In Your Budget: Repairs or Replacements?

[Retired To Win]

Although I know it's not strictly an either-or question, whether your budget is slanted towards repairs or replacements could make a big difference.

As I wrote about in my blog post "A Frugal Tale of 2 PCs", even when I've started out thinking about replacing something, I find it really pays -- in both money and satisfaction -- to look hard first at either repairing or looking for a substitute among the things you've already got.

My baseline budget (which is detailed in my blog post "My $18K Annual Baseline Budget") has a specific line item for monthly deposits into a home repairs accrual fund. But that budget does not specifically plan for replacements. Those are funded, on an unbudgeted basis, from my discretionary fund.

How are you handling repairs and replacements in your budget? Do you have a bias one way or the other? Would you have gone through the effort I did to refunctionalize my 2 older PCs or would you have treated yourself to that new laptop I was initially thinking about getting?

[disneysteve]

How are you handling repairs and replacements in your budget? Do you have a bias one way or the other?

It really depends on the item and the cost of the repair. For example, if a 1-year old computer needs fixing, I'd probably fix it. If a 5-year old computer needed fixing, I'd replace it. When our 35-year old furnace broke, we got a new one. When that one stopped working a few weeks ago, we fixed it.

Cost of repair is also a factor. I might spend $50 to fix a laptop since it would cost $350 to replace, but I probably wouldn't spend $100 or more to fix it.

[ua_guy]

It definitely depends on the item and its value.

We nursed a Macbook Pro laptop that we purchased new in 2008 until about 2 weeks ago. In the 6 years we had it, the keyboard and hard drive needed to be replaced, both of which we did ourselves. Plus the battery, and the power adapter. Finally, it experienced a known issue where the GPU and control board failed, rendering all display output capabilities useless. It was well past the extended warranty and to replace the GPU and control board would have been $600. Not worth it, it lived a good life, so it's since been retired.

We're also nursing along our 15 year old furnace. The home inspector flat out said it needed to be replaced, but we found better value in replacing the gas control valve and the inducer motor and housing. That with a professional cleaning and tune up, and it's working as good as new. $700 in parts saved us from a $4,000 replacement. If it can make it another couple of years, we'll be happy. It's only 80% AFE running propane, so it may get replaced for efficiency reasons as the cost of propane continues to rise.


We don't specifically budget for small repair/replace items. The EF covers most repair/replacements. The one we struggle with and will need to start saving for is a new roof. That one is going to get it's own account and defined savings plan.