How Can I Stop Home Repairs From Ruining My Monthly Budget?

Just when your budget starts to feel stable, something breaks. You know, the water heater, the roof, that car in the driveway that seems like it's always in the shop.And suddenly you're not moving forward anymore. You're in recovery again.And if you're tired of living in that cycle, today we're going to build a plan that keeps those moments from knocking you off track. Gonna be a great show today. Hello, friend. Ralph Estep Jr. Here. Welcome to Financially Confident Christian.Well, we're breaking that cycle of financial shame and helping you live in financial confidence. Yes, you can get there. And today we're going to talk about how to handle home repairs without letting them derail your budget.We get this question asked all the time. So let's get right into today's question. Listener wrote this, Ralph. Every time I start to feel stable, another emergency hits.Home repairs I didn't see coming, and it wipes me out. It's exhausting. Like I can't catch a break or build any momentum at all. I feel stuck in this cycle of recovering and starting over.I don't want these moments to keep derailing everything. Ralph, how do I plan for irregular expenses so they stop throwing me off my entire month?Well, friend, I can hear the frustration in that because it doesn't feel like progress when you keep getting pulled backward. But I want to reframe something for you that you said. These aren't interruptions. I hate to tell you this, but they're part of homeownership.This is what it means to own a home. And once we treat them that way, we can plan for them. Unfortunately, these are not emergencies. So here's the big idea for today.Irregular expenses stop feeling like emergencies or when you plan for them consistently. And that's exactly what I want to talk about today, is how do we make this move away from that feeling of emergency?Well, you got to start by doing this. You've got to re. Redefine emergency. We got to start there. A true emergency. And I got. I got to get you to agree with me here.A true emergency is unexpected and rare. Unexpected. You weren't expecting this to happen. And rare. But unfortunately, home repairs, they're not rare.Maybe they're irregular, maybe they're unexpected, but they're not unexpected and rare. When you own a home, guess what? Things wear out. Systems break. Maintenance happens. So start by remembering.Instead of calling them emergencies, we got to start calling them expected. Over time, these things are expected. When you buy a new dishwasher for your house, that dishwasher is going to run a certain number of cycles.Now, maybe you could argue and say, this thing's a piece of junk. It didn't last very long. Get that? But when you shift away from that emergency and you start thinking, oh, you know what?This is expected over time, it removes that emotional shock. So we got to start there, redefine what emergency is, and say, okay, you know what these things are? These are planned maintenance.Well, if it's a planned maintenance, the next step is to create a home repair fund. If you really want to make this stable, this is where stability begins.When you create a category in your budget just for this, it could be something small. Maybe you put $25 a week or $50 a paycheck. You're not trying to cover everything at once.But if you build in that cushion so that that next repair doesn't hit you at zero, I know what it feels like there. Listen, we're in a house right now, my wife and I, that's 30 years old. Guess what? In 30 years, stuff starts to break. Roof H vac systems.The last couple years, we have spent a ton on fixing stuff. Guess what? That's the beauty of home ownership. There's always something to fix. But you've got to estimate the annual reality in your life.Here's a simple exercise you can do. Ask yourself this. What do I realistically spend in a year on home and repair costs? There's a number out there. Even a rough estimate helps.Maybe it's $1,000 a year. Maybe you've got a newer home. You don't have these issues. If you've got an older home, maybe it's $2,000. Hey, maybe it's more than that.But figure out what that number is. Here's some simple math. Just divide that by 12. Whatever that number is for repairs or maintenance, Take that number, divide by 12.Because now you've got a monthly target. And when you have a target, it turns surprise into preparation. But now, here's another thing I want you to think about.Because a lot of times you need to prioritize repairs with wisdom, not panic. I don't know about you, but sometimes it's easy to panic.Like when you walk into a room and there's a pipe burst and there's water blowing everywhere. That's a repair that needs to be handled right away. But not everything needs to be fixed immediately. Yeah, some things are urgent.We don't have any heat. That's urgent. The pipe is burst and there's water everywhere. That's urgent. Well, I don't like the look of these cabinets.Yeah, maybe they need to be repaired, but that's not urgent. Some things can wait.So when something comes up, if you can take the emotion out of it for a second and ask yourself, is this a need right now or something I can plan for, you're thinking, wait a minute, Ralph, I see what you did there. You just went back to needs versus wants. Yes, I did. Because urgency