by Hope
Better late than never!
I was so proud of getting my budget together for our Glamping Adventure that begins next month. But I forgot a category and in our preparation I’ve had a rude awakening…laundromat! I had this great plan that while the kids were at swim team every morning, I would be able to run across the street, do some laundry and it would be done by the time we leave the pool. $10-15 dollars a week.
Um, no. We decided to try it this week. So on the way with granted a couple of weeks of laundry plus dog bedding, I run by the bank to grab a few rolls of quarters. Did you know laundromats no longer take quarters? I had to use my bank card to by a laundry card…and $60 later, we had our laundry done. $60!!! It was $5 per wash load, and $0.39 per 7 minutes in a dryer. Yikes!!!!
So definitely going to have to re-think this plan and add some to the budget!
On the other side, we have re-homed our final dog as of today and have two home possibilities for the cat next week. By the end of the month, one month before we have to move we have found great homes for all our beloved pets.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
One of the laundromats in our city has a “laundry love” event – free laundry- once a month, sponsored by a local church. It’s a national organization and if you go to the website (laundrylove.org) you can see if there might be one near you.
Very cool service! Doesn’t look like there is one here though. Definitely something to think about getting going though!
Hi Hope,
where are the RVs located? Is it a place where other RVs are located as well? How do other people handle their laundry? Is there maybe a communal place to do laundry (like e.g. in a student dorm?)
Best of luck for finding a budget-friendly solution.
Hi Kili,
We are actually not in an RV park, we will be on a family’s private land so there are no facilities that you would find in a typical RV park.
We are currently traveling in our RV. We purchased a panda washer with spin dryer from amazon and we hang clothes to finish drying. I think it was a little less than 200 but has saved our family of 7 a lot of money. You can’t do huge loads in it but the money savings makes it worth it to us. Just a suggestion :). Good luck.
I will have to check it out! Thanks for sharing. Are you blogging somewhere about your adventures? I would love to follow you.
Rehoming your pets is such an amazing sacrifice toward the commitment you have shown to getting your financial life together. Doubters on the internet have nothing on you and your family. Saying goodbye to one pet is hard enough, but all of them is unbelievably strong.
Thank you, AT. We miss them so much especially when we get to the end of a loaf of bread when we would normally make them peanut butter sandwiches with the ends, or when we drop something on the floor and get them to pick it up, or when we come in the door and expect to be greeted with a bombardment of noise and affection. But I know it was the right decision.
I appreciate your understanding!
So, what are you going to do with all of those quarters? 😉
Also, would you be able to hang dry your laundry during the warm weather months? That would help save money AND you get the wonderful fresh air smell in your sheets 🙂
We are definitely going to be able to hang dry. The only issue is driving into town to laundry and then back out to hang things…hadn’t planned on quite so much back and forth, but we will work it out.
Does the laundromat have a discount day? The one I previously went to had a day where the “big” washers were discounted, which was the day I always chose to go!
I will definitely have to ask this question. I guess I was just in such shock since it’s been almost 10 years since I used one. Thanks for the suggestion.
What a blessing to find good homes for the pets! The laundry amount sounds crazy! I know you live in an expensive part of the country so maybe that’s the norm, but it might be worth looking into whether there are cheaper places in the nearby vicinity. We didn’t have washer/dryer for several years when we first moved to Tucson and it only cost $2/wash (or $3.50/wash for the double-sized washers) and 25 cents per 7 minutes to dry. Tucson is a cheap area to live so it might just be attributable to that, but it’d be worth looking to see what the rates are somewhere else.
Yikes! Your laundromat is really expensive. Mine is $2.50 a wash and $0.25/minute to dry. It also must be quite behind the times, because it still takes quarters. Maybe with some nice weather this summer you can line dry most things to save money.
What about something like this for washing and then you hang dry to save $$? This is tough with the laundry!
http://inhabitat.com/this-129-foot-powered-clothes-washer-is-now-available-for-pre-order-in-the-u-s/