Testimony from Mauree who blogs at Today is Sweeter
When my husband and I got married almost three years ago, I was in the process of paying off numerous credit cards, a small school loan, and a car loan. Though I had made tremendous headway, we still had close to $8,000 to pay off when it was all said and done.
As a result of my husband’s personal commitment to saving before we were married, we were able to pay off all but the car loan within days of coming back from our honeymoon. The car loan was paid off a few months later after we had “packed” some more away. That left us completely, 100% debt free!
Because we had been debt-free for that first year of marriage and saving on a monthly basis, we were able to purchase a house and take advantage of the First Time Home Buyer’s Credit. We received a check for $8,000 a few months after closing on our home. While it was tempting (okay, really tempting!) to splurge on new furniture and home upgrades, we decided to simply leave those funds in our savings account as an emergency fund and to do any decorating and small home improvements out of what we were saving monthly.
Saving for a rainy day was hard at times, but because of our resolve to stay debt-free and to save for the future, we were blessed to have the ability to pay cash for three unexpected expenses over this past summer. That “rainy day” certainly came!
During a morning thunderstorm, a large tree fell on our deck leaving us with tree removal and deck repair costs. A week or so later the 25-year-old oven that came with the house gave up the ghost and had to be replaced. And while we knew our home would be in need of a new roof when we bought it, replacing it came sooner than planned and had to come out of our savings account this summer as well.
While it would have been easy to spend that “free” money on the non-essentials, I’m so thankful that we chose to save it. By choosing saving over spending, we have the peace that those unexpected expenses are paid in full and we have not gone into debt to meet those needs.
Maureen Polderman is a stay-at-home mom, private piano instructor, and writer of the blog Today Is Sweeter. She and her husband Josh have one son, Blake, and live in Wyoming, Michigan. They are striving to live debt-free and cherishing the sweet days God gives them!
Great Post. I have written a number of times about the struggle to stay on track ALL the time. It is so hard to remain focused on your goals at times. But you are right. It is so worth it when you go through those “rainy days”. Last year we had to do a new well pump, and a new roof, among a few other little things. I was still stressed about our diminishing savings but it didn’t put us into debt because we are savers the rest of the time.
http://www.financeswithfunk.com/2011/07/22/budget-burnout-big-time/
I don’t think this post could have come at a better time! My husband recently got a large, unexpected bonus from work. Of course, ideas of things to do/buy have been rolling around in our heads 🙂 We had committed to putting part of the money in our “rainy day find”, but your post encouraged me to put more of it away, just in case. Thanks! 🙂
Thanks for sharing, this is a great inspirational post. I would have never thought of putting money aside for a raining day! (Just in case)
neat story , gives us all encourgement to save for a rainy day .
Yes, I agree with this. Recently one of our vehicles needed some repairs. If we had not had some savings it would have been difficult. I also believe that having a good stocked pantry can be a way of saving for a rainy day.
Most of all though our trust needs to be in the Lord for provision.
So encouraging!
We are debt free finally(for about 6 mths now!) and have saved about 4000$ for a rainy day fund and are working on our downpayment for a larger home to fit our needs. It is so freeing to know that if our 10 yr old van breaks down that we don’t have to scramble to figure out how to pay for the repairs!
Just curious but how much does one typically put away in a rainy day fund?
Cassie – I’ve heard a few different amounts. The most common seems to be 6 to 8 months of living expenses.
My husband and I are trying to save a year’s worth of expenses plus the cost of continuing health care for that year. (Since continuing coverage would be a lot more expensive than just our premiums).
You are truly an inspiration! It is difficult to put aside immediate gratification, but as you show, it can be so worth it! Kudos!
great story
Glad you had saved up… I inherited my Mom’s house (now a 41 year old ranch) and when getting the insurance coverage when I refinanced it into my name the insurance company was quick to say “oh we will cover you but not any roof claims for the first year” because they could see the roof was about 10 years old. It worked out that a storm took a limb down and it landed on the roof about 18 months later and they paid for the repairs completely (sans deductible) so at least I got a quarter of a roof paid for…
I could have written this post; it’s so similar to our circumstances when we married. We received a total of $3,000 cash from our wedding. My dh had $1,500 in credit card debt. As hard as it was, we headed to the bank after our honeymoon and paid off that card and deposited the rest of the cash in savings. Later that year, we took advantage of first time buyers financing to purchase our first home (for $52,500 in 1990). We bought that home based on my full time income and my dh’s part time income. After we closed (and before we moved in), I got a most unwelcome surprise; a lay-off notice. Again, I was the full time income. However, since we had gotten off of the right financial foot in our marriage, and since we had no other debt other than our new mortgage, we were able to make the payments, even through the 1 year layoff.
