Most emergency fund advice stops at "3-6 months of expenses," which is genuinely useful but incomplete for a homeowner. This calculator adds the homeowner-specific repair buffer on top, shows your combined target, and projects how long it'll take to reach it at your current savings rate.
How this calculation works
The general emergency fund target multiplies your essential monthly expenses by however many months of cover you want, the standard guideline being 3 to 6 months. The repair buffer applies your chosen percentage, typically 1% to 2%, to your property's value, held entirely separately for a genuinely unplanned failure like a burst pipe or a mid-winter boiler breakdown. The combined target is both added together, and the time-to-target simply divides the shortfall by what you can realistically save each month.
The repair buffer here is a held-in-reserve pot you hope never to touch, separate from your ongoing annual maintenance budget, which is money you expect to spend most years on routine, predictable upkeep. See our Building a Home Emergency Fund guide for the full distinction, and our Home Maintenance Budget Calculator for the separate, planned figure.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to build both pots at the same time?
Not necessarily. Many people start with a smaller general starter fund, commonly around £1,000, ahead of clearing high-interest debt, then work toward the fuller combined target shown here once that's cleared. See our Building a Home Emergency Fund guide for the staged approach in full.
What if my current savings already cover one pot but not the other?
This calculator treats your current savings as a single pool against the combined target, since in practice most people don't keep genuinely separate accounts for each purpose. If you do keep them separate, simply run the calculation once for each pot individually using your specific savings toward each.
Should this fund be in a Cash ISA or a regular savings account?
Either can work, provided it's instant access rather than a fixed-term or notice account. A Cash ISA is worth considering specifically if you're a higher-rate taxpayer, since it shelters the interest from tax while keeping the same instant accessibility.
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