2011: The Year of Spending

As if my savings account was obliterated enough, it has taken yet another hit. This time it’s the heating and air unit. Yes, folks, renting has it privileges. I love being a homeowner, I don’t, however, always love the expenses that come with it.

As you probably know, we’ve had some cold weather recently; for some reason it’s usually on the weekend, starting on Friday night which probably is the main contributor to my current illness. I had noticed that on those cold nights, my heat would stay on constantly and that the unit itself would rev up for all of about two seconds (yes, I counted) and then cut off. Finally on Saturday morning, I called the HVAC guy we use and Monday he got back with me. After chatting with him for a few minutes he said it probably just needed some Freon. That sounded good to me, couldn’t be more than $50 or so – wrong!

He came by around 4:30 to take a look at the unit. It had a small leak which would probably be fixable by using a syringe of some special stuff (don’t you love these technical terms). I said that would be fine. The special stuff, Freon and the service fee added up to $200 – so much for that $50 I was thinking of earlier in the day. Then when he went to put the Freon in, discovered some damage to some other part which he is going to replace tomorrow, thankfully at his cost, which he guesses to be between $60 and $80. Bless his heart, the look on my face must have made him take pity on me. I would be terrible at poker – I always reveal what I’m thinking on my face whether I realize it or not.

I wrote the check for $200 and quickly got online and transferred the rest of my Christmas spending money to my main account to pay for it. I have never been more grateful for the 3.5 hours of overtime I managed to accumulate for my upcoming paycheck. Somehow I’ve managed to get in an overtime hour here and there and have yet to get reprimanded for it. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time but until that time comes I’m going to try and get another hour or two in so some folks I know can have a Merry Christmas.

When it comes down to it, I really am grateful and blessed to be able to pay for the repairs that need to be made to the unit. Some people don’t have that ability and I’m also blessed and grateful to have a job while so many other people don’t. So, in the grand scheme of things it’s really not that big of a deal, but, man, it would be so nice to not have to spend a few hundred dollars on my car or house or teeth for a while. Here’s to hoping 2012 will be a year of saving as opposed to a year of spending.