Is Raiding the Cookie Jar Allowed?

Last week I had to raid the cookie jar (aka my Emergency Fund), in order to make a payment. Normally I wouldn’t have done that, but just transferred over some money from a line of credit, and while I actually had the space on my lines of credit, I didn’t think it was kosher to do that, given that I am trying to be more disciplined these days (no comments on my lack of discipline or how sad my discipline is right now, I’m tryin’!). So I raided the emergency fund. I am now back into refunding mode, and might actually have enough money to do it with last Friday’s paycheque. This is because of the way my bills and pay schedule went this month, they didn’t quite match up, which is why I was short last week, and why now I’ve got extra money. I suppose it’s not really “extra” money, now is it? At any rate, I’m going to be deciding my options this week and see what I can do to top the emergency fund without messing up any future payments. But I was curious about when y’all ever dip into the emergency fund.

What do you consider “acceptable” raiding of the emergency fund?

Is it it strictly “I must buy a plane ticket to visit a sick relative in another part of the country” type of things, “my one and only means of transportation needs a new transmission”, or a “I’ve only $400 left to pay on my last credit card, let’s use the emergency fund and be completely debt free!” type of thing. Okay, I wasn’t serious with that last one, but in all seriousness, what do you consider Emergency Fund worthy? I know some of you are quite strict on your definitions of emergency, so let’s hear it, when would you raid your Emergency Fund?