Yearly maintenance budget

[phil]

to me it's more about keeping life in balance. If you are both working and have extra cash sure, do the upgrades it makes your living space nicer and the house more valuable. In times of no work I try to keep busy and I can recycle and reuse a lot of stuff. if I have extra cash I'd love to replace the old heater, but since it isn't easy I let the old one do it's thing and if it craps out I have no choice or regrets but I'd try to install a used one from a teardown if I can. If you are busy working you have less time and energy to do stuff like scraping paint and extensive yard work. for a while I got laid off and then I built kitchen cabinets as well as looking for work and that gave me some sense of accomplishment. It gets really scary when the money falls short and when that happens then you have to cut corners. I usually dont do mickey mouse repairs but I would definitely pick my time to take on certain projects. I dont think there is any tie between house value and maintenance you just need to do more to a place that has fallen behind. money means nothing until you get stuck and then it means everything. people that lived through the depressionor got caught up in worry learned to scrimp and fix stuff and tend to save for a rainy day. some of the richest people still get wrought with worry and there are very poor people who live happily.
I just had an opportunity to get a much higher paying job but it was shiftwork and in a big plant where I dont' think it would have been as fun.. I thought about it for a week and said to myself I'm just going to live cheaply and keep the job I like because a job I like is hard to find..so instead it means cutting corners, maybe regretting it but I cancelled my interview and kept the job I like. If the roof leaks I have a tarp. the house isnt' going anywhere soon so long as the payments dont' get out of control. I dont 'follow any kind of budget to me its more about living within my means and staying happy. You can't take it with you anyway.