Home maintenance: what's your yearly budget? Why?

[Uno-Mom]

If you own a house... how much do you plan to spend every year taking care of that home? I mean, regular maintenance plus repairs, etc. I don't mean how much you might be saving towards a kitchen remodel or new bathroom. :)

I ask because we're planning out our ideal scenario, how much we'd like to have set aside in an account.

A bit about us, if you feel like giving advice: we have an average 50s ranch house, 3 bedrooms, forced-air gas heat plus a couple fireplaces, one bathroom. We don't have extensive landscaping to maintain, though we do put something into our garden every year. No pool.

Our general plan is to have about $3000 set aside in savings. Well, $5000 actually but that's to cover both house AND car maintenance. Thoughts?

[hillview]

That sounds about right. If we put money aside we'd put aside 5k for the house but it is an older house 1893 and has issues often. I assume you mean total of 3k not 3k a year. BIG expenses we've had
replace boiler
replace roof
replace some windows
replace gutters
fix windows/gutters after ice dams
fix basement after some flooding
repave driveway
replace water main from street to house
replace toilet
OH and appliances -- this can be $$ we needed to replace fridge, washer/dryer and dishwasher all after we moved here but they were old so it wasn't a total shock

with the exception of the roof and appliances, these all were under 3k

HTH
/hillary

[Uno-Mom]

Ooh, Hillview I'm jealous! Not about the amount of repairs but of your vintage home. I wish we had a home with more character. Unfortately, character often equals expensive repairs which is why we went with a boring old ranch.

[KrisM]

We set aside $5k per year. Some years we spend it and some we don't. Our roof was $6900 in 2010. This year, was smaller with only concrete repair, deck staining, and regular things like lawn care.

But, I like to have enough to cover a couple appliances or a furnace and a/c if needed.

[niccig]

We don't specifically put a set amount aside. That's a good idea though. We try to do one project on top of normal maintenance. One year it was painting, another year windows, another the driveway. We cut back in other areas if we need to pay more than we've expected.

[daniele_ut]

I've heard that the rule of thumb is 1% of the value of your house per year is about what you can expect to spend yearly on maintenance. For us that's about $2500.

We've spent a lot more than that in the last few years, but we knew that going in because we bought a fixer upper. We installed a new patio, 2 new furnaces, remodeled 2 bathrooms, etc. We know that the roof and the driveway are coming up here in a couple of years so we are trying to plan for those expenses as well.

[vludmilla]

We don't budget exactly but we try to keep a substantial amount in savings, enough to cover most emergencies or a job loss. I think 3-5k is a good idea but I think it depends on whether you are in a HCOL or LCOL area and how much other savings you have.

[trales]

We have been averaging about $2000 per year and that is a lot of DIY. Old New England home though.

[mytwosons]

Regular maintenance is built into our budget and really isn't that much.

Bigger things, like replacing flooring, painting, and replacing windows gets a special savings goal.

I have enough (hopefully!) in savings to replace all of our appliances and furnace. I know they are all going to go at the same time.

[hillview]

We try to do one project on top of normal maintenance. One year it was painting, another year windows, another the driveway. We cut back in other areas if we need to pay more than we've expected.
We do this too. For an older house it helps stay away from unexpected things and keep the house up.

[JElaineB]

We don't set aside any specific amount but we spend what we need to. We've owned our house for almost 4 years and have done a number of large projects already and have a few to go. We just had a new metal roof put on - at least twice the price of an ashphalt roof but DH assures me we won't have to buy another roof for this house ever. The shingles on the roof we had were in really bad shape - they are part of a class action lawsuit. We are hoping to get a little money out of that to put towards the new roof. I think $3,000-$5,000 a year for "regular" maintenance and upkeep should be plenty for most houses though.

[Uno-Mom]

Thanks! It's good to hear what others are doing.
We are trying to save up an emergency fund of at least 3-4 months of living expenses and then an amount against house and car catastrophes. Then all our extra income (haha - otherwise known as miserable overtime) will go to pay off those friggin student loans. We want to set enough aside so we don't get torpedoed, but not more than necessary.

I am certainly stealing that idea about one planned project per year ... after we get rid of sSallie Mae, that is. Until then, fingers crossed!

[shawnandangel]

We own a home built in 1925

This year we spent about

May: $1000 fixing plaster in the hallway and living room. I painted the room myself after to save us the $1000+ extra it would have been to paint

October: replaced the flashing and some missing shingles on the roof - $850

Yearly:
1x every 6mo we have our heating and cooling checked and tuned up - once in spring, and once in fall.

I spend a few hundred dollars on gardening yearly as I slowly fix up our yard

So this year - about $2000

Over the 11 years we've been here we've spent between $2000-10,000/yr on repairs. The $10,000 year we replaced the hvac

We also had a garage built but had the loan added on to our mortgage.

Next year we plan on spending more because I will be out of school and we'll have more money to use towards the house.

[niccig]

Thanks! It's good to hear what others are doing.
We are trying to save up an emergency fund of at least 3-4 months of living expenses and then an amount against house and car catastrophes. Then all our extra income (haha - otherwise known as miserable overtime) will go to pay off those friggin student loans. We want to set enough aside so we don't get torpedoed, but not more than necessary.

I am certainly stealing that idea about one planned project per year ... after we get rid of sSallie Mae, that is. Until then, fingers crossed!

We have an emergency fund and if we needed to replace furnace or roof in an emergency, I would use some of that fund. If I know something is on the fritz and will need to be replaced, then that gets saved for. Eg. our hot water heater will need to be replaced in next 2-3 years, so that won't be an emergency fund expense, as we know it's coming. I had our HVAC and furnace checked once a year and they're still in good shape, so don't expect to replace them soon.

Emergency fund is to be used for things you can't expect. Regular maintenance, No, unexpected tree through roof, yes.

ETA. Also keep on on little DIY maintenance. We have a lot of wood trim around our house and when I spot wood rot, I fix it or get handyman in if it's too much for me to do. When you fix a little job ASAP, it's saves a lot of money down the track.

[Uno-Mom]

Emergency fund is to be used for things you can't expect. Regular maintenance, No, unexpected tree through roof, yes.

ETA. Also keep on on little DIY maintenance. We have a lot of wood trim around our house and when I spot wood rot, I fix it or get handyman in if it's too much for me to do. When you fix a little job ASAP, it's saves a lot of money down the track.
That last is very wise advice! We are cleaning up after 6 years of doing practically no regular maintenance. We're finally biting the bullet and hiring folks to help because ito pays us better to spend our few "free" hours doing contract work intead of clumsy home repairs.

We are operating on the Murphy principle now, after the year we've been through: at least one or two unexpected catastrophes should be expected! :). (shhhh please don't tell our giant maple tree I said that. I do NOT want it coming through our ceiling!)