Have you ever used your emergency/rainy day fund?

Yes. After we adopted our daughter, we saved up to adopt another child (it’s flippin’ expensive). We even had our first meeting with the adoption agency. Unfortunately, my wife was laid off and then unemployed for two years. We ended up eating through that savings to survive until she got another job. It was a bunch of years later until we could save more money and a bit late to adopt again, so our daughter is an only child. She always says she wishes she had a sibling.

My wife was laid off again when COVID lockdown happened. We ended up eating through about half of our savings because of that. She’s back to work now, so gotta save it back.

I have not used it. I set one up in 1990 to put $50 per month into an obscure savings plan and $50 per month in US Savings Bonds.
I did it to forget I had money going there. I am reminded that I have it one a year during tax season. I think its about $50000 currently.

Yes, and we’re about use it again. HVAC is on last legs and waiting on order. It will probably cost $9000 including installation.

I’ve pretty much never been in a position to have such a fund. US economic system is dystopian.

We struggled paycheck to paycheck for years, when a windfall suddenly gave us $20,000. Almost immediately after, we had to hire a lawyer, which ate it all, and more.
I’ll leave it at that.

Oh, yes. And I’d have used it more times if I’d been able to accumulate one faster, but we were living pretty close to the edge for a long time. I managed resolutely to squirrel away a twenty-dollar bill out of each paycheck. I put my secret hoard in a little box behind the books on a shelf, and it eventually added up to nearly a thousand. There were always emergencies, from car repairs to veterinary crises.

During one memorable period, I was trying to save up $3000 to buy a used car after I had finally learned to drive at age 40. It took a long time to accumulate that much when I was the only working parent. First we spent it because insurance did not cover my second child’s birth. Then I was almost there again and we had to use it to pay an unexpected tax bill. How did we owe so much in taxes when it seemed like we weren’t making anything? Finally, the third time, I did buy an old Toyota that got me through years of commuting.

Even now I have little cash stashes that I tend to forget about, but there’s a part of my brain that tracks those safety nets. It was so scary when we had none.

As far as my stashed money, I dipped in once when I blew a rod in my engine but i paid off bills and bought a used car with cash so it was fine. Better than payments and interest.
That safety net I created for myself alone, makes my demons sleep. Plus I have enough to bury us all, which is such a worry for poor people.

Yes. I got into it last month when I had to have the rear axle bearings and seals replaced on my 91 Nissan pick-up.

Our emergency fund is a bit more of a floating fund. We didn’t design it that way but it is kind of working for us. Everything we earn we put 10% away into a saving account. This is from the book ‘The Richest Man in Babylon, which I believe is the foundation of economics and personal finance today. Although it was written in 1962 and uses the parables of 4000 years ago as its premise.

That means every bit of income, windfall and gift of money we receive we put 10% into this saving of which we have access. If something happens we use this fund. Then we start over again. Of course, we have longer-term savings, but I kind of like this watershed fund to keep us afloat. Our car recently needed a clutch and we used this fund which was a great relief as we didn’t have to use our fluid income.

What is your address @Jeruba?

This is a little different, but our union has a sick leave pool. We can donate one or more days and then with approval from the union, can use days once we have used up our medical leave. It is the cheapest “insurance” I ever bought and it saved my butt.

@kruger_d I am a bit jealous you can do that. At my company, several of us tried to give vacation time and sick time to a co-worker who was having a difficult pregnancy. The Company wouldn’t allow it.