Unexpected €5000 expense. What would you do?

Akrasia

If your household, or you personally had an unexpected and unavoidable €5000 payment to make, would you be able to pay it?

How much hardship would it cause?

Would it affect your medium or long term plans?

€5000 is roughly (a bit less than) the take home pay of a supposedly typical dual income household on about 40k a year each. If you're a single person or single income household reduce the Amt by half

xxxxxxl

If my fridge went I would struggle to get a new one anytime soon. My oven has already stopped working. But have a Microwave oven with convection oven in it and an air fryer also a hob so am ok for the foreseeable.

Akrasia

I know that me 10 years ago, 5000k unexpected would have been an absolute disaster, but luckily I could manage that now as a once off emergency payment but it would mean we have to sacrifice things like holidays or home improvements to pay for it.

Pissy Missy

It depends, if i had to pay it in full right now I'd be fukd, if i could pay it in tiny installments then we could make it work. I'm in the worst financial place of my life right now so would much rather receive the 5k than have to pay it

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119706959#Comment_119706959

Our fridge went this year, it's an absolute dose, the house we're living in came with all the appliances included but they're all the same age so all reached that planned obsolescence trigger at about the same time. we had to replace the fridge, washing machine, heating system and oven all in the same 12 months. Not fun but we just about managed, and were able to spend a bit extra to buy energy efficient appliances that should cost less to run.

To facilitate this we put one of our 2 cars off the road and were helped by being able to both work remotely

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119706983#Comment_119706983

Nice idea thinking outside the box on the old cars there hats off. Yeah the oven went due to that think it has a known fault as it went before the main heating element they came out and fixed it free of charge. May chance me arm again.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119706967#Comment_119706967

I'm sorry to hear that. I've been there and it's awful.

kirk.

15- 20 yrs or so seems to be when everything starts to give trouble in a house

Pissy Missy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707021#Comment_119707021

Thanks, sorry to hear you've been there too, but glad things are better for you now. I know things will get better for me, just need time, patience, and hope

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707030#Comment_119707030

True but the whole throw away thing has come in and repairs can be eye wateringly expensive. You remember getting the TV repaired for the 3rd time and alike never hear of that now same with everything else.

thegame983

I'd leave the country

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119706989#Comment_119706989

Best of luck with that.

Manufacturers need to be forced to take ownership of the servicing requirements of their appliances.

There's a perverse incentive in selling an appliance that could last 40 years with a regular 5 year mini service, or 10 years with no maintenance at all, and then not telling the consumer how to service the appliance

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707045#Comment_119707045

In general I was referring to and I see the window seals and patio door are giving trouble in mine and they are repairable so I hear

Taps and plumbing stuff giving trouble needing replacing

Fan ovens can be kept going if you can DIY

Ya other stuff TVs and fridges , back in the day (pre 80s ?) the TVs were all brought in for repair

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707039#Comment_119707039

Even though things are ok right now it's precarious as ****. Not just for me, but for lots of people clinging on.

I could very well turn up at work tomorrow and be told the company is sold and you're all being made redundant.

Or any number of other things could happen

I really hope you can get through this time.

Solidarity will see us through. I got through my tough times with state support. Without FIS I would have been homeless because my employer didn't pay me enough to support a small family

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707051#Comment_119707051

Over a 5000 euro debt?

I'd probably have done the same if I was able to relocate that easily

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707045#Comment_119707045

For small high end electronics, repairs are impractical but for bigger appliances with mechanical pumps and seals and all that, I've been able to DiY a lot of repairs over the years. I've repaired dishwasher pumps, hoses, rubber seals, vacuum cleaner motors, repaired game consoles, disk drives, mobile phones etc

But the problem is, now the manufacturerers sometimes prevent you from accessing the broken parts, or they deliberately prevent swapping broken parts for spares.

