When we sold our house our property tax wasn't showing paid at the assessors office yet (it was being processed) so we had to pay it AGAIN at closing for the deal to go through. We had to use almost all of our emergency fund to make that happen. We got it back as soon as the tax office showed an overpayment, but it took just over a month.
During that month I was on a mission to build our Baby Emergency Fund ($1000) as fast as I could without it affecting our budget. This is Step 1 if you follow Dave Ramsey's plan. I was able to get us almost all the way back up to $1000 before we got the money back. This is how we did it.
SELL IT!!
Goodness did we have a ton of excess! So much so that I was able to sell stuff at a great deal for other folks but enough to be close to our Baby Emergency fund.
Be real with your needs. Do I LOVE drinking glasses, sure do, but did we need 5 different sets? NOPE. It wasn't fun and wasn't a 1 time process. The first go around I eliminated 1 set and made some $. A few weeks later, did the same thing and was even more real with our needs. We hadn't used all that we had so 2 more got sold!
Use Your Skills
Maybe you can sew, paint, watch some kids? Whatever it is, put yourself out there and create something you can make money from. It doesn't have to be a full time or long time gig, just enough to get to that baby goal.
Put it away RIGHT AWAY!
This was sometimes the hard part for us. Sell $100 rug, and it can be SO tempting to go DO something, or get something with that cash. Having a designated SAVINGS spot for it before the bank and WRITING IT DOWN is really what helped us. That ongoing tally of cash was a good visual.
Other ways, not as quick as others but still efficient
SELL IT!!
Goodness did we have a ton of excess! So much so that I was able to sell stuff at a great deal for other folks but enough to be close to our Baby Emergency fund.
Be real with your needs. Do I LOVE drinking glasses, sure do, but did we need 5 different sets? NOPE. It wasn't fun and wasn't a 1 time process. The first go around I eliminated 1 set and made some $. A few weeks later, did the same thing and was even more real with our needs. We hadn't used all that we had so 2 more got sold!
Use Your Skills
Maybe you can sew, paint, watch some kids? Whatever it is, put yourself out there and create something you can make money from. It doesn't have to be a full time or long time gig, just enough to get to that baby goal.
Put it away RIGHT AWAY!
This was sometimes the hard part for us. Sell $100 rug, and it can be SO tempting to go DO something, or get something with that cash. Having a designated SAVINGS spot for it before the bank and WRITING IT DOWN is really what helped us. That ongoing tally of cash was a good visual.
Other ways, not as quick as others but still efficient
- Set up a savings account, automatically have a % from each paycheck directed there. Out of site, out of mind. Even if it's only 2% that will add up
- Cash in your change. Maybe it's only $20, it will still help
- Cash in your gift cards. I didn't know trading in my gift cards for cash was an option until recently.
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