The post where Jessica learns a lesson

Apparently I needed to learn a hard lesson today.  You see, hubby and I have been working our butts off to save up some money.  We paid off the car, and paid off the credit card and for once had an emergency fund in place.  Maybe I was getting too confident?  Maybe I was counting my chicks before they hatched?  In any case, I was taken down a notch or two today by a stupid mistake.  I was driving downtown Frederick, which has extremely narrow lanes.  There happened to be a parked (nobody in it thankfully) towtruck that was waaay out of the parking spot.

(SEE? I told you he was waaay over the line)

 I misjudged how far out he was when I went to make a right hand turn.  All the sudden I felt my truck stop (thankfully also that I was only going maybe 5mph) as it was stuck on something.  My first thought was "What the *&^%?"  I tried backing up and heard (and felt) a loud grinding noise.  Once free, I pulled up in the loading zone on the corner and got out of my truck.  My hands were shaking and I was trying to hold back tears!  I went to the passenger side of the truck and almost did cry.  My tire had a huge gash in it and the wheel well (maybe thats what it's called?  you know the part above the wheel that kinda sticks out?  yeah that) was completely dented and blue.  I went to look at the tow truck (mind you he just had a little scratch since its mostly metal and super heavy duty).  My second thought was to call Hubby because he would know what to do.  Until now I had never hit anything.  Ever.  I waited for the tow truck driver to come from wherever he was.  Thankfully (thankfulness is definitely a theme here!) he was totally understanding and knew what to do.  A nice police woman came by but said there was nothing to do except for us to exchange info, which we had already done.  Hubby came to my rescue and the tow truck driver left.  We were hopeful that we would be able to put the spare tire on but there was no getting the broken tire off.  So our insurance sent a tow truck and off we went to the shop.  Now my truck is in the shop for who knows how long and Hubby and I will have to figure out a way to share a car (we dont have rental coverage).  Oh, and we have a $1000 deductible that we will have to pay in order to get the truck back from the shop when its done.

(did I mention it was freezing out?  and while waiting for the insurance tow he went and got us starbucks to warm up? He is awesome!)

  So what did I learn from all this?  Lesson one- the tow truck will always win so try to give it a large berth and go around.  Lesson two-  as soon as you have an emergency fund, something will happen.  That said, Hubby and I were just commenting on how non stressful this financial setback is.  A month ago we had no emergency fund (and the credit card was maxed out).  If this would have happened then, I have NO idea how we would have paid for it.  No idea whatsoever.  Maybe call my parents and beg to borrow money.  Somehow God knew that and spared me from hitting any tow trucks then.  Today, even though a thousand freaking dollars is a lot of money, we will be okay.  We can take the money to the shop, pay them what we owe and get right back to refunding the emergency fund.  This is a setback not a catastrophe.  I can't explain how good it feels to know that we are not going to be crippled by this.  I am also confident that something else will happen, and I just hope when it does we have our emergency fund in place.  So thank you God for good timing.  Thank you tow truck driver for understanding and not yelling at me.  Thank you Hubby for coming to my rescue and understanding that I needed you there.  And finally thank you Dave Ramsey for helping us have an emergency fund at all.  I am truly blessed!

(Bye truck... )