{"id":1924,"date":"2023-07-18T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T08:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2023-07-20T08:55:24","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T16:55:24","slug":"how-i-saved-a-10000-emergency-fund-on-a-low-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/how-i-saved-a-10000-emergency-fund-on-a-low-income\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Saved a $10,000 Emergency Fund on a Low Income"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/a>I started saving an emergency fund in 2012. At that time I was a single mom working two days jobs while trying to build an online freelance business.<\/p>\n

I had desperately wanted to quit both of my day jobs and freelance full time, there was just one thing holding me back: my lack of savings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I decided that a $10,000 emergency fund was my magic \u201cquit my job number\u201d I was determined to make it work.  I was only making close to $20,000, or a little more, per year at this time but I knew I\u2019d find a way to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I was able to save a large emergency fund on a low income.<\/p>\n

I Prioritized My Spending<\/h2>\n

My first step was to prioritize my spending<\/a>. I was already on a pretty strict budget but I knew there were a few more things I could do to take it even further.<\/p>\n

I bought a $10,000 trailer (took out a loan) that had a $226 monthly payment on a four year term. This one move drastically reduced my living expenses. I also set a strict grocery budget and ruthlessly adhered to it. I didn\u2019t have cable TV and instead took advantage of my Amazon Prime membership and DVDs my girls and I had received as gifts.<\/p>\n

Entertainment was kept modest as well. I decided to have my fun on a budget! One of our go to entertainment escapes was fishing at my Dad\u2019s pond which was 100% free for my daughters and me.<\/p>\n

After all of my budget slashing I was living on less than $1,500 per month. (Babysitting was my largest expense.)<\/p>\n

I Side Hustled<\/h2>\n

Next, and probably more importantly, I started my side hustles<\/a>, which later became my full-time job.<\/p>\n

I decided that I was going to make money online by writing for other people. I started out slow only charging $20 per article. Little by little I started amassing clients until I was fully booked.<\/p>\n

I saved every single penny of this extra money. It all went straight into my emergency fund.<\/p>\n

I Saved Bonuses and Income Tax Refunds<\/h2>\n

During the year that I was working hard to save I ended up getting a modest income tax refund (around $900) which went directly to my emergency fund.<\/p>\n

On top of that I was working as insurance agent and after landing my boss a very good account I got a $2,500 bonus. Once again, every single dime of that money went into savings.<\/p>\n

I Hit the $10,000 Mark With Fierce Determination<\/h2>\n

After I had my emergency fund built up to a decent amount I ended up quitting the day jobs in order to start my own freelance business online. That was in October of 2013.<\/p>\n

Even though I was making a low income at the time I started saving, I was determined to reach my goal. And I think that\u2019s the key \u2013 you can accomplish anything in this world if you\u2019re determined and willing to put in the work.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a goal you\u2019ve recently accomplished?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No matter how much money you make it is possible to still save. Here’s a real life example of how to save an emergency fund on a low income.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[128,515,149],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9329,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions\/9329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}