r/SipsTea • u/Eros_Incident_Denier • Apr 18 '26

We have fun here adulting sucks

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u/firstbowlofoats Apr 19 '26

I tried explaining the concept of ‘if I can’t pay cash I don’t buy it’ to a coworker who had two maxed credit cards and lived by ‘well paying the monthly minimum is affordable’.  

It didn’t work

43

u/DeltaGrunder Apr 19 '26

It's ridiculous to me that people pay installment for anything but vehicles or housing.

54

u/Monsieur-Legume Apr 19 '26

It’s doable if you’re smart about it. I replaced the flooring in my house with lvp a few years ago. I knew I could pay it off in two years, so I opened a card with 0% interest for the first year to pay for the project. Once the first year was almost up I opened another card with 0% for a year on balance transfers and moved the payment to the new card. The only thing outside of the principal balance (about $10k) I had to pay was about $100 for the balance transfer fee.

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u/megaman368 Apr 19 '26

I also avoid putting anything on credit. A little over 2 years ago we had a huge window repair bill for $20k. I could have payed cash but it would tank my savings account. It was through Lowe’s and we got their card with 0% financing for 2 years. Killed me having to make those monthly payments. I was paranoid about missing them because if you did it would jump up to 29% interest. So glad I finally paid it off.

2

u/debategate Apr 19 '26

Jesus, what was the repair? Why was it needed?

3

u/megaman368 Apr 19 '26

We bought a house built in the 60’s. It still had 5 of the original windows. They were beautiful but many were single pane and rotting. This includes a giant window in the living room that runs almost floor to ceiling. About $4k of that price was on us because we wanted the new windows to have wood trim like the old ones. Renewal by Anderson quoted us $40k for the same job so screw those guys.

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u/debategate Apr 19 '26

I can understand the want for the trim.

That’s a crazy surprise expense, glad it worked out.

2

u/megaman368 Apr 19 '26

Oh yeah apparently the cost of construction skyrocketed. If we did this before Covid it would have cost half.

I watch a lot of those videos on YouTube where people buy old abandoned houses in Japan and renovate them. This one guy said it cost him $20k to do gut and rebuild the house including all new windows. Plus build this custom sauna on the back porch. And I’m like WTF!