Yes, unexpected illness, took almost 1 year to recover. Had to stop working, plus the expenses of things I couldn't do around the house. And once I got better, we had to spend even more to deal with the effect on our marriage, kids emotional health, etc.

It happens. It really does happen. I'm sure our parents would have supported us if we didn't have the fund but I sure am glad we didn't have to turn to them for help (and further complicate our lives).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a small one, and may need to use it for the mortgage if the government shuts down.

Same

Our emergency fund has 6 months of mortgage and basic expenses. Used some for moving expenses a few years ago but have put back that and more since the mortgage is higher in our new home. We'll also have to use it for expenses if there is a shut down.

I used mine as a grad student when my dad was dying and I had to make several cross country trips before he died. It's been about 5 years and it's just now recovered.

Vacation

No thankfully. We have been fortunate to foresee major home repairs and/or pay for them from our ordinary savings account. We view our emergency fund as simply for extended unemplyement since DH is the sole earner and higher income jobs like his take on average a longer time to replace. We have enough for 12-18 months of job loss in no-penalty CD'sz

Used EF to pay for son's college tuition/expenses because we had not saved enough in 529 and couldn't cover through normal cash flow. Also needed to buy a car during that time.

Have since built it back up (son has graduated).

I just want to send hugs out to the poster who had cancer and used up all 60K of the EF. I hope you are in much better health and hope you can spend your money on other things you WANT in the future.

Anonymous wrote:Just started saving money last year and kept trying to get to baby EF of $1000(DR baby steps). As soon as I had $1k saved the 1st time I had a car accident and needed to rent a car, didn't get rental insurance, and then someone hit the rental. $1000 gone just like that. I started again and had just built back up to$1k a 2nd time. Pipe burst in house and flooded basement. $1k Homeowners ins deductible. Another EF gone. Started saving a 3rd time, and I finally have enough to cover mortgage. I have a looonnngggg way to go before I can cover all monthly expenses that are needs, but I'm slowly making progress.

Just wanted to congratulate and encourage you. I'm sorry all that sucky stuff happened, but having that baby emergency fund helped keep you from going deeper into debt. I admire your tenacity!!

Just started saving money last year and kept trying to get to baby EF of $1000(DR baby steps). As soon as I had $1k saved the 1st time I had a car accident and needed to rent a car, didn't get rental insurance, and then someone hit the rental. $1000 gone just like that. I started again and had just built back up to$1k a 2nd time. Pipe burst in house and flooded basement. $1k Homeowners ins deductible. Another EF gone. Started saving a 3rd time, and I finally have enough to cover mortgage. I have a looonnngggg way to go before I can cover all monthly expenses that are needs, but I'm slowly making progress.

Anonymous wrote:If so, how much of it and what for?
Was your E-fund liquid?

We use ours to pay for the large unexpected household things that are not in our regular cash flow. It is sort of a combined emergency fund for loss of job and pool/pot of cash to pay for the new AC or the new roof or .... We have a range, and we add a monthly amount to it until the event cost has been replaced. Once we hit the max range again, we put the monthly $ into a different account.

Yes, after wrecking my older car in a bad accident and needing to replace it quickly. Didn't have full coverage since the car wasn't worth that much (maybe $3k), but took $12k from my emergency fund to buy a nicer replacement. If I'd had to line up a loan, I wouldn't have been able to jump on the deal (private family friend selling it and had 3 people interested).

Used it to float expenses after our house was severely damaged in a hail storm - 8 windows broken and other major damage. Eventually reimbursed from insurance but having the cash let us get repairs started faster than most of our neighbors.

Unexpected pet medical expenses.

Yes

Needed help to move across the country then when I got to my destination, my car died.

I used half of my emergency fund and my parents helped me out with the rest.

Tree fell through house. Insurance covered but it was complicated and time consuming. Having 40K emergency fund meant we could keep work moving along while we waited for reimbursement.

In 2012, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a 60K emergency fund at the time. I was unable to work full time during the battle, and my disability coverage was at 60% of my income..

While sick, my expenses went up...medical plus I had no energy to cook/clean/ mow the lawn; I outsourced that. Over the 1 year battle, I blew through my savings.

Because the medical care has remained high, I have been unable to replace the emergency fund.

I dipped into it to cover costs related to refinancing when I got divorced. It was temporary-the mortgage company way overestimated what I had to bring to closing and issued me a big refund check. Between that, the "skipped" mortgage payment, June being a 3 paycheck month, and getting reimbursed by my ex for his half of the refinance costs-I had put all the money back within 2 months.

Yes, in 2009, I was unemployed for 6 months. I had estimated that we had about 6 months of EF. However, when I was out of work, I adjusted the shopping and cooking, we ate out less, I cut costs on housekeeping (we stopped the monthly house cleaning and I cleaned) and made other household adjustments. During that 6 months, we used up about 2.5 months worth of our pre-layoff monthly budget before I found a replacement job. I really don't want to be a SAHD or house-husband, but I made it work cost effectively.