Sometimes you feel like you can’t win for losin’. You just get to the point where you think you’ve got the finances under control, you figure you can finally cope, and wham! Another annoying little surprise whaps you upside the head.
Just got my first summer paycheck—about $600 net for the first week of teaching. It’s not much, but it’s one heckuva lot better than nothing.
Some time ago I estimated that I’d net about $3600 from the two sections I’m teaching this summer. Six hundred of that would go to help cover the June through August utility bills, which I expected to soar because I made the conscious decision to set the thermostat at a comfortable level now that a tiny bit of income is flowing in over the 115-degree summer. The rest, about three grand, would be folded back into the mid-term survival fund, putting off the date I’ll have to draw down retirement investments by about three months.
Things look a shade better than planned: if the $600 is for one week, as appears to be the case according to the PeopleSoft statement, then the 2½ more paychecks they’ll owe me this summer should net just about $3,000. However, thanks to the new AC unit, the June utility bill did not exceed my regular monthly budget—although it remains to be seen what will happen when the July bill comes in next month. But even one month of not having to pay astronomical power and water bills preserves some of that $600.
So. I’m thinking, wow! What to do with this vast lucre?
Could I (can you imagine?) actually spend it on something I’d like to have or do? I would so much like to take my dear and constant friends, La Maya and La Bethulia, out for a wonderful dinner on the town. But I can barely take myself out to dinner at Taco Bell, much less treat friends to a gourmet feast at the Barrio Cafe. I still need clothes. The Sanitas clogs I bought a year or so ago and wear constantly are about shot—they really need replacing. Six hundred bucks might allow me to do all three of those things!
Well. No.
Harvey’s still not working. That’ll be another $90 for further repairs, bringing the total cost to get him running to about half the cost of a new Hayward pool cleaner.
And then, to frost the cake, the pool system is sucking air from somewhere during its shut-down time. When it comes on after having rested overnight, great bubbles of air belch out of the inlets.
That, my friends, is what we call “not a good sign.” Very possibly…indeed, the operative term is “probably”…there’s a leak in the plumbing somewhere.
Don’t even ask how much that’s going to cost to fix. Just say good-bye to the $600, and then some.
Yes, I do have an emergency fund. As we know, each month we should put a few bucks aside for these little contingencies, and I have the credit union automatically transfer two hundred bucks a month into said fund; anything left at the end of a month also goes into that emergency account. Problem is, the contingencies have been coming hot and heavy, and every one of them has cost a helluva lot more than $200: the dental bills; the car repair; the shingles shot that wasn’t covered by Medigap or Medicare; the doctor’s visit that wasn’t covered by Medigap or Medicare; and on and on. Each cost ran significantly more than the $200 monthly deposit.
This means the emergency fund has steadily been shrinking. There’s only about $1,700 left in there. It may not be enough to cover the cost of pool repairs, if the problem is what I fear it is. That means yet another big bill will have to be paid from mid-term survival savings. Instead of extending the time I can live on the survival fund as summer pay goes into it, that pot may actually shrink because of this month’s adventures. And the extra income earned from working like an animal all summer won’t help.
{moan} Remember that 20-hour day?
Well, I have a strategy, though a half-baked one.
One of the things that’s given to crapping out when I least need yet another unplanned bill (which is just about any time, come to think of it) is Harvey the Hayward Pool Cleaner.
Leslie’s has a perennial “sale” on those things, which is to say that their regular price is about $75 less than you’d pay if you ordered it online. Tax on the retail price would be about $33, leaving one with a small saving if one bought the critter there.
I’m thinking I should buy a new pool cleaner, using survival savings for the purpose (since I’ll have to rob that fund anyway for the upcoming gouges). Then go ahead and get Harvey fixed, too. This would give me two of these gadgets that function.
So, if one of them dies at a moment when I can’t afford a repair bill, it won’t matter. I can attach the other one and let it run until I can afford to get the invalid fixed.
This would give me a little more control over the surprise bills. Not much, of course, but some.
LOL! By that logic, I could control car repair bills by spending 20 grand on a new car and keeping the Dog Chariot as a back-up vehicle. Must hurry out and buy one.
Seriously: Do you have a strategy to deal with unexpected costs when the costs exceed the amount you can afford to set aside in your emergency fund?
