Monday, April 18, 2011

"Found" Money

I have various savings funds in my ING Direct account. The biggest one, of course, is my Emergency Fund. I have a few others like my Travel Fund and Gift Fund that get used on a semi-regular basis. Then... I have other smaller accounts. Some of which I sort-of forgot about over the past few months, especially the two related to my car: Car Maintenance and Car Insurance.

Clearly, I don't need either of those anymore since I sold my car! My Car Maintenance Fund has $650 in it and my Car Insurance Fund has $930. I was canceling some automatic transfers from my checking account which included those two and made me remember to check how much was in them. Oh, and there's the $615 in my 25th Birthday/Christian Louboutin Fund which I clearly never spent and after some thinking, I just can't bring myself to buy such expensive heels! (Maybe one day. Because I AM madly in love with them!)

I'm not sure what to do with some of this money. Save it? Spend it? Half and half? I'm thinking of making some near-future pricey purchases like a new laptop (my first Mac?) and getting a few items tailored for work like pants (~$70 each) and a skirt.

5 comments:

CeCe April 19, 2011 at 11:53 AM  

I love "found" money. It goes to show you though that being a saver does pay off in the end. You can use it to tide you over if you need to or to get some other things that you want or need. When you need money you have it. Some people just don't get that. I have money in and account that just sit's there. I mostly forget about it but I like knowing it's there.

Anonymous April 19, 2011 at 11:55 AM  

'Found' money is the best! You might feel less guilty is you save half, and then spend half on the things you need, or would've bought anyways. Either way, it's nice to know the money's there.

Lulu April 20, 2011 at 12:53 PM  

Like the other posters above I am voting for spend half and save half.

It is good that you found this money and you are making a rational choice with it instead of just going out and blowing it all without thinking.

Of course if your items cost more than half then I think you can go ahead and splurge 40/60...or whatever...just remember to repurpose some it to savings.

TeacHer April 25, 2011 at 6:23 PM  

This same thing happened to my sister when she moved to NYC. She had about $1000 in a car maintenance fund...but no car (anymore) to maintain! She ended up using it to go on a cruise with her boyfriend. They had a blast!

I vote the same as some of the other commenters: spend half and save half. NYC is expensive, so you never know when you might need the $ for something, but on the other hand, your expenses are SUBSTANTIALLY reduced by not having a car. So I think spending some is in order :)

Sigh. It's my (not so) secret dream to move to NYC. Wish I had this problem :)

MoneyMaus April 27, 2011 at 10:49 PM  

@Frugalista - Yes, exactly! Hooray for savers! :)

@Anonymous - Very true, I am just going to save half and just spend the other half when I need to and not have to worry about money for a bit which is a nice feeling!

@TeacHer - Hehe, thanks! Now if only I had a BF to go on trips with, that is exactly what I'd use it for! You need to live here one day :)

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