Just had to vent and I’m open to advice although I doubt there’s anything to do. I’ve been painstakingly building up about one month of my family’s expenses in an emergency fund while also paying off high interest debt and supporting a family in a very high cost of living area. I finally crossed the threshold and had adjusted my goal to about two months’ expenses, baby steps, when my son’s visit to the dentist turned into $6.5K worth of work and $4K in anesthesia to get the procedure done. My son is autistic and can’t be operated on awake.
My work’s dental plan has a $3.5K annual limit per person, and I have $2K in my FSA, leaving me with $1K to pay for the procedure. The anesthesia should be covered by my medical plan since we hit the out of pocket max for that months ago, but they inexplicably only cover anesthesia if it’s performed in a hospital. So that’s going to be completely out of pocket. All told we’re out $5.5K and that emergency fund is basically drained.
On one hand, I’m happy we have the money at all, thank you Reddit, but on the other hand it really sucks. My work’s insurance is self-funded so we kind of make the rules about what is covered, which made the anesthesia loophole even more surprising and demoralizing. Just had to get that out of my system. I’m trying to fall asleep next to my very sore-mouthed, post-op child and all I can think about is that money gone in a flash.
It might help to adjust your emergency fund goal to focus on rebuilding over time. Also, consider using a budgeting tool to track everyday spending and prepare for future unexpected expenses.
I use Care Credit for expenses like dental and vet. It’s a credit card that allows you to finance a bigger purchase over a certain period and if you pay it off before the finance period ends, it’s zero interest. I recently had a vet bill that was over $400 that I paid with the Care Credit card, and it gave me 6 months no interest to pay it off. I do have money in savings specifically for cat-related expenses, but it allowed me to not dip into the savings as much. You were able to build the savings before, this was a dental-related emergency and you had the funds. Congrats, that is a huge win. I know it feels like defeat, but you will get it back and I’m sure find ways to save for other expenses in your budget as well. You’re doing a great job even if it doesn’t feel like it.
All good. I wish you a speedy recovery. When I got my initial emergency fund of $2K together, I drained it almost immediately, also dental for my daughter. Then, the second time it got to $2K, another emergency drained it again for a vet bill. Since then, we’ve built the emergency fund back up to almost 6 months and had some very minor emergencies. But I’m so very glad that I had that little emergency fund to keep me from going back into debt. Murphy has since moved on. Just letting you know that story as I’d like you to see the plus—and you will eventually. It still sucks for now, but Murphy will move on from you too.