Sunday, September 4, 2011

Emergency Fund Woes

There I was, all proud of myself for topping up my EF again. It had sunk to a low of $800 over the summer and at the end of August when I received the rest of the money from my trailer sale I boosted it back up to $2000.  But as we all know..."pride goeth before a fall!"


Then this happened.




Murphy's Law right? Oh hell. Well, maybe it's fixable. (Though probably not as my daughter drove I don't know how far with it like this...YES!! She said it was driving fine, she couldn't tell any difference??!!)  Sigh...Michael took it to our usual guy, Harry, I think I've written about him before.  Worse news, Harry's is now closed - we had no idea!  Digging through my memory for another reliable repair place I remembered Kraft which is about 2km in the other direction from our house.  Yes, still open...good start!

They recommended these:
Yup, all four of them.  Seems our tires were plum worn out. They also installed a right front linkage system - if you owned a Cobalt you would know this is a problem with these cars - one good pot hole = one broken link. All in all it came to $635, 4 new tires and a linkage kit and 13% sales tax.  I thought that was pretty reasonable.

But that means my $2000 EF is now down to $1365. And just after I updated all of my sidebar financial goals. (Way down the side!) I was feeling smug at having met one goal before the end of the year - no such luck! Stink! I think I'd better start practising more humility! 

So the savings (and spending) continues. I feel like I've spent a fortune the last couple of weeks but the majority of it will be reimbursed as they were expenditures for the classroom. I am all set up and ready to go though there are going to be a few glitches on the first day of school. 

I'll write about them tomorrow:)








11 comments:

  1. I did the four tire thing earlier this year. And as we know EF funds are for emergencies. Glad you were able to get it fixed quickly though.

    Judy

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  2. Sorry about the tires! I had to replace mine a couple of months ago and it was so expensive.

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  3. It's always something, right?

    Probably a good idea to get all four if it was time. But isn't it nice to have an emergency fund all ready in times like these.

    P.S. Your flower girl photo is mesmerizing. I actually stopped and looked at it for a while. Beautiful.

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  4. Bummer Jane. Guess we'll both have to start rebuidling the emergency accounts. It seems to take sooooooo long!

    Good luck on the first day of school!

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  5. sucks but hey at least you had the $ to fix it - I tell you ever since that woman - Judy? - on 'we may be poor but we are happy' posted about tires I swear there's been 2 of us at least now who have had to get new ones!!!I'm glad you had the $ - could have gone in debt to pay for them or worse not even had a credit card to get them with! see? being frugal and mindful of your $ all this time has paid off!

    Susanna

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  6. Argh! Bloomin' cars!!

    I'm sure you'll have that ef back up to $2k soon :)

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  7. Oh that NEVER fails, Jane!! lol! As soon as I made it a goal to hit $5K in my emergency fund my washer died & my sis needed $$ for university... lol! That's Murphy for ya!! :P

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  8. After my experience with bald tires last winter I say:
    "Congratulations on Future Savings!!"

    My guess is tire didn't go completely down till at rest at home. DD would have definitely noticed this. It is a blessing in disguise and money is not the important thing here. The important thing is that your baby came home SAFE! Money is a commodity that comes and goes - Love of our babies is FOREVER.

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  9. I am afraid to post this because Murphy likes it at our house too but every time I get our car repair fund topped off we get hit with something. Maybe we shouldn't top it off?

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  10. Good luck on the first day of school, Jane!
    I am ready for the big day tomorrow.
    Your flower girl photo is incredibly beautiful!!
    Island hugs,
    Kendra

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  11. I had to buy 4 winter ones last fall and hated parting with the money... but good tires are so important... you'll get a much smoother ride now :-)

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