I just had one of those "Aha" monents while reading another member's blog about receiving a rebate check from their credit card company. I use my Discover Card for everything and pay it in full promptly every month. Discover Card offers rebates based on purchases which are available in $20 increments and can be used for gift cards, usually with a $25 value, applied to your credit card balance, donated, received via check, or transfered to any bank account. In the past, I've allowed the rebates to build up until I decide what I want to do with them. I could never decide which restaurant to use the money at so I would end up requesting a check, cash it and spend it without any thought since it was "free" money.
I've just realized that if as soon as the rebate is available, and I request the funds to be transferred into my Emergency Fund account, I don't have to spend andtime thinking about what to do with it and it won't get spent on something I don't need. With less than one minute of data entry, I added $40 to my EF. Going forward, each time another rebate becomes available, I'll send it to the same account with a few clicks of the keyboard. What an easy way to build the fund!!