthly.
 
#20 ·
Sigh...DD phoned the other night and was asking about us visiting them next year. I forgot to put annual visits to the girls in our sinking funds. That will be another $3000 per year! Might be better to fly them out for Christmas...hmm...might chat up the respective parents about this...and the kids of course...hmmm...

OTOH, DH and I had a good chat about finances the other day. I printed out some year end summaries and monthly comparison figures, added the last two years of expenses to an ongoing chart I've been keeping since 1995, saw a few interesting trends. We came up with some good decisions I think. We're going to control dining out, hobbies (me), and change how we do travel a bit.

I'm working on whacking the grocery budget back into shape as well. That will mean freezing a lot of leftovers instead of rushing to eat them before they go bad. And making better use of what's in the house for foodstuff. I'll like having the meals/leftovers in the freezer. It will mean fewer last minute going out to eat because we don't have time to make supper or are too tired.
 
#21 ·
Further chat with DH. We've decided he should keep taking the car to work because of the cold weather. It will also keep me out of the stores.

If he leaves the car home, I tend to take it places to visit with friends...and do errands on the way. Sometimes those are unnecessary 'errands' or end up in spontaneous spending.

So with a bus pass costing $59CAD/mth., and gas for him to take the car to work costing $70/mth., it's really about an even wash. Especially by the time you figure in any driving and spending I might do.

From now on we shop together or not at all. Best way to keep control of both of us.

Right now our sinking fund is at $8000. Gotta figure out a budget for the next pay period to see if we can set aside $1000.
 
#22 ·
I have the envelopes ready (which is where I will begin saving all my monies-moving later probably). I have started adding cash to some, but only Christmas cash I had on hand. I will update as I can.
 
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#23 ·
Peanut - one thing that I learned (the hard way) is to make sure that I label everything I put in the freezer - with the date too!! It also helps to have a master list on the freezer door too!!
 
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#24 ·
I am trying to learn that too. Today I got out mystery sauce. I couldn't tell if it was hot dog chili or spaghetti sauce. I got lucky. It was in fact spaghetti sauce and DS and I had another pantry/freezer meal.
 
#25 ·
DH isn't sure we can put aside $1000 this paycheck...in fact, he thinks we'll be lucky to be able to put aside $700 a paycheck...sigh... back to the drawing board! I'm analyzing last year's expenses with a fine tooth comb starting today... The goal is to come up with a new proposed budget for 2010 and run it under DH's nose sometime this week.
 
#27 ·
So when we are doing this challenge what is the best way to add our contributions? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Or does it not really matter?
 
#28 ·
Luckybustart: It didn't always used to be that way. In 2008 I posted a thread called the Money Makeover. In which I confronted a lot of DH's attitudes head on.

Anyone who reads that thread can sense how frustrated I was with him. Well, because of the MM we were able to get ourselves on track and have the relationship we do now with money. You're right. It's so much nicer to have him on board!

JoJoBean: I don't think it matters much. I'm putting mine aside every time we get paid. That way it becomes a habit.
 
#30 ·
Sounds good Qsaver704. I think whatever works is the best approach to take!

I finished going through last year's expenses while the plumber was here today. Have some grocery receipts to analyze yet, but that will take awhile. I've managed to alter some areas and come up with a revised budget that DH agrees with in theory. We'll see how it works out.

This resulted in revising the sinking fund account. We're just worrying about this year. Next year will take care of itself. We decided against the trip to Denmark...at least not this year. No money. From comments the plumber made we will probably have a more expensive kitchen reno than we'd like. Ugh...

Anyway...our renewed sinking fund for this year...

$3000 trip to see girls in the Maritimes
$15,000 kitchen renovations
$4950 taxes and insurance
$1200 gifts to give (birthdays and Christmas)
$2000 furniture and appliances

TOTAL $26,150

Hmmm...that's still $2179CAD/month, BUT we have $8000 already set aside in the sinking fund...so $18,150 divided by 12 = $1512/mth.

I think we can do this. But it's going to mean severe cutting back! DH and I are picking up some of our frugal techniques from earlier days to see if we can find a way to have a fun frugal year...and still get things done around here.

Next stop is to analyse those grocery receipts...
 
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