We did a little happy dance this weekend because we hit $10,000 in our emergency savings account! We made a big leap from the $9,000 we had to $10,000 with the help of our tax return. I know there are different philosophies on tax returns but we prefer to elect higher withholdings so that we get more back in returns. We always put the majority of our return into savings whereas if our paychecks were bigger throughout the year I think that money would be more likely to be spent. It works for us so we’re sticking to it for now.

We have a goal of saving $12,000 in our emergency savings account by the end of 2012. In anticipation of a cash infusion from our tax return we had said we wanted $10,000 by the end of May. We made it!

When we were saving for a house we went out for a celebratory drink when we hit $10,000. I love making time to celebrate everyday achievements so tonight Chris and I said 'cheers to $10K!' over rosemary-grapefruit cocktails, inspired by this recipe and with fresh rosemary from our yard. 

The grand goal is to have 6-8 months of living expenses in this account. For us that’s about $18,000 - $24,000. It’s a lot! And it’s going to take awhile...but we're getting there!