Lesson 1: When Not to DIY

In the past year, we only went out an average of 1-2 times per month to run errands and our garage door therefore got very little exercise. One day last month, when I was leaving for my monthly grocery shopping trip, the door wouldn’t close. I left it to Madoline to figure out, and when I got home I found the door stuck halfway down and slightly slanted, having come un-aligned and with 2 of the upper wheels fallen out of the track on one side. Being confirmed DIY-ers, we tried to see if we could fix it ourselves, which involved me standing on the back of a sofa we had purchased at Goodwill (with the plan of re-upholstering it) and wrestling with the door, but soon decided it was best left to a professional and we made to by putting the wheels back in the tracks to keep the door from sagging and damaging the entire contraption.

Our biological father came to visit last week, and although I told him we needed to call a professional repairman, he thought he could fix it to save us some money. One and a half hours later, the door was more crooked, we had lost 3 more wheels, the tracks had been knocked out of place and the door was literally hanging. Furthermore, I found out after the fact that my father had severely endangered his own life, and even worse, MY LIFE, by unwinding the tension cable. And worst of all, he had damaged the door further so that what might have been some minor repairs became major repair, including replacement of the tension rod.

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Pictured here is a plaid suitcase made by covering a family size Bisquick carton, complete with Velcro closure and faux leather handle. This is another frugal but effective storage solution.

The directions for making this suitcase are thus:

1. Start with a cardboard food carton with one end shut and one end open.
2. Cut a piece of paper or fabric to the dimensions you would use to gift wrap this box.
3. Cover the box using either white glue, wallpaper paste, or decoupage medium. Cover each flap of the open end.
4. When glue is dried, use either Velcro, a button, string or ribbon to keep the open end closed.
5. Attach a handle of your choice with hot glue. Some possible handles are folded paper or fabric, pieces from old purses and backpacks, sections of dog collars and leashes, old jewelry.

My suitcase has bronze studs on the handle and a decorative luggage tag. It holds four pairs of shoes belonging to our two dogs.

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Just a reminder for our American readers that new and increased USPS (United States Postal Service) postage rates take effect this coming Monday May 12th, 2008. If you are planning to ship any packages via USPS, now is the time to do so - today Friday May 9th or tomorrow Saturday May 10th - especially if you will be shipping a lot of items.

Below is a quick overview and reference for the various shipping options taken from a prior article I wrote back in February, Save by Knowing Your Shipping & Mailing Options, but with added info and updated rates that will take effect May 12th. (If you are new to this blog, be sure to check out the above referenced post for tips on how to save on shipping and why you should be aware of your shipping options rather than relying solely on postal clerks to advise you.)

A few items of note: Read the rest of this entry »

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A few months ago, I received a letter from our ISP Charter Communications. The good news was that everyone in our area who subscribes to their High Speed Internet was getting upgraded to the 5 Meg service and we would be surfing [I forget how many] times faster than dial-up. The bad news was that this was going to cost us yet anther $10.00 per month - an astronomical $57.99 per month. But the letter indicated that we had no other options, and our area being quite remote - we can’t get Verizon DSL here - we had no choice but to take it or go with our local wireless service which is much slower, costs more, and comes with a $200 set-up fee. Since we rely on the internet for all of our business, dial-up is out of the question. So we bit the bullet and took it. And I cringed every time I paid our Charter bill these last few months.

But this morning, I went to the Charter site for an entirely different purpose: checking out the options on one of the most un-frugal things there are - cable TV. I know I shouldn’t be doing that because nobody really needs cable, but I recently got hooked on a few shows that I’ve discovered on Hulu (House M.D., The Office and Battlestar Galactica) and am itching to see the re-runs of all the past seasons I’ve missed. Of course, I was just looking, with no intention to buy because when it comes down to it, it really is a terrible waste of money. But anyways, when I clicked on Add/Upgrade Services, I saw that there were 3 High Speed Internet promotional plans available to my area - $19.99, $24.99, and $44.99 a month. I decided to get on customer service chat for some clarification on the plans available to my area, and 20 minutes later I had saved $180.

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Here are just a few great articles from the past month by my peers in the PF Bloggers Network.

Pet Love

First of all, I can’t pass up an opportunity to congratulate a couple of members on new additions to their households:

• Kevin at No Debt Plan introduces Maggie the [Incredibly Cute] Puppy and shares their reasons for getting her. Congrats to all of you!
• Ginger from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds takes in AJ the cat and doesn’t regret the $400 she spent on his vet care despite the tough weekend she had. Good for you Ginger (and hubby)!.

Frugality and Personal Finance

• I really enjoyed Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover by Kristy at Master Your Card. It addresses some very good points on making assumptions about people and their financial status based on outward appearances.
• With summer just around the corner, Melissa, also from Master Your Card, gives us some Frugal Family Vacation Tips.
• Mom at Wide Open Wallet shares a yummy recipe for Garlic Lime Chicken.
• Seb from Pinching Copper warns us about five items you don’t want to buy at the dollar store.
• Jonathan, again from Master Your Card, offers a few tips on protecting yourself from credit card fraud.
• And last but not least, Future Millionaire reminds us of the importance of taking the time to do things right the first time around in Quality and Personal Finance.

Blog Carnival

We are excited to announce that our Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gift Suggestions made Editor’s Choice at the 151st edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance Bloggers on Surviving the Squeeze hosted at Alpha Consumer by Kimberly Palmer, senior editor of U.S. News & World Report. Be sure to check out this carnival for more interesting personal finance and frugality related articles.

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The other day I posted a comment about how my sister and I share an AMEX Cash Back credit card on Kevin’s post $327 in AMEX Cash Back Thus Far at No Debt Plan and he emailed me to ask out of curiosity why I share an account with my sister because it sounds so risky. What if one of us decided to go on a shopping spree and screwed things up for the other person?

I emailed him back explaining our logic, and while it may be unconventional, for us it is a convention we have practiced with success for many years. Ever since our high school days when our parents would give each of us pocket money for lunch, the bus, pay phones, etc. we have always regarded our money as literally “our money.” When one of us didn’t have any cash and wanted to buy a drink or snack at school, we would just ask the other person for some. And to the shock of many of our friends, we would just give each other the money. We never had a distinction of “my money” and “your money”.

Perhaps this had to do with our always having been somewhat unconventional people, even as kids. While our friends went to the mall, movies or shopping, we preferred to go to the library, karate class, or stay at home and read or play with our pets (we had dogs, cats, 20-30 rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, fish, mice, etc.). So for us, money was never really a means for pleasure but living - taking the bus home from school, buying lunch or an occasional snack or buying pet supplies. Because we didn’t habitually spend money, our parents didn’t put us on allowances and would just give us money when we needed it. (This could explain why we still live on a No-Budget System.)

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