And this is why we have a (relatively) big emergency fund

Last week, I wrote about how we were dipping into our emergency fund to cover a large plumbing repair and the cost of installing a new car battery, all in one week. This actually came on top of what I expect will be some decent medical bills, since Tyler needed those emergency stitches put in by the plastic surgeon a couple of weeks ago.

Well, it's a good thing our emergency fund is bigger than the $1000 baby fund advocated by Dave Ramsey, because we're going to have to dip into it again: on Thursday, we were all in the car when we were rear-ended in heavy traffic. We were hit so hard that we were pushed into the car in front of us, but fortunately, no one was hurt. Although the guy who hit us took full responsibility, apologized to us and the kids, and appeared confident he had insurance, it looks like his insurance company might be claiming he wasn't covered. So we'll have to pay our deductible and hope that eventually we'll get it back (more on that next week).

Reiterating the theme from last week, though, life is still good. This is just an inconvenience that will hopefully be over and done with in a week (let's hope the repairs don't take any longer than that) because:

• We have enough money in the bank to cover the deductible.
• We have auto insurance and pay our premiums on time, every time.
• Our auto insurance is with a reputable company, with customer service that we trust. Our agent has been the family agent for years, although we haven't had to file a claim in a long time. So far, the adjuster has been quite competent and proven worthy of our trust.
• We didn't buy a flashy car. We were in the new car when we were hit, but even so, it's not particularly devastating because we bought a modest car (Nissan Altima). I've known people who buy expensive, beautiful cars and then freak out over a scratch - an accident like this would be scarring to them. (In the interest of clarity, it was the older car that got the new battery last week.)
  

Of course, even knowing that this accident is a relatively minor incident, I do hope to avoid any new reasons for dipping into the emergency fund this coming week!

Update: We didn't get the car back until January!