On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
You know the plumbing problem we were having yesterday?
(Sewage was backing up through my shower drain.)
It turned out that the pump which moves water into our drain field had gone kaput. Dead as a doornail.
My brother-in-law says that car repairs somehow always end up being $1000, and maybe that’s true for septic repairs too. 😉
Much as I would have preferred to spend this money on something more exciting, I’m thankful we had it in the bank. A $958 septic bill is a bummer, but it’s not putting us into a state of financial panic.
No matter how little Mr. FG and I were making, we’ve always done our best to set a bit aside every month.
Because here’s the thing about unexpected expenses:
You can pretty much always expect them to happen. You just don’t know when.
Having a cushion in the bank makes it so much easier to weather these kinds of things, and the peace of mind that cushion brings makes all the frugal living totally worth it.
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Here are more details about how manage our savings accounts, in case you were curious. An online bank and automatic monthly deductions are key for us!
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A frugal family's journey
Sunday 23rd of March 2014
Sorry to hear...but it is these unplanned events that come with home ownership is what lead our family to save for and maintain a "home maintenance and repair" sinking fund. Thankfully, with our sinking fund, these end up being more of an inconvenience than a financial burden.
Tina Ray
Friday 14th of March 2014
Amen! I have an online savings account through a bank in Nebraska. I live in Michigan. I have a set amount direct deposited to my account. If I need to get at that money it takes three days to transfer to my checking account. I consciously made this a "process" to get at this money so we had an emergency fund. We have taken the course Financial Peace, Dave Ramsey through our church. We utilize the envelope system. We could become better at the budgeting this I will confess. However, even attempting is more than a lot of other individuals are doing.
Carla
Thursday 13th of March 2014
And this is why my mother advised me to marry a plumber when I grew up. :)
Megg
Thursday 13th of March 2014
Yes, leave the plumbing to the professionals! My brother-in-law is a plumber and half the calls he takes are related to people attempting to take on a project themselves!
nicoleandmaggie
Thursday 13th of March 2014
Ouch! Good for you having that in savings.
Our latest is an a/c leak... fortunately we discovered it near the end of the hot season so we've been able to put off replacing it and we've had time to get multiple estimates. (We have a choice of a 1K repair, a 3.5K replacement that will break even in energy costs in a couple of years, and a 5K total replacement that we don't need to do because the furnace is relatively new from the time the old one died and filled our house with smoke.)