Happy TUESDAY! Today, I wanted to talk about something that I feel is SUPER important for everyone in EVERY life situation. Life can be completely unpredictable (as we talked about in my recent post about prepping for baby and life insurance), so it really helps if you are as prepared for the unexpected as much as possible. Whether that is having a disaster relief plan, food storage, fire escape route, etc. – doing what you can to make sure that your family is ready to go for anything is a MUST in this day. Let’s dive into why having an emergency fund should be on your top priority list!
Tips For Building An Emergency Fund For Your Family
This post is sponsored by Allstate. All opinions are my own.
Just last week – Adam and I ran into some big-ish emergencies in our life all at the same time.
First, Missouri experienced a crazy storm and tore down half of one of our front yard trees. Now, luckily, it fellin the opposite direction of our home. However, that meant it fell directly into the middle of our road. We had to get tools and manpower to just get the tree into our yard. The problem with this part of the tree falling was that now our tree was SUPER heavy on the side closest to our home, which meant the next time a storm hit, this tree was most likely coming down the rest of the way. Only this time – it would come down directly onto Jack’s nursery. #NOTHANKYOU We ended up calling a tree service to come get rid of all the branches in our yard and to cut down the rest of the tree so that we wouldn’t have to worry anymore about it. AKA: a $700 bill we did NOT expect.
Second, while our family was visiting for the baby shower, we had turned the hose on for the first time this summer to wash off a car seat. What we didn’t know was that a pipe had burst over the winter, causing a minor flood in our basement. Fabulous. Adam figured he could fix it himself, but he had to go get all the materials to do so. After hours of mopping + drying items from our storage room and several hundred dollars later, we had a fixed pipe. But again: we were not expecting to have to fix our home like this TWICE in a 3-day time span.
NOW,I tell you all of this because thank goodness we have been working to prepare ourselves for situations that may arise (such as these) and we were able to pull from our emergency savings account to cover these expenses. We did not always have that luxury, and there have been times in our marriage where we really didn’t HAVE a savings account or emergency fund to pull from. That is a very stressful place to be at.
Here are some tips for building your OWN emergency fund for your own family:
- Set a monthly savings goal that is realistic for your budget.
- When you can put in extra, do so.
- Keep the money in a savings account that collects interest.
- Keep your change + cash it in.
Before you pull from your savings account, consider these things: Is it unexpected? Is it necessary? Is it urgent? That will help you make the best decision when it comes to pulling money from your emergency fund. You don’t want to get into a habit of using that money for non-emergencysituations, because that will leave you in the same position you were before you started!
A good rule of thumb when it comes to how much you should keep in your emergency fund is between 3-6 months’ worth of expenses.If the unthinkable happens and you or your spouse loses your job, you are able to support your family while one or both of youlooks for another job.. Plus, if you don’t lose your job – you have a great cushion for those unexpected costs like the tree or the flooding.
If you are still wondering what situations could be considered “emergency” – check out THIS LISTof 10 situations that warrant pulling money out of your fund. Keep in mind: each person will have their own definition of an emergency situation, and ultimately it is up to you to decide what you will spend (or not spend) your money on.
I feel really lucky that Adam and I made building our emergency fund a priority this year because without it, we would have been in a tight situation. With the baby coming in the next few weeks, we can’t afford to be out money that we will need to care and support our sweet new arrival.
Do you have an emergency fund? What are your best tips for building an emergency fund?!
So important! I agree with you 100%. Lots of great persepctive here.
This is such a helpful post! I was just thinking last night about what we would do in an emergency, since we don’t have anything planned! It’s scary!
This is such a great post babe and so important!! I love having an emergency fund, it’s a safety net and provides me relief just in case anything happens!
Kileen
cute & little
Such an important post! I need to get
My budget together and set some goals for last Half of 2019.
I’m so glad this is something my husband and I talked about BEFORE getting married. We’ve had a couple of emergency situations in the past 7 months, and I’ve been really grateful for our emergency fund – which we always work to replenish if we have to dig into it!
This is so important to plan for. But something that is often overlooked.
Xx, Nailil
thirtyminusone.com
that must all have been so stressful! emergency funds are definitely essential and often not thought about until you need them. thanks for sharing these tips, made me double check our plans!
Yikes, so glad the tree didn’t hit the house or harm either of you! Setting aside an emergency fund is so important… and something we don’t normally think about. Thanks for sharing these tips!
Sorry to hear about the disaster happening at your home and that’s great you had an emergency funds to pull out to pay towards that. I agree it is so important to save for rainy days and watch your spending, think before you buy something that you don’t really need. I’ve been pretty good at saving this year:)