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Archive for the ‘emergency fund’ Category

Five years of perfect behavior.

Five years of no break-downs.

Five years of easy flying.

Now, my car is acting like a rebellious child.

Brakes. Gone.

$280. Gone.

Thankfully, my husband’s new pay raise will cover it so our debt payment for December should be normal. Plus, we’ve both been working side jobs so we may actually make a dent this month. Whew!

Oh no. I think I just jinxed it.

OK. Ready? Italy was unexpectedly tough on our finances.

We didn’t expect to have to pay a cover charge for each meal. We didn’t expect the exchange rate to be so poor. And we didn’t expect the high entrance fees to see the sights (and by high, I mean 50 euro – EACH).

The exchange rate surprised us the most. We made the majority of the plans in June – when the exchange rate hit its lowest. We traveled in October… the rate was nearly at its peak for the year.

I budgeted high thinking I would come home with extra money, money I could use to make a large debt payment.

That didn’t happen.

In fact, I had to stop by an ATM three times before returning home.

How bad was the damage? $500 out of our emergency fund. Eek.

Upon returning home, our water heater broke, taking out an additional $300 from the emergency fund plus another $35 for miscellaneous parts.

Add that to the $150 we had to spend on cleaning supplies and replacement curtains thanks to the stupendous house sitter.

Are you following my math?

We have $15 left in our emergency fund.

In the whole scheme of things, if this is the worst of the damage of an international vacation, it’s not bad. I just hate another month of no progress. Minimum payments this month so we can replace our emergency fund fully.

Here are the new numbers:

• Original Debt: $38,495.86
• Added Debt: $1,781.50
• Total Debt: $40,277.36
• Paid: $30,546.19
• Remaining: $9,731.17
•
• Broken Down
• Auto Loan 1: $0
• Credit Card: $0
• Student Loan: $8,781.17
• Auto Loan 2: $0
• Vet Loan: $950.00

Despite heroic efforts, my husband was unable to save our water heater. While re-routing the pipes, he found a crack in the tank caused by improper initial installation – or something like that. There were a lot of other words mixed in about ‘crappy two-bit plumbers’ so I gleaned what I could. He was surprised it lasted as long as it did with the extent of the damage.

I had long since gone to bed – he stopped appreciating my ‘help’ on plumbing projects years ago – when he crawled in sometime after 1am. He rubbed my arm, told me the water heater wasn’t fixable, and fell asleep.

Telling me I have to dive into my already nearly depleted emergency fund (more on that later) at bedtime is the equivalent to telling a 7 year old there are monsters under the bed – but worse.

I didn’t sleep a wink.

This week should be interesting… Will this be the first time we have more month than money?