How to spend $150 accidentally…

In our continuing effort to save water and money, we installed a drip system in our garden. We are able to water our plants far less often than in the past.

My husband loves this system. He turns on the hose for a few minutes while he eats breakfast and turns it off before he leaves for work.

Or should I say… he lovED this system.

I came home from work on Thursday and heard water running. Confused, I headed to the backyard and was greeted with a mass of water and a geyser like spray erupting from our hose bibb.

Turns out, hubby darling forgot to turn the system off and the pressure built until the backflow device exploded. This water mistake will likely add $150 to our water bill.

To make matters worse, my ever so annoying dogs like to kill every living thing in their territory. The new lake in my backyard caused dead, tailless, lizard and mice carcasses to float to the surface. I guess I can be grateful my dogs aren’t bigger. I don’t think I could have held my gag reflex quite so well at the sight of bucktoothed bloated squirrels.

To the state of California – I am sorry for wasting our precious resource. I have decided to make amends and cut my already short 5 minute showers to 3 minutes. So, when you see me… and I stink… remember, I had a choice to assault your nose or assault my wallet. In these desperate economic times, I chose your nose. Please forgive me.

And yes, we learned from this. Thanks to a $30 timer, this won’t happen again.

What was your biggest home accident?

Posted by Beks on May 19, 2009 at 5:00 AM in Confessions, Home Ownership, Life Experiences, Saving Money | 7 Comments »
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  1. Abigail responded:
    Posted: May 20th, 2009 at 1:23 am

    Well, I haven’t had a home accident that I can remember. When I was a home owner/landlord, three separate (large) appliances died in a three-month period. Oh, and I was earning a whopping $1200 per month. I finally got the dryer, range and a second range (there was a mother-in-law apartment) replaced. Then there was a fire that evacuated the house for a month. I just shrugged and said, “Well, sure… We were running out of appliances to break.”

    PS. When I need to keep an eye on my shower time, I like to play music. That way I know that, after one song, I’ve been in there at least three minutes. It’s a pleasant way to time yourself, I find.

  2. Nicole responded:
    Posted: May 20th, 2009 at 11:20 am

    Oh no! Maybe the bill won’t be THAT bad. Okay, my biggest home accident was when I drove into our septic tank. Yes, INTO our septic tank. Turns out concrete isn’t so strong after 40 years or so. Thankfully my kids and I were able to get out of the car because the bumper kept the whole thing from going in. Beat that!

  3. Chris @ BuildMyBudget responded:
    Posted: May 20th, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    Wow, that is quite the disaster! I can’t remember a big disaster but recently I came very close. I walked into my apartment and a maintenance man had been working on the stove and had left the gas on. He was downstairs having lunch while my apartment filled with gas. I walked in and almost lit a candle before realizing the situation. It could have been BAD!

  4. mom responded:
    Posted: May 21st, 2009 at 10:15 am

    Well dear, now that you brought it up… remember when you came over last weekend and all of us were wearing those masks….. I know that we told you that it was due to the Swine flu outbreak……. but in actuality there was this smell that none of us could figure it out. Thanks for the heads up. Or should I say nose up? Love you sweetheart.

  5. mikey responded:
    Posted: May 24th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    he comes by it honestly…besides leaving the water on the avocado all night many times, once i left the water on filling the pool all night. our street resembled the colorado river through the grand canyon…

  6. Ryan responded:
    Posted: May 26th, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    While working in my attic I accidentally stepped through the ceiling into our sons nursery. Not too expensive to fix, but it was a complete bonehead moment.

  7. James responded:
    Posted: May 27th, 2009 at 1:12 pm

    I heard a story on NPR this week about some cities in CA not having water meters at all (Sacramento included). It’s a big political issue. Not to worry though – Sacramento is scheduled to have them by 2025! (Seriously).

    NPR story: http://bit.ly/rfMa4

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