My Debt Reduction Blog » Unexpected Expenses http://www.mydrblog.com/blog Our road down debt reduction to elimination, and living without a budget Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:27:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 It cost $185 but my kitchen sink is draining again http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/13/it-cost-185-but-my-kitchen-sink-is-draining-again/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/13/it-cost-185-but-my-kitchen-sink-is-draining-again/#comments Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:37:42 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/13/it-cost-185-but-my-kitchen-sink-is-draining-again/ Yesterday our kitchen sink just stopped draining. When I got home from work I took apart the piping under the sink to see if it was something I could clear up. There was no issues with the easily accessible pipes so I tried using a plumbers snake to see if I could clear out the pipe going in to the wall. I was able to get about two feet before it would stop. I just couldn’t get to go any farther. I put all the pipes back together and tested and it still wouldn’t drain. I know the problem was beyond my tools. This morning before work I called a plumber and they were able to come out same day. They gave me a 2 hour window between 10 and 12, and they arrived at 10:38. Not bad. They were done shortly after 11 with the water draining better than it ever has.

The only difference between what they were doing and what I did, was they had a drill powered snake. And it was a bit more heavy duty than mine. I’m sure they had some skill in controlling it better also. But because they were able to get past the point I was, they were able to break through the years of sludge build up.

So there was an unexpected expense this month.

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/13/it-cost-185-but-my-kitchen-sink-is-draining-again/feed/ 2 To replace or repair…..or just do without http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/06/20/to-replace-or-repairor-just-do-without/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/06/20/to-replace-or-repairor-just-do-without/#comments Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:57:18 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/06/20/to-replace-or-repairor-just-do-without/ When you’re in a position of trying to get out of debt, you’re aways hoping that nothing breaks. Feeling as though everything is on the verge of breaking down. Our cars are a good example. Both our cars are pretty old, mine has a ton of miles and neither are much to look at, but, we don’t have car payments. I’m just hoping they both last a couple of more years until we’re in a little better situation financially, but honestly, I don’t think that will happen.

Well back to the point. This last week, the TV in our bedroom went out. It has sound, but no picture. Now we’re really not huge TV watchers, but we watch about 90% of shows/movies in our bedroom. Now, old Chad would have put this TV out on the curb and went across the street to Sears and picked up a replacement. But new Chad, is actually putting thought in to this. The cheapest 27″ replacement TV at Amazon is $233, but that is $233 that should go towards paying off current debt. Or I could pull it from the emergency fund, but this is far from an emergency. Right now replacing the TV is just a bad decision.

Another option would be to get an estimate for repair, but the problem there is, who has time to run a TV around town for repair estimates? Not I.

So what I think I will do for the time being is just deal with it. Take the 2 hours or so a night we normally spend watching syndicated comedies, and use it more efficiently working on our financial goals and maybe actually create a budget.

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