Home repair blues. . . .

I finally had my dryer repaired today, and found that some wires were faulty. I was actually glad to learn this, since I would have felt a little guilty if it had been the heating element (this might have been something I could have fixed myself, rather than paying someone to do it for me).

Although I'm all set up for line drying---whether indoors or out---I'm happy to have my dryer back online for rainy or cold days, and for items that really should have a tumble once in awhile (my duvet cover comes to mind. . .) for the purposes of pet hair removal, at the very least.

I'm looking forward to using my clothesline often this summer, and saving some additional money in electric bills by not using my dryer. Now the question is, how to pay for the roughly $170 bill to fix my dryer? Originally I thought I would just take it out of my emergency fund and pay down my credit card, but on second thought, I'm going to take it out of a separate savings account that is going to help fill the gap when my income decreases next year. That account is quite healthy---there's twice as much money in it as there is in the EF, and if my refinance ever goes through, I'll be able to "skip" a mortgage payment (I'm already a month ahead, even without it) and that money will go straight into that savings account as well.

So my home repair---while expensive---hasn't decimated my budget after all. I can't help thinking how that charge would have remained on my credit card for months or even years just a short time ago, because I wouldn't have had any savings to speak of. How times change!