Emergency Hit, But We Were Ready!

My violin that I've had for just shy of 26 years, with its cracks and personality, gave up and called it quits. One of the cracks gave way when the case it was in got bumped. I recognized the cracks years ago and have kept up with humidifying and whatnot over the years which is probably why it took this long for it to finally let go.

I'm not going to lie, I was devastated. This was the violin that my parents bought for me at the age of 14 as a Birthday/Christmas present. I played on a worship team at church, was in a local Country band, and also currently teach violin lessons as my part of the household income.

When I spoke to local luthiers I was told that it would cost approximately $1,000 to fix the large crack, but in all honesty this violin really wasn't worth that. There were other cracks in the face as well so spending the $1,000 on just one crack would have only delayed the inevitable.

When life has hit us in the past, we would be thrown into a panic. Not knowing where we would come up with the funds that we needed to cover the unexpected expense was nearly paralyzing. The stress on our marriage and the fallout that our children felt was terrible.

I was having a really difficult time with knowing whether or not to use the Emergency Fund (EF) on a different violin. James reminded me of the fact that, while he has needed to spend thousands of dollars over the years on his tools, this was my tool. No different. However small my contribution may be, I still make my living using my violin. (It was still difficult spending that sort of money on myself...or at least, that's how I felt.)

As God would have it, I had managed to pick up some extra babysitting that same week that the violin broke, and it was also Child Tax week (our monthly payment from the government). Overall it wasn't much income-wise, but I was able to find a new violin for under $800, including the case, bow and also 3 year warranty. I was able to only take out a total of $580 from our emergency fund, still leaving us with $420 in our EF!

I realize that to some people, $420 is tiny. But to us, this is a huge step in our journey to building wealth and financial peace.

I am so incredibly thankful that we found the Dave Ramsey Show on YouTube, the education that I am receiving through watching his program is immeasurable.