Saving for multiple things

[maxiesmom]

I'm wondering how others go about saving for multiple large expenses at the same time. Right now I'm trying to save for:

Knee surgery on my dog
A new car
A Disney trip

In addition I already have the Dave Ramsey $1000 emergency fund set up. Now I'm trying to figure out what left over money to put where. I have over $1000 in another fund that I tell myself is my New Car Fund, but might have to end up being Dog Knee Repair start up fund. And then another $550 in a Disney Trip savings account.

So tell me, how do you decide where to put what money, when you are trying to save for multiple things?

 

[havaneselover]

I just carve it out of my budget. With capital one 360 you can have multiple savings accounts so that might help.

I'm saving for braces for two kids (money is debited from my savings account to my hsa every month), college funds (again automatically debited), retirement (straight out of my paycheck), cars for my kids when they are 16 (I transfer money monthly), and a Disney Cruise (I buy gift cards). I wish I could save to replace my van and for house maintenance but I do have a decent emergency fund.

Btw my Havanese has grade three luxating patellas. We were very fortunate that getting weight off her helped immensely so no surgery for now.

 

[maxiesmom]

[QUOTE="havaneselover, post: 55327513, member: 257408"

Btw my Havanese has grade three luxating patellas. We were very fortunate that getting weight off her helped immensely so no surgery for now.[/QUOTE]

My Beagle is a grade three too. We are trying to get some weight off of him as well. Glad to hear it does help quite a lot. I'm trying to put off the surgery as long as I can, if you know anything about Beagles you know they have 2 speeds--Stop and Go Fast!!! Not sure how I'd keep him from over- using his knee for 6 weeks.

 

[havaneselover]

My Beagle is a grade three too. We are trying to get some weight off of him as well. Glad to hear it does help quite a lot. I'm trying to put off the surgery as long as I can, if you know anything about Beagles you know they have 2 speeds--Stop and Go Fast!!! Not sure how I'd keep him from over- using his knee for 6 weeks.

So mine was 27 pounds in September (my other dog has cancer so in trying to keep weight on her I inadvertently chubbed up the Havanese). She's lost seven pounds. Basically I cut her food in half and added frozen green beans to her meals. She couldn't even jump on the couch in September and now she's back to lying on the kitchen table!

Best of luck. There definitely is hope to avoid it.

 

[TheDisneyDoll]

I'm a great saver but i'm a money hoarder
I get my bank account up to a certain and number and even when i go to buy those things i'm saving for it's like anxiety to watch the number fall low.
It's horrible i'm like that with everything.

 

[CoP Luv]

I would up your emergency fund to 6 months expenses. We have multiple savings accounts as well that money gets transferred to every month (new car - we pay cash, travel, home repairs, Home/Car/Life insurance premiums that are paid 1-2x per year, retirement, 529), up to a certain balance. We also have a medical account that we may tap into after our FSA is exhausted, and then replenished with bonus/tax refund. This way, when we travel/have something fixed on the house/buy a car/pay insurance, it doesn't come out of our normal everyday expenses or out of a general savings account. Each dollar is earmarked for big purchases and that has worked really well for us. If the savings account for that category doesn't have the money, we don't spend it (unless of an emergency, of course).

 

[tzolkin]

One way you could decide how to allocate the money is to set a goal amount and a date for each and then put the correct amount in each fund each month to reach the goals on time.

That said, you really need a real emergency fund (6mos)-- not just the Dave Ramsay suggested $1000 to start. If you have a real emergency, $1000 isn't going to go very far and you'll be pulling out of your other savings funds anyway.

Do you need a new car? Personally I would hold off on that savings fund until after you have an emergency fund. (Ex. 1/2 your monthly savings going toward e-fund and 1/4 into both the vet and vacation funds)

If you really need a car, I would suggest making four different funds (emergency, car, vet, and vacation) and contributing to each every month.

 

[maxiesmom]

My car is fine right now. But it is 13 years old, and I don't want to be panicking if it decides to give up the ghost.

