Savings

I have a Capitol One online savings (and checking) account. I opened them up about a year and a half ago to take advantage of a special offer they were having where I got $175 in cash back reward for opening and leaving some money in there and using the checking debit card.

I've started using the savings again to transfer $100 a month from my side job income to cover taxes due on the self employment income. I owed about $1100 this year, so hopefully the $100 a month set aside will cover next year, or at least be close and not have to pull much out of my regular savings, like I did this year.

In logging in each month now, I see that I can have several (up to 25!) savings accounts, with different names, to save for different things. I think this might be a good plan for me. I'm going to start with two new savings accounts. One for "Pets" to use for vet bills and one for "Water" to save for our monthly water bill that is paid annually. 

For the Pet category I am now saving each month due to the new food I switched too. I'm not sure how long this 40 pound bag will last yet (the first bag lasted 2 months but that was during the long transition time where I was feeding a little of old and new food). So far I have had this 2nd bag 2 1/2 weeks and there is still quite a bit left. For now I'm just going to guess it will last a month and that I am saving about $30 a month in food and start setting that aside for now. Once I see how long this will last, I can get a better estimate on what I am saving per month.

We pay $20 a month for water, but I pay it for a full year each January. That's always kind of a hard hit, coming right after Christmas expenses, so the payment usually comes out of savings or whatever year-end/Christmas bonus I have received.

So, that's what I'm going to start with. Putting the $100 away each month has been painless, so I'll add these two and see how that goes. For the most part the $30 Pet savings will be be able to come out of my monthly food budget, that I am under budgeted most months. If I can manage these well, then I can add another one or two annual expenses to save for. Like our car tabs.

Speaking of water.....our water went out twice last week. Well owner old lady had to get a repair guy out and do some more repairs on the pump, I guess. She just put in a brand new pump last October.....she should really not have had any problems with this for years and years. DH went to try using a sprinkler on the front lawn yesterday. Holy moly - it actually works now that we have decent water pressure! He can water the front part in one shot. Last summer we couldn't even get a sprinkler to work, the pressure was so dang low or it would be such a small sprinkling that it would take moving the sprinkler 3 times just to cover our small front yard area.