New Fridge and Planning

I spent the bulk of my day dealing with refrigerators - the old one and the new one.  The freezer in the old fridge was still working and sincer the fridge part was still a little cool, I left produce and condiments in there.  This morning I went to the appliance store and finalized the purchase of the fridge.  Then I came home and took everything out of the freezer and put it in a cooler.  What didn't fit in the cooler went into the sink, with ice on it and covered with a towel. Then I took everything else out of the fridge and did the combining of the ketchup bottles - why are there always one bottle half full and the two others with a little bit in them?

At one point my son asked me what was for supper?  I pointed to the sink and told him "potluck."  We ended up having homemade vegetable beef soup along with homemade rolls all from the freezer.  Now the heat index was 105 degrees at dinner time and I was serving hot soup, but my family enjoyed it as we hadn't had homemade soup for a long time. 

The fridge is smaller which means the freezer above the fridge is smaller too.  Cleaning out and organizing the new fridge was the priority of the day.  After taking inventory of everything I am starting to make a menu plan for the month of August. 

As to my planning day, well, I'm still planning.  You know how you set aside some time to do something, and then urgent things take over?  Well, it happens, so I am still working on my lists and tasks.  Here is what I have been doing.  I would love to go all electronic, but I find that when I am at meetings at my church, I need to be able to look at my calendar by year, month, week and day.  My smart phone just doesn't do it for me for this purpose.  I need something to be bigger, so I just take my planner with a legal pad to any meetings I have. 

Yeah, I know, it is so old school but for now, it is the best I can do.  I do put appointments into my cell phone so I get a reminder, which is helpful. 

So here is a picture of what I have to work with.  My planner, my household notebook, my notebook with my church activities and my youth group notebook that has all of the information I need for preparing the meals for the youth group meetings.  When I go to a meeting, I grab the appropriate notebook and my planner.

My household notebook has a section for menu planning, pantry and freezer inventories, laundry section with tips and recipes for laundry soaps and pre-treatments, home improvement project lists, Bible Study, cleaning schedules (daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual), expense log and exercise/fitness log.  This is my command central notebook for running our household. 
 
Some day I would love to have a tablet computer like a Galaxy Tab 7 inch version and then I could put everything on it.  It's a dream but even if I had the money and I could afford it now, I wouldn't buy it.  Why?  Because I look at things differently now - especially money and what I am saving and buying. 

Now I am going to go and have a nice big bowl of ice cream. I found my favorite flavor in the back of the freezer (Butter Pecan).  I bought it a couple of weeks ago and forgot all about it. 

So much for a 1/2 day of planning . . . . . .

Our refrigerator died today.  I sat down to work on my planner but I first made myself a cup of coffee.  I poured some milk into it and noticed that the milk was sour.  I had just bought that milk.  I checked the fridge and I immediately knew it was too warm and some things had already spoiled.  So much for spending time working on my planner.  I had to figure out what I was going to do about getting a new refrigerator. 

It wasn't really a surprise as our refrigerator is 22 years old, but I had hoped that it would make it through until Christmas when we would have the money saved up.  I should be thankful for great craftmanship as this old fridge never needed a repair and never gave us any trouble, until this morning.

We are kinda caught right now betwix and between with our finances.  In other words, we are doing some creative financing.

We have to replace our roof this summer.  We have signed a contract with a contractor, the shingles have been selected and are sitting in our driveway and the workers should arrive this week to get the job done.  The price - $13,500.  We do not have $13,500 in our savings account.  So, we refinanced our house and took out an additional $13,000 to pay for the roof.  We refinanced to pay the house off sooner than before even including the additional loan amount.  How did this happen?  A very low 3.75% fixed rate. I didn't want to borrow money, but it was necessary. 

Now for the fridge.  I was able to get a decent deal - 18.5 cubit foot fridge for $550 with a $50 rebate as it is an Energy Star appliance.  It is strictly no frills.  By no frills, it is a refrigerator without an ice maker or water dispenser and it is white.  This is perfectly fine with me.  I don't have the money right now to pay for it but will at the end of the month.  This means I will be putting this purchase on a credit card and will pay it off at the end of the month and will therefore not have any interest to pay. 

We paid off our car in July.  The $300 that would have been used to pay for that car payment was going into savings, but will now go to pay for the fridge.  The $250 balance will come from basic grocery shopping and eating from the freezer and pantry. 

Once we weather this major purchase, we should be able to start to really put a good sum in savings each month.  My husband's truck is paid off in October and that will add more money to savings. 

