Allison (Allison Baggerly)

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274 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Oct 2025 last heard 30 Oct

Allison (Allison Baggerly)’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Oct 2025 with 1.

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Inspired Budget · #232: Used Your Emergency Fund? Here’s Your Next Step · 30 Oct 2025 podcast

Now, I have also heard from many people who say that they feel like they are having an emergency or dealing with unexpected expenses and having to tap into their emergency fund over and over and over again.

Maybe it's happening three, four, five times a month.

And if that is you, if you feel like the sky is always falling and you are constantly having to tap into your savings to cover different things, then let's talk about what we need to do here so that way you no longer feel like this.

The first thing is we need to spot the pattern.

Where is this money going?

What is continuing to happen over and over and over again that makes you feel like you are just constantly putting out little fires?

And I think it's good to kind of categorize these broadly.

Is it something to do with children?

Is it kid expenses?

Is it house expenses?

Is it car expenses?

What is happening?

Because when we can categorize our past emergencies, things that we feel like have thrown us for a loop, it will allow us to say, okay, if I'm spotting a pattern in this, then I know maybe I need to add a sinking fund.

So if my kids are continuing to have different things that are costing them money, maybe it's a field trip or it is a sport fee or they're going to a birthday party or they're wanting new books and I just feel like my kids are constantly asking me for things and I'm having to pull money out of savings to help deal with them.

If that's the thing, then we need to go back to our budget and we need to say that we either need to add a line item for kids' expenses

Set up a sinking fund for kids' expenses.

Now, if your emergencies keep happening and you feel like you can't really spot a pattern, it might just be time to increase your emergency fund size.

I know that many people recommend starting out at $1,000.

And while I think $1,000 is a great place to start, I don't think that that should be the amount you have in your emergency fund for a significant period of time.

So while we were paying off debt, what I felt comfortable with was $1,000 per person in our family.

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