Other Household Expenses

[sexualbanana]

What are some household expenses that may have caught you by surprise when you first bought a place of your own? Both for a condo, and a house.

[A790]

Furnace/hot water tank maintenance.
Appliance maintenance
Fixing small items, toilets, etc.
Property tax (nor a surprise, but whatever)

[Tik-Tok]

There wasn't ever a big expense that surprised me (house), it was all the little things that added up. Doesn't take very many trips to H.D./Rona to fix the small stuff before you're looking in shock at your Visa bill.

But we did rent a house of similar age and size before we bought this one, so we we pretty much knew what the normal monthly expenses would be.

[carson blocks]

Blinds. No blinds, no big deal, right? Start adding up how many windows you have and multiples needed for large sectional windows and even Home Depot vinyl blinds start adding up.

[Masked Bandit]

For a new house, window coverings is often a big shock.

On an ongoing basis, yard care expense. Lawn mower, seed, fertilizer, weed whacker, line for the weed whacker. It's not real bad once you have the lawnmower & weed whacker but you're always spending money on that kind of stuff.

[ercchry]

take your mortgage payment... and double it. that should be your budgeted home expenses

[raceman6135]

As others have eluded, not necessarily huge expenses, but when I did what I thought were 'minor updates' to my place, the money sure added up quickly for things like:

- door knobs/locksets
- hinges
- cabinet pulls/knobs
- door stops
- hot and cold air register covers
- blinds, curtains, curtain rods, pull-backs
- light fixtures

[firebane]

When you become a home owner its like anything else. You fall in love with the place and enjoy the reality of owning your own house.

Then you start looking around and see those dated light switches, electrical outlets, door knobs, kitchen knobs, cupboards, paint, etc etc.

As people have said.. its generally the small stuff that adds up so fast.

[msommers]

Lighting and window fixtures have definitely surprised me.

[CanmoreOrLess]

The endless replacement of things the developer and previous owner went cheap on, if he'd spent another 25-50% it all would last decades. As is, I can see replacing everything over the next decade from kitchen cabinets to a water heater. My grandparents living in a house for fifty years and other than paint and decorating, the place went untouched.

[bignerd]

Blinds. Bought a new house and then you have to go out and spend another 2-3000 on blinds. You can try to make due with curtains but they just suck.

[Sugarphreak]

Home depot or even IKEA will kill you for price when it comes to window coverings: go to Blinds.Ca and basically save 60% over anything you can get locally.

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
There wasn't ever a big expense that surprised me (house), it was all the little things that added up. Doesn't take very many trips to H.D./Rona to fix the small stuff before you're looking in shock at your Visa bill.

But we did rent a house of similar age and size before we bought this one, so we we pretty much knew what the normal monthly expenses would be.

haha, yeah the ol' Visa gets a nice workout whenever a new season arrives.

[Type_S1]

I bought my place, put about $5,000 into renos (new flooring, paint, fixtures) that I did myself and since then just regular maintenance stuff is like $50 a month.

My big killer was furniture. I owned nothing and didn't realize how much shit costed until I was well into 5 figures spending. Also, a nice BBQ is quite expensive. Patio furniture is also a killer. I often have parties so many chairs are needed. Spent probably $500 on just chairs for outside.

[elmo909]

All the little things add up. I would budget 1% (on a new home) to 5% (on an older home) per year, on average to keep a place functional and somewhat modern.

Every little thing eventually will need to be replaced, furnace, windows, furniture, flooring, cabinets, etc.

[Seth1968]

When you replace things like faucets, it won't be long before you're walking around Home Depot saying, "Ah shit, I like that one better".

[BigMass]

Buy used not new. Why buy a lazyboy couch for $2000 when you can get the same one on kijiji for $500 from someone that purchased it 3 months prior and decided they didn't like the color. People in Calgary love to waste money on new shit then take a huge bath on it. Take advantage of that and look for used stuff that's barely been used. Yes lots of complete shit on kijiji but you can find quality stuff at huge discounts if you take the time to look for it.

[ianmcc]

David Chilton (The Wealthy Barber) nailed it for me in his sequel-those dreaded five words. While we are at it. How one simple update or change snowballs into a major reno. Let's re-do the bathroom floor. And while we are at it we may as well install heated floors. And while we are at it we should tile the shower to match. And while we are at it we should install new fixtures. And so on....

[FraserB]

^ Isn't that how modding cars goes too?

While I'm at it, I might as well but a winch in that new bumper. And I'm in there anyways, might as well put some lights on it.

When I buy my place this year, I'm figuring about $12-$13k in furniture and random crap when I move in.

[sexualbanana]

Awesome input guys.

I'm just looking at purchasing and trying to figure out what sort of monthly expenses I need to account for.

Assuming I get a condo, the only other monthly expense I can think of off the top of my head is internet/cable. I'm sure I'm missing other things, but I can't seem to think of any. Also, I'm assuming that my condo fees include heat and power.

[bart]

if you are buying stuff at ikea and home depot its cheap

if you are buying dornbracht, duravit, haro, gaggenau, miele, dierre, somfy, fabbian, etc well then... many visa points! hahaha