There will always be one thing we can count on in life. Emergencies happen. Your car breaks down, the furnace stops working, you lost your job. The list could go on and on. Emergencies will happen. So what can we do about it?

Build an emergency fund! First and foremost, you need to build an emergency fund. Even if you can only put aside a little money each paycheck, your future self will thank you. If you have more you can put aside, I highly recommend you do so. A lot of financial gurus recommend putting aside approximately 3-6 months of necessary expenses aside. This can be handy to ensure your bills are paid and you can feed your family if you lose your job. Or it can help you with a larger bill, maybe a pet is sick, or an appliance in your home needs fixing. It’s also recommended to keep it in a high yield savings account. I have mine in a typical savings account, but this may change soon as a high yield savings account can make you SO much more than a traditional savings account can.

Ask for a discount! You can save money simply by asking. Please compare companies though so you’re not fooled when one “gives you a discount” but they charge substantially higher than another company. Do your research.

Be nice! Have a conversation. A simple thank you can go a long way. Our furnace had issues this week (at the time of writing) and we had to have a specialist come to our home to fix it. Just being nice and talking to him saved us money. He charged less on labor than he could have. It makes a big difference being nice to someone.

Use your resources. If you have friends or family that are skilled in a certain area, maybe swap favors. This is easy with babysitting, hair cutting, plowing drives, etc. Our neighbors are incredible people. They’ve helped us take a literal tree off our house when it fell! They’ve plowed the drive and mowed our lawn. We try to pay what we can or make treats for them.