There Goes the Money!

Last week, I broke down and finally bought that handheld scanner.  Because of my Christmas gift card I only spent $43 "new" dollars on it.

Well that one purchase has opened the flood gates!

Hubs birthday was earlier this month.  After we went window shopping last week for a new gas grill to replace the little one we have beat the life out of and it can't be resuscitated to get through another year of grilling season, he decided to go back out on Saturday and actually buy a grill.
We're calling it his birthday present so I don't have a fit over spending the money.

Hubs did use 3 x $50 Home Improvement Store gift cards I had gotten at Rite-Aid last Fall, so he only spent a little less than $50 in "new" money.   I didn't get a discount on the gift cards but I did get free $10 in +Up Rewards for buying them.....so the gift card +Ups money was "new" money in a way.  Look at it this way--we bought a grill on sale for $170 and got $30 in +Up Rewards to get $30 in free stuff.
And we have a nice new slightly larger shiny grill to destroy.....

Then an appliance went on strike.  Well, really it stopped working a few weeks ago but after having to hand wash all those Easter dinner pots and dishes, Hubs has had enough and wants the dishwasher replaced.

But me, being the frugal and trying to be 'green' even though it's a dishwasher people....c'mon!lol.....I tried to figure out a repair.
Repair=greener.
Repair=cheaper than replacing.

I figured out the door latch/handle was broken.
I ordered a new replacement part.
It came on Saturday.

So on Sunday we commenced to replace the part.  We got all the way through removing the panels to expose the guts of the operation and went to unscrew the broken component.
And it needed a specialized screwdriver.
The size we didn't have.
Ack.
So we put everything back together so we could turn the electricity back on.
But we had to tape the door closed, but not latched since if we had latched the door, we don't get it unlatched without the broken part inside.

What an elegant looking sight!lol

So Hubs picked up the right sized screwdriver Monday evening and we removed the broken part and replaced with the new component.
And then the door closed...yay!
But the handle is not quite the right size.  They redesigned the part and it doesn't work in this model of dishwasher.
We don't know if the computer works too now.  We can turn the dishwasher on and the lights come on and all but nothing happens....meaning no water gushes forth and fills the thing and actually moves around and washes the dishes.
 There might be a reset or something you have to do with the computerize motherboard OR that might also need replacing.  The lights/cycles indicate and the timer counts down but no water, no action.

At any rate, if it needs anything else done it is beyond our skill level and a real repair person will have to be called in.
A repair person will cost $100 just to walk into my kitchen.
I am already out $70+ on the part, shipping and screwdriver.
If he replaces the handle component with another one, that's an hour of work and another part with mark up, so about $230 and Up total.  If it's the computer stuff it will cost much much more....more than a new "low end" dishwasher would cost.

Add in that the repair people aren't returning my calls so IF I can find one who will come, we'll be without a dishwasher for many days to come.
Which will make Hubs start cursing like he did when we tried to repair it ourselves.

Whoever said doing things together draws a married couple closer together is full of horseshit.  Repairing appliances does NOT qualify as a "something to do together" if one of you isn't handy in any way shape or form.....and that non-handy person is male. ;-)

I can go buy a brand new dishwasher for $250.  No cursing, no good money thrown after bad, no buying more tools that Hubs doesn't use and certainly doesn't keep tidy out in the garage.........and free delivery to boot!
Myself?  I can live without a dishwasher....especially if it's just 2 or 3 people eating here.  Once the kids are gone for good and it's just the 2 of us, I probably won't use the dishwasher except for holidays or when company is over.

But those days aren't quite here yet....especially once Daughter comes home for the foreseeable fortune.

We still need to finalize the 4 home improvement projects we had planned to do this year, but if the money keeps up like this, we might need to downsize the scope or turn 4 projects into 3.

Instead of the Year of Saving Money it's turning into the Year of Watching the Money Go Out with The Tide.

2012....you are getting on my bad side ya know!

Make me feel better and tell me about all your recent Unexpected "having to spend money" Life Events.

Sluggy

The Big Scan of 2012...Some Photos

They called the Boston subway the Big Dig, so I'm calling my scanning project the Big Scan.

