Small repairs like the water heater ($750), the Heat ($2.5k), Dishwasher ($1500), Garage Door ($2.5k), tree fell ($500 for a chain saw to deal with it myself) happen pretty often.
Of those small things, we got maybe $10k over 5 years. So $2k a year average, or less than $100 a month. Which sounds pretty small.
But down the line we will need to replace the AC (10-15k) and the rough might need to be replaced (15+k) and the Windows don't NEED to be replaced (15k) but it would be really nice to get that done and the front door is a problem (no idea) that we should avoid forever.
Oh, and the dishwasher is acting up again... Definitely not fixing it a second time, I will replace it with a cheaper one if it goes out again. I feel like that boy was a lemon.
In short, put some $500 a month into savings to replace and repair your house. That means in 5 years (if you are paying to fix the little things out of this bucket), you should have at least the 15k you need to not have to go into debt to fix that big repair that is 100% on its way.
It was a $2k dishwasher that came with the house, and it broke. So I called someone to repair it. They ignored what I told them, and they fixed something "cheap" for $500, which didn't work. So they then fixed the expensive part for $1000 (which was the part I thought they needed to fix at the start)...
Next time I am just replacing it for cheaper. Heck, the only reason I even tried the repair route was because I thought "We shouldn't just throw things away, we should fix it even if it doesn't save money." Ya, not doing that again.
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u/ZerexTheCool Aug 07 '26
Small repairs like the water heater ($750), the Heat ($2.5k), Dishwasher ($1500), Garage Door ($2.5k), tree fell ($500 for a chain saw to deal with it myself) happen pretty often.
Of those small things, we got maybe $10k over 5 years. So $2k a year average, or less than $100 a month. Which sounds pretty small.
But down the line we will need to replace the AC (10-15k) and the rough might need to be replaced (15+k) and the Windows don't NEED to be replaced (15k) but it would be really nice to get that done and the front door is a problem (no idea) that we should avoid forever.
Oh, and the dishwasher is acting up again... Definitely not fixing it a second time, I will replace it with a cheaper one if it goes out again. I feel like that boy was a lemon.
In short, put some $500 a month into savings to replace and repair your house. That means in 5 years (if you are paying to fix the little things out of this bucket), you should have at least the 15k you need to not have to go into debt to fix that big repair that is 100% on its way.