FaceDeer , 4 months ago

Stove, oven, and microwave are redundant; it's convenient to have all of these but you don't need all of them. The TV, also, is a luxury item. I don't know what part of your friend's wedding you paid for, but that's not a necessity either. Did the person who rear-ended your car not have insurance? A gasoline lawnmower is excessive, get a push mower. Attend the funeral in less-expensive clothing. Windows starting to go bad haven't actually gone bad. Deck wood starting to dry rot doesn't mean it's nonfunctional, and even if it is a deck is not a necessity; get rid of it instead. Replacing your bed "just because it's time" is weird, was there actually something wrong with it?

I'm not saying it would be awesome to cut or postpone those expenditures. But you said you had to take your savings out to do these things, and that doesn't seem true to me. You chose to take your savings out to do those things. If you value those things more than you value having savings, fine, that's your choice. But "Investing is for people with a lot of excess cash" isn't true. You could have chosen to have savings instead in exchange for a less expensive lifestyle.

What are you doing to those appliances that's making the break down so rapidly, anyway? I've got a microwave that's lasted me at least a decade. I've never had a TV or toilet "go bad."