Unplanned, Unavoidable Expenses this year

[Aerides]

We always like to remind others to include wiggle room for lumpy expenses in their budgets, and often see folks projecting plans for retirement that seem to miss the irregular big things that can crop up. For us this year was a doozy. I figured this might be a good place to capture them to just to show how things can result in Blowing That Dough even when you didn't want to, but had to:

$1200 - moved our water main line to accommodate a new pool (found out after the dig started...)

$900 - shower repair. The tiles lining our stand-in shower - 18" square travertine - were coming loose. No way to DIY that safely.

$5500 - new AC. Our compressor died, 13 years, beyond repair as the factory welds were corroded

$600 - new washing machine...would have been $300 parts to repair

$1800 (this one hurt) correcting/reinstall of our new pergola after the first one was botched. In reality it's the original, planned, $700 that was the sunk cost, as the $1800 is what we should have paid to do it right to begin with

$300 - garage door springs broke/replaced

~$5000 - a medical emergency left DH meeting his full high deductible on our health plan (he's fine now). We do always expect to have some expenses beyond premiums, and have HSA money, but I see a lot of folks look at the costs of healthcare and only plan for premiums in their budgets. We're 52 so, yeah don't tell me you're young so you don't have to worry yet!

So... yeah. 15k of stuff we had no reason to expect on Jan1! (not the best year for me to have also decided to get lots of new furniture as well...)

Anyone else have some of these?

 

[Dtail]

7k net cost for a new roof. Last year 8k for a new air conditioner.

 

[Walt34]

Nothing so far, but the year isn't over yet.

 

[Bamaman]

My daughter took my new Toyota and knocked the bottom of the fairing off in front of the tire. It cost me $700 for new parts and took me 3 hours to disassemble and repair.

Then I caught a rock in the windshield--$1,100 cost at Safelite--$500 deductible out of pocket. Drove the car a week and caught another rock--another $500 deducible.

I also have a year old pickup truck, and i caught a rock--BB Ding. Not yet repaired.

My daughter brought my other truck home with a huge star in the windshield, and it must be replaced. She also broke the sliding rear glass out, and it'll cost $250 to get a junk yard glass and have it installed.

I have a Lexus with a broken electric steering rack and some minor problems. When I went to get it out of the dealership, it cost me $4,400--AND the windshield was broken. I got 10 miles, and the battery ran down and stranded me. Needed a new alternator.

Heat pump went out in my lake house, and I got a great deal on a replacement @ $4,200.

We all just got over a minor case of COVID--after receiving two vaccinations. We feel snake bit in 2021.

 

[2017ish]

Ouch. Glad that your DH is fine.

So far, we've had 16,000 out of pocket on medical this year, and have a few more smallish bills to come on a bunion surgery. (Hmmm, last year was 14K, whilst '18 and '19 were each less than 5K; don't like the trend!)

When planning for retirement, I'd penciled in an unduly large amount for medical and insurance, so we haven't hit that amount yet.

Probably another two or three thousand on home repair stuff this year. Had to get new carpet installed in basement after some heavy rains. As for other repairs, I do them myself, and don't differentiate [in quicken] between repair and "new" work on the house and acreage; thus, no easy way to pull numbers.

_______________
E.T.A. quicken bracket.

 

[braumeister]

DW was driving about 200 miles from home when the transmission on her well-maintained five year old Honda HR-V suddenly disintegrated. Out of warranty and Honda just said "that's to be expected on a car that old."

So a bit over $6K for a new transmission. Hardly expected, and she will never buy another Honda.

 

[aja8888]

Ugh...

$6,000+ dental surgery and new tooth (not planned)
$1675 New water heater
$1,400 Dental work for grandson (unemployed mother due to Covid)

There's more, but I just can't think of them right now.

It seems like we spend about $10 K unplanned (not budgeted) each year.

 

[finnski1]

DW was driving about 200 miles from home when the transmission on her well-maintained five year old Honda HR-V suddenly disintegrated. Out of warranty and Honda just said "that's to be expected on a car that old."

So a bit over $6K for a new transmission. Hardly expected, and she will never buy another Honda.

Wow.

Yeah that doesn't sound like it would have been "expected" to me.

 

[freedomatlast]

The engine in DDs Hyundai is shot at less than 110,000 miles. Dealer wants over $11,000 to replace it. Used ones are $3500 plus about $1000 for installation at independent shops. After several "discussions", Hyundai decided to pick up 90% of the cost of the new one. Minor unexpected expense that could have been more than minor.

 

[athena53]

DW was driving about 200 miles from home when the transmission on her well-maintained five year old Honda HR-V suddenly disintegrated. Out of warranty and Honda just said "that's to be expected on a car that old."

So a bit over $6K for a new transmission. Hardly expected, and she will never buy another Honda.

Wow. That does not make me happy. When my 2012 Nissan Sentra developed transmission problems not worth repairing in June, 2021 after 134,000 miles I was disgusted and replaced it with a Honda Civic.

This year: 2 dental implants, so about $10,000; a tooth decayed under a bridge that had been installed over 10 years ago, so I knew it was likely, just didn't know when. Second implant went into the gap the bridge covered.

Someone with no morals grazed my Honda Civic (yeah, only a year old) when it was parked across the street from DS' house. They did not leave a note. $4,500, but insurance covered all but a $500 deductible on the Uninsured Motorists coverage.

