I printed the house fund tab of the sheet this week, every deposit since January 2025, and taped the pages together end to end on the kitchen table. It's a little over four feet long. Tyler got out his tape measure to check, because of course he did.
This morning the balance was $32,200.22. We started at $4,200 on January 1, 2025, so that's $28,000.22 of new money in about 21 and a half months, roughly $1,300 a month. In my very first post, I figured we'd need about $900 a month to reach $25,000, and I wasn't sure we could manage even that. I'm going to let myself enjoy that for a second.
Here's where every dollar came from, added up honestly.
| Where it came from | Amount |
|---|---|
| Starting balance, Jan 1, 2025 | $4,200.00 |
| Side money: mowing, flips, odd jobs, pet sitting | $7,599.40 |
| Tax refunds, 2025 and 2026 | $4,940.00 |
| Old car payment (16 × $289) | $4,624.00 |
| Month-end leftover from our paychecks | $4,524.23 |
| Tyler's overtime, August 2025 | $980.00 |
| Interest | $927.26 |
| Mowing tax bucket, 2025 | $840.00 |
| Phone savings (14 × $58) | $812.00 |
| The jar, three counts | $686.13 |
| Packed-lunch savings (14 × $45) | $630.00 |
| Subscription savings (11 × $42) | $462.00 |
| Health plan savings (7 × $52) | $364.00 |
| Closet clutter | $300.00 |
| Pantry challenge | $225.00 |
| Higher car insurance deductible (5 × $16) | $80.00 |
| Dropped rental car coverage | $6.20 |
| Total, Oct 17, 2026 | $32,200.22 |
What worked
The transfer on the 21st. It started in April 2025 as my old $289 car payment, and every bill we cut since then got added to it: phones, lunches, subscriptions, my health plan, a car insurance deductible and a rental car add-on. It's $508.20 a month now. Altogether it has moved $6,978.20. It had 18 chances to land in the house fund and landed there 16 times.
The side money, which is the line that surprised me most. Mowing, furniture flips, odd jobs and pet sitting put $7,599.40 in the fund after the tax bucket and gas, more than anything else on the table. Even the 2025 tax bucket ended up here, because the tax came out of our refund instead of a separate bill.
The month-end leftover was the steadiest: $300 every month this year, nine for nine. The refunds went straight over the day they landed, $4,940 between them, and the only thing we kept from either one was $460 of the first, for tires and one steak dinner. Interest came to $927.26, more than the jar, and the jar came to $686.13 over three counts. It's still my favorite line on the list.
What didn't work
The first five months. From January through March 2025, $150 a month was all that was left over. In April and May there was nothing at all, because every spare dollar went at the credit card. I'd pay off that card again, but those are two zeros in the column.
Leaving our savings at 0.05 percent. For the first eight months of 2025, the house fund sat at the bank in town and earned $2.61. We could have moved it a year earlier than we did.
July and August. After the $1,380 truck repair, both of those transfers, $508.20 each, went to refill the emergency fund, along with $363.60 of August mowing money. The house fund never paid for the truck, but it waited $1,380 for it.
Side money is lumpy. June of this year put in $940. January put in $20. A plan that counts on mowing money in January is not a plan.
We moved the goal. We set $25,000 in February 2025 and raised it to $35,000 in March, after a loan officer walked us through what an old house really costs. It was the right call, but it means the finish line ran away from us once.
What's left
We need $2,799.78 more to reach $35,000. This afternoon's garage sale cleared a little over $400, and it goes in on Monday. Three more transfers of $508.20, two more $300 leftovers, interest and whatever my last flips bring in should do the rest. If nothing breaks, we cross $35,000 right around Christmas.
After touring six houses last weekend, we're still renting, and we're aiming to buy by next spring instead of this winter. That's fine. The house fund doesn't stop at $35,000. It just becomes a bigger cushion, which nobody has ever regretted having on moving day.
