Recently I have been posting about all the good steps that have been taken to secure our financial future. However, there have also been some bad steps taken in the past which are affecting our currently financial situation, which I'd like to record as a reminder and warning.

I will divide this topic into 2 parts. The first covering the decisions made by me and my BH with direct affects our financial situation and the second part will cover choices made by our parents which are directly affecting our current financial situation. I have decided on this split as I feel the first part is much more straight forward to explain while the second conjures up powerful emotions.

When BH and I first moved in together we both were very naive when it came to anything to do with money. We started off with about 3000 EUR. 1100 EUR went to pay the deposit and first's month's rent on our apartment. So we had very little left over and every penny was important. We were lucky that the apartment came with a washing machine and tumble dryer, fridge, stove and curtains. However, we still needed to buy a few household items like a mattress (we did not have a bed, we just slept on a mattress on the floor for about 3 years) and a microwave combi oven. In our very unrealistic view of the situation, I thought we'd only live in the apartment 6 months because by the time we'd have enough money to put down a deposit and buy a house. Little did I know it would take us 2 and half years just to have enough money together to place a deposit down on a bigger apartment and still just be sleeping on a mattress on the floor. So when we purchased the first few household items, we decided we needed to have the same sort of things we'd been accustomed to while living with our parents. This meant instead of buying a microwave for 150EUR, we brought the most expensive microwave in the store for 499 EUR.

We were so proud ourselves when we got that microwave oven home to our hole in the wall apartment. We made a fuss about setting it up in our tiny little kitchen ( it took up half the counter space available in the kitchen). It was so wonderful because we had brought our first grown up household appliance, one of many fancy ones to come. The first few weeks we kept admiring our new purchase and congratulating each other on what great taste we both had. We were like a right bunch of peacocks, pruning our feathers in front of each other!

Fast forward to last week, 4 years and a few months after our initial purchase and I am using the microwave to heat up milk, when it finishes it beeps, I take out my milk and close the door. As I'm preparing my milk I hear the microwave beep again. I've never heard it beep like that before, so I check this screen and see the screen has gone blank. So I check to see if I can change it back to normal. It does not work. So I try to reset it. No, that doesn't work. Eventually I unplug it then plug in the power cable again and no it still does not work! I checked the user manual but still it does not work!

So here we are, with no warranty and the decision to pay to have this expensive microwave fixed or to buy another one that is cheaper and more reliable. At this stage we are kicking ourselves; normally we would expect a cheap microwave to lat at least 5 to 6 years, at the very least! So an expensive should last longer, or at least you would hope. In the end we decided to buy another one, cheaper and more practical with a 5 year warranty. One very expensive lesson learnt by me and my BH.

Buy according to your budget. So all purchases we make now are carefully considered with a cost versus benefits calculation built in.