Long term budgeting - when do things need replaced

[Ideasplease322]

Sorry if This is the wrong place. Doing out a long term budget and thinking about how regularly big ticket items need replaced.

I know some of this is subjective. My carpets are 15 years old for example and well overdue, but if finances were stretched they would be fine.

Does this seem reasonable? Or am I way off!!

Bedroom furniture - last forever
Kitchen - twenty years
Sofa - ten years
Carpets - ten years
Mattresses - ten years
Garden furniture - ten years
Coffee tables, side tables etc - ten years Style rather than function)
Lamps - ten years (Style rather than function)
Tumble dryer - ten years
Microwave - ten years
Washing machine - seven years
Tvs - seven years (technology)
Dishwasher - five years
Rugs - five years

We've lived in our house for nearly 20 years and never replaced a lot of the things on your list (tables, carpets, rugs, garden furniture). So i(as you've said) it depends whether you are replacing from a "totally worn out" or "just needs refreshing" point of view. I'd agree with your estimates for white goods and you've missed out fridge/freezer (approx 10 years?).

Do you have children? We decorated/furnished their rooms when ours were about 3/4 and found we really needed to almost entirely redo them 10 years later (outgrown cabin beds, desk more of a priority).

We’ve probably changed bedroom furniture more often than any other furniture. Kids moving from room to room and needing/wanting baskets, cots, bed, double beds, mid sleepers, all being outgrown or no longer relevant/fitting in the spaces. Desks and sofa beds. Children’s mattresses do not last as long. Neither did ours when we had babies in bed with us.

You have kitchen on your ‘needs replacing’ list and you I would think you’d also need to add your bathrooms and toilets. Your boiler and pipe work. Your wiring. Doors and windows. The roof. Any outdoor fencing or outbuilding would certainly need maintenance factoring in even if not complete replacement. Outdoor surfaces - driveways, patios, decking, render, also have a shelf life.

You haven’t added tv, oven, hob, fridge or freezer. Nor any computers or laptops. Or cars.

Fridge - thank you!! How did I forget☺️

No children

My bedroom furniture was my grandmothers - I absolutely love it. Hopefully will last forever.

Have some cheaper stuff in the guest bedroom - ikea - already starting to date and wear.

Planning a big house move, and won’t be buying anything ‘on trend’ so hopefully things will last longer.

Thank you Lou. More to add to the spreadsheet🙂

How did I miss oven! Ten years? Longer?

I think Tech needs replacing more often like laptops. Boilers going are expensive, and plumbing costs for heating issues, things breaking and needing replacing like things unexpectedly garage door. You need to have a fund for these. Hoover? Washing machines and dish washers don't seem to last beyond 7 years. With us it's plumbing costs, and the above.

I think you're being optimistic with 10 years for a tumble dryer personally. Also a lot of this is about quality. A decent quality kitchen I'd expect 25 years not 20. We have decent quality stone garden furniture which should last 50 years for example. Not convinced my mattress will do 10 years though. For laptops I find 5 years max for windows, 8ish for Macs. Adult bedroom furniture should last decades.

Bedroom furniture - last forever
Kitchen - twenty years
Sofa - 15/20 years
Carpets - 15 years plus
Mattresses - ten years
Garden furniture - ten years plus
Coffee tables last forever
Lamps - last forever
Tumble dryer - when it can’t be repaired
Microwave - when it can’t be repaired
Washing machine - when it can’t be repaired
Tvs - fifteen years ( buy a fire stick or similar when necessary.
Dishwasher - when it breaks Which would not be in five years!
Rugs - ten plus years

Bedroom furniture - last forever
Kitchen - twenty years
Sofa - ten years
Carpets - ten years
Mattresses - ten years
Garden furniture - ten years
Coffee tables, side tables etc - ten years Style rather than function)
Lamps - ten years (Style rather than function)
Tumble dryer - ten years
Microwave - ten years
Washing machine - seven years
Tvs - seven years (technology)
Dishwasher - five years
Rugs - five years

I'd give sofas and carpets and tv more than 10 years and tumble dryer and microwave less than 10 years

I ve had really bad luck with dishwashers - I am on my fourth in fifteen years. Don’t buy the cheapest - usually mid range.

@Ideasplease322 try John Lewis own brand ours has lasted years.

Brilliant thank you. I didn’t even know John Lewis had an own brand.

I have spent a fortune replacing dishwashers over the years!

Been in current house 15 yrs. Have replaced: washing machine, tv, laptop, electric shower, boiler, vacuum cleaner out of necessity.

Fridge and freezer are not the best, and neither is the cooker, but they'll do. TV isn't smart or anything.

