We spent the emergency fund this week. Not the whole thing, but boy did it feel like it! The first expenditure was actually planned. We needed a new timing belt on our van, to the tune of $600+. Big repairs like that hurt, but it’s better than buying a new car, which is the alternative.
Then Monday night, my son needed to go to the emergency room for stitches, as I mentioned Wednesday. And then to top it all off, the driver side sliding door on our van got stuck in the closed position. It wouldn’t have been an emergency, except that the access door to the gas tank was already broken, and we needed the driver door to open to pop the gas access door. (Don’t ask). Anyway, without the sliding door, there was no way to gas up the car. So today the van is back in the shop for (hopefully) the last repair for a while.
I’m just glad we had the funds to cover it all. I can’t stress the importance of an emergency fund enough!
The Roundup
- Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Overview – Cash Money Life
- Expenses to Cut When You Are Unemployed – Gather Little by Little
- Why I’m Not Worried About Teens With Debit Cards – Finance for a Freelance Life
- Are Your Friends Enabling Poor Spending Habits? – Single Guy Money
- How to Guarantee a Call From a Debt Collector – Frugal Dad
- 7 Mistakes that can Ruin Your Yardsale – Wisebread
Speaking of yard sales, I’m hoping to hit a few tomorrow! Have a fun & frugal weekend!
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The importance of the emergency fund:
Taking off on a moment’s notice to fly from the Pacific to the Atlantic for my step-dad’s passing. – $477
Park and Fly at the airport. – $127
Being able to miss several days work with no vacation time nor bereavement time coming. $1000 +
Being able to spend this time helping my Mom when she needed it most: PRICELESS!!!
Just imagine what it might have been like, if you hadn’t had your emergency fund. All of the things you mentioned were solid reasons to spend the money, painful as it was (no pun intended for your son!)
Lets give a big round of applause for the emergency fund!!! They save your behind in a pinch.
Thanks for the mention!
On further reflection, I think I have to take issue with your statement that it was not a frugal week. You took care of some of your family’s vital needs (car repairs to help insure their safety) and you took care of your son’s injury. You made excellent use of the emergency fund, which is the definition of frugal. Inexpensive? Clearly not. Frugal? I believe it was!
So glad you had that Emergency Fund to fall back on! It’s so much better than using the credit card, right?! :o)
I have to agree with AngelSong – Expensive? Yes! Frugal? Yes!
just because you ended up spending a lot of money, it doesn’t make the week unfrugal. you might actually call this past week your MOST frugal week because you spent money to fix up an older car instead of purchasing a new one. and you did with an emergency fund to boot. the unfrugal thing would have been having the timing belt fixed using a credit card while contemplating purchasing a new car before something else goes wrong!
Yay for emergency funds – I can’t tell you how many times ours has saved us – particularly on cars. Hang in there!
Blessings!
My husband and I also had a very expensive week. On Monday we bought four new tires for our car ($450) and on Tuesday we were in a car accident ($500 deductible and our rates are sure to rise). Wednesday we took our dog in for his yearly exam and bought his medications ($300) and later that day our a/c broke. We still haven’t figured out how much that will cost. Thankfully, we have a fully funded emergency fund of six months of expenses and I think with a little bit of ingenuity we will be able to avoid touching that.
Ouch! Sounds like you weathered the storm ok though!
~J~
Unfortunately some weeks are like that! I hope this week is better.
Last week our washer died = $835; air cooling system on our van died = $920; youngest child diagnosed with major food allergies = $200 (for testing and figuring out what and how to feed her- although that food isn’t just for one week!)… all in one week. We do save monthly for home maintenance and vehicle maintenance, though, so only $300 had to come from our emergency fund. The food is another issue- hate being over budget. I have to say, though, I DETEST taking $ from my emergency fund even though I am so thankful it is there for us.
ouch! I hope your son is doing ok…there is no worse feeling than when you see your child standing there bleeding….
i definately think emergency funds are a life-saver. It’s unfortunate that more people are not taught at an earlier age to start saving for one…(we have retirement savings pounded into us at every turn)…why can’t the ‘experts’ use the same tactics to get everyone ‘aware’ of EF’s and their usefulness. Maybe if more people had them the economy could be in a better place (not all this x-tra debt that one takes on when they are backed into a corner).. we still have so much more to learn today as a society.