So, what then?  Buy some stuff that has been on my wish list?  No, no, no.  If anything, we have worked hard to pay off bills and I am not going to "reward myself" by going out and buying some stuff that will only bring temporary happiness.  I want to see my bank account grow.  That is what will bring me happiness. 
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For any of you who read my blog and are going through a financial crisis, you may read this and think "wow that is great, but that is a far off dream of mine to get a car paid off and put money into savings."  Take heart.  I was where you are a few years ago.  It takes time, persistance and a lot of prayer along the way to make it happen.

So, tomorrow I will get back to my planning day and will post what I do to try to keep my life organized and in balance.  Also, I will post more from Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette III.  You see Amy's advice isn't just for those who are going through tough times, it is for anyone who wants to stretch every penny, dime, dollar so that they can meet their financial goals. 

If you are going through some tough financial times, don't look at my situation and envy where I am at, remember it hasn't always been like this for us.  We have been through many tough financial times over the course of our 30 year marriage.  I know what it is like to get so discouraged over not having enough money to pay the bills and having to put a major car repair on a credit card because we don't have the money.  I know what it feels like to go to bed and not be able to sleep or worse yet wake up in the middle of the night with worry. 

Nothing is hopeless, you can dig your way out, it is just that you may need a small miracle along the way.  It can happen. 

Washing Machine Trouble

For the past 6 months I have been babying our washing machine along.  It always got stuck on the spin cycle and after looking at it I discovered that the answer was to place a brick wrapped in a towel on the top right portion of the lid.  With the added weight, the latch pushed down enough so that the machine would go through the spin cycle without stopping.  Prior to discovering this I had to set my kitchen timer and go down to the basement and lift the lid and shut it hard.  Then the clothes would spin out and it would proceed to the next cycle.

I do our clothing laundry on Monday and on Tuesday I wash the bedding and towels.  On Wedneday I noticed a spaghetti stain on my DS's shirt so I decided to wash it along with a few other items.  It was a small load.  I heard the washing machine shut off and when I lifted the lid the clothes seemed to not have spun all of the water out. The clothes were still dripping wet.  I closed the lid and tried the spin cycle again and then I heard a horrendous noise. 

Uh oh!!  I tried again and again, but I only heard a horrendous noise.  The drum was not spinning and I was being left with sopping wet clothes just sitting there. 

We have several small businesses in our town.  One of which is an appliance sales and repair business.  It is run by a father and son and the wife/mom answers the phone and does the bookwork.  In the past few years I have bought appliances from them and had them service appliances.  The one thing that I have come to know is that they are very, very honest.  Let's face it.  If you are not an honest business person, word will get around the town quickly. 

When I called and got the wife on the phone I asked her what the basic charge was for a service call?  $60.00.  Then after discussing the situation with her and her husband they ascertained what could be the problem and estimated that a service call, repair and parts would run between $125 and $150.00.  Then I asked them the price of a new top loading, no frills washing machine:  $399.00.  Tax and hauling away the old machine brought the total to $469.00.

Bottom line.  It was a gamble. 

The washing machine is close to 8 years old and the life expectancy on appliances is around 10 years.  They do not make appliances like they used to.  My refrigerator is 21 years old and it has never had a service call.  Yes, I could go out and replace it with a more energy efficient model but I would rather pocket the price of a new fridge and live with what I have. 

So $125 to $150 to repair an 8 year old washing machine OR buy a new one OR go to the laundromat.  Yes, I really thought about going to the laundromat.  I did some calling around to a few laundromats and it would cost around $1.25 to wash one load and another 50 to 75 cents to dry that load.  I wash 8 to 10 loads per week.  Too costly.

$125 to $150 for repairs - Is it worth it to put that kind of money into an 8 year old washing machine that may or may not keep running for at least another 2 years? I decided that it wouldn't be.

Notice that I didn't price one of those new front loading machines.  Years ago if I didn't have the money in the bank and we had to use a credit card to buy a washing machine, I would have looked at a more expensive machine with bells and whistles.  It's funny but whenever I used a credit card for a major purchase I usually bought the high end model and paid on it over a year or two.

Now we pay cash and I look at purchasing an appliance differently than I used to.  I don't need the bells and whistles.  For a washing machine I need three water levels, a delicate cycle, a regular cycle and a heavy duty cycle with options for cold, warm and hot water.  Those basic features will service our family as well as any fancy machine will.  And this machine does use less laundry soap.

Finally I decided that in the end a new machine was the best choice.  Here is how I came to that decision.  We have the money in the bank to pay for it, albeit we would rather not use money in savings and keep it there instead.  Spending $125.00 to $150.00 for a repair that may extend the life of the washing machine by two years seemed too costly.  The new washing machine is on sale at a good price.  If we repair the old machine and it breaks down in two years we will have to replace it when our youngest son is in college.  Will we have the extra money to pay for it then?  Will I find a good deal like I found yesterday?