is what drains your budget.I don't know how many times I've worked with clients that said to me, well, Ralph, we got into this repair and it led to this repair and it led to this repair. Well, guess what?The people who sell repairs and maintenance, I'm not making them sound like bad people, but they're going to try to sell you everything. I get it. Something goes wrong in the kitchen, next thing you know you've got a full remodel going on.Something goes wrong in the bathroom and it's time to remodel the whole thing. But that's a stress to your budget that you don't necessarily need.So building that discernment and protect yourself, but build your foundation, not just your reaction. I want to go a little deeper now because what you're really wanting, your question is really answer is asking this question.What you really want is stability. I think as a homeowner, you already know you're never going to find perfection.You are not going to live in a home where a month goes that there's nothing that goes wrong. It just doesn't happen. I've owned homes for a long. I bought my first house when I was 22 years old. I've owned homes for a long time.Something always goes wrong. I mentioned this on this show before. I was in my new townhouse, I was 22 years old. It wasn't a week and the air conditioner died.It's a 25 year old townhouse now. Of course, I'm 22. I didn't have two nickels to rub together or a window to throw it out of. Now I had a bunch of windows since I bought this house.Kind of a funny play on words there. But build that foundation, it holds steady when things go wrong. And that's what you're building here. You're building something little by little.That building, that consistency over time. You're not stuck. You're learning how to stand firm. I want to encourage you right now, you're not starting over. It's so easy to say.And you said this in yours. I feel like I'm always starting over. You're not starting over.You're just building stronger and you're learning from the things that happen as homeowners. I will tell you right now, I've already built into my budget. This is what I expect I'm going to spend. Hey, it's a bonus.If I don't spend it this year, then I can pay off some debt. I can do something else with it. But here's your win for today. I really want you to do this.If you're a homeowner or you're thinking about buying a home, hey, you could do this even now, create a home repair line in your budget. You don't have to put thousands of dollars into it. Even a small amount to build that habit will help you in the long run.Because as I've said, preparation creates peace. And that's really what you're looking for here. Well, let's get into the word of God. We're going to go to the book of Luke, chapter 6, verse 48.Again, Luke 6. 48. They are like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock.When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it because it was well built. And I think this really fits today. First of all, we're talking about houses. I was like, hey, that works.But financial stability is built the same way as this. Through that steady preparation, it creates a strong foundation when life. Storms come, friend. Truth is, storms are going to come in life.And if you own a home or a car, there is going to be a storm of repairs. Maybe not this month, maybe not next month, but it's going to happen. So be prepared. God's given you the ability to do that.Well, how about we pray together right now? Heavenly Father, I lift up my friend who feels worn down by this constant pressure of unexpected repairs.And Lord, you see their frustration, you see their desire for stability, and you see how hard they're trying.And Lord, right at this moment, I ask that you would give them wisdom to plan, Lord, give them patience to build slowly, and give them peace during the process.And we ask you to help us all to shift from reacting to preparing and remind each of us that we're not stuck, that we're actually growing stronger with every step. Lord, be the foundation in every season of all of our lives. And I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. Friend, hear me on this.Stability isn't built in one month. It's built one step at a time. It's like building a brick wall.Start with that strong foundation and you just lay one block and another block and another block. And maybe right now you're walking through something similar. Maybe it's not a home repair, but you're feeling like Ralph.Man, I got this weight on my shoulder. I just don't know what to do with it. You don't have to carry it alone anymore. I would love to hear what's going on in your life.You can go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail and tell me all about it. You can leave a quick voicemail for me and I would love to know what's going on with your life.If you want me to, I can answer a question you have on the show. We'll put a link in the show notes, but again, that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail. Make sure you join us tomorrow.We've got a voicemail from somebody that did just that because I would truly be honored to walk you through an upcoming episode that we'll be talking about. So thank you so much for joining me today. I want to encourage you, stay financially savvy, know that God is with you, and have a great day today.