Tired of Raiding Your Savings for Home Repairs? Try This Instead

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KEY POINTS

  • Home repairs can eat away at your savings over time.
  • If you're willing to work repair costs into your budget, you might manage to leave your savings more intact.

Home repairs are a drag. Here's how to make them less painful.

Several months ago, my husband and I had to replace an air conditioning unit for the second year in a row. Needless to say, we weren't happy about the multi-thousand-dollar hit to our savings account that ensued. But we recognized that the expense was an unavoidable one, and we were grateful to have savings to dip into.

But while we tend to rely on our savings for major home repairs, we definitely do not dip in every time a minor repair pops up. Instead, we budget for smaller repairs on a monthly basis so there's money allocated for that purpose. And if you're tired of constantly having to tap your savings for home repairs, then you may want to do the same.

Build room into your budget each month

Some people find themselves pulling money out of their savings every time a home repair comes up, whether it's a $100 expense or a $1,000 expense. Now generally speaking, it's just not reasonable to budget $1,000 a month or more for home repairs. But is it reasonable to work a $200 home repair expense category into your monthly budget? That may be more doable. And it could help you preserve your savings in a very big way.

Imagine you encounter a $150 home repair one month, a $200 repair the next month, and a $100 repair the month after that. If you don't have room in your budget for those costs, that's $450 coming out of your savings account. But if you were to budget $150 a month for home repairs, you'd break even.

That's pretty much what my husband and I do -- only we budget $250 a month instead of $150 because that more accurately reflects the costs we tend to face. This way, if we have a smaller repair, we can cover it out of our earnings without having to fall back on our savings.

Meanwhile, any month we manage to avoid a repair, the money we don't spend just hangs out in our checking account. That way, if a more expensive bill arises the following month, we have that cash reserved.

So for example, say we manage to go three months without a home repair. If, on the fourth month, we get stuck with a $600 repair bill, we don't turn to our savings account. Instead, we raid our checking account since, at that point, it will have that extra money in it.

Financial and mental health benefits await

Many people find the idea of dipping into their savings for unplanned expenses upsetting, even though that's what they're there for. I should know -- I'm one of them.

Allocating money to home repairs on a monthly basis has, at times, spared me the mental unpleasantness of worrying about taking a savings account withdrawal. And while I'm still forced to tap my savings when those really big bills pop up (like my pair of malfunctioning air conditioners), I'm at least spared that aggravation at times when the work at hand isn't as costly or complicated.

If you hate touching your savings on a regular basis, then be sure to budget monthly for home repairs. It could really spare you a host of ill feelings -- not to mention help keep your savings intact.

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