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My water heater died on a Sunday and the $1,850 quote taught me a weird budgeting trick
So my water heater finally gave out two Sundays ago, right in the middle of my kid's bath, and I had cold water spraying in the garage at 7pm. I called the emergency plumber and he quoted me $1,850 for a same night swap, which felt insane since I'd been putting $40 a month into a house fund for stuff like this. Here's the thing though, I told him give me an hour, and I sat down and did the math on my phone. I realized my "emergency fund" had $1,240 in it and my regular checking had enough to cover the rest if I skipped eating out for a week. So I paid it, but then I went back through my last 4 months of spending and found $600 I'd blown on stuff I don't even remember buying. Now I'm wondering if I should bump my monthly house fund to $75 or just start a separate small appliance fund. What do you all do when a surprise bill hits, do you have a set dollar amount you keep liquid for this kind of mess?
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patp7917d ago
We keep about $2k liquid in a plain savings account and that's our number for stuff like this. When our furnace crapped out in January the guy quoted $2,400 and we were short, so we put the rest on a card and paid it off in three weeks. After that I started tossing $25 a week into the same account instead of $40 a month, since weekly stings less and it adds up quicker. Skip the separate appliance fund, one boring account you don't touch unless something breaks is way easier to keep track of.
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