Laundry Woes

We had a tough weekend this past weekend, both financially and because of that, emotionally. In truth, I wasn’t sure it was something I wanted to post here on the blog, but I want to share the good, the bad, and the ugly of our journey to being debt free.

Financially it wasn’t a huge setback, (though it wasn’t good), but emotionally it really threw us for a loop.

For several months now (I’m so OVER. IT.) we have been remodeling our kitchen. Because we are doing it ourselves, after work and in between kids’ activities, it has been a slow process. The weekends are when we get the most time to work on it.

This particular weekend, on Sunday, we thought we would have a the whole, solid day. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.

Let me give you a little backstory first. Our laundry room is right off of our kitchen and is also getting remodeled. Due to this we were without laundry for about 10 days because we were having plumbing lines moved. Needless to say, I was unable to do laundry and it piled up. Once it was hooked back up, I only had it for one day because it had to be taken out again to prepare our floors for tile. All told, I was about 12 days without laundry services in our home.

On Sunday, it was finally hooked up again and I started laundry. First I washed a load of delicates because we needed them and they have a shorter cycle than towels, for example. Within about 3 minutes of starting the washer, water was pouring out of the door of our front loading washer.  We were able to stop the cycle, but to keep any more water from pouring out, we had to push the door to make the seal tighter. We then had to hand-bail 15 gallons of water 2 cups at a time. It took 2 hours. (We looked on-line to figure out how to force drain the washer and the way it said didn’t work. We found out later, after hand-bailing, that the drain was clogged.) Once we were able to drain the washer, The Husband was able to clean out the filter and the drain.

I ran the load again with no mishaps. Then I switched the laundry; delicates into the dryer, a load of towels into the washer. Once the delicates were done in the dryer, I set them for 20 more minutes and realized after I pushed start, our dryer wasn’t tumbling. I opened the door and tried to spin the drum: nothing. It wouldn’t move. I found a shirt had gotten caught in the dryer and wasn’t allowing the drum to move.

The Husband went to work. He was able to get the shirt out (relatively unscathed) but what he discovered was so depressing. He found a crack in the dryer drum and that’s why the shirt got stuck.

In the morning it was problems with our washer and in the afternoon a broken dryer. I cried.

For months we had felt our dryer was on its last legs, so rather than just replacing the drum, we opted to purchase a new dryer. I cried again.

We first checked out Home Depot for a dryer, but this was Sunday and the soonest they would be able to deliver was the following Saturday. After almost 2 weeks without laundry, I couldn’t wait another week. We then checked Best Buy. Best Buy had the same dryer I had picked out at Home Depot, for the same price, but we were able to get it on Monday, the next day.

We bought the dryer on Sunday; it was $719.99 plus tax. We paid about $777.

I cried.

And mostly not about the money.

Mostly.

It was an emotionally exhausting day. On top of that, I really didn’t want to have spend $700+ on a dryer when I am trying to pay cash for an entire kitchen remodel. The kitchen remodel is bleeding us dry. It’s just so expensive and we have some of the most expensive expenses left to pay for: granite and our fixtures (sink, hot water dispenser, faucet, utility sink, utility faucet, water filter). Needing a new dryer could not have come at a worse time.

I’m trying to be positive about it and remember that it could be worse and at least we were able to go buy one, but right now that feels like little consolation.

I’m also afraid we are going to have to draw money from some other accounts to finish paying for the kitchen. Currently we have money in our annual expenses account and in the kids’ bank accounts. If we have to use either of those, the first priority will be to pay them back, but I’m sad it might come down to that.

Stupid $777 dryer.

I know this is a long post, thanks for sticking around and reading it.

Have you ever had any budget busters that just made you cry?