The Month We Gave Up

Since hiding our mistakes and ignoring our problems is how we got into this mess in the first place, I feel obligated to talk about "the month we gave up." It is not easy to admit our shame. But it must be said.

Last month, May, was a miserable failure for us. So much so that by the end of the month we had just given up. In starting June, my husband just wanted to wipe the slate clean and start all over. It was tempting. But I felt we really needed to figure out where we stood. How much trouble we had gotten into.

Sure we could look at all that happened and justify it....
{our son needed surgery, our daughter needed to go to the ER and get staples, we had family obligations that required us to travel when our budget was already stretched thin, bills that showed up out of no where 5 months after I had surgery.} These are all reasons why we went over and way into our Emergency savings. But it is worse than that. We gave up. We realized what a mess we were in and we made the mess worse. We let it get really bad. I just wanted the month to end. There are a few other reasons that my husband says were "planned" for but since I don't know how those books were kept, I *guess* that isn't a contributor. And the only thing that kept us from bouncing checks and overdrafting or using credit cards again, is that we use the previous months funds to pay this month's expenses. It was a choice we made and set up after our tax return gave us a cushion so that we always have a cushion, and never have to worry if all the expenses come due before that month's pay check. The problem with that now is we no longer have the cushion. We are now back on the pay check to pay check budget and because we still have all those bills from last month, we aren't paying any debt this month. We are back on baby step one.

I feel like we are failures. Like we have lost a battle. But you know why we are not? Because we figured it out and we are getting back on track. It is what repentance and starting over is all about. We all make mistakes, we all feel like giving up. Satan wants us to believe that when when make a mistake that is the end. We can't listen to his lies. We must get back up and keep going.

Are YOU ready for a world Emergency

My husband and I recently engaged in a conversation about could happen that would force us to live off of what we currently have.
It had all started by being reminded that our water storage needs to be rotated. The conversation then moved to could we live off of what we have and for how long. I estimate we could manage with what we currently have for 3-6 months. The thing I am most concerned over is eggs. I have some egg substitutes but no powdered eggs and if there was a reason to live off of it, once what we have from the store is gone there would be no more eggs. My husband is want to remind me that we do live in a rural community and lots of people raise chickens. Long term we'd probably be fine. 

I remember on my mission for the LDS church in rural Florida there were a number of members who were all converts on one remote community. They all told me the same story about their conversion. Back in the 70's (? I Have never bothered to look up the dates), there was a trucking strike. It lasted a couple months, but the results on this small community were harsh.  It took up to 6 months for every thing to get back to normal and get the everyday goods flowing back into their community. Many people were unable to get goods they needed to live life. All of the stories also mentioned knowing a member of church (never learned if they all knew the same person), and the member of the church was unconcerned with how long it was going to take to get the good flowing again. The member was very open about the teaching of the church, emergency preparedness, and year supply. That is why they were not worried. As a result, each story, would then continue to say that a church that teaches their people isn't crazy and started to investigate the church. {Love this story as how this person(s) was being a member missionary}. 

Back to the conversation with my husband, I can totally see a situation that disrupts the transportation of goods causing such results today.

My husband then reminded me of what happened after the 9-11 attacks (I was in college at the time and shortly after left on my mission so I was most oblivious). The two days of no planes flying devastated many businesses. It was no joking matter. Just two days caused many businesses to have to fold.   Then he reminded me about the volcano in Iceland. So much lost. The economic effects were felt all over Europe and the world. There was the whole discussion over Iceland paying everyone for the economic loss which I thought was crazy because they had no control over a volcano. The volcano could have exploded anywhere. So given these two examples what if there was something that knocked out flight for a week or a month. What could that do to our economy? 

Are you ready if something devastating was to happen and you could buy no groceries for 6 months? 
One last thought, is at what point do we realize we are doing something for the long term and change our choices? My goal is to get to the point where I wouldn't need to change much because I am rotating and using everything I have.
Have you ever done the "emergency challenge"? Randomly pick a day and say that for one week you will act like their are no stores and make do? My mom tells of their Stake President issuing this as a challenge at stake conference. She was a child at the time. I am not a "preper" but this conversation with my husband has caused me to give some thought to it.  What areas am I unprepared? How long could we last? What things am I overlooking? Every time I run out of something I think and I pray that day of doom doesn't come before I could stock up on that item. Is it time to take inventory of your life?

