Short Term Savings Goals, or, How I Plan To Responsibly Blow Some Cash

As I previously wrote, I am a terrible PF blogger and should be denied dinner for my emergency fund of $400. But I swear, I am going to beef it up! I started with a $75 per month direct deposit (I get paid once a month) and it's on the top of my short term savings goals to-do list.

Unfortunately on the top of my short term "money goals to accomplish in general" list is a $900 credit card bill. This is on my regular credit card - I also have about $7k at a 3.9% fixed rate on another card. I have put this card into the pile of things in my mind conveniently marked, "don't worry so much about this." It has a minimum of about $112 and I usually pay about $150, so I feel I am okay with it sitting there while I work on the higher APR card. I am somewhat upset about the small bill, and that upset-ness spurs me to action. So before I actually get to my savings goals, that one has to go.

So first:

$900 credit card bill on Stockback card paid off

Then:

Get emergency fund up to $1000 - increase monthly contribution to $150

Then:

Reduce emergency fund monthly contribution to $100 - raise big-card payment to $200

Then:

Once emergency fund is at $2000, cut contribution to $50 a month
Put $100 a month in car/house savings



That's my general plan, at least. The amounts may change as I am supposed to get a scheduled raise in October. (It's 3.5% annually, and I was going to try and make a case for a bigger raise, but frankly I don't have anything to show for my efforts because I can't get a damn thing done around here.) Now that I've got some money scheduled to come in next month from my various online activities, I'm hoping that I can skip over at least one of those steps (paying off small CC, raising emergency fund) and get right to the others. The Stockback card payments have been something of a drag on our budget - I always seem short by the end of the month and we've been making concerted efforts to save money. (Maybe this is because I am sending $300-350 a month when my budget allows $200?) So by paying that off right away, I could allow some more slack into the budget and not always end up with 8.57 in my account the day before I get paid.

The thought of paying off that bill and bumping up my emergency fund all at once.. now that would be a feat, and I'm cautiously optimistic that I can do it (including the normal $300 payment from next month's budget.) I'll report my progress on actually receiving the money from my online adventures - at this point things look very promising.