Emergency Fund to the Rescue

Thank you, Dave Ramsey!

Today, The Husband emailed me and told me he made a mistake filing his time sheet last week and he wasn’t going to get paid on Friday like he normally would. He said his check won’t be direct deposited this week and they will cut him a paper check by Monday or Tuesday… of next week. We have bills due this week that can’t wait.

We have four bills due this week that can’t wait until a paper check can be deposited next week. We have to pay our electric bill, our home phone and internet bill, our cell phone bill, and our car payment.

I’m so grateful that I was able to quickly transfer the money from our savings account to our checking account to cover the upcoming bills. I don’t know if other people would consider this a true emergency that warranted using their emergency fund, but to me, it did. By transferring this money, we saved over $50 in late fees.

In my mind, this is what emergency funds are for. Currently, we only have a baby emergency fund of $1000, but that was enough to cover us for the week. I transferred $800 to my checking account, leaving us only $200 in our emergency fund. However, as soon as we receive the paper check, we will deposit it and transfer the money back into our savings account, right away. Additionally, this account, and the accounts of The Kids, will continue to grow by $50 a month.

Because of my emergency fund, as long as something catastrophic doesn’t happen in the next week, we should be fine.

I enjoy the feeling of peace I get from having even that small amount of protection. The whole point of that $1000 sitting in the bank is to cover us in the event of an emergency and to give us peace of mind. Today, it’s totally doing its job! That is why Dave Ramsey’s baby steps work. Each step builds on the other.

Step 1, save for a baby emergency fund, is there so you don’t have to rely on your credit card in an emergency. In the case of today, I couldn’t have used credit cards. I would have been unable to pay my bills and forced to pay late fees. In essence, my emergency fund helped me to keep more of my money in my pocket and take care of all the obligations I had to take care of.

My emergency fund saved me; and I’m so glad!