When it rains it pours - literally (can you say roof leak)?

[fileda13]

Coming into summer almost a year in, and it's scary.

Long story short. My wife works in the school system, so in the summer she gets no pay - so that's an immediate squeeze on finances. I'm self-employed trying to grow my CPA/consulting practice. I have no idea from week to week what my income will be - no guaranteed income like a weekly paycheck to plan with. And last week during a heavy rain a leak exposed the almost end of life of my roof (about 15-17 years old with crappy shingles - 1 layer over the original roof). It's around $7,000 to do the whole job (had another quote for $11,000), or I could do the main house where the leak is for $3,700 and wait a year or two to do the garage/breezeway section. My gut says fix it now and be done with it. I plan on living here a while unless of course it all hits the fan and I have to go CH7 and risk losing the house.

This will effectively drain most of my savings going into the summer. Any more major hiccups and I'll have nothing to fall back on (except begging family members for money). I knew CH13 was a perilous journey, and one year in the Mack truck just hit us.

That's life.

[LadyInTheRed]

It's a hard call. I think I'd wait to do the garage/breezeway. I'd rather risk having those areas leak than depelete my cash cushion more than I absolutley have to. Life may throw you more Mack trucks before your Chap 13 is over.

[momofthree]

I agree with Lady. Fix the immediate need and save the rest for the next emergency that WILL show up--just a matter of when.

[Loveandlight]

I say walk away and keep your savings. Seriously- we have no savings, and things are coming up all the time. I not only wish we had savings, but I also know that nothing we have (even things we think are important) is so important to keep pouring money into, when our credit is already shot with the 13. That's just my two cents. Our house has been a money pit since buying it 8 years ago. One of the reasons we are where we are... we keep fixing, fixing. Now that it is almost completely re-done, and the economy went downward the last few years (and my husband stopped getting bonuses which we used to use to pay off cc debt) we have a fixed house, no savings, a car that needs tons of work and I would walk away from it all.

[frogger]

Go get you a $40 bucket of tar and you'll be surprised just how long you can make that roof last. If that doesn't work, then go get you a $75 bucket of kool-seal (like they paint mobile home roofs with) and paint the leaking area of your roof. Just because you "need" a new roof doesn't mean you "must" buy one today. There's more than one way to fix a roof.

[LadyInTheRed]

Excellent point, Frogger!

[BKOnce]

That is, if you can climb your roof with less slope.. & be careful

[spidge]

I'm in the same boat in many ways. The wife does not get paid for 2 summer months and a week at spring break because she is part time. I work in the water delivery business and I get much more OT in the summer so we may be OK.
Mack Trucks, as you put it will continue to haunt you, but in the end you may be better for it. Cash is King you know and as much as you and I would like a new roof we both know the best we can do is a repair. I was lucky that I had a bunch of shingles and when those ran out a friend had a complete re-roof and had left overs. So do a repair for now and don't sweat the rest. Think about how many ch13 payments it will take to do the entire roof and when your case is complete you can save for it.