MONEY SAVING TIPS FROM MEDICAL SCHOOL WIVES

EMERGENCY FUNDS AND MISCELLANEOUS

The general advice is to have a minimum of three months of living expenses in your emergency fund. That’s including rent, utilities, gas, and food. Now, that is a lot of money for most in medical school. So, do what you can. Try to account for creating a bit of an emergency fund when you take out your loans. My money saving tip for an emergency fund is to set up an automatic withdrawal from your bank account into a savings account or something similar. We withdraw $25 each month from our debit account. Just make sure your debit account has enough money in it to do so! You can set up alerts with most banks when you reach a certain balance to prevent this from happening.

Tips for emergency funds and miscellaneous?

YVETTE: I looked for a job that would provide us with good health insurance. The insurance we would’ve gotten through school would’ve been twice as expensive with less coverage. This has given us a savings of at least $200 a month.

HEATHER: Many companies will send you free samples or high value coupons if you write to them and say you like their product or if you feature them on social media. I am big on sending photos of stains and the lack of stain to detergent companies to get free detergent!

We pretty much live at the library. We love books but they get pricey and the library will order most anything we request. There are usually free events at least once a week too!

AMANDA: We have an emergency fund the same way we save for our pets. We pay ourselves a small monthly stipend that is set aside so there is always a rainy day fun. It’s not possible for us to set aside a large sum, but it’s totally possible to set aside a little bit every month. 

Also, our travel fund is F-R-E-E. We run everything through our travel credit card which earns 2x the points of everything dollar spent (I also use this same card at the grocery store for even more points!) We use this card like a debit card so we always make sure to pay it off every single week and NEVER carry a balance on the card. Good rewards cards mean killer interest rates-so avoid the temptation of over spending. By the end of the year we normally have enough points to take a vacation that’s at least half paid for by just points and no money of our own. We went to Cancun the first year and Paris the next!

SAMANTHA: We don’t have an emergency fund per se, we do have family that is willing to help us if we ever came to a dire need for backup funds. We also do have credit cards (that we try not to use). However, after buying a home this year, we do have a small lump sum in our savings that we will use for “home repairs” if something crazy happens! We will add to it if we can/need be – but it is earmarked ONLY for emergencies. No dipping into it whatsoever!

MICHAELLA: When we got the loan disbursement, we would always save a little bit (about 3-6 months of bills) and put it into our savings account. We would then return the rest of the money because I was working and was able to pay all bills and some credit cards with my salary alone.

CASSIDY: In all honesty, we don’t have much of an emergency fund. After all the bills and required things each month, we don’t really have much left. We set aside $100 each month to add to the savings but it can dwindle fast especially when one unsuspecting event happens.

KRISTEN: I worked 10 years before Tom started medical school so I had a generous amount saved. Now I work from home with Beautycounter to help us to continue to have an emergency fund for car repairs, house payments, home repairs, extra board prep materials, and vacation money.

TAMELA: Put the category in your budget! It seemed silly to us at first to put aside borrowed money for emergencies, until an emergency came up and we had to pull money from other places.

Do you have any money saving tips for emergency funds or a miscellaneous category? Share in the comments below!

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