I finally figured out how to empty my sd card so I am up to about 100 pictures digitized so far.

Here is Easter 1960 with my 2 brothers....

My mom was all about those holiday posed photos and new clothes.  I bet she sewed my dress in that photo.  It's yellow.  I have never looked good in that color.  I always look like I'm ready for a liver transplant when I have worn yellow.
We each got a big(well, by the standards of the time)basket with candy/chocolate and "the Easter Bunny" always wrapped it up in colorful cellophane(so we couldn't eat any of that junk until all the photos were taken, Church attended, dinner eaten and then the parents said we could).  Maybe that's why were weren't happy on Easter until late in the day, after our 2 pm dinner?lol
And there are about 6 different photos of us in this pose in the album.  I guess it took that many to get us all standing together and not kicking, jumping, waving arms or bending over being silly.  But they still couldn't get us to look in the same direction.  And this is with NO candy in our systems.....well, I bet my brothers figured out how to sneak a few pieces from behind the cellophane wall by untaping, sneaking bits outs and retaping it up.  They were 7 and 8 yrs. old afterall.....what do you expect?

Here's how I use to cool off on really hot days in the South, circa 1960.  I'm 1.5 yrs old and I think I am "reading" a book.  Dig the neat-o home furnishings, especially the lamp and the carpet.  And you can see in the right corner bottom that my father still had some hair then.lol

And here I am in a winter coat and bonnet at Thanksgiving that year, looking bewildered as I usually did when I was a kid.....

See my ginormous head?  It's a wonder my mother found a hat to fit me that matched that teeny tiny sized coat.lol  Maybe that's why I don't look particularly happy.....because the hat is too tight!  I'm probably thinking, "Take your damned picture woman so I can get this torture device off my head already!!".....or maybe it's, "You keep saying you love me but you continue to stuff me into clothes and hats that are too small and/or just plain uncomfortable.  Is this what love is suppose to be?"
Yes, I was a deep thinker even back then....

And here is my first posed Photo with Santa in 1960.  I am almost 2 years old.....

Still got that "where am I?...who am I?" expression, don't I?
At that age, I was probably too petrified of this big strange man to move!  Most of my kids went through that "being frightened of strangers" phase.
 I bet I peed myself around the time this photo was snapped.....then I started wailing for my mom.

And again with the big headwear on my ginormous head!  And let's make it white so it makes her head look even bigger!
Ugh.
Since I can remember I have HATED things on my head.  I think it's normal given my mother's mission to put hats on me when I was a wee one.

Ok....onward to scanning 1961 now.....

Sluggy

Car Dilemna......Help a Slug Out!

I've got a choice coming up soon involving cars--buying them and how many.  I'd appreciate any advise/help anyone wants to chirp in with.

We have 2 cars at present: Hubs commuter car for work and my minivan.  I don't work outside the home so my car is only used for errands and such and when we need a vehicle for carrying loads of stuff and/or loads of people.

We use to have a 3rd car.  It was an old Toyota that had belonged to my mother and then my oldest brother.  When he died, we bought it off of his estate for a really good price.  Since it still only had 65K miles on it even though it was about the same age as my oldest child, we had hoped that it would last through the last kid's teen driving years until he went off to college.
But the stupid 16 yr. old driver who hit Daughter and I last May changed all that.  The car was totaled and we got $2,400 from her insurance company which wasn't enough to replace the car....IF we could have found one that old, in that condition, with that few number of miles on it.
And with Daughter leaving for summer job and then college the next month, there was no point in replacing the car then.

Now that we are about to need the 3rd car again, since #2 Son gets his learner's permit later this week(crossing fingers he passes!lol), we have a complication.

Daughter has changed her career goals and what she needs to do to get there.  She has decided that she no longer wants to go to medical school, nor does she want to get a 4 year degree.  She is finishing this semester of college and transferring to the local community college for a 2 year training program and an Associate's degree in Applied Sciences in Nuclear Technology Engineering. 
Basically, my daughter wants to be Homer Simpson's boss.

This new track of her's will have her living at home again full time and commuting to school.  She will need a car to get to school plus she will eventually have a part time job and need a car for getting to work.

