by Beks
My husband was helping my mom move some large furniture and accidentally jackknifed the trailer while pulling it up over some uneven ground. Fortunately the trailer didn’t do any damage to the truck body…unfortunately, it shattered the back taillight.
He went to the discount auto parts store down the street to buy a replacement but came home empty handed.
‘Didn’t they have it in stock?’ I asked.
‘Yeah. But I’m not paying $125 for a piece of plastic and a couple screws. I’m going to shop around and see if I can get a better deal’ he said.
I blinked… then stared.
My husband is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He walks into a store, finds what he wants, and buys it. From grills to socks, the man doesn’t waste time with comparisons – which may explain how I was lucky enough to marry the guy.
So I don’t know who that man was in my kitchen – but he certainly wasn’t my husband.
He spent the next hour researching different suppliers until finally settling on a company who was willing to provide the part for a little less than $60 with free shipping.
Meanwhile, I was still standing in the kitchen, staring off into nowhere, completely confused.
This morning, as my husband was driving to work at 3:30am, he was pulled over by a police officer. My husband explained what happened and then shared his experience with the ‘rip off auto parts store’ and his attempt to save money by ordering the part online. The cop laughed, agreed with him about the ‘rip off auto parts store’, told him to have a nice day, and let him go.
He now brags to everyone that he saved 50% by shopping around and bonded with a cop over the experience.
I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know when it happened. But somehow, somewhere, my husband embraced frugality.
We’re getting there.
Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.
It is so awesome when the “light” finally comes on for them!
LOL…what a great story. I remember years ago when we were first married and needed a part for the car, my husband would go to the junkyard and pay a few dollars for whatever was needed instead of paying full price.
Back when we used credit cards, my husband and I both used to be quick to “just buy something” when we “needed” it, without shopping around. Now that we’ve sworn off credit we’re both more aware of how much things actually COST! I wish we could do it all over again—-we wouldn’t be in this debt mess, that’s for sure!
That’s great. When my wife and I first got married, she hated how I insisted that we use coupons. I cut them out during the beginning months. Eventually she took them over, and now she’s gotten so good at it that we save 20-30% or more on our weekly bill. Change can happen!
For a part like that, my favorite place would be a junk yard. There’s bound to be a similar truck that was scrapped by an insurance company but still has a taillight intact. I imagine you could walk out of the “u-pull-it” lot for less than $15 if you’re willing to take the time and do the work.
Darn it! I wish we would have thought about the junkyard idea!! Oh well, next time we break something, we’ll know!
Ha ha Money Beagle – your wife sounds like my husband. He would get so embarassed when we would be at the checkout counter and I would hand over a stack of coupons and a stack of other stores’ flyers for price matching. For me, I never knew most people DIDN’T shop that way – my mom can make a nickel scream:)
That was of course until he started checking the “How much you saved” section of the stores receipt and saw that I was regularly getting $100 worth of groceries for around $35. I used to put the $ saved into a general savings account, but we now put it in our “boat fund” savings account. (We live on the water and have a dock, just no boat yet, until we can pay cash of course 🙂
We now spend every Saturday morning clipping coupons over coffee (a store down the street saves the Sunday flyers from the papers they don’t sell). Silly I know, but does it really matter how you spend quality time? Maybe when we finally have enough cash for the boat we can spend mornings clipping there – Gotta have goals, right!?!?
Isn’t it nice when your spouse embraces a new way of thinking about money?
It happened in our house this week when hubby decided he would like for us to go on a ‘grown-up’ only vacation, and immediately started looking for the cheapest price. Then he flabbergasted me by saying that we could go in a years time, and all we had to do was save about $25 per week!
And to think, I never thought he was listening when I talked about saving up first for things we want.
Thank you for your continued inspiration towards the goal of lessening debt and living frugally. My husband has embraced our goals of being debt free in 5 years and it has bonded us in a way I wouldn’t have ever imagined.
… I’m on my way to get the hammer and take care of my husband’s tail-light. If it works for Beks’ husband maybe it will work for mine!!
That apple fell far from the tree.
Too funny.
When we need a clothing item we go in the following order: free (swap/handmedown), thrift, consignment, new but on sale, new not on sale. I include that last one as a desperation option, but I cannot imagine ever resorting to that.
Same logic applies to car repairs. Since we only purchase used vehicles and drive them until they go to the dump, parts are occasionally difficult to find for older vehicles. New parts for older vehicles are never on sale so that’s always a last resort. As a result we go in a similar sequence as above: online free/used sites, wrecking yard, used autoparts store, online new parts suppliers, new autoparts store, and finally dealership.
We bought a “new” 2004 SUV last May and it came with summer tires on it. We wanted to get a second set of rims for the snow tires so we can easily swap between the two sets each spring and fall without a trip to the tire shop. The new rims would have been over $1000. We picked up a used set in perfect condition for $200 on a local used item website. We got a great deal and the fellow who sold them unloaded something he couldn’t use with his current vehicle. A win-win situation for everyone.
Full price retail shopping is always a last resort for us.
which may explain how I was lucky enough to marry the guy.
You make me laugh.
Everyone has a breaking point. It probably helped that your hubby thought it was his fault the light was even needed.
JMK, near perfect truck rims for $200? It wasn’t a win-win for the person who had theirs jacked…
Niiiiice! Now, he needs to rub off on my hubby :-).
I’m posting this at my weekly roundup on Saturday. Thanks for a fun read!
I loved this! We’re visiting an area we used to live and my husband pointed out the (now closed) store where he used to buy me flowers. He turned to me and said, “I don’t want you to think I don’t love or appreciate you because I don’t buy you flowers anymore; I do.” And I said, “No, I know I broke you and you hate spending money now. And I’m glad you still love me anyway.” 🙂
Well Beks, mine caught me off guard last night we were at the FPU preview at a local church and he looked at me and I quote “Are we signed up or do we do it tonight??” I told him I really wanted us to actually take the classes together, and really didn’t think he had thought about it. I guess he was. They never cease to amaze us! So we are FPU students as of the 17th of October, and I can’t wait