<prompt> Human: Hi rpersonalfinance--I really love the discussions I see on here and now Im hoping to get a little advice. My husband and I just bought an older, well kept, modest home--but its desperately bland looking. Anyhow, when we decided to buy this house we did so because we knew we could make it look nice with a couple grand investment. So now that our accounts are kind of sad looking having withdrawn the 20 down payment, were wondering how best to fund these aesthetic updates. A couple stats:Monthly flexible income after retirement and all bills: 3000Total emergency funds checking, savings, Roth: 20KWed really love to do these updates before moving in, but were talking about 6K for the very basic stuff we wanted done flooring, paint, some electrical updates. Weve never carried a balance on any credit card and Im wondering what you guys think about our options. Dwindle emergency funds for the next couple months? Carry a credit card balance? Or just suck it up and do the updates we can one at a time? The only problem with this last one is that some updates are best done alongside others...Thanks so much for your thoughts!  <response>: Im commenting from a unique perspective: Im self employed, working from home, and 20 feet away from me there is a general contractor using saws, nail guns, and generally making a ton of noise. 5 days a week, 9am to 5pm...for three weeks. This is the second house Ive owned and also the second kitchen renno. I do not carry balances on my card and I dont take loans out for house work. The work were having done now weve been saving 5 years for and refused to do until we had six months income, liquid, fully funded our retirement, and could pay cash for the work.Do not use your emergency money. Do not use your savings. Youre saddled with a mortgage, live throws unknown variables at you and youll feel like crap if youre strapped for money due to unforeseen circumstances and youre surrounded by your new Brazilian hardwood flooring, cherry kitchen cabinets and Tiffany Blue walls which make you feel like youre drowning in a swimming pool instead of floating in the sky like you imagined. Prioritize your list of wants into Needs and Wants. For example, unless theres some safety issue, rust issue or other needless wear and tear, you do not need to paint before you move in. Besides, until youve spent some time in the house at all hours of the day, you wont have a feeling of how natural light works in the room which can greatly affect your paint colors. I tried to use the yellow for the paint in our last house kitchen in a guest bathroom in this house. What was a lovely creamy yellow in the old house made you feel like you were stuck in a giant stick of margarine I the new house.Needs come first. Wants, second. If electrical work is needed for safety reasons and to bring the house to code, thats a definite need. If you just want to double the amount of outlets to make Christmas lights easier to have, thats a want. If you dont like the dingy carpet, clean it and figure out what you want to do with it. If your kitchen floor is rotting through and termites are an issue, thats a need. In the list of wants, prioritize for quality of life. Im pretty sure Dante wrote about an entire circle of Hell thats nothing but living in a house while construction is happening but his publisher pulled it at the last minute. Still, if wed done the kitchen floor before we moved in, we wouldnt have realized the kitchen layout didnt really work for us. What could have been a fairly simple, week long, 5k job ended up being 3x the cost, 3x the time and included relocating several appliances and rehanging cabinets. If wed done the floor first, wed still have a dysfunctional kitchen but the floor would have been nicer. Tldr: emergency money is for emergencies. New homes have unforeseen needs and expenses, dont use your emergency for vanity issues. Use your monthly money to address known issues which require immediate attention. 