How Do You View Unexpected Necessary Expenses?
How do you view those un-fun, necessary, “life happens” expenses? Do you agonize over them? Do you wish they would go away? Do you have to panic and beg, borrow, steal from savings accounts to pay them? Do you just add them to the already overwhelming credit card debt?
Recently I’ve had a string of those not-so-little expenditures that aren’t a great deal of pleasure. For example, yesterday’s root canal, a tooth crown two months ago, a new set of tires for the Jeep, and replacing a dead garbage disposal. Now, none of these scream “wow” or get my heart going pitter patter like say an expensive bottle of champagne or a trip to NYC to “play”. Yet, they are a necessary living expense that is not necessarily part of the overall budget.
In the past, I’d encounter one of these and simply stew and stress about it. I’d be resentful and resistant of having to take money from savings to pay for it. I’d beat myself up for not having wads of reserves just piled up to use on a moment’s notice. The net effect of all this was just a cloud of negativity. Whether I liked it or not, the expense wasn’t going to go away. And, truth be told, I wasn’t blowing any big financial goals to simply handle it. Yet, I let it get me down and miserable.
Early this spring I had a class with a super coach and we played with this money mindset a bit. As a result of our work together, I changed the way I view these types of expenses. Instead, I now see the blessing in the fact that I can pay for these necessary expenses without a great deal of hardship. I also take a moment to feel gratitude that I am able to take care of my day to day needs without struggle. I can afford to receive the medical, dental, or other professional services I need to make dis-ease go away (like my tooth) and to ensure my safety (like good tires on my automobile).
What I’ve found with this newfound shift in perspective is a freedom and ease I did not have before. Do I love shelling out my hard earned savings for these unexpected expenses? Heck no! Do I love the fact that I can do so without feeling resentful and wasting my life energy and time stewing about it? Yes!
So, the keys to handling these situations with grace and ease as I see it are:
- shift your perspective
- have a plan to save regularly for these “emergencies” so the money is there when you need it
- don’t beat yourself up or waste energy steaming about the expense
- find the gift in situation and view it as an investment in your well-being
How do you handle these necessary, “life-happens” emergency expenses? Do they trip you up? Or, are they just a small bump in the road that you don’t even notice? I’d love to hear what you have to say…
Great article. I tend to not save for these “unexpected” expenses that always show up at the worst time. I then let it put me in a pinch for the month. I have begun to try and build a fund for this but more importantly I think I need to change my perspective of these things. It is probably doing more damage than the actual payout.
Having savings for these kinds of expenses makes me feel richer than any other experience.
The time I felt richest of all was when I was taking a four-hour drive, and one hour into it, my clutch went out. Back in my poor days, I would have had to cancel my trip, beg someone from home to come get me, beg someone from home to bring me back to my car days later when it was fixed, and of course pay for the repair.
Because I had savings, I could just leave my car in the shop, rent a car, and continue with my trip, without having to ask anyone for a huge favor.
It helps that I have my savings split into different categories (on paper) so that when I have to yank savings out of one category (car repairs, housing repairs, medical), it doesn’t have to affect other categories (vacation, fun, retirement). If I don’t have enough, I can give myself a loan from another category a lot more cheaply than I could get one from a credit card.
On the other hand, emotionally it’s always a big shock. It’s like I always expect everything to run smoothly, and those rare times when things don’t, it’s always some kind of surprise. This is even though if you own anything, it should come as no surprise that sometime it will need cleaning or a repair or something.
I could definitely learn to quit feeling so shocked every time and get so that I’m always making decisions as good as the ones I made when my car broke down on that trip. No matter how well prepared you are, good winging skills can also come in handy.
I have a little wiggle room built into our monthly budget for these types of financial glitches- or I end up not saving as much as I plan. I try to not let the expenses for these occasional life inconveniences go for more than one month (two paychecks). We’ll plain old stop buying other stuff as much as we possibly can- doing things like using up whatever’s stocked up in our pantry to cut down on further spending, holding off on any other purchases we can.
This month has been a doozy for us so far. Christmas purchasing was long done- but we have had some surprise vet bills (our cat’s okay now) and dental work this month is going full steam ahead before we have to switch to coverage that is less than we have now- so more co-pays on dental work for now (but this is really saving us $$ in the long haul, since we would really be losing out once the lousy dental policy kicks in on 010107). (The upside is no one can eat much because our mouths hurt so bad- only kidding!)
THANKfully, some Xmas money has begun to roll in from extended family and this will help us break even for the month- but what a shame to spend Xmas money on oral surgery for DivaJayne (my daughter) and hubby Susan.
In this week’s Festival of Frugality:
http://www.momadvice.com/blog/2006/12/festival-of-frugality-53.htm