<prompt> Human: Our junker car w more than 200K miles finally died. Living in the suburbs, we really need 2 cars to get around. So after spending all day researching, we bought a used car thats still pretty old, but has low miles and has been beautifully maintained for only 2,900. We had to dip into the emergency fund to do it. Is that a good enough emergency? What would you consider a justifiable emergency?  <response>: If it is necessary for you to have this second car to get to your job and you have no other cash available, then apparently its emergency. You shouldnt lose your job rather than spend that money on a car.The situation you should be aiming for is to have an emergency fund and, when you own a car that is clearly nearing the end of its life, have a separate car savings fund. But clearly you have to start somewhere. It good you did have the emergency fund there to cover this.It is great that you went and bought an inexpensive used car rather than financing something new. So now go build back up your emergency fund and once thats done, maybe start a 100month car fund for when 2 goes.To answer your question, I would consider costs related to any significant health problem, dire circumstances regarding a loved one, or costearning effective expenses to maintain a job to be worth using an emergency fund for. 