Testimonial from Stacy
My daughter had been taking piano lessons for a few months and was showing some real potential. She was quickly outgrowing her old keyboard and this was making practice increasingly difficult (the keyboard had fewer keys than a regular piano).
Our tax return was coming soon and would cover the cost of a basic digital piano, so we started looking. We feel in love with a low-end Yahama and bought it with our credit card.
The following week we got our tax return. But, it was $1,000 less than we expected.
I had calculated something incorrectly. Now we had to find a way to pay for the piano that was in our living room and on our credit card, and we didn’t have enough money to cover it.
To compound the problem, my son woke up with bites all over him. Big red bites of three in a row.
Do you know what that means? It means we had bed bugs!
{Before you start to think we are totally disgusting, be aware that bed bugs are easy to get. Just because you have bed bugs, doesn’t mean you are dirty. Although you really feel dirty, I can assure you of that.}
Now, we had a problem. No money, debt, and bed bugs.
Since having bed bugs is a rather serious issue, we ordered the bed-bug killing spray with our credit card and also purchased covers for the beds, new pillows, and pillow covers. All on the credit card.
Not only had we spent our tax return money before it arrived, we also failed to have an emergency fund in place. This was very poor planning on our part.
If you are alive, emergencies will come your way. I know this all too well, but chose to ignore it.
I’d like to tell you that we have overcome our debt, paid everything off, and are on our way to a fully funded emergency fund… but the harsh reality is that it is taking a very, very long time to crawl out of the hole we created.
We are being a lot smarter with our money now and are getting closer to the end of the tunnel, but we are not there yet.
I hope this story will help those of you living without an emergency fund see how quickly things can go wrong and how one or two poor choices can snowball into months (or years) of hardship.
I also hope this tale of woe will cause you to stop and think before spending money you don’t actually have. In other words, don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
Have you ever made unwise financial choices that have had lasting effects? Do you think an emergency fund would have helped you avoid the situation?
Stacy is embarrassed and humbled by the unwise choices she has made and is now striving to live a more frugal and disciplined lifestyle. Reading MoneySavingMom.com is a big part of that!
We had bedbugs that came back with us from a 5 star hotel! We called a service out to get rid of them. There was powder everywhere, it bothered my sinuses, and it didn’t even work. We started doing some research and saw that many people had had success with using tea tree oil on and around the mattress. It worked! Maybe you can try that in the future instead of more expensive options.
hugs. i’ve been there several times. sometimes from my poor planning or bad decisions, sometimes for emergencies or unexpected things (like our $1,000 gas leak, even with our home warranty!) Don’t just bury your mistake- remember it, even if it’s painful- it will help when making decisions in the future. make the next best choice.
Oh the bedbugs. We had them a year or two ago when they seemed to be everywhere. There were only ever two bugs found, but I felt so dirty and horrible…worst feeling ever–I hear ya!
Would it be possible to sell the new digital piano? Maybe your daughter could practice at a friend’s, relative’s, or your church. Obviously this is not an ideal practice situation for her but could help you to more quickly get out of debt, then start re-saving for another piano!
I took out student loans back when I was married to my ex-husband. It was his idea. I had no idea how to deal with money wisely. To this day, I am still trying to pay off that student loan. It is taking a long time. I am learning tips from Dave Ramsey and an uncle is helping me as my accountability partner. My daughter starts college next year. I am encouraging her not to take on student loan debt. I do not want her to be in my position. I do have a small emergency fund and I plan on attacking my debt harder after I have $1,000 saved up. I plan on working an extra job after my daughter graduates from high school. Also, I am just around the corner from recieving my AA degree and I plan on using it to get a better job, Lord willing.
My husband and I have been through a lot of financial struggles in just over two years of marriage which included two layoffs and of living on a small income. We took Financial Peace University a few months after we got married and are convinced that taking a look at our finances head on is a large part of what has saved us from what could be devastating financial circumstances. Don’t get me wrong, it has been tough and we have to be very careful with our money. But had we not gone through what we have and had about $1500 saved up before he was laid off a few months ago, we would be much worse off and not been able to pay all our bills on time and keep food in the house.
I learned after we got married just how much debt we were really in. I had assumed that my husband didn’t have any debt. Unfortunatly that wasn’t the case and together we were 20,000 in debt. It didn’t help that my insurance expired and got into an accident. That’s a whole separate debt within itself. We persevered and pushed on paying off debt. Now with our first baby due in dec we have been completely blessed by god with getting lots of baby things and clothes for free. And I still have 2 baby showers yet to happen. Plus a baby budget class that gave us some sheets that we really needed for a nice crib we got for $100 on Craigslist. His parents are going to send us a gift card to buy the car set/ stroller set. God has truly blessed us so much! It’s amazing. And we still have a baby fund that we started when we found out back in April. But needless to say we will be debt free next year and it will be a sweet victory! The power of tithing will get you there and then some.
