Yesterday was quite the day! I took our car to the mechanic because of an indicator light. Come to find out, we needed work that was a few hundred bucks. Finished up, stopped by a good friend’s house.

Had lunch with another good friend.

After lunch, I discovered my indicator light came back on. So back to the mechanic I went. They figured it out, and I left with another bill adding another hundred or so. After the events of the day, I kept thinking about something that has radically improved our marriage – an emergency fund.

After our truck was totalled, we got a hefty check and that was our emergency fund for a while. Unfortunately, it also became our fun fund and our bills account. So we went from a good 6+ months of an emergency fund to less than 2, probably even closer to 1. While we were on our summer trip, we started to listen to the financial peace seminar by Dave Ramsey. One of his biggest things is having an emergency fund. Hearing this was a great reminder for us. While we are also investing in Bret building a real estate investing business, we’re also trying to build our emergency fund up again. Since we’re back up to over 2 months, it’s a real comfort when something goes wrong. Driving to the mechanic, I thought, well, if something major is wrong, we have the money saved to take care of it. A few years ago, a day like yesterday would have been extremely stressful to our marriage. There would be anger, disappointment, and discouragement.

As I thought over the day, I was just struck at how powerful having that emergency fund is. It took us time to do it, it’s not a quick thing to do, but it should be a priority. Trust me when I say, it has a HUGE impact on your marriage. There are lots of ways to save money, and cut your bills back. One thing that helps us is an account on Mint. Seeing how much we ACTUALLY spend on things and not what we think we spend is extremely helpful….and surprising. Fun Jen and Bret fact – we spent over $400 on Dunkin Donuts since we started tracking our spending on Mint. Funny enough, we really started spending when we moved here. Darn you Dunkin within 3 minutes walking distance!

What about you, do you have an emergency fund? Are there ways you can cut back your spending so you can build it up? Let me know below!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel