Even an e-fund wouldn't be enough!

Avatar for mahopac
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-1997
Even an e-fund wouldn't be enough!
4
Fri, 01-16-2009 - 2:35pm

We'd noticed our water softener was no longer working at Thanksgiving. DH thought he could jump-start it, which worked periodically, but the situation was getting worse and worse - the glasses that come out of our dishwasher are now almost completely white.

Culligan stopped by on Monday and told us the system, which is 17yo old, needs to be completely replaced. Today the saleswoman gave DH a quote for $2460! Needless to say, I suggested we look at other options - seems like almost anything else would be less expensive. But I'm pretty sure it's going to be over $1000 regardless of what we choose, based on my internet research, and with extremely hard well water, we HAVE to have a water softener.

As if that weren't enough fun, last night our oil burner stopped working - on the coldest night of the year! After a midnight service call ($200), and a refill of the oil tank today, we discovered that the problem was that our oil tank's gauge had become stuck, so it was registering 1/3 full, while in fact it was nearly empty. As a result, the oil burner was drawing oil from the crud at the bottom of the oil tank and had gotten clogged. So we had a VERY cold night, but all is well today.

We don't have a separate e-fund, but fortunately we are able to cover all of this through savings. Not really the way I wanted to spend it, BUT I am glad of the following:

(1) We had money in an account.
(2) I hadn't spent it on a dining room set, as I'd wanted. I have a lot of good reasons for wanting a new dining set (namely, our increasing role as the hosts for extended family gatherings), but something told me to just make do for a while longer, "just in case." Well, "just in case" has arrived!

Hope you all are staying warmer than we did last night! (PS to those on the board who love Flylady: I had just last weekend cleaned out our walk-in closet, which I call a "zone" that I do twice a year, and neatly stored our extra blankets in ginormous Zip-lock bags, which I distributed to the kids last night before bedtime. Talk about good timing!)

Kelly

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-17-2003
Fri, 01-16-2009 - 4:05pm
Oh it won't cost you $1,000.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Fri, 01-16-2009 - 4:07pm

Just a suggestion.

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


Avatar for sohappilyme
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 01-16-2009 - 4:18pm

Our water softener died in a lightning strike and we've done without, but we were told it would be $600ish to repair. If we go to Home Depot and buy one, it's also $600ish. The guy told us that the new ones can't be repaired, but I'm opting for the new model because I'd rather have a more modern, efficient version for the same price. Who cares if it can't be repaired if the repair and the new one are the same cost? (DH can do minor repairs -- it's just the "blown apart by lighting" part that he can't fix).

PS: Naturally, it died full of new salt. Nothing like pinching that last penny from our pockets, huh?

Photobucket


Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket



Goal #1:

Sarah
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-28-2003
Fri, 01-16-2009 - 5:16pm

Our water softener went out a few months ago and we chose to go without (it happened soon after we shelled out a chunk of case to fix our sump pump), and haven't noticed a difference. But before we made that decision, i called a few places and wasn't quoted anything higher than $800 -- I think Sears was the biggest name I called. Not Culligan. But my parents deal with Culligan, paying monthly for a rented system. They pay more in the long run, but less monthly and any problem is covered. Something to think about ...


Meredith