Or if it's electronic the motherboard is unrepairable 99% of the time (unless you get CSI NASA involved)

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707093#Comment_119707093

Oh ofc I would have a go at anything Electronic. But they seem to be getting sneaky and either putting fuses in the mid layer of the boards or another component that fails easily. Take an lcd tv going black most lightly the invertor but try getting that €5 euro part. I had a dishwasher go tracked it down to the pump had a vacuum seal on it partner would not let me fix it. The biggest issue if for people not so handy the €100 odd callout fee to tell you it can be fixed or not.

I could probably do the oven myself saw the guy do it but it's again getting the part. Was 4 screws on a shroud then 2 to hold the element in with a female connector. This is the kind of stuff that is easy wins if you want to get serous about carbon don't want to drag this thread off. It should be mandatory for anything to be repairable. Stuff is moving so fast now there is no actual reason to upgrade. I have had the same smartphone for 5 years. Upgraded the pc 2 years ago still has about 5 years of life left in it if I want to game at the top end.

Pherekydes

They'd just have to break something. 😳

gary550

I try to keep at least €10k in an account aside at all times separate from my own day to day personal or business finances. I don't hold any personal debt at the minute which also greatly helps with this.

Ain't no rescue boat coming if the **** hit the fan in my life or business, I've nobody I could confidently call on to help other than a bank and they don't want to give you anything if you've no money or have a dint in cashflow.

I've the absolute fear in me from the time I hadn't a bean and was trying make things happen, a pair of shoes would of put me to the edge.

I feel for people with tight finances in the coming winter, life is going to be exponentially harder for many people through no fault of their own.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707100#Comment_119707100

I completely agree with you. Manufacturers need to be regulated to make them unable to prevent their products from being repaired.

I think the simplest way to do this is to enforce minimum manufacturers guarantees on goods

Throway appliances should be almost illegal

Throwable electronics should require existing fit for purpose laws to be better enforced

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707124#Comment_119707124

Oh I agree and if Apple for example wont comply so be it most will. I know there is tooling involved in some places but. Modular technology should be worked on and worked on hard and expected. The golden age of throw away tech should be put in the bin. Screen on the phone goes you should be able to pickup a replacement and plug it in with little tech knowledge. Ofc I would suggest repair centers too for more complex issues the modular screen may not have failed entirely. And all tech returned to these centers for recycling or refurbishment. This is my number 1 solution in the mid term for co2 again not to drag this off.

Andrea B.

Dog chewed cord of clothes Iron.

Surprised look of appliance shop staff for trying to buy braided flex to repair.

Resorted to Amazon for flex.

EOQRTL

Would have been able to deal with it a couple of years ago but not a chance now with the price of everything gone bananas. Loan shark now if it's unavoidable everything else maxed out including credit union just to keep head above water. 3 months behind on the mortgage so paying that is the priority.

Squeeonline

I could pay it from our savings account but not without some anguish about the months it would take to restore.

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707267#Comment_119707267

As much as I hate Amazon and the throwaway culture that it has spawned, for times like you describe it is ideal. It picks up the slack for less common items that would in the past have been possible to buy somewhere in most medium sized towns.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058266209/unexpected-5000-expense-what-would-you-do

It would cause me no hardship, have zero affect on my plans, and would be a negligible cost for me to absorb. Ten years ago it would have been an absolute nightmare for me though.

Kermit.de.frog

Just pay your drug debts on time OP. Easier.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707362#Comment_119707362

Same here. €5000 wouldn't be a problem at all. Twenty years ago it would have been possible but we'd have to think about it. Now it wouldn't need a second thought.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707267#Comment_119707267

Down to the recycling centre with some snips.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707051#Comment_119707051

Ya, bad news on that… if you can’t afford the 5k, you can’t afford to leave either…

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119707054#Comment_119707054

They exist, but you pay extra for it, Miele have extended support and pretty much bullet proof but at twice the price of others (for example). In a lot of appliances and devices, buying the "professional" range can save money in the long term, however, you have to be happy with the feature range on offer as the one thing they can't make up for is the rapid progress on the silicon chips they use, as something ages out, the limitations of its "smart" features become more and more apparent (acknowledging that most people don't use these anyway and just like an on/off button).