Struggles of the process

Having $1000 stashed away just for emergencies is wonderful. You feel secure (mostly) and are able to handle most issues that arise unexpectedly. Then there are the inevitable Murphy moments that come up and clean you out completely. We got visited by one those today. Our "new" car's transmission went *barf* yesterday, and the bill from the mechanic will be upwards of $1700! That's a lot of money and the cheapest we've found.

So back to Baby Step 1. We need to get $1000 back in the bank. Rough month for this to hit. We had just mailed our first Debt Snowball payment to the Horrible Woman (SallieMae). Still...it's all part of the process of getting control of our financial future. This would be so much worse if it weren't for the initial $1000 in the bank! I've had to try to find $2000 before to fix a car, and this time I've only had to scrape together about $500--not bad, all said and done. Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps. I keep reminding myself that it's only a matter of time and things will get better.