 

[kool_kat]

I budget monthly and look at how much I need to save for each item and when I need to have the money. So if dog surgery is 2000 and he needs it by the end of the year, but Disney trip is just a dream and not set in stone, I would allocate everything to dog til I saved up. Then move on to Disney, etc... If two things have a definitive date I would divide my savings proportionate to the cost or based on when I need the money

 

[usnuzuloose]

[QUOTE="havaneselover, post: 55327513, member: 257408"

Btw my Havanese has grade three luxating patellas. We were very fortunate that getting weight off her helped immensely so no surgery for now.

My Beagle is a grade three too. We are trying to get some weight off of him as well. Glad to hear it does help quite a lot. I'm trying to put off the surgery as long as I can, if you know anything about Beagles you know they have 2 speeds--Stop and Go Fast!!! Not sure how I'd keep him from over- using his knee for 6 weeks.[/QUOTE]
My poor dog had 2 TPLO"s for the knee. I used one of those pack and play things which is more comfortable than a crate. I slept next to her so I could take her out in her sling to go to the bathroom.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

[QUOTE="havaneselover, post: 55327513, member: 257408"

Btw my Havanese has grade three luxating patellas. We were very fortunate that getting weight off her helped immensely so no surgery for now.

My Beagle is a grade three too. We are trying to get some weight off of him as well. Glad to hear it does help quite a lot. I'm trying to put off the surgery as long as I can, if you know anything about Beagles you know they have 2 speeds--Stop and Go Fast!!! Not sure how I'd keep him from over- using his knee for 6 weeks.[/QUOTE]
We have a Newfoundland mix (100 lbs) that tore a ligament in his knee. We thought we were doing a good job restricting his movement / giving him bed rest - but discovered that we were not after he stayed with my parents during a Disney trip and improved a lot. So we went back to the drawing board - really really made sure he wasn't walking more than necessary and saved ourselves surgery and around $1400!

 

[davper]

If you are following the Dave Ramsey plan, you should not be saving for a vacation or new car.

Make your minimum payments to your bills, eat beans and rice, then every dime to your dog's surgery fund which is currently at $1550.

After that, you go onto step 2, the debt snowball.

 

[tzolkin]

If you are following the Dave Ramsey plan, you should not be saving for a vacation or new car.

Make your minimum payments to your bills, eat beans and rice, then every dime to your dog's surgery fund which is currently at $1550.

After that, you go onto step 2, the debt snowball.

I was assuming they had no debt and were on step 3-- 3-6mos savings.

 

[davper]

I was assuming they had no debt and were on step 3-- 3-6mos savings.

Even if they are on step 3, they still shouldn't be saving for a vacation or new car. They technically should never be saving for a new car. A used car only.

 

[Vernie822]

OK I have no idea about anything Dave Ramsey, but I thought I'd just share what we do because we are saving for a few things right now.

If you have PNC bank available to you, their Virtual Wallet is key in helping me stay organized. Virtual Wallet is their online portal for debit/savings. My account has 2 checking accounts: Spend and Reserve, and I also have a Growth account (Savings). All 3 are attached. In the Virtual Wallet online portal you can add an item to save for. So for example I have my Savings account and in that account say I have $5,000. I can create my item, Disney Vacation, and set a "goal" amount and a "saved" amount. I set my goal and then every paycheck when I put money in to my savings, I change the "saved" amount by however much I intend to save that paycheck. So if I put $500 in to my savings account, and I want $250 to go towards my vacation, I can designate it that way. Currently I have a few different items I'm saving for.

Reserve is nice because that's more of an "in limbo" savings - things like rent, car payment, etc. that I don't want in my checking account or my savings, they sit there until I'm ready to pay for them.

Not sure if that's an option for you but it works for me. I also have a Credit union account that I transfer money to each paycheck, currently it's a wedding fund but it's nice to keep that separate and "untouchable" in my daily use.