This isn't even taking into account the economic effect it could happen on our families. Could we pay bills? If no one could work would we handle not being paid for a few months? All the more reason we need to be getting out of debt as fast as we all can.

Repair, Used, Or New

Our Washing machine has been having a few issues over the past few months. Every time it seems to fix itself or was livable with until a few weeks ago. We had a freeze that partially froze the pipes to our house. This caused our home's water pressure to be practically non-existent. We learned how washers (at least older ones) use the water pressure to turn off. If the pressure is so low, the washer will not be able to stop the incoming water, and overfill. We thought that it would be fixed when the pipes thawed and the pressure was back to normal, but that wasn't the case. After everything thawed, the washer continued to overfill. We did all sorts of trouble shooting thanks to the internet and narrowed it down to three parts. All over $100 to replace. It would almost $100 to have an actual repair man come out and look at it and then we'd still have the cost of the repair.

So when do you decide to call the repairman, to buy a used item, or to break down and pull out the money for a new one?

My husband's opinion is to buy new every time. He says that a true sign of poverty is feeling the feeling/actuality that used is all you can get. My instinct is to repair or buy used, if you can find it. So when this comes up in our marriage we are normally a bit at odds with who's perspective wins out.

A time my perspective worked out for us, is the dishwasher that was in our house when we bought it stopped working because the electrical panel that controls it had been fired by the steam from the dishwasher. My husband agreed to a repairman. That cost us $80 just to come out and look at the appliance. The part, the electrical panel was going to be $200 and the repairman warned us that because of where the design put the panel this will most likely happen again within the next two years. I then got on craigslist and found someone that was upgrading all their appliances to match and was selling their stove and dishwasher. (Sometimes I wish I bought their stove too). Bought their dishwasher for $60 and my husband installed it. It doesn't match the rest of our appliances, it has no frills, and is old as heck- but it works fine and has now lasted us almost 7 years and still working. I call this buy used a win.

However this time with the Washer, I don't feel is a win. My husband to help me feel better calls it a *wash*. I made the pun not him, he is not a punny person.

So I went out and looked for a washer. I found one being sold. The owner said their old washer had broken they got this one from a friend who had a dryer die and they bought a new set, but that this one (being a front loader on a pedestal) didn't fit in his laundry room. I didn't know how I felt about it. He didn't speak a lot of English (or he was pretending not to), and he knew nothing about the washer itself. I did some quick searches on my slow phone internet (because I was in the middle of no where Arizona), he went down to $80 on the price. I decided that it was the cost of the repairman so we wouldn't be out any more than if we had tried that route. When we got it home there was a connecting pipe that was busted. (We honestly could have busted it moving it just as much as they were selling it that way and I didn't see it). But looking on line we were able to purchase a replacement for $6 including shipping. So not that much more of a loss. It came a few days later, my husband installed it, washer worked fine. Life goes on. Until 2 weeks later it just out of no where, in the middle of laundry day, just stops working. The door will no longer close. I troubleshooted on the internet most of my laundry day. My husband spend some time on Saturday, and then after a complete breakdown on my part, we went to Sears and bought the simplest and most affordable Washer we could find. Brought it home and installed it. After all what is the emergency fund for? If not for appliances when you live in the middle of no where and are a family of 6.

My husband says it wasn't a bad choice, it all cost us no worse then calling in the repair man.

Back to the original question: How do you decide what to do- repair, used, new?

rules of thumb my husband and I have developed:

1. What is the price of a repair man for just coming out?
2. How often have we repaired an item (ourselves or a repairman) prior? How trustworthy were those repairs? 
3. What is the going range for NEW of the item at your local stores or online?
4. Is this a now item or is it something you can do without and save up a few weeks/months for? Is this something that we can borrow, substitute, go old school? Can we wait to at least until a better time of year (seasonal sales, moving sales, holiday sales)?
5. Have we exhausted our diy options when it comes to fixing it ourselves?
6. How long have we had this item and how many more years it is reasonable to get out of this type of item?

What are your rules of thumb when solving broken items? When do you choose to repair over Used, or Used over New?