There are tons of good personal finance sites out there.  A couple that I think give some of the better advice are Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar.  I’ve found tons of helpful advice there, but have not yet seen one thing that we do to may sure we are able to cover all of our unexpected expenses.

The way to make your budget agile enough to absorb unexpected expenses is simple: Budget on a monthly basis, but do auto withdraws for savings on a weekly basis.

We have set up several savings accounts at ING Direct.  We have one primary pool of money in a checking account, and then other accounts for long term expenses, such as homeowners insurance, car insurance, property taxes, savings for Roth IRAs, and and emergency fund.

Our monthly budget is based on a 4 week month, with four weeks worth of paychecks.  We try to fit our budget within a 4 week month, which allows for an extra ‘bonus’ paycheck every 3 months if you are paid weekly, or every 6 months if you are paid biweekly.  This has huge impacts on those unexpected expenses, such as those things that don’t really fit into a monthly budget.  If you don’t end up using that money for unexpected expenses, it just adds that much more padding to your savings.  Plus, it’s like having a mini bonus every 3 or 6 months, who wouldn’t want that?

My mother passed away this past week after battling cancer for about 4 years, she was 49.

She will be dearly missed.

Thank you to all that came to the visitations and funeral.

The funeral home put up a nice website for pictures, memories, and a guest book here.