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Mar 29, 2017    |       8 comments

JINX

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Are you superstitious? I’m typically not.

But yesterday as I was typing up a post about mending holes in pants and being mid-way through a No-Spend week, I swear I felt a little bit like I was jinxing myself. I ended the post with this one sentence:

Fingers crossed there are no disasters and nothing crazy comes up! (knock on wood)

I swear I felt a little tingle in my tummy, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was like when someone is behind you and you can *feel* them without actually seeing them. I brushed it off at the time. But I sure did remember the feeling at 6:00pm that evening as I was driving home from work, when my car started dinging a million warnings and the power steering went completely out on me.

Luckily, I was able to safely navigate into a parking lot on the side of the road. I was able to call hubs to come get me, and everything was fine (no one got hurt, no accidents, etc.)

BUT. So much for that “no spend” week.

The silver lining of the story is that I still have an extended warranty on my car! Remember when I just had to use it for the first time this past summer? At the time I said I should probably cancel the warranty afterward because, honestly, who ends up using it more than once? Statistically speaking, I thought we were in the clear. We should cancel the warranty after the service and take whatever refund we were owed (since we had bundled the warranty with the car loan, it has already been paid in full).

I am now SO GLAD we didn’t! I was able to use our Roadside Assistance through our car insurance (we use and love Progressive!) to have the car towed to the dealership for the warranty repair work. I’ll also be able to use a loaner car, also covered by the warranty company, for up to 7 days. There’s a deductible that applies (it’s either $200 or $250, can’t remember at this point), but I’m sure that’s MUCH better than what I might end up paying otherwise (there’s some issue with the power steering, advanced trac, and also some warranty backup camera issues that were unrelated but will get repaired at the same time).

It’s still a huge inconvenience. Last night was a mess – super late dinner for the kids, no baths, late to bed. And this morning was tough too – with only one car we had to take the girls in early so hubs could get to his own school classes. I’m at home waiting for the tow truck (which is currently running late) and then I’ll be getting picked up by the rental car company so I can go get a rental for the week. Obviously totally interfering with my work day and I’ve had to cancel some meetings and move other things around. I’m frustrated we aren’t going to be able to have a no-spend week after all and I’m still stressed about spending extra money given our tax situation (in fact, one of the meetings I had to move from this morning was supposed to be a meeting with our CPA).

But even with the annoyances and inconveniences, I’m BEYOND GRATEFUL I still have this extended warranty and that it’s still in effect. Guys – it expires at 125,000 miles and I’m at 120,000 miles right now. This is HUGE!!! I don’t know what the total vehicle costs will end up being, but I’m thankful that my personal liability is limited to just the deductible.

Now…is it the weekend yet??? Ooof!!

Mar 28, 2017    |       2 comments

Mended Knees: A Lesson from the Kiddos

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Yesterday as our kids were getting dressed for preschool, one of my daughters picked out a pair of pants to put on that had a big hole in the knee.

My initial thought to myself was, “well, those pants now belong in the trash.”

I told my daughter the pants-with-the-hole weren’t going to work and that she needed to pick out different pants.

Her initial reaction (in stark contrast to mine) was to say, “That’s okay! Grandma knows how to sew and she can fix it!”

I was initially a little surprised – Grandma sews? How do you know?

And then my surprise turned to embarrassment. My own daughter doesn’t even know that I know how to sew, too. Here I am, trying to teach these life-lessons over water bottles and I’m just going to throw away a pair of pants that still fit just fine when I could easily mend the knee with a couple quick stitches. I don’t own a sewing machine or anything fancy, but we sure do have some little sewing kits and mending a knee by hand is no-big-deal.

I sent my kid off to school with different pants, but that same evening I busted out the old needle-and-thread. It took all of 5 minutes to mend the knee until the hole was no-more.

How easy it is to forget and slip back into old habits. I was thankful for the gentle reminder from my 4-year-old to live frugally, try not to waste, and to take care of our things rather than simply discarding them.

In other news, we sure did run out of money before the month was over this month. Don’t you hate it when you end up with more month than money? lol ; )  We’re doing a no-spend week all week. I did semi-cheat a little because I had a Fry’s gift card (which is a local grocery store). I had to use it to get some gas (they have their own gas pumps) and some very basic necessities (lunch meat, bread, milk). But no money is coming out of our account for anything for the rest of the month. I know there are only 4 more days at this point, but we started 3 days ago so it will be a solid week in total. Fingers crossed there are no disasters and nothing crazy comes up! (knock on wood)

What are simple ways that you try to reduce waste at your house?

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