I thought I was exempt from paying a Personal Property tax on my car for the first 2 years because I didn't have to have it inspected. I got on the county web site looking for info on real estate taxes and found out I owed taxes on the car for this year plus part of last year plus a penalty- $755 total.

All of it manageable but not good news.

 

[txtig]

Oral surgery - Soft tissue (pedicle) graft for gum recession. About $10k for upper and lower gum lines. Doc says I will likely start losing teeth without the surgery. I rather take a really nice trip!

 

[Ronstar]

I had a Ford Bronco on order, but it wouldn't come in until at least 2022. So I unexpectedly went out one day and bought a Jeep Wrangler instead.

 

[OldShooter]

... the transmission on her well-maintained five year old Honda HR-V suddenly disintegrated. Out of warranty and Honda just said "that's to be expected on a car that old." ...

Quite a few years ago I had something like that happen to a Chev Suburban was told to pound sand. After some research I found that this failure was very common in fairly low mileage Suburbans. I gathered my evidence and took Chevy to small claims court. I won and was reimbursed most, maybe all, of my repair expense. I don't remember how much I got.

So ... you might spend a little quality time on Honda forums and see what you can learn.

 

[wearefinishedworking]

A huge 75 year old tree on our property split in half during a wind storm. Cost $5k to take it down completely and haul wood away. This happened the same week the water heater died for another $1200.

 

[aaronc879]

Wow, $5500 and $8000 for AC replacement? I had no idea it cost that much. Mine is 20+ years old and expect it to die any year now. I guess I will just live in the basement because I am not paying that.

I can't think of any unexpected expenses this year.

 

[Out of Steam]

Wow, $5500 and $8000 for AC replacement? I had no idea it cost that much. Mine is 20+ years old and expect it to die any year now. I guess I will just live in the basement because I am not paying that.

I can't think of any unexpected expenses this year.

$6K was about the cost of replacing our heat pump in 2019. We spent about another $4K on plumbing the house for natural gas and setting up a dual-fuel heating system.

 

[Out of Steam]

As our cars are now older, we've had several repairs in the $1K range this year, but no major bills.

 

[MC Rider]

Not unexpected but dreaded for a few years, but we replaced the roof including all the plywood underneath this year for about $17,000. I think the radiant barrier osb plywood was about $5,000 installed by itself, but it had to be done. While spending the big bucks we added a sun tunnel to the dark hall for about $700 more.


Unexpected was the water heater died while the roof was in progress. Iirc another $1400 for that. Seems like there was another smaller thing, because things come in threes, but I forget, or am repressing that memory.

 

[rt-texas]

Two implants....

Broke a molar that had had root canal years ago. Space behind, last molar, was pulled even more years ago when I couldn't afford root canal and crown.

So pulled the broken tooth and had two implants to anchor everything properly.

Not currently in the US, so cost out the door, was about 3k including the crowns. Very happy so far, final follow up Wednesday. But hopefully good to go for a while on the dental.

 

[frayne]

Ah, the joys of home ownership and dental work ! Probably going to spend in the neighborhood of $14K between those two this year, not totally unexpected though. Just feel fortunate the cost is no big deal.

 

[disneysteve]

A storm in April blew the siding off one wall of our house. Since they had to tear up the wall anyway, we also used the opportunity to replace the door on that wall that has been busted and non-functional for ages.... $10,000.


A couple of $1,000-ish car repairs on older vehicles though that wasn't entirely unexpected.


Nothing else comes to mind though I'm sure there were some smaller ones along the way that add up to a decent amount.

 

[Sue J]

DH lost a crown in Dec 2019 and it was $714 with the dental discount plan that we had bought earlier in the year.

About 6 weeks later he lost another one and that one cost $834.

Ouch!

Then we had some fun ones that I'm happy to pay for. Opened a 529 for 2nd grandson born in late August, 2021 for $1000 and added $1000 to the 1st grandson's 529 for his 3rd birthday in Nov.

25 days left in 2021 and luckily we haven't had any large medical expenses, car repair expenses or home repair expenses. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the rest of the year. Some years are like this, other are NOT!

 

[SecondCor521]

I'm sort of whistling past the graveyard on these things.

I'm driving a 28 year old car which runs fine now, but it's 28 years old.

The roof on my house is 17 years old and my neighbors are starting to replace their roofs.

Likewise my house has a 17 year old furnace and 17 year old A/C.

I'm generally healthy, but I'm 52 and I've read the "check engine light" comments on here from someone and am starting to see things get a bit worse in some areas (fatigue, sinus issues, etc.).

 

[Aerides]

I'm sort of whistling past the graveyard on these things.

I'm driving a 28 year old car which runs fine now, but it's 28 years old.

The roof on my house is 17 years old and my neighbors are starting to replace their roofs.

Likewise my house has a 17 year old furnace and 17 year old A/C.

I'm generally healthy, but I'm 52 and I've read the "check engine light" comments on here from someone and am starting to see things get a bit worse in some areas (fatigue, sinus issues, etc.).

Yeah, you'll be making the 2022 version of this thread!

 

[Yoheadden]

Hospital stay earlier this year had me max out my deductible and copays. That was around $6,700. On the plus side, since this was maxed, I had an unplanned bunion surgery that was 100% covered.
We are dropping a vehicle off tomorrow at the shop. Not confirmed, but sounds like a wheel bearing issue.