<prompt> Human: Am I the only one who has a problem bringing myself to actually use the emergency fund for an emergency? I guess Im always afraid that its not really an emergency or that some other, worse, emergency will come along and Ill be stuck.Im basically homeless right now due to a natural disaster. If theres any situation that would be classified an emergency, this is it. Im living in a hotel. Im having to eat 95 of my meals out. My insurance will eventually reimburse me for most of this hopefully without too much fighting. But Im having a real problem justifying pulling money out of my emergency fund to pay for all this. Assistant: How are you paying for your bills right now?If youre racking up debt instead of touching your emergency fund then this is the time to use the emergency fund unless you expect imminent payment i.e. before CC is due.Human: Right now Im juggling things. I cut cable last week Ive been planning on doing this anyway and now seems as good a time as any. That will pay for this weeks food. I paid my car off last month it thankfully survived better than the house did. So thats another 300 I have to work with. Im trimming other things here and there to pay for the extra gas Im having to use. And I worked some OT last pay period so that gives me a little cushion too. I know that once the hotel bills post then Ill have to dip into the e-fund, but dinner in a restaurant seems like...not an emergency.  <response>: If youre cutting out extras to get a little wiggle room that is not a bad thing. As long as you are not taking out a loan or racking up credit card debt instead of using your EF you are doing okay.At the same time. If you think your monthly incomeexpenses will be back to normal soon, dont punish yourself by selling valuables instead of using your EF. You can build it back up again! 