Last Summer, while sitting in our living room watching TV with my wife, I received a call from our firewood dealer. He had an extra cord of wood in his truck, and was eager sell it to us at a discount. I looked at my wife and smiled.
Since we began budgeting a few years ago, we have maintained several sinking funds. A "sinking fund" is a category of our budget (a virtual or physical envelope) where money is set aside throughout the year in anticipation of a yearly (or one-time) expense.
Instead of scraping together cash at the last minute, we budget a little each month to put in our sinking funds.
We had been putting aside a few dollars each month to purchase firewood for the winter. When this dealer called, our firewood "envelope" was almost completely funded. I negotiated a price, ordered the wood, and paid cash on delivery. They say success is 90% effort and 10% luck. We got a deal because we put in the effort, and we were ready for this lucky break. I call that success.
