More Savings?

The goal for us is always saving as much as possible while we have the income, so my mind is often contemplating how to find more cash to add to our Pot of Possibilities. Saving now, will give us options later!

Two balances in our YNAB budget caught my attention this week. I am considering bringing them both to zero. The funds would get allocated to our Pot of Possibilities. 

Car Maintenance:

Begin 2020 Balance $1,623

Saved $275/mox12 $3,300

Total Spent in 2020 $2,332

Ending 2020 Balance $2,591

We were able to cover the expenses with the amount we save normally. Plus we saved nearly an extra $1000 over of what we spent. We didn't zero out last year, so we have an accumulated balance that is more than what we spent in 2020. We can adjust several ways. 

Option one, we simply don't save in this account for 2021. This would be $275 a month we could set aside, saving $3,300 in 2021. 

Option two, we could zero the account and continue to save monthly. We could keep saving the same amount or we could adjust the amount down to the average spent in 2020 which was just under $195 per month, that would allow another $80 set aside monthly adding another $960 for the year. 

I'm leaning toward Option two with lowering the amount we save monthly. There is a possibility we would have expenses that exceed the annual savings, but we do have money elsewhere if absolutely needed. 

Another line item in the budget I'm looking at: 

Emergency Savings

Begin 2020 Balance $686

End 2020 Balance $5414

We have other savings contributions we make regularly, but this account is a place to cover months where spending exceeds what we budget or if we spend less than we budget. Overall we spent less than we budgeted in 2020 by $4,728! I have already eyed this account as a place to pull some cash to cover some of our daughter's spring tuition in January. Specifically, I will move $1,375 to the tuition balance. This will leave $4,039 we can move to the Pot of Possibilities. And it's possible that at the end of this month, I will have a little bit more to add to that as well. 

To wrap up, we will move $2,591 from car maintenance and $4,039 from emergency savings to our Pot of Possibilities. That is a total of $6,630! 

I will also lower the monthly car maintenance contribution to $195 and save an additional $80 monthly to our Pot of Possibilities in 2021. 

So very thankful for more savings!