Gather Little by Little

Last Friday, I wrote about the joys of home ownership where I mentioned some problems we were having with our new home: the refrigerator not cooling, a terrible sewer smell in the house, and the clothes dryer not fully drying our clothes. I need to add one more.

My wife and I started repainting last weekend. She just couldn’t deal with the green color that was throughout the main living level. As we applied the fresh yellow color, it became quickly apparent that our white ceilings had some type of sot on them. I did a little googling, and found that this is a by product of an inefficiently burning gas fireplace. Sure enough, inspecting the gas logs, they have black soot all over them too. So now I have to add a call to the gas logs company to my list plus repaint the ceiling!

This week, I called a local refrigerator repair company to fix the fridge. I thought about doing the repair myself, but to be honest I don’t know much about refrigerators and didn’t want to make a bad situation worse, so I let a professional do it. What I did do though was watch him, very closely. I feel very confident that if the situation occurred again, I could do the repair myself. It was really pretty easy. Total cost: $130.00 !

The plumber also arrived this week and checked out the plumbing system. He said that sewer smells in mountain homes are a fairly common problem and they are due to a number of factors including strong winds, clogged vent pipes due to tree debris and the main reason being the slope of the septic drain system. Long story short, he dug up the septic tank and was going to extend the main sewer line inside so that it would be under water and not allow the sewer gas to come up into the piping. Upon opening the tank, we found it was full…and I mean full. Seems the previous owners had never treated it or had it emptied. While maybe not the full cause of the odor, it certainly was a large portion of it.

He recommended a local pumping company, who came out the next day and pumped it. Cost: $175.00. The plumber will be out early next week to add the piping as an extra measure to avoid any odor issues in the future. Guessing that is going to run around $100-$200.

All in all, in the past two weeks, we’ll have spent more than $500 for unexpected (and not budgeted) house repairs. Ever wonder why you need an emergency fund? Well, I just gave you three different reasons.  Had it not been for our emergency fund, we would have been in a jam.

Don’t have an emergency fund? Start one…now.

Important Stuff

Just a few things I’d like to make particular mention of:

• Paidtwice is really having a tough time right now. First her father unexpectantly passed away, and now her mother is in the hospital. Please make sure you head over and share your thoughts and prayers with her. If you have a prayer list, please make sure you add her and her family. They really need the power of prayer right now.
• My M-Network buddy and friend Patrick over at Cash Money Life is giving away a copy of my favorite budgeting software: YNAB Pro. Make sure you head over and enter.
• Flexo from Consumerism Commentary is giving away a copy of Quicken Home and Business 2009.
• Pete over at Bible Money Matters celebrates his one year anniversary. Congrats Pete! Head over and congratulate him!

The Gathering

Here are my favorite personal finance articles this week from the M-Network and other blogs on my blogroll:

• Does Waiting a Few Days Before Making a Purchase actually Save you Money? – This is a practice I use often. I used to be a terrible impulse buyer and would do exactly as he describes. I’ve often found that by waiting I either talk myself out of needed the item or find it at a significantly reduced cost through some research.
• Is Your Giving Going Through a Recession? – Excellent reminder. We’ve continued, but honestly I feel like we should be giving even more now.
• 5 Reasons Struggling Is Good For You – I agree 100%, and honestly believe that a recession is
  God’s way of reminding us to live frugal, humble lives without debt and credit. I know as well, that during our major life crisis in 2006 we learned so much about ourselves and wouldn’t be writing here on Gather Little by Little had it not occurred.
• Save Money With Do-it-Yourself Car Repairs – This is a way I save money and honestly I enjoy doing the work. I’ve spent quite a few afternoons with my boys working on our cars and doing repairs. Best part is I know the work as been done correctly!
• Tip: The Credit Card Companies Are Not Your Friend, They Just Want Your Money – 100% true, they are not your friend, they don’t want to save you money or give you points or help you out in any way. They are there to make money, pure and simple, don’t ever forget that.

Have a great weekend! The weather here in the NC Mountains is supposed to be in the 70s and we are really looking foward to getting outside, working in the yard and doing to hiking!

Photo by: peretzpup