Currently, upstairs carpets are being replaced.

I have replaced rugs, but they are washable ones.

Mattress was replaced after about 8 yrs.

It depends on so many things though, particularly how much use things get. Our dishwasher is about 18 months old and already starting to go wrong (thanks Which Best Buy ) but as I only use the tumble dryer once a week at most I'd expect it to last pretty much forever. Similarly we had my great aunt's microwave for about 8 years and she must have had it 20 years before that - I assume it didn't get the level of use in her house that it did here!

If you're not getting 'trendy' things why would you need to replace things like side tables? I have no intention of replacing ours ever, far more exciting things to spend money on

I suppose in side tables etc I get bored, ten years is a long time - it was just an estimate though, so depending on my mood I might longer.

I would t go changing main items such as a dishwasher or a TV for the sake of it.

Isn't it strange what different people need replacing. We've been through 2 fridges and a freezer (in the back garden shed).

Our washing machine has lasted 20 years. And our dishwasher 5.

Oh no, sorry if I wasn’t clear. I wasn’t changing the dishwasher On a whim. I change when it breaks🤣. I’m not a lunatic.

I have changes TVs to update for new technologies. The old tv will be retired to another room or given away. Seven to ten years maybe for tv.

My last one was about ten years Old - technology had changed quite a bit.

Washing machine is also only replaced when it breaks. I am on my third in 17 years.

What am I doing to these things😂

Kid mattresses wear out faster, get grotty, sooner than 10 yrs.

We use our microwave heavily & probably have to replace it every 6 yrs or so.

Our little cheap bedside lamps probably last about 7 yrs on avg.

Last washing machine lasted... 13 yrs? One load a day roughly.
In contrast, our dishwasher is 12.5 years old & going strong.

WE have a feline carpet-destroyer so the carpet has been badly abused. We spent a fortune (£3k?) & I imagine it will look totally trashed after about 7 yrs.

Thing is, tvs can last longer, but people usually want new features in newer products -- it's tech not furniture. We just got a new much larger tv and it's amazeballs to have things like NetFlix just built in and to see the colours so vividly. Think we're tv-replacing about every 7 yrs.

Your estimates seem reasonable and hopefully once you build up some savings, you can just replace as you see the need - if you run cars, the cost of this is likely to be significant, so make sure you're accounting for that somewhere.

Not sure what you're doing with your Ikea furniture though. Everything we have is Ikea and it seems to be indestructable. We have things that are 20 years old and no signs of wear. In a way, I wish some of it would fall apart, so I could justify replacing it.

We seem quite lucky with appliances. Lifespan of washing machines seems to be about 13 years, same for dishwashers. Current fridge freezer is around 22 years old, I'd expect similar for ovens.

Our TV is a basic smart TV and is probably about 5 years old, but we've just got a Now TV stick, which means we have Netflix etc built in.

I think most electric household appliances 10 years is a good estimate, but many will last way longer.

We moved into a old house, gradually renovating. But the kitchen oven (Siemens) is still great and from 1996! Dishwasher, fridge and washing machine all 15-20 years old still as well

The sofa is also ancient 1970s, and we just hired an upholstery cleaner and washed it and it’s like new.

I think a lot of things now are made ‘cheap’ so many don’t last as long.

Tech does change, but I wouldn’t change most things unless really needed. Dh works designing software for example, has a lot of tech, but his MacBook is 6 years old and he just got the battery changed last year. It works fine. He will prob change it soon for newer spec due to his work, but the current one will be probably given to his father as it has plenty of use left in it for someone using general use.

Our tv is 10 years old, one of the first ‘smart’ TVs. We just added an Apple TV to it.

I wouldn’t change furniture really unless it’s not fit for purpose any more. Broken, children outgrow, more storage needed etc

I have two savings accounts for this - mid-term/mid-cost, and the longer term ones. I don't have debit cards for these so I have to log on to access/move the money so that I'm not tempted to dip into them:

Mid-term - family presents, fence paint, plants, essential clothes, carpet cleaning, boiler repairs, dentist bills, car service, new specs, new towels and bed linen etc
Long-term emergency fund - for redundancy, new boiler, new appliances or carpets, big roof repairs, replacement car deposit etc.

My council tax is £187 a month so for the two months that I don't pay, =£374, £200 goes into the "mid-term" account, to help top it up, and £174 goes to pay for a year's worth of stuff that doesn't go off - washing liquid and fabric conditioner, window cleaner, bleach, toothpaste, shower gel, shampoo, kitchen roll, and a year's worth of who gives a crap loo roll - all goes in to the (thankfully) fairly accessible loft, and it keeps my monthly supermarket bills down.