When my husband lost his job, I was working two jobs.
One was at the local school, and the other created online content.
They made us enough to pay the basic bills and foot food-related expenses. When our cooling equipment gave in, we couldn’t afford to replace it. It was old and broken beyond repair. We had hired a cooling technician almost every month; it no longer made sense to try and revive it with yet another HVAC installation repair. That marked the start of our journey without cooling or heating. My husband got a temporary job meant to run for at least six months, and we made a savings target that would allow us to replace the climate control equipment with a new unit. Our goal was to have a new cooling technology to help with indoor comfort by the end of the year, but finances were very tight for both of us. I told the cooling specialist we wanted to buy a more reliable system but not as expensive as an electric heat pump because that was way beyond our saving capacity. The cooling corporation had so many options for us to pick from, so we didn’t struggle to pick an option to save for. The local service provider, who had offered quality AC service for years, recommended ensuring our home is well insulated as the cooler weather sets in to help us keep warm. It was drawing closer to winter, and we had not yet reached our target, so the HVAC business offered to sell the equipment to us, finish paying the last installment amount, and pay the HVAC contractor immediately, which was affordable.