Not too long ago, we managed to fully fund our emergency account to $4,000. Well, we had to pull out $250 to help make it through the month so the balance is now at $3,750.
A few things contributed to the withdrawal. First of all, I ended up needing expensive medication. When we upped our savings account to $4,000, we left things pretty tight – too tight to allow for that bigger expense that was unexpected.
Then, a good friend of ours suffered a death in his family and was less than a two hour drive away (he’s the one I’ve mentioned before that lives on the West coast that we’d like to visit sometime). We spent most of the weekend with him and spent some money as a result. I’m not complaining about that spending, though. This is exactly what an emergency fund is for. We were able to be there for him and we didn’t have to worry about money.
After thinking about it some, we are not going to fund our savings account back up to $4,000 right now. We are going to leave it at $3,750 and start focusing on our debt again. It’s time to pay off some more. I am also seriously thinking about submitting an entry for the pay yourself first challenge at FNBO Direct. The deadline is the end of this month, so I better get cracking.
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Posted: July 27th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
My best wishes to your friend that lost a family member. I just had a loss in my family this past week and I too was glad that I had the money in savings to buy the necessary expensive last minute plane ticket for the funeral and to be with family.
Posted: July 27th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
That’s ok, Trish, keep trucking.
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I’m sorry to hear about your friend’s loss. $3,750 actually seems to be a healthy amount. I am down to under $500 now mostly because of poor planning. I had some extra money this month. Instead of putting it back in the fund, I put it on my Discover card. I should have used it to build my EF instead because mine is so small.
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Now would be a great time to kick the cigarettes & soda habits. You could quickly build that back up to 4K.
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Still to me 3750 is great. Sorry to hear about your friends loss.
~Family Man
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I feel your pain. The other day my medication came out to over four hundred for a 30-day supply. I did not purchase them, I was fine without.
Posted: July 29th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Sorry about your friend that had a death in the family.
Spending $250 from your emergency fund for unexpected expenses is so much better than charging $250 though!
Posted: July 29th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
That’s what emergency funds are for. Its just another example of why we all should get one in place.
Posted: July 29th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Good thing you had an emergency fund whew!
Posted: July 30th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Love your blog. I agree with pulling out the $250. That is what an “emergency fund” is for. My condolenses. Keep up for the hard work with debt reduction. You go girl!!!
C
Posted: July 30th, 2008 at 8:36 am
This is a great way to rid yourself of debt, good money saving tips and advice too, thanks!
Posted: July 30th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I agree with James. That is why we have an emergency fund. It helps in avoiding the use of credit that eats our lunch with interest. We had a series of things go out on us this past Spring. The Air conditioner, transmission, fuel pump added up to be thousands of dollars of repair to our Suburban. We had enough put away to pay cash. And this was after I was laid off from my corporate job of 15 years. I was sweating it because we didn’t have a mortgage payment either
) So, I’m a real believer in becoming and remaining debt-free. We are a middle income family with five children. Anyone can do it that wants to.
Wayne Larimore
http://DebtFreeFiveKids.com