Part of my requirement for participation in the IDA program is that I will attend a class on financial management.  As you might have guessed, I wasn't looking forward to this class.  I didn't believe that I'd learn anything new and I was resenting the tax on my time. 

Well, I attended the first session on Wednesday.  And they didn't cover anything that I don't already know or anything that I'm not already doing.  There are four more sessions so we'll just see whether or not that changes with time.  But it was anything but a waste of time.

Going back over the things I have had pretty well set in stone for a while made me question whether I really am doing the best I can.  I know I've been doing well with the account from which I intend to have the downpayment for my house, and that's not going to change.  But I took a look at my "emergency" account.  Yes, I actually hold my money in different savings accounts.  I know that I SHOULD be able to put it all in one account and know tjat x amount is for this purpose and z amount is for that purpose, but in truth, I'd have a had time with that.  The money would slosh around and become ... fuzzy.  So I have separate accounts.

ANYWAY, the point is that I can do better.  We did the calculations and figured up how much money we need to have in our emergency fund.  All the financial planners recommend the equivalent of 6 months income.  So I put that number in and crunched.  At my current rate of savings it would take me about 2 1/2 years to bring that balance up to where I want it to be.  I'd rather see if I can't do that a little faster.  Like say ... 12 months from now.  Well, that's probably not realistic

But if I increase my contribution just a little, by say ... $60 a month, that brings my target for fully funding it to 23 months.  That would be a nice Christmas present to myself in 2007.

To find the $60 a month, I just have to trim a little here and there.  I can still take the boys out for our weekly special dinner but instead of Saturdays, we can go out on Tuesdays to "kids eat free" night and save $10.  Instead of having bottled water from the grocery at an approximate cost of $2.50 a week, I can drink tap water and add a little lemon juice.  Instead of ... okay, I can't think of another specific instead of but I'm pretty sure that I can find another $2.50 a week so I can transfer that $15 into savings.  That's all I have to do to make my goals happen.  And the thing is that I know that I spent at least that much this week on impulse buys.  So I know that it's possible.

There is always room for improvement.  And it occurs to me that if I trim my budget, it will take even less money to equal that necessary figure to carry us through 6 months if something should happen.  Hmmmmm, nah, I'll leave that figure alone.