Keeping track on a spreadsheet is also really important to me. Can you see I'm anal about these things!? Lol. I have a spreadsheet where each column is a different paycheck, then I have my rows labeled for each individual item: rent, car payment, electric, etc. I put into my spreadsheet about 3-4 months worth of paychecks at a time. I have a formula that takes my total paycheck, less the amounts in all of those rows for that paycheck, and gives me a "leftover" amount. I can break that up into savings, trips, gifts I need to buy, etc. If I have an event coming up, I'll add a new row for that event and spread out my savings over time.

 

[KarenAylwood]

When I'm saving for multiple things I usually set a goal date for when I'd need the money. So if I need $500 5 months from now, I save $100/month. If I had three things I definitely needed to save for, I'd make goal dates for each and divide out what I need and automatically pull that amount into a "x" fund, "y" fund, "z" fund in my CapitalOne360 account. And/or if things were really tight and I couldn't make them all work, or some had non-specific goal dates I'd do something more like the snowball thing and throw all I could into one, then move on to the next. I don't do Dave Ramsay though so maybe you should ignore this altogether

 

[msmama]

I have a Savings account and a Saving For account.

I don't like to split things up too much because I want the maximum interest (which is cents anyway, but hey, free money is free money). My regular savings account includes my emergency fund. And it gets funded first (I'm a pay myself first kind of person) then the bills get paid and then anything extra (up to a certain amount) goes into the Saving For account.

So, for instance if something catastrophic happened and I needed a new roof or something - that'd come from the regular savings emergency fund. If I decide to book a disney cruise - that money comes from the Saving For fund. Part of the Saving For is going to go towards a new car when it comes time (I have a 10 year old car and don't want to have to deal with too much maintenance so it'll be time within the next several years).

I've scrimped and saved enough that both are fairly funded though and I can take significant amounts out of each without spending everything I have. It was important to me to get to a place that I was saving to save, not saving to spend (if that makes sense). Meaning, when I do take money out to go to WDW, it's money that I mostly saved years ago, not for a particular goal. So by the time my pay in full date for my cruise comes around, I'll have plenty, plus probably half for my next vacation (whatever that may be) saved.

 

[Jaime4004]

I have emergency fund money (though not as much as I should, slowly working on it) in capitalone360 account. It gets an automatic deposit every month from my checking account and it takes a little more effort to take the money out so it works for us. I also have a checking and savings account in our local credit union. Money for monthly bills stays in the checking account (I have an excel spreadsheet showing how much I need in there) and the savings has all the money for the big bills in the upcoming year. The money is all together, but I have it broken up in quicken for my own knowledge. Categories in there are car insurance, propane, car registration, kids sports fees, medical deductible, etc. These are to save for large checks that I need to write, but only a couple times/year. Works for us...

 

[hsmamato2]

If you are following the Dave Ramsey plan, you should not be saving for a vacation or new car.
Make your minimum payments to your bills, eat beans and rice, then every dime to your dog's surgery fund which is currently at $1550.
After that, you go onto step 2, the debt snowball.

This.... OP you have the start of a good plan- that 1k is a placeholder! you don't say if you're paying other debt down while trying to save, so I'll leave that alone- but a pp is right, if you NEED that emergency money, but aren't 'fully funded" you are just going to pull from that central 1k+ acct ,so it is smart to set separate accts,like on Capitol one 360- and give each acct a NAME.
With your info, I would take all my money to be put into savings and.... put as MUCH as possible weekly into that 1k acct,get it to a 6-9 months level. With that said, in the meanwhile, b/c you know you have 3 other things specifically- put them in order of importance- a car is vital,and yours is 13.... so start chunking away at that - the dogs knee is also vital, so that's next..the trip is LAST. (yes, I know, not as much fun, but for me, I like to put something in my vacay acct weekly too, even if it's just a little amount)
I'm no accountant, but say as an example I had 1000 monthly to save, I would allocate 7-800 of that for the emergency fund-150 to the car fund-50 to the dog fund- and 20-50 to the vacation fund.

 

[Nayan]

The dog issue is a need, the car will be a need and a very well funded emergency fund is a must. The vacation is a want and shouldn't even be considered until the other three are well taken care of.