Image: Hyundai Santa Fe. IFCAR. Public Domain.
No magic solution here, other than the fact I just keep creating new budget categories to feed each month. I now have almost twenty.
Also I save each month for unexpected expenses, yet had to borrow from it for the last two months rather than feed it. All medical expenses.
Like you, I just hate that. Just try to remind myself that’s what it’s there for and am lucky to have it.
Oh, and personally I’m against having two Harveys. I think you are just spending repair money ahead of time. But you have to do what makes you feel comfortable.
Have you checked into a pool cover? Seems that would handle many of your issues with the filter, leaves, pods & dirt? Costly, but in the long run saving you clogs, work and stress?
@ Brenda: Besides being ugly, they’re very expensive and inconvenient. Even if I could afford one, it would effectively cause me to stop using the pool–in our climate, pool water reaches bathwater temperatures during the summer even when it’s allowed to cool off a little during the night. If the pool were covered, it would be filled with algae and truly uncomfortable to swim in. Assuming one had the time and energy to uncover it every time one wanted to take a quick dip, which is several times a day. 😉
@ E. Murphy: Granted, it’s spending money now that sooner or later will have to be spent. My thought (to the extent that we can say there’s any noticeable thinking going on here) is to invest the money now, while I have it, so I don’t have to scramble around trying to find the dollars when an unplanned repair happens.
These little surprises ALWAYS happen at the most difficult possible moment. You’ll recall last summer when I had no income and didn’t even know for sure that I could put food on my table…that’s was when all the 2010 surprises went SPROINGGGGG! The same thing is happening this summer: everything was quiet all winter, and now when routine costs are at their highest, what can go wrong does go wrong.
Wait. I’ll bet you know about that, huh? 😀
LOL! At any rate, if I’d already invested in a cleaner that I could fall back on, next summer it wouldn’t matter when or even if I could afford to get Harvey fixed. Sort of like potatoes stashed in the cellar for the winter.
My kids have a 40 foot lap pool in Carlsbad, Ca. Their cover is electric on tracks. Strong enough for the golden retriever to run across.
I did find this cheap looking one on Amazon…
http://www.amazon.com/Autoreel-Automatic-Solar-Reel-Systems/dp/B003ZTSAR8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1310941043&sr=8-4l
The thought of spending down my emergency fund is pretty frightening, and I have to admit that I don’t have a Plan B if it gets drawn down nearly to non-existence. I have six months of expenses (profligate, spend-as-much-as-you-want-on-stuff expenses) stashed in my emergency fund, so hopefully the only reason it would be drawn down super low is if I’m in desperate straits. And if that was the case, I’d begin belt-tightening immediately.
As for the pool issue, since I don’t live in your climate I can’t completely relate to the joys of having a pool in my backyard for those quick dips whenever I felt the urge. (I did grow up with an above-ground pool in this area, but I recall us having to clean it with a long vacuum-type thing.) But if I were really in tight circumstances and it was costing me too much to run or having serious problems I’d probably shut the pool down for a while. Is that even an option for you?
It seems you really love having a pool, but if it’s starting to push you into budget problems, maybe there’s a way it can be closed down for a while until you have bit more income.
@ Linda: Nope. It’s illegal to let a pool go green here. And the County has helicopters flying over neighborhoods photographing green pools; owners are cited and given a hefty fine.
You can’t drain a plaster pool in hot weather. It will cause the plaster to crack, an $8000 repair.
I agree with Linda’s suggestion: although you love having a pool, if its causing such budgetary hardships, you may want to close it temporarily. If it’s illegal to let a pool go green, could you at least just cover it and leave it? Not with a fancy pool cover, but just with a giant tarp that’s weighted down by some sandbags and/or by bags willed with water placed along all the edges?
@ Paula and Linda: It’s not that I can’t afford to fix the self-propelling cleaner; I just can’t afford it right this minute. The day after tomorrow, a new budget cycle will open and at that point I will be able to afford $90 to get the thing fixed. Depending on how much I’m paid in two weeks, I probably even can afford $350 to buy a new one–if no other major expense arises this summer.
