I Lost $1250 In Three Days. This is Why You Need an Emergency Savings Fund

Time hop back to November 2017. My teeth have never been a stellar section of my health. I had braces back in middle school until high school and lost both retainers so my teeth shifted out of place over time. The result is that I have slightly crooked teeth that are also sensitive since braces make your teeth sensitive. Sometimes you just can't win. My teeth have never been the best example of my health. My wisdom teeth were a gamble. Back in 2016 my wisdom tooth, bottom right of my mouth, started giving me trouble, but only for a day. One day. I can ignore that. Take Advil. Sleep. Gone. 2017, early November, I started having pain that didn't go away but because I was being stubborn, a motif in my life for sure, I didn't go get it checked out because I was too busy being at work. I was also too busy trying to wrap up my first semester of grad school. So I gambled that the pain would go away.

Nope. Don't bet on your teeth. You'll lose every time.

The wisdom tooth became infected because it was impacted and didn't break through the gum line. It grew more painful and my tongue and the nearby tonsil became infected. This went on for weeks. You'd think I would've taken care of it immediately. You and I thought wrong. I clearly don't think though. Fast forward to the Friday before Thanksgiving and it finally reached apex discomfort. I couldn't close my mouth properly. I was losing sleep because of the pain, my appetite in full disarray. I was at school and tried eating something because I still had to eat. I couldn't eat much solids so meat was out of the question. Extensive chewing was painful. Bread was hit and miss depending on if it was sliced bread or a hard loaf. So I went for only soft foods. I found a place that had banana pudding.

Pro tip: Never and I repeat never eat something as sugary as banana pudding when you have a mouth infection. Good banana pudding is pure sugar. This pain was pure nightmare.

The resultant feeling was like pop rocks sizzling under your skin. My tonsil, already suffering from a residual infection, swelled to the size of a jellybean. If I wanted to close my mouth I would be biting into my tonsil. That's it. I need this tooth out now. I found an orthodontist that was willing to do the procedure the same day. A modern day saint. He took the tooth out in an hour. My part time job gives me dental insurance. I'm also on my parent's plan because the law allows me to be (thank you far reaching government). Despite that insurance covered half of the procedure, I still had to drop $300 to cover the other half. That day I felt two types of pain: The pain of money and the pain of having felt a lidocaine filled needle having been shoved into my jaw three times. The next few hours had me suffering from the most pain I've ever felt in my life. And on top of that I was out $300.

Fast forward to the Monday of Thanksgiving week. I'm still dying but at least I have painkillers for the suffering. I still have to go to class but I'm having car issues. Great. What fun. How convenient. A valve cover gasket needs to be replaced. Well I'm stuck now. But what do I need to drop? $400? Let me stay in bold for a second. This is why I'm convinced that Mondays are cruel reminders of how hard life likes to hit. Rent was due that Monday also. $550. I lost $1250 in the span of three days. You don't want to know how hard that was to take. All the money I had worked hard for, suddenly gone. Because life likes to time my weak moments and coalesce other events to occur just to kick me when I'm financially weak. Now, I was able to cover all of that and still have enough left over for the next month's rent. This is why I work as much as I do.


You don't need this to be you when life decides to get expensive.

Ladies, gentlemen, nonbinaries, if you saw "$300" and cringed and then saw "$1250" and your butt clenched so hard that it tore the upholstery in your seat, then you need an emergency fund. I'm 23. An emergency fund for someone my age doesn't need to be extensive. I don't have multiple family members I need to financially think for. But I do have expensive things like rent, health, and a car. Which is what most people my age have. I had enough saved up to where I could cover $1250 of expenses in three days and still cover next month's expenses. Granted, I would've been on some seriously thin ice with my money but I was still able to do it. 

Now go and do in remembrance of my pain.