Finances and Emgerency Funds

In Feburary they cut my pay at work. 8% company wide for non-management. Management lost more than that. I rebalanced my "budget" (if that's what you want to call it) and I was doing good. I've talked about that here before. Good as in I was making all my bills. Problem is, I didn't buy things I needed to. Books for work, supplies for my self defense class, supplies for my martial arts class.

Then I had a couple of issues the last 2 pay checks. I get paid every other week. Had to buy some new clothes which were not cheap, an issue with my rent, AAA upping my policy for reason I can't figure out other than based on where I live.

Because of that, I dipped into my emergency savings. I didn't have much in them to start, but I was good at not touching it, and adding a little every check. However, this check due to still playing catch up, I didn't have the money to put back into my emergency savings, which is about 10.00 right now.

When it rains it pours though. Yesterday, my parrot flew into the patio door. Later he got spooked, and instead of flying to his cage like normal, he went full speed into a wall. then hopped up and flew full speed into my storage room, hitting the celing, the wall, the wall, the wall, etc. Finally he flew back into the hallway again, and hit another wall. Looked like he was trying to fly to my room. Acting like he couldn't see.

After that he was a little catatonic, and the joy of trying to find a vet that could take a bird started. My normal Avian Vet was closed. While calling around, he snapped too, struggled to fly to his cage, climbed in, and was rocking back and forth slightly on his perch.

After several calls, I found an Emergency Vet in Novi that could see him. There was one closer, but they recommended the one in Novi. The other choice was Milford (even further). They aid it'd be about $86.00 just for the office visit. I only had about $130 available at that point. They won't bill, they won't make arrangements, you pay or you don't get service. Problem is the bird was in need of seeing a doctor. Stuck over a barrel.

I got there, and the first thing the Vet tries to pull was getting a chem lab, because they think the bird has a history of seizures. The tech wrote that it was normal for the bird to fly into the wall. Which it isn't. I re-explain what has happened. Meanwhile the bird is acting like himself at this point. After lots more bs, when you design an emergency vet clinic, you might want to make sure people can't hear what you're pushing to other patients in other rooms, I ended up leaving with some meds.

He's doing good. a little nappy though.

So I normally ride the edge money wise. I do it because I'm trying to dig out of debt, because I don't always make the best decision money wise, and I don't think that things like yesterday could happen.

However it wasn't until this morning's shower that I realized the problem is bigger. I've been thinking I'd be good if I could get a decent emergency fund going. But I use Immigrant Direct for my Emergency Savings Account. It's good because the money isn't easily accessible like my normal bank account or my ING Electric Orange account. While it makes it harder to spend, it makes it harder to get when you need to rush your pet to people who demand payment on the spot, while trying to take advantage of you in a state of need. However there isnt' much of a choice when it comes to emergency pet care.

So, what I'm going to end-up doing is creating a sub-account on ING. Sort of like J.D. Roth's Mini-cooper account. I'm not going to exactly follow his way of doing it. But I am going to put money away. I figure 40 a month should do it. the first few months if anything goes bad, it'll have to come out of my normal accounts, but after that it should be good.

The money will be accessable when I need it on short notice, but it'll still be harder than normal to access.