A testimony from Carolynn at My Little Bit of Life
Pulling into the drive way from getting the kids’ pictures taken and picking up a bring home and bake pizza, I hear my phone ringing. I have to sternly ask the children to quit whining so that I can answer the phone.
I pick it up and hear, “Hey Honey, umm, I need you to come pick me up!”
My husband had been in a car accident and ended up rear-ending a car. Our car hit the trailer hitch of the car in front of him, so our car had quite a bit of damage, and the other car just had some scratches. Thankfully, everyone was fine as they weren’t going very fast.
The damage was pretty extensive, $4,400 worth! I hadn’t raised our deductible yet (I had been thinking about it) and we only needed to come up with $500 (plus over $100 to pay the ticket).
Planning Ahead Means Less Stress
Of course, getting into a car accident isn’t ever fun; it’s a big inconvenience. My husband was really upset, mainly over the money aspect. I told him not to worry about it because we are on Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step #3. We had the money in the bank to cover all of the unexpected expenses.
It is still very disappointing because we weren’t planning on spending the money. It was intended to be saved, but accidents happen (literally)!
Had this accident happened several years prior, this would have been a monumental stress! Before we took Financial Peace University, we were almost to the point of having to put our groceries on a credit card.
Instead of an Emergency, It Was An Inconvenience
Right before the accident happened, I was starting to feel defeated. We took Financial Peace University, got out of debt in a little over a year, added children and became a one-income family. I felt like we had made so many changes and were really sticking to our budget and I was getting discouraged because I felt like we weren’t really moving ahead much.
I feel this accident was one way of God showing us how far we’ve come. Because of the changes we’ve made in how we handle finances in the last two years, what could have been an emergency became an inconvenience, not a life-defeating problem.
Carolynn is a stay-at-home mother of four. She was a teacher and now blogs about life: parenting, pregnancy, coupons, FPU, and teaching at My Little Bit of Life.
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Jeanne says
The main thing is that you could have lost your husband!! Thank God you did not.
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
I know, I have no idea what I would do without him! He’s amazing and such a great father!
Richard Rainford says
It’s amazing how expensive even the smallest repair can be for cars.
We take for granted the use of the vehicle and many of us often don’t plan on unfortunate accidents like this one. Thankfully no one was hurt and it’s good that you are one of the few who plan ahead. Good for you!
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
The hardest part was trying to convince my husband not to beat himself up about it!
Naomi says
We too have been in a similar situation. Everyone was shocked at how much we had to pay for our accident, but we were able to say, “It’s going to be okay. Do we want to pay this much for a mistake? No, but we’ve got our emergency fund so we’re going to be just fine.”
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
🙂
Becky says
Such an encouraging story! It’s always great to read a story with a happy ending! Thanks for sharing.
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
You’re welcome!
Jaime says
Congrats to you too! It’s a long process but you keep truckin’ and have made some big strides!!
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
Thanks! 🙂
Jaime says
It’s the most thrilling feeling. We did not do Financial Peace University but went through Crown Ministries 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, we’ve been able to handle all kinds of things – garage door opener replacement, air conditioner repair & replacing a fridge all in one month and so on- and while on the one hand you’re like, “Come on!” on the other hand, it’s FAR less stressful than I imagine it would be charging it. We never did do credit cards, and I’m so thankful. These type of things get me excited and I’m glad to know I’m not the only one! haha.
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
Ditto! I better put windows and AC replacement on our savings list too, these are going to be the top priority after baby step #3!
Alyssa says
Great post! I’m glad you were able to see this as a reminder of how much progress you HAVE made! I get discouraged too sometimes; we have a pretty big savings goal ahead of us, and sometimes it seems that we just aren’t getting there very fast. Stuff happens, you know! We have an emergency fund, plus a separate fund for car repairs and another for a new (to us) car purchase. Our Toyotas are 7 & 8 years old, fully paid for, so we plan on having them for a long time. But, the peace of mind in knowing that there is cash in the bank meant for that purpose is indescribable. 🙂 Having the separate accounts helps me focus on completing a goal and moving on to the next. Its taken us almost 8 years to get where we are, but its been worth every sacrifice!
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
Good job. I know saving up to buy a car seems like a huge task! That is one thing we will be working on after we finish baby step #3, our cars are 8 & 10 years old, so hopefully we’ll have enough time to get that done before we need it!
Maria says
I too have felt the stress relief of these “inconveniences” lately, having some medical issues with each of my kids that have cost us almost $4000 just this year to date out of pocket (and we have great insurance if that tells you anything :). However, we would have been sunk a few years back had this happened then. Not that I WANTED to spend every extra cent that has come in (in the form of bonuses and whatnot) on medical bills, but am relieved that it is THERE to do it. We are baby-stepping our way to progress, despite roadblocks!
