Murphy came knocking last month in the form of a $424 power bill. It turns out the second A/C unit is totally dead. It had a long life; it was a vintage 70s unit.
I rent at far below market. This place is a steal. Part of that is because my landlord lives in Mexico, and we don't have a management company. We just fix small problems ourselves and take them out of the rent. We're very good renters. When the dryer went out, we used a coupon at Lowe's and installed it ourselves. When the key broke off in the lock, we replaced the $10 innards of the locks ourselves. When the doorbell broke, we ordered the $3 battery and put it in. No big deal. Not paying a management company a couple hundred bucks a month works out well for both of us.
The A/C will cost $3,000 to fix. And it has to be fixed. We have over a month of heat left, and we have another year in this place. As renters, the $3,000 is not really Murphy because it's not my problem, except that it was. Our landlord tried to work with the A/C guy, but he wants cash. You can't exactly mail a check from Mexico. You can wire money, but he wasn't having it. That means I have to write a $3,000 check and not pay rent for two months.
Last month, I wouldn't have been able to do it, I didn't have 3K in cash. But now, I can write that check easily, and it's no big deal. And the A/C will be fixed. Whew.
3 comments:
This isn't really that much of a Murphy, other than you have just prepaid your rent. If you owned the house and had to shell 3k out plus the mortgage payment, then it might be a pinch. At least you had the money available to handle the repair.
I remember when my A/C didn't work shortly after I closed on my house. It kept turning off because the unit was overheating. After calling a bunch of repair places, it would cost $100 just for the service call, and then more for parts and labor. I opened up my A/C unit myself and found the part that wasn't working. It cost me $4 at an electronics supply store to replace it and saved me a bunch of money.
that's the difference between being an owner an a renter.
what does she care?
it's not her house.
It's not a Murphy if you have the money in savings to cover unexpected expense. Congrats on being Murphy-less. If it had happened to me, my $145 emergency fund wouldn't have covered squat!
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