What Have You Used Your Emergency Fund For?
15th May 2008
I have personally never used my emergency fund except for an emergency. I’m no saint, but we’ve perfected how to live thru a real emergency. Here’s what I have done the approximately two times I have had an emergency:
1. Transfer the money into our checking account. This means that the money is accessible via our check card (Visa) or our checkbook. We had to have someone jackhammer our floor for a day one time because the drainpipe rusted out from our sink.
2. Spend the money to fix the problem. This pretty much is self-explanatory.
I never had to worry or fret about where the money was coming from. This is because they were real emergencies - our water would not drain out of our kitchen sink (I got sick of washing the dishes with the garden hose in the back yard) and our car broke down in the middle of traffic. Another time, my key was lost to my car and I had to rent a car to drive home 5 hours and get a new key made for about $150. I’ve never had a real emergency that would have cost anywhere close to the $10k I have in my emergency fund.
What has been your most expensive emergency? Have you used an emergency fund? How much is the most a true “emergency” has cost you?
May 15th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Back in January of this year my oldest son was admitted to the hospital for a 4 night stay due to complications with his asthma and allergies. We got a nice $1,500 medical bill as a result so we had to dip into our emergency fund to cover the costs. I am not sure if this was considered a “true” emergency but we still had to use some of the funds.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Back in January of this year my oldest son was hospitalized due to complications with his allergies and asthma. As a result of his 4 night stay we got a bill for $1,500. We had to dip into our emergency fund to cover the costs. I am not sure if this is considered a “true” emergency, but we still had to use the money.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Several years ago my mother passed away and I used the emergency fund to cover my lost wages for the 10 days I spent with her prior to her passing. This January we had a medical emergency with the youngest daughter and I used the emergency fund to cover the costs of flying and accommodation in another province to be with her pre and post surgery.
Last year the emergency fund was used to bridge the time from when I retired to when I received my pension as I left suddenly. That time the funds were returned as soon as my pension kicked in as it was retro active to my date of retirement.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:17 am
The one time I used my EF it was not for a true emergency. I had a debt that carried a high interest rate along with some serious emotional baggage. I decided to use the EF to pay off that debt early so I could be rid of the mental stress and the financial burden of that.
This was a while back and some people chastised me for using the EF for something that was not a ‘true’ emergency….but the debt resulted long ago as the result of a true emergency so I felt justified in using it then.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I’ve used it for dental surgery (about $1200), car repairs (between $500-$1500, but now have a separate car maintenance fund), and I plan on using it to help with moving costs.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Medical bills, medical bills, medical bills…. oh and a well. We had a water emergency also.