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!
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it 
