Is it really going back to step 1 if you never did step 1 to begin with? We were fortunate that we had a chunk of change in our savings account to begin with, but now that's all gone gone gone, and we are back to step 1--Building our baby emergency fund.
As I stood in the transmission shop yesterday and wrote the check, it made me think back to when we bought our house, and I was shocked to think back and remember the day we closed on our house and how we scraped together just enough to close that day, and thanks to the wonders of FHA mortgages, we brought less money to close on our house than we did to rebuild our transmission. Scary thought huh?
We managed to drain our baby emergency fund and also budget around an extra paycheck for both of us this month and cover the cost of ALL of our car repairs without having to borrow money or (gasp) use a credit card. Talk about a bad month, we had 2 oil changes, a blown brake line, and a transmission rebuild...all in about 3 weeks.
It did motivate me to get a few things that have been just taking up space in our basement out on CraigsList and sold. We don't really need the money for regular expenses or anything, but it will definitely help bring the emergency fund back up to completion.
Overall, I can't really complain. We were faithful and continued to tithe, our bills are all going to get paid, and we are no worse for the wear. Thank you Jesus!
Showing posts with label Murphy Visit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Murphy Visit. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, March 16, 2009
Murphy Visits AGAIN!
We live in a 3 bedroom home, so you would think that Murphy wouldn't want to come and visit so often, but alas, that is not the case. He seems to visit us more and more often these days.
So what did Murphy have in store for us this weekend?
I wanted to take the kids for a walk on Saturday to run our Angel Food order up to church, and when I went out to the van to get the stroller, I noticed when I lifted the back door up that glass fell on my head. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a bullet (BB?) hole in the glass!! Someone had randomly decided to shoot at our van in our driveway and shattered the glass! Unbelievable!
Thankfully we have our emergency fund, and we can cash flow most of it, but come on already! I lived in Detroit how many years and never had this much bad stuff happen, and I move out to cow country and suddenly someone is driving up and down our street shooting at cars? Are you KIDDING ME? When we called the police to come and do the report, he told us that he had been on our block already that day because we were not the only ones. At least we know it's random and not that someone has some beef with us.
I was able to get a decent price ($250) to get it replaced, so we are going to do that rather than report it to our insurance. Our insurance deductible is $400 so we have nothing to gain by reporting it. I was able to schedule the appointment online and they'll be out sometime today and fix it right in the parking lot at my job.
So what did Murphy have in store for us this weekend?
I wanted to take the kids for a walk on Saturday to run our Angel Food order up to church, and when I went out to the van to get the stroller, I noticed when I lifted the back door up that glass fell on my head. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a bullet (BB?) hole in the glass!! Someone had randomly decided to shoot at our van in our driveway and shattered the glass! Unbelievable!
Thankfully we have our emergency fund, and we can cash flow most of it, but come on already! I lived in Detroit how many years and never had this much bad stuff happen, and I move out to cow country and suddenly someone is driving up and down our street shooting at cars? Are you KIDDING ME? When we called the police to come and do the report, he told us that he had been on our block already that day because we were not the only ones. At least we know it's random and not that someone has some beef with us.
I was able to get a decent price ($250) to get it replaced, so we are going to do that rather than report it to our insurance. Our insurance deductible is $400 so we have nothing to gain by reporting it. I was able to schedule the appointment online and they'll be out sometime today and fix it right in the parking lot at my job.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Murphy Again.....
Dave certainly tells it straight when he says that once you get on the path to living debt free, you are instantly inviting Murphy (as in Murphy's Law) to visit you on a regular basis. February was a killer month with car accidents and sickness, and here we are on March 2 with more of the sick!
Yesterday I had to go to Urgent Care after a car seat installation project gone horribly wrong. Thankfully one $10 copay covered the visit plus tetanus shot. But today Matt took Lauren and Nick to the Dr ($10 each) and Lauren STILL has a touch of pneumonia, and she also has an ear infection ($60 in prescriptions!). So in less than 24 hours, we've paid $90 out of pocket just in SICK and it's only March 2.