It is certain, of course, that if I spend $350 on something I don’t really need, a radically major expense indeed will arise, about three days later. 😉
The pool is what makes it possible for me to keep the air-conditioning bills almost within reason: I’m in and out of the water several times a day, and that keeps me cool enough to tolerate much higher thermostat settings than most people around here will put up with.
The repair and clean-up costs entailed in shutting down the pump and covering the pool with a make-shift tarp would far exceed the cost of repairing Harvey.
And it’s not just Harvey. The issue here is that for some reason whenever overall costs are very high — as in a Southwestern summer or in a cold Midwestern winter — that’s when a jillion little extra costs pop up. In the winter when my costs are half of what they are now and I could afford vet bills, repair bills, clean-up bills, new puck lights (the last of the three atop the TV armoire just died): that’s when everything coasts along as smooth as wax on a bowling alley.
It appears we’re on the verge of discovering a new law of nature.
You just cured me of my pool envy.
Sounds like you need to budget more for emergency repairs. Do you have a pool budget? It is a major part of your life.
To relieve your stress and anxiety switch to an annual budget vs monthly. A draw down budget? i.e. Last years electric total divided by 12 months + % increase. You wouldn’t have to worry until late fall when you can wear more sweaters.
At some point you need to deal with the now and leave the future to then. When will you ever feel comfortable pulling from your retirement funds? You don’t HAVE to take 4%. You could take 2%. If there is nothing left for your son, so be it. Take care of you NOW not him in the future. Yes. This is my big button. lol
@ Brenda: So, an annual set-aside for monthly recurring bills? That is an interesting idea!
I actually am drawing from de facto retirement funds. The extra $1090/month needed to make ends meet when added to Social Security is coming from an insurance policy payout plus my RASL payments; because it’s after-tax money, we’re starting with that. We figured at the outset that it would last me about a year, but because of a tax refund and a few small windfalls, plus assiduous penny-pinching, it looks like it actually will last around 18 months.
Wherever it’s coming from, I kind of like the idea of setting aside an entire year’s worth of cash specifically for a) utilities and b) emergency fund. Since I’m budgeted to cover recurring monthly costs now, I could either “repay” the retirement fund the budgeted amount and maybe also “repay” whatever was left in the months when costs are not as high as the amounts budgeted, or just draw it down and live like the Queen of Sheba on the excess. Or the excess could go into the emergency fund to supplement the $200/month I’m putting in there now.
Normally I do budget $50/month for the pool — that’s $600 a year. Most months the pool costs nothing to operate, other than the extra electric and water. I suppose if that $50/month were going into the emergency fund instead of just getting spent in months when it’s not needed, that also would help to provide for the inevitable spurts where everything needs attention at once.
I do an auto transfer for big ticket annual expenses. They are due 5 months in a row, November-April. House & car insurance, DMV fees, property & income taxes. If the bill comes due and I can handle from my monthly retirement check the money keeps piling up. I like knowing I have it covered.
I have PG&E for gas and electric. They have a Balanced Payment Plan that adjusts every few months according to usage. So much easier to budget and pay when you know the amount will stay the same. Some like having the smaller bills half the year. I like knowing there won’t be any surprises. Getting a huge a/c bill would kill me!
I know snowbirds that pay their water bill a year in advance. Since they just switched from bi-monthly to monthly billing I may consider that. I have no way of knowing the charges when traveling.
I love not stressing over basic recurring finances. Most things automatically charge to Visa or Costco American Express for online paying.
What did we do before the internet? Oh yeah. We were working and staying home. LOL
@ Brenda: Hmmmm…. I wonder if vendors other than insurance companies would give you a price break for paying several months or a year in advance? The Hartford offers a small discount for this, and in a few other cases (can’t recall which off the top of my head and am too lazy to look it up!) vendors have agreed to a small discount for advance payment.
I don’t want the utility bills averaged out over the year, because the summer electric bills can rise close to $200 but the winter bills are a heavenly $60 or so. Ask for the prorated amount, and they want $150 a month. Ugh.
But what would they do if I called and said, “I see last year I paid you $1,200. If I pay you $1,200 to cover the next 12 months, can you do anything for me”? Hm. Even if they did nothing…really, if the money all comes out of the same kitty, WGAS? The bills would be paid and you wouldn’t be gnashing your teeth and maybe, just maybe, what remains of your cash flow would cover everything else with less sturm und drang.