The last three years have really represented a big set of challenges for many of us.
We lived through a global health crisis and then faced record inflation. This has caused me to reorient my thinking quite a bit. Due to being stuck at home inside the commercial HVAC of our home for the better part of a year and a half, we cut our spending. There wasn’t much of an entertainment budget at all during the pandemic years. We also saved money by foregoing two vacations. This helped offset the pay cut I had to take to work remotely from my own air conditioning instead of at the office. But once things got back to a new normal, the spending increased. And then, we got thumped with inflation that has pressed our household budget to death. That meant me cutting costs. And one cost cutting measure is one that I really regret. I didn’t get the seasonal HVAC maintenance like I should have for a few years. And that led to a big problem last Spring. I cranked the air conditioning as we transitioned from Spring to Summer only to have the residential HVAC equipment eventually stop working. I happened to be the first one home to discover the silent heat pump and a very warm house. I scrambled to see what I could do as I didn’t want to admit that this heat pump breakdown was my fault. I did everything I knew to do and even started watching videos online for a solution. Thankfully, my wife came home before I actually started attempting an HVAC repair. I fessed up that the air conditioning wasn’t working because I was trying to save money. She called the HVAC company and they came out and fixed the residential HVAC.