Please don’t hit yourself over the head. Thanks for sharing…it is a timely reminder for me…and many others I’m sure. This is how God turns things that aren’t so good into blessings. I sometimes kick myself because here I am 45 years old and just now learning all this great stuff. I wonder where we would be right now if I had known this at 25 years. But…the main thing is that we are here now…and living in a thrifty way is a wonderful thing. Best wishes to you as you get back on the path.
I’m sorry about the bed bugs. For the first time in my life I have a small e-fund. In the past, I paid for all emergencies with credit cards – broken dental work for my husband over $1000, septic backed up over $500, medical expenses, car expenses, and on and on. It’s good that you learned from this. I am embarrassed to admit that I lived this way for several years without getting it together and getting an e-fund. This year, my husband and I both ended up visiting the ER with bills of over $800. Instead of raiding our e-fund, I decided to set up a payment plan. I am saving that e-fund and hopefully, we won’t need to use it.
Fortunately, I have an automatic monthly bank transfer into our emergency fund. I hated to “raid” it recently—we had multiple major plumbing issues in ONE week—but I had to remind myself that’s why it’s there!
I almost had a “counting my chickens before they’ve hatched” moment today when one of my clients e-mailed with a new project for me. Right as I was about to get started, they e-mailed and said “oh, never mind.” BOO! And I was just about to buy some new resources for my business, too.
Stacy,
We’ve all been there with bad financial decisions. At least you learned with only a couple of thousands dollars!
Bed bugs are the worst. I work for a company that has residential beds for children and they spend thousands of dollars getting rid of those things.
So sorry about the bed bugs! And the tax calculations! We did something similar recently. I was 7 months pregnant with my 3rd baby, and decided our 2-story rental just wasnt cutting it anymore. I needed to move. We didn’t have a whole lot saved up, but enough to move. We found a cheaper single story rental about 15 miles away, for much cheaper. We knew we were going to use up all of our savings on the move (paying rent on 2 places in one month, utilities for both places for a month, and a security deposit) but figured we would recoup the cost after a few of my husband’s paychecks. We used our money, moved in….and husband was told by his employer that business was slow, so no work for him…this went on for 2 months before my husband picked up work with a temp agency. It’s been 4 1/2 months since we moved. We have not recouped the money we spent on moving, and are back to paycheck to paycheck days. If we had known that his job was being cut, we probably would not have moved when we did. But, hindsight is 20/20, right?
Timely post! I was just feeling guilty yesterday when my husband and I were doing some early Christmas shopping longing to buy my kids more-but we can’t afford too. They won’t really know the difference (they are young) and we may need that money for our next emergency. I have to try to keep that in perspective in this pressure filled buying season-there is a lot of pressure on adults to give your kids and others on your list everything as much as the advertising pressures kids to ask for it. My kids aren’t asking for things yet but I want to show them early that less is more and we don’t need to get in debt to show we love each other. Thank you for reminding me what is important.
I think your kids will thank you one day for making those decisions. We went without the hip new things as kids mostly because we couldn’t afford them but also because my parents chose to not give us everything we wanted. At the time I wasn’t spiteful but I always figured I’d eventually have the money when I was older and could buy it all then. However, now that I’m finally out of school, I’ve learned I can do without the newest gadgets (smart phones, ipads, new cars etc…) where many of my friends see these as necessities. And when I do buy things I feel spoiled and appreciate them more (we just had to buy a new to us car a few weeks ago and I was so excited it had a built in CD player). And I have nobody but my parents to thank for this. I know your children will thank you one day for teaching them that less is more and that the stress of debt completely outweighs the short-lived happiness that comes from buying something. They’ll know you loved them enough not to give them everything they wanted.
I couldn’t agree more with the post – you should never spend money you don’t have in your hand yet! However, I noticed Stacy said she was “embarrassed and humbled” by her unwise choices and it just struck me. I hope she reads these posts and understands while she may be humbled (most of us are humbled every day by something!) she should not be embarrassed. Most of us, myself included, have made SOME unwise choices at some point and some of them are bigger life lessons than others, but it’s part of the learning experience! It just made me wish I could give her a hug, even though I don’t know her, and a little bit of encouragement – so I am doing that virtually now and I hope she see it!!! And this is coming from a woman who found out today that our 9 year old car needs $2000 in repairs – not long ago that would have completely unhinged me, but now we are taking care of it out of our e/r fund and feeling abundantly blessed and grateful that we are able to do so. The reason we have a healthy e/r fund is because we have been where Stacy is and learned our lessons along the way. Bravo for seeing this lesson now Stacy and for your family working so hard to make a change! Good luck to you and one step at a time, I know from the tone of your post you are going to be successful!