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
Great job! Keep it up! 🙂
Skinny Mom's Kitchen says
I get really worried about unexpected accidents or anything that requires extra money because we do not have a large savings. I was just talking with my hubs about this the other day and this post has really inspired me to focus on an emergency fund so when an accident does happen it is more of an inconvenience than an emergency. Thank you.
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
You’re welcome! 🙂
Krystal says
We just paid off all our debt but our mortgage last month and had a nice “emergency savings” started. Thinking now we are finally getting somewhere, our laptop stopped working (it was 6 years old and it was a demo model!).
After feeling very defeated we went to the store and bought a new one. We needed it and we could! Even just a few months back this would have been a huge blow to our finances. Instead of a roadblock, it’s just a detour!
Thanks for sharing- very encouraging!
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
I love that, instead of a road block, it’s just a detour! I may have to use that!
Jessica @ The Abundant Wife says
Thanks for the thoughts! We had something similar happen this winter. My husband was laid off, so we built up our emergency fund before going back to paying off our debts. When our furnace went up this winter ($3500) we were inconvenienced, but we had the money set aside. Praise the Lord!
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
Isn’t it nice not to loose sleep over it?! 🙂
Jessica @ The Abundant Wife says
Yes, it was very nice to not have to stress. My father-in-law also told us how impressed he was that he we had the money to pay it up front. As an unemployed family (formerly doing youth ministry) I think it’s good for others to see that although we don’t have a lot, we can still manage our money well. Our parents worry a lot over us and our kids, so it’s good for them to see us handling things well.
Elizabeth says
We recently had to invest another $1400 approx. to get our car fixed (it is now almost 12 years old) but paid for of course. We hated to spend the money that way…but are thankful at least GOD has allowed us to have the money to pay it. It is ALL HIS money anyway…so maybe the repair shop folks need it more than we do. Perhaps another advantage in these older cars, is we maybe don’t look worth bothering to a thief!!
Elizabeth in NC
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
Good points!
Ashlee says
Must be pretty common, the same thing happened to my husband. Busy city traffic, an emergency vehicle trying to get by and he rear-ended someone with a hitch! Lucky for us their car had one scratch they didn’t care about and ours had cosmetic damage to the bumper. We now drive around with duck tape on our bumper to cover the hole. But our car has almost 200,000 miles on it so paying for a new bumper wouldn’t increase the value of the car enough to make it worth doing.
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
That’s a bummer! On the same car as pictured above, we have a football sized dent on the back bumper from when I was hit on the highway and they sped off in a car with 30 day tags! We had to get the car fixed, the radiator was bent up!
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
So sorry to hear that! 🙁
Great mindset, and honestly, that’s more than half the battle. It’s nice that you already have a game plan! I know it gets tough, but with Gazelle Intensity, you can do it! There will still be bumps in the road and times when you feel stagnant, but keep your budgeting sheets and when you feel discouraged, take out your old budget and look over it!
Many times I can’t believe that we were able to pay off so much debt on what we were bringing home, but we did! Where there’s a will, there’s a way! 🙂
Katie says
I seriously laughed out loud when I read this. Not at your situation, but at that fact that my husband did this EXACT thing today. Someone slammed on their brakes in front of him and he wasn’t able to fully stop in time. He didn’t hit them hard, but it was a truck and the hitch was just high enough to cause damage to the front of the car. (If he hit something without a hitch, there’d probably only be a few scratches.)
It’s frustrating because we are still in the process of trying to pay down all of our debt. We had just paid off my car a few months ago (2.5 years early) and were in line to have our only credit card paid off next month. I’m trying to keep my head up and not get discouraged, but it’s starting to feel like everything is standing in our way of getting ourselves in a better place financially.
On a positive note, my husband is completely fine (most important) and he carpools to work with 3 other guys (so that car is only driven one week out of the month). I’m hoping that we can put off the repair for a couple of months and just pay gas money plus a little extra for one of the other guys to drive an extra week. That would give us some time to save for the repair. We’ll still have to see, but I’m trying to just see this as a speed bump and not a road block in our journey…
Elizabeth says
I like that. An inconveince, not an emergency. Just this past month, my husband had to put 4 new tires on his truck, my truck had to have engine work done, both registrations were due, and one needed to be inspected (why the 4 tires were needed). It really drained our car repair budget, but we didn’t have to stress. We didn’t want to spend it, as you said, but were thankful we had it to spend. Now we are slowly but surely building that fund up, and praying we don’t have another month like that for awhile!
Carolynn @ mylittlebitoflife.com says
Wow! That’s a lot! I know the feeling of not wanting “Murphy” to come and visit until the funds are built back up!