In past years I saved up my money all year long so I could take advantage of all the great Black Friday deals. Mostly clothing, but there was always something cool in there too.

But this year? I've got essential expenses that have to put ahead of clothes and cool stuff. I have plenty of clothes and cool stuff. What I need is a new water shut-off valve! And because my home was designed by a sadist, it's not going to be cheap. It looks like they installed the plumbing for that, then built the wall around it! And they used the absolute worst option... a gate valve. Should have been a ball valve. The plumber is going to have to rip open the wall, desolder the joints, then rebuild the plumbing outside of the wall so they can get it to work properly. And I'm spending a couple hundred extra to get a "smart ball valve" that can automatically turn the water off if there's a burst pipe or a leak. Money well-spent considering I've already had to deal with a leak once.

Alas, all that's something that doesn't get put on sale for Black Friday.