My mother didn't do much to maintain the house while she was alive, and when she passed away I got a fixer-upper, but I didn't know how bad it would be, or how expensive. The latest discovered repair costs $1,500! Help, I'm being leeched! I feel like a house jinx!   

The latest expensive repair was a rotted freaking hole in the wall! AAAAAGGGGGGGG!!!!!

I'm doing what I can myself. There's painting, landscaping, filling holes in drywall, taking down a rotted wood fence. I'm doing these, and got a nice break when I had a tree taken down ($800): I got freecycle people to haul away the wood for firewood, so it cost me nothing for the carting. Whatever I can do here and there to chisel away at the cost.

I'm doing enhancements as well as repairs, as a new natural gas home heating system was put in recently. The old oil burner was replaced. The new one will be better for the environment and more efficient. No foreign petrol products being used.

Edited to add: If I had serious bucks I'd put solar panels on the roof.