Good Thing My Husband is a Saver

Our life has officially become a money pit in mid-2016.

Income taxes: A couple thousand due to Uncle Sam this year (which sucks when you are counting on a minor refund to help fund a summer vacation).
Denis’s van: $800 repair
Tree removal due to dead tree leaning dangerously close to our fence after it began uprooting itself: $700
A/C repair for the upstairs unit (a repair that did NOTHING because 2 weeks later it was still not working properly and the FIVE POUNDS of coolant they put in the system was gone after 2 weeks (please note they did NOT charge us a penny for the first followup visit earlier this week)): $500
Aging pets: $300 vet bill for annual checkup, vaccinations and meds.

All just since late March.  And I’m sure there’s some stuff I’m forgetting in there.

Result? Our savings account, which was pretty darn healthy after we sold our 1/2-acre of land in 2014, is dwindling, dwindling, dwindling. So frustrating. The secondary result? The NYC vacation, which we had a YEAR to save for, is going to be a much different vacation than we originally planned because any and all money we had earmarked for vacation went to taxes, car repairs, tree removal, the broken a/c and the various pet appointments.

Well, that’s not entirely true.  Our vacation won’t be us just wandering around NYC looking like sad sacks because we have no money to spend in one of the most expensive cities in the country.  We’re still splurging on some stuff. CootieGirl and I are going to a play (I bought the cheapest seats available) and we’re hoping to win the Hamilton lottery (front row seats for $10). We’re buying groceries upon arrival so we can make as many meals at the apartment rental as we can, but we ARE splurging on dinner at Peter Luger’s one night. Instead of paying to go to Liberty/Ellis Island and do the immigration museum tour (which I’ve always wanted to do), we’ll take the free Staten Island Ferry and just look at the Statue of Liberty from the ferry. Instead of paying to go to the top of Rock Center, or One World Conservatory, or the Empire State Building, we’ll just stand in the street and look up at the buildings versus out across the city from the top of one of them. We’ll be getting 7-day unlimited metro passes to avoid cab rides. We’ll be going to as many kids-under-13-get-in-free things as we can.

To combat income taxes next year, Denis and I are each taking out even more taxes this year. The result is slightly lower paychecks, but we refuse to ever be told that we owe thousands on taxes ever again.

The A/C guy came out a couple days ago to take a look and cannot find the coolant leak anywhere, and he fears it may be in the walls. Great. I wonder how much THAT is going to cost. He’s going to come back this weekend early in the morning before it gets too hot so they can go in the attic and see if they can find anything wrong there because they did not find anything near the units outside the house. As I said a moment ago, he did NOT charge us a visit fee or for the 4.5 pounds of coolant they put back in the unit today.

The checkups for the animals are 2/3rds done – we still need to take Dobby in for his checkup, but since he’s still current on his vaccinations, we’re going to hold off on that visit until he’s done with the next few months of heartworm meds. That way we can take him in and do the checkup AND heartworm test at the same appointment.

We have no more dead trees to worry about, which is good.

And I know that savings accounts are there for these kinds of emergencies. But the emergencies can stop now, please. We’ve spent almost $5,000 in the past 3 months on taxes, home, car and pets. And we may have one more repair in our future if this A/C problem turns out to be something serious. And while our savings account still has money in it, it being DOWN ~$5,000 in three months makes my heart skip a beat or two!

Oh, and I just checked our home insurance deductible in case we DO have to rip open the walls to repair the A/C. $1,000 deductible.

Wonderful.

Update on June 18:  A/C guy found the leak – estimated cost to repair: $1000, give or take.

You should see the look on my face right now.  Hint:  I’m not smiling.