I agree – I was concerned about the “embarrassed” part too. I think financial struggles and mistakes are a reality for most people, and you should never feel embarrassed if you make a mistake. I don’t mean to minimize debt at all, especially on this site, but if you find yourself suddenly over your head because of some unforeseen debt, it will be okay. It’s not a character failure, and some debts might totally wipe out your emergency fund and have nothing to do with you being frivolous or irresponsible (example: medical debt).
Stacy, please forgive me for focusing on this part of your post, but there is a very, very important point that I must make.
I am so glad that it sounds like a spray and changing out the linens were sufficient to stop your problem, but in most cases, that is not enough to get rid of those terrible pests. Typically, you need a trained and certified professional to inspect the entire house (with their trained and certified dog). You will need multiple treatments by professionals to whatever rooms are affected (sometimes living rooms are affected because of couches – it’s not limited to beds).
This is in addition to getting the mattress/box spring covers – although those will only trap current pests in, not kill new ones that were not on the mattress at the time you covered it. And usually, sprays are ineffective, because you have to make contact with the pest and that’s nearly impossible to do in this case, because you rarely – if ever – see them. A powder called Organic D. Earth is the best bet, because you can spread it under your bed, between your mattress and box spring, and within traps that you can “enclose” the feet of your bed with (after you move your bed AWAY from all walls so that the pests are forced to attempt coming and going through the traps.) You can find both the powder and the climb-up traps on Amazon.
Yes, it is all a terrible expense and a terrible experience. May God protect everyone reading this from it!
I spent a good deal of my college life (I went to school late in life) being unprepared for finances. I was a single mom and instead of budgeting I just said “well we need these things” and swipped my credit card. When I finally realized how much debt I was in I got completely stressed out. It took me 5 years to completely dig myself out of credit card debt. It was a lesson very hard learned.
Have typed a ton and hit submit then it disappears and doesn’t post twice now so this is a test comment.
And of course, that shows up. lol.
Anyway, trying again. The bed bugs would have done me in. I feel for you to have to go through that.
Not an unwise choice but we are leaving without and emergency fund right now. We have had emergency after emergency after emergency this year. Including going into labor 3 weeks early then having to have an emergency c-section.
One thing I have learned is that no matter how far behind on bills we are, always put $5-10 each week into the E fund. Broken cars don’t like to wait. I wish we had been able to put more away while I was still working but we were busy paying down the medical and buying things we needed for the baby. Didn’t get many things we actually needed at our two baby showers. Wish I had thought to just put a little aside each week then like I do now.
That always happens to me on this site!!!
Well, now all of them are there. lol.
Oh no! The bed bugs would have done me in.
Not a credit card thing or unwise choice but we are currently living without an emergency fund….because we had a broken car after emergency c-section 3 weeks early after broken care and yet another broken car. 2 of those cars still need inspection and won’t pass, 1 needs registration as well. Laptop broke and still isn’t replaced. Not to mention how behind on bills we are. We just haven’t been able to rebuild the E fund with emergency after emergency.
One think I am learning is that no matter how far behind on bills we are, always put at least $5-10 in the E fund each week. Broken cars, etc. happen and don’t like to wait. I’m wishing we had been able to put more in while I was still working.
Great advice! Sometimes when it rains in pours!
Oh my goodness, Stacy. Can’t even imagine. The bed bugs would have done me in.
We haven’t put things on a credit card or made unwise choices but we are currently living with no emergency fund…..because we had broken car after emergency c-section 3 weeks early after broken car after yet one more broken car. One was fixed enough to get by but still not passable. And a broken laptop we still need to replace (can’t borrow the in-laws’ one forever) and so terribly behind on bills. And so on and so forth. I just can’t seem to build it back up.
I am now wishing we had put more towards the E fund when we had more coming in. I am learning to put even just $5 or $10 in each week even if we are still behind on stuff. Broken cars don’t wait.
So sorry to hear about the bed bugs. We recently thought we had brought them into our home after our public transit announced several of the buses were infested (I ride the bus to work to save money).
Luckily the inspectors did not find them in our home, but we learned in those few frantic days how expensive it could have been.
My thoughts are with you!
what do u do when you do have an emergency fund and get hit with two major car repairs and a furnace that needs replaced. Our emergency fund f was depleted on the first car repair. Everytime we start to build up a decent amount in the emergency fund this happens. Just happened again not too long ago $400 car repair, $700 car repair, and major plumbing issues, I get so discouraged sometimes because even having an emergency fund doesn’t help we still end up having to put some of it on the credit card. It seems like no matter how wise I “want” to be things happen.