Green Panda Treehouse

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Photo Credit:  babasteve

I used some of my emergency fund to help with the moving expenses. Let me explain. I got a job opportunity offered that would give me:

• A slight raise
• More flextime
• Less stress
• A reason to move to an area with a lower cost of living

Sounds good, doesn’t it? The catch was we had to move out of state in two weeks. Needless to say that put us into rush mode.

We were fortunate to find a place with a rent that fits within our budget.  We got the utilities turned on Thursday and moved in on Sunday night last month. I have to say I really like our new place and my job is going well.

I did have to dip into my emergency fund, but I have in motion a plan to build it up (and increase it by a bit).

1. Ignore my raise. I’m using my raise and putting it into savings. This is great because I know I can live on what I made before,  so it wont feel like I’m sacrificing a lot.  I should have the emergency fund back up to pre-move level by next Monday.
2. Cut down on eating out. I’m doing this because I realize that I need to cushion my emergency fund just a bit more.  I’ve been eating leftovers and sandwiches.
3. Save my extra gas money. My commute to work has went from 60 odd miles a day to less than 20 a day. It’s a nice change and puts some extra money for the emergency fund.

That’s my plan so far on getting the fund up. I also wrote about other ways to ‘find’ money in your budget for emergency funds. After refilling the emergency fund, I’m going to put the raise into eliminating my car loan. Being Frugal is also rebuilding her emergency fund. We have to compare notes some time.

How did you build or rebuild your emergency fund? What was the hardest part? What was the easiest?