Looks like I am going to have to really kick up my mystery shopping this month if we are going to stay on plan.
Yesterday I had to go to Urgent Care after a car seat installation project gone horribly wrong. Thankfully one $10 copay covered the visit plus tetanus shot. But today Matt took Lauren and Nick to the Dr ($10 each) and Lauren STILL has a touch of pneumonia, and she also has an ear infection ($60 in prescriptions!). So in less than 24 hours, we've paid $90 out of pocket just in SICK and it's only March 2.
Looks like I am going to have to really kick up my mystery shopping this month if we are going to stay on plan.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A Valentine's Day Gift From Murphy
Just one day after funding our emergency fund back to full status, we welcomed Murphy to our house on Valentine's Day.
I was at a conference for work and Matt called because one of his employee's couldn't make it to work. So, I had to leave the conference early so that he could get to work. I was driving home and the roads were a million times better than when I left in the morning, so I was just driving along. I was stopped at the light and it turned green, so I went. Well there must have been a lot of slush piled up on the road that I just didn't see and my van started swerving side to side. I let go of the wheel and took my foot off the gas and in a blur I saw myself going towards the guard rail on the bridge over the highway. All I could do is close my eyes and pray that I didn't flip the van over the rail. The passenger side of my van hit the rail twice, once in the front and once in the back and I was on the opposite side of the road I started on and facing like I was driving southbound and just pulled over for a flat tire. Aside from the pieces of my van all over the road and the huge dent in the rail, you wouldn't know that I had just did some serious damage.
I wish I could say I could have driven the van home and it was just banged up a bit, but it really was not safe to drive with a good portion of the front end pushed into the wheel well. Thankfully we have good roadside coverage with AAA and Matt called for towing and came up to pick me up. The police came out and took a report and wrote me a ticket (which I expected since I did hit something).
I called and filed the claim tonight with AAA and it looks like we're going to be responsible for the $400 deductible, about $15 in towing fees (our limit is 15 miles and it was 19), and whatever the ticket costs me.
A crappy Valentine's Day, but I count my blessings:
1. I am alive
2. I was alone, my kids were not in the car
3. My airbags did not deploy (this is a strange fear of mine)
4. Nothing inside the car was broken
The inspector is coming out on Tuesday and we'll know how bad the damage is. We really, really hope that the van isn't a total loss. We really like it!
I was at a conference for work and Matt called because one of his employee's couldn't make it to work. So, I had to leave the conference early so that he could get to work. I was driving home and the roads were a million times better than when I left in the morning, so I was just driving along. I was stopped at the light and it turned green, so I went. Well there must have been a lot of slush piled up on the road that I just didn't see and my van started swerving side to side. I let go of the wheel and took my foot off the gas and in a blur I saw myself going towards the guard rail on the bridge over the highway. All I could do is close my eyes and pray that I didn't flip the van over the rail. The passenger side of my van hit the rail twice, once in the front and once in the back and I was on the opposite side of the road I started on and facing like I was driving southbound and just pulled over for a flat tire. Aside from the pieces of my van all over the road and the huge dent in the rail, you wouldn't know that I had just did some serious damage.
I wish I could say I could have driven the van home and it was just banged up a bit, but it really was not safe to drive with a good portion of the front end pushed into the wheel well. Thankfully we have good roadside coverage with AAA and Matt called for towing and came up to pick me up. The police came out and took a report and wrote me a ticket (which I expected since I did hit something).
I called and filed the claim tonight with AAA and it looks like we're going to be responsible for the $400 deductible, about $15 in towing fees (our limit is 15 miles and it was 19), and whatever the ticket costs me.
A crappy Valentine's Day, but I count my blessings:
1. I am alive
2. I was alone, my kids were not in the car
3. My airbags did not deploy (this is a strange fear of mine)
4. Nothing inside the car was broken
The inspector is coming out on Tuesday and we'll know how bad the damage is. We really, really hope that the van isn't a total loss. We really like it!
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