The past few months have been filled with unexpected expenses. First we had trouble with the car, then extensive work was required to repair cracked pipes that left our house smelling of sewage, the pipework left huge holes in our walls so then there were costs for repair work and now on top of everything else our air conditioner stopped working! I’ve been hesitant to review the numbers but today I decided to add up the total.
Pipe Work & Plumbing (Due to Sewage Smell)
- $900 – Original Fix Replaced Toilet & Resealed
- $4700 – Replacement of Cast Iron Pipes to PVC
- $165 – Drain Cleaning
- $700 – Replacement of Metal Sink
- Total = $6465.00
- $2200 – Repair and Painting of Walls Damaged From Pipe Work
- $143.69 – Paint Required for Damaged Walls
- Total = $2,343.69
- $875.19 – Car Maintenance Costs
- $40 – Diagnostic Cost for Car
- Total = $915.19
- ?? – Analysis Performed Friday (Fuses Replaced)
- $4000 – New Air Conditioning Unit (Fuses blew again)
- Total = $4,000+
Total for unexpected repairs so far: $13,723.88!
In addition to the unexpected expenses we also refinanced two properties which will cost us an additional $7,000 or so in closing costs. Refinancing will save us $151,000 in interest over the life of the two loans, but right now an additional $7,000 in costs stings.
Add it all together you see $20,000 in unexpected and unusual expenses for the month! That’s a crazy amount of money! Fortunately, we’ve been able to utilize home equity loans to finance some of these expenses.
You must have one HELL of an emergency fund 😉 Funny how it all adds up, hopefully the next few months you won’t have so many unforseen costs.
Seriously. I hope this is the end of the unexpected expenses trail!
That is a whole lot of emergency. It is a good reminder to us that life happens and can get awfully costly.
Thankfully I’ve never had a month like this one before. Let’s hope it’s the last one I see for a very long time!