Car Fund Revisited: Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

I realized that I hadn't updated the blog about my car fund savings since JULY.  How did that happen??

Mostly because I haven't made any progress.

In fact, for a while I went backward (!!!).

At the end of July, I had $2201 in the car fund.  As of this writing, I have $2217.  In July I had to take ~1K out to cover various expenses.  It was an expensive few months.  

Here are just a few of the things that sucked the money out of my bank account:
* Replacement laptop- $800
* Contact lenses/ glasses/ eye doc visit- $300
* Renewing professional memberships- $255
* Paying for phase one and phase two of a professional certification- $375
* Renewing professional liability insurance- $700
* Paying out of pocket for conference expenses- $1000 (I actually attended this last week so this will be reimbursed soon)
* Car repairs- $200

Yeesh.  I am very lucky/ blessed to have jobs that allow me to pay for all of this plus everyday life expenses BUT it did mean that money was not going to car savings in the way that it should have.  I did the math and I can still reach my goal IF I put away $990 per month for the next ten months (including November).  That's a lot of money, but with my side job it can be do-able.  There will be a lot of expensive moments that may derail me, but I'm going to try my best to stick to my original target goal and date.

I'll keep you posted.  For real this time.

Comments

Frugal Scholar said…
I like to save up for big purchases also, but I believe you can get a low/no interest loan for cars these days. I would not pay cash if I could get a loan for under 2-3%.
tess said…
My husband did that, after downpayment, took 300$ a month for 3 years to pay for his car at 0% interest. Easier to bite off a little at a time.
I'm really NOT interested in taking a loan for a car and having monthly car payments. I may have to if my car dies before I meet my goal, but hopefully that won't happen.

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