<prompt> Human: What constitutes an acceptable use to use money from your emergency fund? Long story short, my cousin and her boyfriend are expecting their first child, and they are extremely unprepared financially to deal with life, let alone to deal with life as parents. My uncle her father is extremely into money management, and has been attempting for the last 22 years to instill financial wisdom into her. Obviously, hes failed thus far, but the other day, he was trying to help them build a budget, and I was giving some input along the way. She made several remarks that once they have their first 1000 in their emergency fund, shes going to buy a 500 pair of cowboy boots that shes been eyeing. God help us all. Which brings me my question...what constitutes an acceptable use of your emergency fund? Im still in the process of building my emergency fund goal is six months of income, currently have two months incomefour months expenses, but I did lay down some rules for myself for what Im allowed to spend the money on, and what is considered an emergency. Necessary repairs on automobile Veterinary emergencies Medical emergenciesbills Living expenses in the case of job loss Living expenses in the case of home loss fire, flood, etc And thats honestly about it. My car obtained a pretty nasty scratchdent a few weeks ago in a parking lot. Its all aesthetic and would cost about 500 to fix. I was prepared to take the funds out of my emergency fund so my car could be pretty again, but decided that since its not inhibiting the function of the car, it can wait. In January, my dog needed a 600 procedure done and I work in the field, so this is after a gigantic discount. I have a CareCredit card, which offers 0 APR for six months - so put the expense on the card, and paid it off within three months by reworking my budget a bit, therefore not depleting a large amount of my emergency fund.  <response>: Money is spent on things that you NEED and things that you WANT. The emergency fund is only for things that you NEED and that the budget cannot cover. 