#2 Son will need a car for the part time job he hopes to look for as soon as he starts driving.  Plus he will also have music type rehearsals next year he can drive himself to, though he doesn't HAVE TO do this.  Two years out, his senior year, he MAY need the car to commute to a local college, if he does the Young Scholars Program(seniors take college courses for 1/2 a day in this program and they have to provide their own transportation).  At this point we aren't sure if he will qualify for the YSP or if he'll even want to do this(it's optional).  So though he wants a car that's for his use only when he gets his license, he doesn't need one.

So our question is this.....Do we buy 2 cars or 1?

Hubs thinks we should buy 2 junk cars.
He feels that since the older 2 kids had a junk car available for their use in high school, that we should provide a junk car for #2 Son as well.  That the Daughter will need a car in the Fall is definite but he also thinks buying 2 cars(and paying insurance/maintenance/repairs/registrations)is the way to go, in case they both need a car at the same time.

My feeling is just buy 1 car.
If we have the same amount to spend whether we buy 1 or 2, by buying only 1 we can get a better car.
And a better car is a safer car.

Paying insurance on 1 car is less than paying it on 2 cars.
Paying registration on 1 car is less than 2.
Paying for repairs/maintenance on 1 is less than 2.
Those are my financial reasons.

Daughter will NEED a car, but #2 Son won't NEED a car his Junior year.  In the first place, I won't let him drive a car to school every day anyway until he is a Senior.  He can take the bus for free.
The parking lot at our high school is nuts.  More accidents happen there than on our roads in town, because you have all the new/in-experienced drivers in one place at one time and they are constantly hitting each other's cars.lol  Both the older 2 had fender benders with other bad teen drivers in the school parking lot.
I would never buy a new car and let my kid take it to the school's parking lot!!  It's insane....
#2 Son can take the bus and get rides home on days he has activities....or he can ride the bus home and then take the car back to school for his rehearsal days.  We live about 1.5 miles from the school so it's no big deal.

If both the kids have part time jobs and need the car at the same time, one of them can take the minivan.
It's not fashionable but it's wheels to get you someplace.  And I can arrange my needing the minivan schedule around their needs.

As for Daughter's new direction....She will be living at home her 1st year at the comm. college.  Then she plans on moving out and getting an apartment near school.  Any car we buy for her use while living at home does not go with her.  She has been told she will need to arrange her own transportation once she moves out again.

At this point, the spare car can go to #2 Son for his use.  He can use it for his rehearsals, for school or for school and the Young Scholars program, as well as to get to his part time job.

Now if Daughter decides NOT to move out(God forbid!)until her 2 year's of school is over, we can re-evaluate buying a 2nd car then.  Perhaps then we purchase a car that she can make payments toward and eventually buy from us?

Besides the added costs of buying 2 junk cars, when the kids leave home(1 in 1 yr. or 2, the other in 2 yrs.), we will have 2 cars to sell or otherwise get rid of.  I consider throwing money at cars akin to throwing money into a big black sucking hole anyway.

Let me add in that Daughter will NOT be spending all the college money with this new tract, that we had set aside for her educational use.  She has already hinted that any money we don't spend in the next 2 years on room & board since she is now commuting should be hers to use to get an apartment and buy food for herself in Year 2 AND should be used toward buying this car she needs to commute to college starting in the Fall.  If we buy 2 cars she will decide in her own mind that the car we buy for her to commute in is HER car and she'll expect us to let her have the car when she leaves home.
We have told her that any money she does NOT spend on educational purposes is NOT her's to keep and that includes if we use some of the money to buy a car for her use while she lives at home. We "might" bankroll a cheap apt. near campus the 2nd year but we are NOT bankrolling her car needs if she leaves home.

Hubs and I need to sit her down and make perfectly clear about the parameters on this college money.
It is also not being held for her use into eternity.  There is a time limit on how long she takes to finish school.  She can't keep changing her mind for the next 10 years and coming back for more money for school.

