Mark had insomnia on Sunday night. He woke up at 3 AM yesterday morning and could not get back to sleep. So, he got out of bed and went to the living room to watch the History Channel (his idea of stimulating entertainment… my cure for insomnia.) As he was vegging out on the sofa, he heard rustling from the kitchen. Being the big tough guy he is, he investigated.

Upon investigation, he found RATS! We’ve been fighting a mouse problem for a couple of weeks now. We thought we were all set once we caught a few mice in the glue traps we bought. Nope. We caught BABY RATS! According to our pest control company, that happens when you live near the woods.  LOVELY!

Mark spent the day running errands and bought a big sturdy trash can with a lid for the dog food, evidently rats LOVE dog food… (conveniently enough, dog food contains an enzyme that counteracts rat poison so that the dogs don’t die if they eat it), plus a few other items like plastic bins (for my flour, corn meal, etc… ), and steel wool for filling in any entry points. So far, our little squatters have racked up $45 in supplies.

Once I got home from work, we cleared out the laundry room (after we found the nest behind the dryer… I believe I’ve answered the question “Where do all the mates to my socks go??”), filled the hole they put in the wall with steel wool, cleaned up the mess, mopped and scrubbed and put everything back into place. Since all of the cleaning and maintenance took too much time (and really… who wants to cook after THAT?), I ordered Chinese food for dinner. Another $35 charge.

The owner of our pest control company came out yesterday afternoon to set out a ton of superdeedooper strong rat poison (in locked feed boxes so that the dogs and children can’t get into them), a big honking rat trap in the pantry, and a $250 invoice (for a year of vermin control).

This is the very first time we’ve had to depend on our emergency fund. I used to think of it as a cushion, never believing we’d have to actually use it. Today, I know better and I’m so happy it was there.

Other articles about emergency funds from around the blogosphere:

• Creating a CD Ladder for your emergency fund – The Simple Dollar
• Using your 401(k) as an Emergency Fund? Are you Insane? – Budgets are Sexy
• Your HELOC is NOT your Emergency Fund! – Mrs. Micah
• The lady whose $50,000 emergency fund was not enough? – Can I Get Rich On a Salary

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