Who else has had some shock unexpected expenses so far this year???

x_Kaz_x

My MOT was due in the beginning of January, and I had a mechanic friend of OH's look at my car before sending it in for MOT and it turned out that my car would need a new back box and intermediate pipe for the exhaust as well as new tie rod ends plus my tax was up for renewal. All in all was going to cost me around £750.

So I had a look on auto trader, and found that I could save £120 a month by trading my 2002 1.8 litre petrol car for a 2006 1.4 litre diesel, but to keep monthly payments down to under £120 (so we wouldn't be any worse off a month) I needed to come up with £1500 deposit on top of my part exchange! Thankfully in December my company paid our cost of living increase for the year in a lump sum, so I only had to take £600 out of our emergency fund, but it was still an expense that I hadn't planned for.

SailorSam

I've had no central heating for 8wks, they've been to fix it 5 times and gone away for more parts each time, Finally on Friday the guy got it working but said he'd need to turn the water off and the boiler, there is still a leak and more parts needed. My insurance will only pay £1500 per yr (which i've now passed) so the engineer thinks these next repairs may not be authorised and the insurance company may say scrap it (only 8yrs old). If that happens i'll be offered 'a contribution' towards a new boiler (but how much???) but only towards the boiler and not for the fitting.

JulieGeorgiana

I thought my Iron breaking this morning was a pain in the a$$!

Although last August my Laptop did explode and the car went in for a service, MoT and Tyres and ended up with major faults which cost us a fortune! We are still reeling from the extra £1000 we had to find for those two problems!

Aiming_High

Our shower died last night. It's done good for 10 years, but why now when it's car tax/MOT/servicing month along with DD's birthday and a 5 week wait between paydays.

Here's hoping the MOT goes without a hitch at the end of the month or things will not be looking good on our year to make a difference to our debts.

Billy_two_speakers

skylight wrote: »

Yep. Fence panels in the garden and then the youngest child threw middle childs violin down the stairs snapping it at the neck. Goodness knows how much that is going to cost (we borrow it from the school/music scheme). Will find out this week.

have you house insurance that might cover school kit at home change threw for dropped

also ones used by schools are not dear

http://www.djmmusic.com/items.asp?cc=Violin&agent=G_School_Violins&gclid=CKavzPqMwa0CFSFItAodMnpxAA

Prudent

£520 car bill. £395 of this being a new clutch.

SailorSam

skylight wrote: »

Yep. Fence panels in the garden

It's a bit late now, but if it was only the fence blowing down and you need to get new panels, what i've done is drill 6 holes, 3 each side top; bottom; and middle then with thin rope or wire tie each panel to the next and around the concrete post. No matter how strong the wind it can't take a panel tied like this. 'Cos as well as being joined to the post it's joined to the panels on both sides.

peacheywoo

Hmmm - fridge freezer in the house - deceased Boxing Day, brought old fridge freezer in from garage - froze everything (more food in the bin), element went in top oven (friendly neighbour fixed it), flat tyre on car, boiler very very unwell............please - no more!!

For those of you with yahoo addresses - look up your local freecycle. It is exactly what it says it is - we got all the paint for our house, a mountain bike, microsoft office and lots of other bits off it! Its brilliant - its not new stuff but most of it is perfectly workable for the short term

ladysparklexx

camuk81 wrote: »

Just on a bit of a byline note have you thought about trying to do it yourself.

I know you can;t always fix everything but last year the over packed up twice, dryer twice, washer twice, child dsi once, tv once, car steering rack

Did a guesstimate at Christmas and this would have cost over £1000 to fix however we fix all of these for the grand total of £132.00.

The internet has become a great place for do it yourself. There has been a lot swearing and cursing but sometimes there is no point paying someone else for the joy of fixing it!

The example was the tv. Currys quoted £50 call out and parts and labour on top. So we went on the internet found the instruction and got the parts for 66p and hey presto once fixed tv.

We have done this the last four times ith our washing machine, the last time we ended up in an american chat room with someone telling us how to fix it. lol :rotfl::rotfl:

Not bad for a couple who cant fix most things.

I did also read up and fix some bits other wise my MOT would of been a lot higher.

I didnt think to try and fix our telly how silly, but I did get a 28 inch old tele off ebay for £4.20 a few months ago and a dishwasher from free cycle a few years ago. I really agree with you and think a lot of things can be sorted fairly cheaply.

ladysparklexx

BlushingRose wrote: »

Dreading our MOT (25th jan) as car makes the most horrendous noises at times. Car tax also due...*sigh*

Cars are no fun sometimes. Tax your car for just 6 months this time and see if you can save a bit and do for 12 months next time, this is what we have done and it makes it six months from the MOT when its due.

However looking at our budgets ours is next due in august and i will only have about 7 months worth saved so Im not sure if I will have that luxuary next time.