I just read this article about how to save for a short-term emergency fund. Good timing for me since we have the baby coming in October and my wife works part time and will not be eligible for short term disability while she recovers before going back to work.

We have money that we have been saving all along that should cover most of that time period and we are good at tightening our belts when we need to so we should be fine.

While reading the article I noticed a few things in particular that we are already doing or starting to talk about.

1) Make it a priority - check. We already have two kids and know exactly what is about to happen. We have also gone through a period where I was laid off for a couple months after the kids were born. We know how to make it a priority.

2) Use easily-divertible savings or debt reduction - One of the things at the top of my list is to temporarily stop some money that is going into an IRA account and put it into our savings account instead.

3) Sell “stuff” - We recently sold a treadmill, the kids’ old toddler beds and a couple other things on Craigslist and put the money directly toward paying for some of the projects we need to get done around the house before the new baby comes. Once we find out the gender of the baby, we will probably sell a ton of kids clothes. We have boy/girl twins and will obviously not need one set of those hand me downs.

4) Buy large-ticket items at a discount - I’m not sure if this quite fits, but all of the projects around the house will be done by us and other family members which will literally save us thousands in labor costs over the next few months.

5) Go on a spending fast - we’re not doing this one at all right now. We’re spending pretty much exactly the same as before which keeps us perfectly in budget. We will probably cut back on fluff spending quite a bit right after the baby is born since we probably just won’t go out quite as much.

6) Cancel unnecessary billed “stuff” - I had a membership to ESPN Insider that I never really used. I hardly ever read the free magazine that I got with the subscription. So, last week, I called and cancelled. It will only save a handful of dollars a month but I don’t really use ESPN’s website anymore anyway so it was a total waste of money.

7) Get temporary employment - For both my wife and me, it will be a lot easier and bring in a lot more money to find a way to work a few extra hours a week instead of getting a temp job. We both talked about the possibility of doing that earlier today.

8) Reallocate funds - We already run a pretty organized budget as it is and pretty much know where every penny is going. The pennies that were currently part of floater funds or Christmas savings are being allocated into the house projects.