Money Drain: $300 Lost Literally Down the Drain

My husband is not really known for doing fix-its around the house in a timely manner, this time was no exception. We’ve had a dripping noise coming from the bathroom for a while now, which after a length of time we started to block out mentally, despite my many weeks of asking my husband to fix or take a look at the problem.

Our water bill started to go up, but I didn’t really connect the two at first until one month the bill was triple what we used to pay. This was the fire we needed to get my husband to check out the noise and foudn out there was a worn piece of rubber in the back of our toilet that needed replacement. A trip to the hardware store and a $4 part later, it was fixed and our water bill went back down to its normal cost the next month. Unfortunately it cost us $300 to find this out, whereas if we had purchased that $4 part sooner, we’d be $296 richer 🙁

– Submitted by: Stephanie

Lesson Learned:
I’ve had my own share of ignored repairs that make large bills, it’s something we tend to do in order to save off paying for it now, and instead pay for it more later.

Ideally with an emergency fund we can take care of repairs immediately before they grow larger and out of control. I know I have a difficult time using my emergency fund, I hate touching it, but I have to realize it is there for a purpose, and I may as well save money by using it rather than having to deplete it completely because I put off the necessity.

Total flushed down the money drain: $296