We’ve all been there. Midway through the month, long after payday and all the main bills have been paid and what happens? Our washing machine packs up or our dishwasher develops a fault. Now I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t be able to live without my washing machine – with a partner who does long hour shift work and a child in school, my washing machine never seems to be turned off. But if it broke unexpectedly, would I always have the funds to cover the expense?
We’ve been lucky with ours so far. It has only broken once and the letting agent sent out a plumber to fix it. However, the letting agent took over from our old letting agent and found out that the washing machine wasn’t included in our contract – it had actually been bought for us as a gift by the former letting agent when Jack was a newborn. He knew us well, having rented properties to us before, and living in such a small village where everyone knows each other anyway, he had known me since I was little. The problem with it being a gift? It isn’t covered in our contract.
Since we weren’t aware of this, the new letting agent sorted it this time around but let us know that should it break again, it would be up to us to find the money for the expense. As you can imagine, I have been ever so careful ever since – always checking pockets, keeping it cleaned regularly and just generally not using or doing anything that could potentially cause a breakage. However, these things do happen and we may not always have the spare funds to deal with it, depending on what time of the month it is – if it was in the few days after pay day, we would probably be fine but the week before pay day? We’re usually pretty brassic by this time and we definitely wouldn’t have the available funds.
I’ve been thinking about what I would personally do in this situation and I would potentially take out a short term loan to get paid back straight away on pay day – Vivus offer very small amounts to be paid back as soon as your wages hit your account. Whilst this wouldn’t be for everyone, I know that should the need arise to use them, we could pay it back as soon as pay day rolled around – but we definitely couldn’t be without our washing machine for a week and it would cost quite a lot in fuel and launderette costs to take our clothes to our nearest launderette – not to mention I would have to wait until Steve was off work to take me as there is a distinct lack of buses to the next town over!
I’ve been very lucky in the fact that our washing machine has only broken down once since we received it and that was through something that could be avoided – a colour catcher sheet got caught – so I avoid using anything that isn’t a necessity when it comes to washing our clothes, sheets and towels in the washing machine. Prevention is key but this isn’t always foolproof. I’m also trying to get prepared and ahead of myself with an emergency fund in case these situations do happen in the future.
What do you do when the unexpected happens? Do you panic or do you take them on rationally? What experiences have you had?
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