A woman from Inverness has built a £5,000 emergency fund by saving £150 a month, allowing her to leave a job and move home without financial stress. Lauren Johnston, 42, calls it her 'f*** you fund', providing a safety net for unexpected situations.
Ms Johnston, a holiday let manager and TikTok money influencer, previously accumulated £20,000 in debt during university due to easy access to credit cards. She spent two decades repaying the debt by cutting spending and selling items on Etsy, alongside her full-time job.
She started the fund at age 38 after an unexpected pregnancy while still in debt. 'I found myself in this really low moment - a month before my son was born I was moved into emergency housing by the council,' she said. She began saving what she could, eventually settling on £150 monthly until reaching £5,000, kept in a high-interest savings account.
Ms Johnston used £1,000 from the fund to leave a job that 'wasn't serving her' and £3,000 to move from a council flat to private accommodation with her son. She plans to replenish the fund with ongoing monthly contributions. 'I couldn't imagine life without this fund; it makes unpredictable situations much less complicated,' she said.
She has also opened a pension and ISA for her four-year-old son to teach him about finances. Ms Johnston recommends building a fund covering three to six months of expenses for financial security.
