An Unexpected, and Complicated, Windfall

We received out “Escrow Analysis” in the mail the other day… and actually didn’t think anything of it. We assumed it was either a report of our escrow account over the last year, or, quite honestly, junk mail.

We were right on one of those counts, sort of.

When I opened the envelope, there was a report of our escrow activity and balance for the previous year. There was also an unexpected refund check. Apparently, we overpaid into our escrow account. This is not something we have ever had experience with. In our old house, we did not have an impound account. We paid our property taxes and home owner’s insurance annually on our own. The check was a very pleasant surprise!

We got a refund check to the tune of $1860! Due to this, our mortgage is going down next year, by about $85 a month. I. Am. So. Happy.

It was definitely unexpected money.

Now for the complicated part.

We are buying solar (read: adding to our debt*). And it ain’t cheap!

In order to cut down on the size of our system, we are upgrading our pool pump. Apparently we have a single speed pump and we will save a ton of money, over the long-term, by upgrading to a variable speed pump. In all honesty, it’s all Greek to me, but I like the idea of saving money.

Electricity-wise, we spend the most money on our pool so upgrading our pump will significantly lower our electrical use and allow us to purchase a smaller system. The quotes we’ve received on upgrading our pump have varied anywhere from $900 to $2700. We are going with one right in the middle of the road, about $1900. Our original plan was just to take the money out of savings as it is so worth it to upgrade and will pay for itself in just a couple of years**.

If you were paying attention above, you’ll see that the amount of our refund check is almost the exact same as what we needed to come up with to upgrade our pool pump!

I’m so glad, and appreciative, that we won’t need to take money from our savings to pay for the upgrade. That will keep us above the $10000 mark in savings for at least a little bit longer. (Full disclosure: we have $10000 in our savings, another $1700 in the kids’ accounts, and another $2000 of planned spending money in the bank.)

I was literally stunned when I opened the envelope and found the refund check. The Husband said he wasn’t sure if the look on my face meant really good or really bad; but he knew it was one or the other, ha! I don’t know if that will ever happen again, but the refund was so unexpected and came at such a perfect time!

*I will write a whole post, or several posts, about the ins and outs of buying solar and why it was the best option for us.

**Odd logic, I know. I’ll explain in my future posts about our experiences with solar.