So I'm in the "buy as little as possible in cars as you can get away with and then ease into more cars/spending if you truly need it" camp.
Hubs is in the "just buy it all now and don't worry about anything" camp.
But he doesn't do the books around here, I do!lol

So what would you do....buy 1 or 2 cars?
And is there anything I am overlooking in this?
I really need some advise or at least an independent pair of eyes looking at this situation.

Sluggy

Judy Update!

Ok, someone just wrote me this past weekend asking after Judy again.
And I wrote Judy an email a few days ago asking when she was coming back and if she was still ok.

And then she popped up today!
I am talking about Judy of "Finally Frugal and Happy" blog, and of the older "We Make Be Poor, But We Are Happy" blog.

She's got a new blog so go here...."Just Making My Way Back".

Go welcome her back and make her feel loved, won't you?!

Sluggy

April Food Spending Week 2, Meal Plan April Week 23

The Weekly Vintage Kitchen is back!
Here is this week's model from 1955....

I don't know what to think of this one!  The linoleum floor throwback to the 1930's, the faux brick details that harks back to a colonial kitchen but the thoroughly modern(or should that be moderne?) look of metal cabinets and rounded too, along with oh so modern formica tops?  The formica tops also have that oh so 1950 classic diner metal edging on them.

What do you think about today's vintage kitchen?  Does it work for you in style and/or form?

Onward to the meal plans!
And here is the meal that actually happened last week.....

SUNDAY--Ham, Asparagus, Leeks in Cream Sauce, Great Aunt Lula's Rolls, Deviled Eggs
MONDAY--Leftovers

TUESDAY--Ham, Mac & Cheese, Cabbage, Leeks in cream sauce
WEDNESDAY--Sausage Sandwiches, Onions, Corn
THURSDAY--?  I can't remember  ate from here, not take-out
FRIDAY--Chinese Take-out
SATURDAY--Subway Subs, Salad

Sunday was busy as it was Easter and we had 4 more for dinner.  We ate ham again on Tuesday and I am slicing up the rest to tuck into the freezer this week for a later time, as we have hit our ham threshold.lol  Mostly we ate from what was here or had take-out.  I didn't do much actual 'cooking'.

The weekly food spending was $38.89 this past week. 

We hit the bakery outlet on Thursday and stocked up on some bread products for $9.89 for 9 items.
Then I hit the local grocery store on Saturday and spent $29.00....most of that was on bags of salad kids(on sale $1.99 again), orange juice($1.99), eggs(we were out), margarine(.99¢), fresh asparagus($1.49¢lb), a box of pasta(.79¢-a price I never see here!...should have bought more), and 5 bags of salty snacks($1.99 each).  I try to avoid the salty snacks but the other humans here insist on them.....and then I can't help myself if they are here. bleh.

Anyway, $115.68 spent for the month with half the month to go now.  I'm on track to stay under $300 at this point. Value of foods at $233.53 so my savings rate is just under 50%.  And that's with no coupons used at all this month.

************************

In terms of leftovers, I'm going into this week with 2 Leeks and a bunch of dinner rolls.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Lasagna, Salad
MONDAY--Sloppy Joes, Corn

TUESDAY--BBQ Chicken, Asparagus, Rolls
WEDNESDAY--Tuna Sub or Philly CheeseSteak Sub
THURSDAY--Tacos or Taco Salad
FRIDAY--Roast Pork with Dried Fruit, Rolls, Brussell Sprouts
SATURDAY--Leftovers

This menu gives us 6 new meals and 1 night of leftovers.  Tuesday's meal will be grilled out.
I've make Leek Potato soup tomorrow and use it for my lunches (with the salad I bought on Saturday) for the rest of the week. 

 Items needed to buy for this menu are....taco shells and shaved steak for cheesesteaks.  Both are on sale this week at Weis.
We'll be buying milk as usual as well.

The only stock-up opportunities are for paper towels.  I am all out of towels and napkins....I had to pay retail 2 week's ago for an emergency pack of napkins.  Though it pains me to spend money on paper towels, with 2 old dogs, they are a necessity.  So I'll be combining Qs and sale prices and stocking up on paper towels this week.

With what I "need" this week and the paper towel stock-up, I'll spend around $40.  If some deals crops up, then it will be more.

So what is everyone else eating this week?

Sluggy