New phone, who dis?

So, remember that Bachelorette party in Nashville I went to a couple weeks ago in Nashville? It was fun, we had a blast! My wallet tells a different story. 

I had everything budgeted out, I reserved some extra cash for the trip and I was set for the month, right on track to not go over budget. Until, my iPhone was stolen right from my purse. Pick-pocketed, with no chance of finding that thing again. If you look at it in a positive light it’s just a replaceable phone right?

I do not carry insurance on my iPhone. A deductible is $200 even with insurance plus the $13/month IF you use it. So, I had to buy my phone out right with what was left on my payment plan. $450, down the tubes. In this case, three to four months ago, I would not have been able to pay for the phone. I would have had to put it on my credit card, and pay it back slowly, along with the credit card interest. Thanks to my new savings habits of paying myself first every month, I was able to snag those extra bucks from my emergency savings, and pay for the phone – loan free. I would have normally picked up the newest iPhone XS Max to replace the stolen phone, but I knew that didn’t make sense for my budget. I decided to go with the iPhone XR, one step down, that still had all the features I needed and a huge savings of $15/month for the installment payments.

Although a minor setback in my savings, it was progress in my eyes. I had the cash on hand to fully pay off the phone when I needed it most. I would consider this situation an emergency, so I did not feel any sort of guilt pulling that money from the savings account. Situations like this one are why I have the extra funds on hand and continue to build my savings!