Dealing with Sudden Financial Emergencies

This week, I had a family emergency that was a sudden reminder of the essential nature of having an emergency fund for these purposes and it helps to keep things less frantic, and more manageable.  Replenishing the emergency fund, which is important to safeguard against future calamities, will be my top financial priority over the next couple of months.  This is what I’m planning:

1) Prioritizing replenishing the emergency fund over investment or retirement funds, until the emergency fund returns to previous desired levels.

2) Find if other accounts or other areas can be allocated here. For example, I will be about half of the money from the travel and equipment account.  Since much of the travel account is for optional travel, I’ll see if future trips can be made lower cost.

3) Check the budget for any splurge areas that can be trimmed for the next few months and shift the difference to the emergency account. I will probably look at our restaurant budget and trim that back.

4) Look for possibilities to add some income contributions, such as freelance projects until the emergency fund is replenished.

I’d love to hear suggestions of how you would deal with sudden financial emergencies.

shared at this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance