Yesterday, Steve walked down to the basement at around 8:00 to put in a load of laundry and was surprised by a puddle of water surrounding the hot water heater. He figured out how to turn off the water, and I called my parents, since we have no idea what to do when these household crises occur. Dad had us check the date on the boiler. 1991. "Oh, it’s shot. Those things only last for 10 years. You’ve been running on borrowed time." Who knew?
So, mom had us call PSE&G who sent over a guy later that afternoon. With much banging and hole drilling later, we had a new boiler. And a new headache. The thing cost $1,200. We can cover it, thank God. But that’s a huge blow to the budget.
Steve and I try to keep to a budget that we’ve set up on Quicken. (Jane Galt, are you proud?) But it’s these unexpected expenses that nail us every time.
Question of the Day What was your last unexpected expense?
Apt. 11d 
I am SOOOOO proud. Although actually I don’t have a budget; I just pay cash for everything.
My last unexpected expense was losing my damn glasses in DC. Spent 2 days wandering around in dirty contacts, and another 3 wandering around blind. $400 later, I found the glasses in my knapsack, where I’d put them.
On the plus side, my new Dolce and Gabbana frameless glasses are lovely. I’ll model them for you at lunch.
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I have a repeated nightmare that I’m walking around the South Bronx, where I used to teach, without glasses or contacts. I can’t find the subway, because I’m too blind and there are people following me.
Very much looking forward to lunch and checking out your new specs.
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A tree went down in our yard this summer–actually two trees, sisters, that had grown right next to each other. The arborist said that made them weaker, but they were hugely tall, so they managed to survive for a long while. That cost quite a bit–I think 2500, but we also had them take out some saplings and old chopped wood, and prune another tree, while they were out here.
We’ve also had the heater go out, children flush toys down a toilet breaking it, children break a window pane, pipes crumble, tubs leaking, dryer falling apart, problems with garbage disposal, and many other things since we bought this house 4 years ago. Oh, and another tree went down three years ago. Fortunately neither tree hit our house, but maybe I wouldn’t have bought a house with so many trees had I known how frequently this happens (One family I know had five HUGE old trees go down like dominos during a bad storm 2 years ago; something like $15,000. What if, like us, you just don’t have it? Insurance won’t pay unless they hit the house)
P.S. Our water heater is over 20 yrs old. We’re next.
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New minivan, $24,000, when old car wrecked by lucky kid in head-on collision. (Kid lucky because if we weren’t there there’d have been nothing stopping him flying into the ravine). His insurance paid a month later, and not ungenerously. But there’s always a gap, in both cash and time (a month or so).
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The long saga of the cars.
My brother wanted a diesel Jetta. I found one at a good price ($5000), and bought it for him, while he was out of the country.
A friend was in an accident, and we lent him our car–an old Ford Taurus.
My brother wasn’t able to buy the Jetta, for idiosyncratic reasons.
The Taurus blew a head gasket, while my friend was a couple hours away.
So–we kept the Jetta. The Taurus is still sitting in someone’s yard an hours drive away.
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Of course, a proper budget should include a line for unexpected expenses. I believe that the standard estimate is that you should spend 3% of the value of your home every year for upkeep and maintenance costs. That includes replacing the water heating, fixing the appliances, painting, roofing, etc.
I think you have to distinguish between unexpected (I was not expecting it) and unexpected (it could not have been predicted).
That said: My last unexpected expense followed from losing my job and subsequently getting another that wasn’t on the train route, thus necessitating the purchase of a second car.
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The roof! Those suckers wear out, too. And when I went to shop homeowners insurance — since our current policy, like probably all policies, is absurdly priced — I was stunned to have one company tell me they would not write a policy unless we replaced our roof. That was based on age.
And it turns out they were right. We did need a new roof. But it’s definitely one of those unexpected things. And it’s more expensive than a water heater!
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We had to replace our hot water heater when we had only been in the house about a year. We were definitely not ready for that! Our most recent unexpected expense came when a chunk of our kitchen ceiling fell in, which led to us discovering mold behind our bathtub and seepage into the kitchen ceiling. That really sucked. There was no way for us to predict it, either.
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$211 for antibiotics. Holy crap; maybe there IS something to that reimportation stuff.
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Well, we had our air-conditioners leak and destroy the flooring in half of our apartment. The building picked up the cost for the replacement flooring, but the carpeting had to be replaced at our expense. Nothing we couldn’t handle, but it was a rude shock (and the job isn’t fully done yet, so the chaos of moving half the apartment hasn’t abated yet).
One reason I’m fearful about moving to a house, though the building is doing its best to outweigh the convenience by being uncooperative.
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Cat got a urinary blockage. Poor little guy would have died. Livesaving measures cost $1600. He’s fine now but on special food to prevent crystals. Special food is of course more expensive. Good thing we love him.
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You should consider engineered wood flooring. It works well in areas where light moisture might be present.
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