OK, so no joke Shaun took his truck in to get it safety inspected and it failed not too miserably though. Work had to be done on it to get it back on the road, so you know what that means right? Spending money to get it fixed had to happen. Lucky Us, we have an emergency fund built up to fund it.  This wasn't always us. A few years back "like six to be exact" (wow how time flies) we had to fix our financial mindset and it all started with building an Emergency Fund. I'm so grateful that we took the time and did the work it took because we've seen the benefits over and over again.  As I write this post the work has already been done on his truck and it's safely back on the road, shew!  Here's our secrets on how we built our Emergency Fund back in the day and now you can too!

1-Start with a goal and make it small.  Say like $50 or $100.  I know you're gonna tell us that wont get you very far, but trust us on this. You must start somewhere right? When you master this step increase it accordingly to fit your budget. some goal Ideas: $1000, 3 months, six months, and if you're an over-achiever 1 year.

2- Steps we took to get it funded, we got creative with making extra money. Here's a few Ideas: we sold stuff around the house, I took up crazy couponing (I don't do much of this anymore I found a better system that works), shopped the sales, started meal planning, joined a pantry challenge we stopped eating out as much, ditched paying for TV (there are so many options for TV today that we didn't have back then) took up gardening (this isn't a quick fix but it will reduce your food bill in the long run) paid attention to where we were spending our money.

3-What to do with the money for your emergency fund so that you don't spend it? Time to put it in the bank.  we just added it into our checking, and called it our "zero" but if you aren't good with that you could open a savings, and put it out of sight out of mind sort-a-speak.

4- Now that you have an Emergency Fund don't use it unless it's an emergency. You and only you can define your emergency, just make sure that when you set your emergency fund rules it's clear for all parties involved!

5- So you had to use your emergency fund like we just did above and you're wondering what's next? Well all spending get's put on hold until it's built back up and you emergency fund is fully funded again.  There are exceptions to this they are:  The major bills still have to be paid.  House payment, heating and water, the necessities.  I'm sure you get the idea now am I right?


So here is what Several bloggers would like you to know about what having an Emergency Fund has done for them: 

Rosemarie at www.busybudgeter.com  "An emergency fund makes life without credit cards possible. It means that I no longer fear the unexpected. From car repairs to job loss, I know that I have the money to handle the situation until a more permanent solution can be found. It's the first step toward financial freedom." 

Michelle at Makingsenseofcents.com "We have a large emergency fund due to the fact that we both work from home. It allows us to still be happy and comfortable and not stress about possible slow business times that may occur in the future. It also protects is in the case that something breaks in our home, something medically happens to us, and so on."

Pam at pamelasfaith.com  "Having an emergency fund meant that when water started dripping through the kitchen ceiling, I could still afford to buy groceries. And for the first time in 15 years of marriage, I didn't have to listen to my husband swearing while he tried to do the work himself."

Melissa at http://www.thirtysomethingsupermom.com "During really bad storms we had last year,our entire town was out of power. We needed to buy a generator and having an emergency fund was the only way."

Nicole at Www.littleblogonthehomestead.com "I left my job so I could blog full time... Not even 2 months later my husband got put on a work rotation that meant we would be losing a quarter of our income.... Without an emergency fund I don't know what we would have done. He found out Friday as he was leaving work that he didn't need to come in Monday. Talk about a blow. But we were fine. I can't imagine how his coworkers without an emergency fund have been getting by the last couple months!"

Bailey at BecomingBailey.com  "As a young single adult, an emergency fund gives me peace of mind that if something unexpected were to happen, I could still make it without charging up my credit card or asking my family for a loan."

 Ally at AHomeCalledShalom.Blogspot.com "My husband got hurt about ten years ago, and we know that his very physically demanding job could mean that he'll hurt himself again and need surgery. We keep an emergency fund in case of those big medical expenses, and also to keep us afloat if he can't work."

Yasmin at www.frugalexpedition.com "Knowing that it's there when life throws a curve ball helps me feel better prepared." 

Heather at raisingaminidiva.blogspot.com "I'm glad we had one! We are a military family in GA and my little brother, 23 had a stroke! Thank god we were able to just purchase my plane ticket home! I wrote about him and his story on my blog. He actually just had emergency brain surgery last night and I'm dying to make it home once he can have visitors." 

Angela at http://groceryshrink.com "We were so thankful to have an emergency fund the day we found out our foundation was sinking. It cost $23,000 to fix it and we were able to write a check instead of going into debt. Now we don't have to pay big interest to recover, just pay our personal savings account the monthly payment until the fund is back." 

Kendra at http://thethingsilovemost.com "Now don’t think I am trying to brag and make you think we have all this money, we don’t, but if I hadn’t put money in each envelope we would have probably made poor choices with what to do with the money and struggled though the month.  For this month it was true for us that when it rained in poured, and we were definitely grateful we had saved money for a rainy day."
 




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