Thanks for sharing this story! We really need to get our emergency fund back up and running!
A few years ago we decided to get dog from the local pound. We found a cute, black lab/pit mix and decided she was the one. Well a few days later she started to show signs of parvo. We knew we had to save her since we had already committed to taking care of her. Since we had an emergency fund, it was not an emergency when we got the vet bill for over $500.00!
It’s crazy that there are still people out there who don’t understand the importance of ‘setting aside for a rainy day’ or just saving in general. The emergency fund that we have has saved my bacon on a number of occasions. What I’ve noticed is that the need to use the fund subsides as it grows, too.
Thank you so much for the inspiration! My husband is going to love this.
Thank you so much for so many stories about beating debt, saving money, and being overall stewards of what we’re given. I am always encouraged by these highlights and even share them with my husband many times! We’ve been debt-free for 18 months (thanks, Dave!); have our 6 month emergency fund; and are currently saving, saving, saving for a big down payment on our first house! It’s so refreshing to know that we’re not alone; thank you!
Wow! How encouraging, keep up the great work!! 🙂
What an inspiring story! Thanks for posting.
This is so true! Six months ago, we experienced one of the most severe weather events. Tornados devastated our state. Although our community suffered little damage, we were without power for 4 days. This lead to unexpected costs – several hundred dollars of food was wasted, additional travel expenses (to stay someplace that had power), and a huge stock up trip to the grocery store once power was restored. Without an emergency fund, I would have been really stressed. But, I had planned for a rainy day and was able to help out others instead.
Thanks for sharing your story. Hopefully your story will inspire others to create/add to their emergency funds!
I’m very thankful for my husband’s ability to take any extra funds we have and save them! I’d much rather have a nice emergency fund & savings account vs. alot of “stuff”. I see friends struggle with trying to take care of something as simple as a birthday party- all because they have no savings and live off of credit cards. But any extra $ they do make, they never save and just live in the now. They think it’s better to spend now & make their kids happy now vs. saving for their future. IDK- it’s none of my business really but I hate to see them suffer when they don’t have to. They are a true example of “they are trying to keep up with the Jones’ ” 🙁
Why wouldn’t your Home Owners Insurance pay for the roof? And if the tree belonged to your neighbor then his home owners insurance should have paid. Just a thought….
Your home insurance will only pay for a new roof if it was damaged beyond normal wear and tear (such as a wind storm rips up shingles or a tree falls through it). If it was just an old roof, then they won’t cover it.
My husband and I recently purchased a home where the roof is about 20 years old, so we are starting to save up for a new one too. Rainy day funds are great!
Both examples above was of a tree falling on their homes….
The tree fell on the deck– not the roof. Re-read the statement.
Thanks for the good laugh!
A tree fell on our deck this summer, and the insurance company paid to fix the deck and remove the tree.
Unfortunately, homeowners insurance does not pay for normal wear/tear, maintenance, age of roof. There has to be direct physical damage from a covered loss in order for the insurance to replace the roof. Also, when neighbor’s tree falls on your property – typically, unless there has been an ongoing hazard with the tree, i.e. the tree is dead and you have been notifying the neighbor about possible impending damage for years and then if falls and damages your property or some other type of negligence, then the ensuing damage is usually covered under your own insurance policy. In other words, if there is a weather event, storm, tornado, etc (all outside your neighbor’s control) and your neighbor’s healthy tree falls on your property and causes damage then you have to report it under your own policy. Of course, your deductible applies to all claims under your policy. I spend many years in the insurance industry up until about the last year and half ago, so it is always worth checking, but this practice if pretty standard across the board with insurance companies.
We had a tree fall on our roof. (I didn’t realize this was so common!) Thankfully, our chimney broke the tree’s fall or it would have demolished our house. It fell on the “added” part of the house which had a flat roof. We found out that the previous owner had put rolled roofing on the flat roof. Our insurance would only pay to replace that type of roofing but the roofers suggested upgrading to rubber roofing. We had a misunderstanding with the contractor on the increase in cost so we were stuck paying our deductible and a big cost difference. Sometimes insurance doesn’t pay for everything! Over time we were glad to have the rubber roofing b/c it was easy to repair when more tree branches fell and would poke through the rubber roofing. (But I was very glad when we sold that house and will not buy a flat roof again!)
Thanks for sharing! Your story brings back memories – a year ago we had a tree fall on our roof / deck as we were packing to leave for a business trip.
We are thankful for our Emergency Fund as well! 🙂 Earlier this month we had to take both vehicles in for repairs and that would hard to cover all the costs had we not saved for the “rainy” days.
It is a true blessing to my heart, to read such words of encouragement..Thank you..
Thank you for the great post and for the encouragement to be wise with money in a society that advocates constant spending on non-essentials. 🙂