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Rebuilding my emergency fund from zero after dipping into it took 11 months, not the 3 I planned
I drained my emergency fund down to about $340 last January when my car needed a new alternator and I had no other money set aside. I figured I'd just refill it in three months by cutting eating out, but then the cat got sick, then registration came due, and every month something else ate the extra cash. It took me 11 months of putting $75 a week into a savings account at a credit union in Fresno to get back to $3,000. The thing that finally made it stick was setting the transfer on autopilot the day after payday instead of waiting to see what was left. How long did it actually take you to rebuild after you had to pull from yours?
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wyattramirez4d ago
Man, 11 months is rough but honestly that sounds about right for how these things go. I had the same plan back in 2021 when I pulled $1,200 out for a surprise vet bill, told myself three months tops, and it turned into almost a year because my dumb brain kept treating the fund like a piggy bank whenever a small thing came up. What finally worked for me was weirdly similar to you, I moved the money out of my main bank so it took like two days to get it back, and that little speed bump was enough to stop me from grabbing it for dumb stuff. The autopilot thing is smart too, waiting to see what's left at the end of the month never works for me either (there's never anything left). Also funny timing on the cat thing, mine cost me $400 last month for what turned out to be a hairball situation, so I feel your pain there.
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