Yes I really pondered this one.  When I was working I wouldn't have thought about it at all. I wouldn't have even considered the options and I would have just gone out and made the purchase.  So I have changed.  I really think financial matters through right now.

Living frugally is all about decision making.  Baking my own bread, making my laundry soap, turning the thermostat down in the winter, cutting back on netflix, using coupons, spending less on groceries and using up what's in my pantry, are all decisions I have made with the end result - saving money. I know that the money I saved in January and February on groceries and other decisions saved us at least $400.  This month I will save another $200 on groceries. 

The end result is that frugal living paid for my new washing machine.

Frugality has its Limits

A few days ago my son and I were driving home from shopping and I told him that I buy used books and that if he wanted to get me a book for Christmas, to buy used.  We started to discuss what we would not buy used.  On the top of his list was toothbrushes and underwear.  We were laughing all the way home.

This week I have been thinking back to that silly conversation.  In what areas of my life do I refuse to be frugal.

Case in point:  coffee.  I love coffee.  Our drip coffeemaker broke 10 days ago so I pulled out an 8 cup perculator that I had purchased about 2 years ago at a big sale.  I had it on hand for when the dinosaur coffee maker would finally break.  After 10 days I decided to pull the plug on the perculator and put it away.  I will use it for hot cider instead.  The coffee just didn't taste very good.  As much as I tried to like it, I couldn't.   Also unlike our old coffee maker, it did not have an automatic shut off.  This is important to me for obvious reasons. So this afternoon I went to the great Big Box store - Walmart and roamed the aisles for a coffeemaker.  I had three guidelines:  a name brand trusted drip coffee maker, reasonable price, and it had to look good on my kitchen counter.  I must explain the latter.  I have been collecting items so that next year when I will have the time I will be painting my kitchen and transforming it into a 1940's kitchen design.  So, I wanted something retro looking.  Christmas time is a good time to buy a coffee maker and I found 1 that matched my three guidlines.   The cost was $49.00.  My previous coffeemaker had lasted us over 10 years and it was the same brand so I felt that $49.00 was a good deal for great coffee for several years.

This morning I was moving the small kitchen table away from the wall and I thought that the toaster that was on the table was unplugged, but it wasn't.  It went crashing to the floor and I got to see what a toaster looks like on the inside.  Ugh.  Now I not only had on my list to buy a new coffee maker but a toaster too.  So while I was looking for a coffee maker I also looked for a toaster with the same three guidelines.  I found one and again, it was at a great price of $24.00.  

I could have bought a coffee maker for $17.00 and a toaster for $14.00 and they probably would have worked fine.  The only problem is that I have had to live with buying the cheapest item before when money was limited and I have to say that after awhile I just wanted to have something that matched my kitchen decor (or future decor) and would be reliable.

I set up the coffee maker and it does have some bells and whistles.  I brewed the best cup of coffee I have had in a very long time so I am happy.  As to coffee, I buy Maxwell House or Folgers when they are on sale.  A treat for me is whole bean coffee to grind and I do get some every now and then.  But for the most part Maxwell House and Folgers works for me.

Other areas of my life I refuse to be frugal in these days.

Food:    It has taken me awhile to understand that buying fresh produce and such is a good deal for my family.  I will cut other areas of my food budget in order to give my family healthy choices in food.  I have begun to bake my own whole wheat bread which is not only good for us but is something I enjoy.  As I use up crackers and pasta from my pantry, I will replenish with homemade.

Charities:  My husband and I are committed to giving to charities.  We sponsor three Compassion International children and I will cut something else from the budget before I would stop helping these children.  We give to our church and also to our alma mater.  We have made decisions such as keeping our cars longer in order to help others.  We feel that we are blessed with a home, health and a job and so many others are doing without.  When we started making this a priority about 12 years ago I didn't think we would be able to afford it.  Now it is second nature.  The other night at church we served a meal to members of the community.  I don't think I will be able to help again as my heart was breaking at the number of people who were hungry and poor.  I served coffee from table to table to these people and I, like the other volunteers, treated them as if they were very wealthy.  The money I give to my church helps support such a ministry.  Looking back, I really should help again and not be afraid to see the reality of poverty and homeless people in my community.

Haircuts:  I started to cut my DH and DS's hair. We bought some hair clippers and I have found that I do just as good a job or better than what was being done in the salon.  I started this in October and the clippers have already paid for themselves.  As to my hair, I have extended my hair cuts from 4 weeks to 6 weeks.  My hair is layered shorter in the back and then tapered down the sides and longer in the front.  This style works well for extending time between haircuts.  I used to get my eyebrows waxed and have started to do it myself.  I do not highlight my own hair.  I am able to extend the time between highlights during the winter since my hair was always naturally darker in the winter anyway.  I am not a chemist and I refuse to take the chance on color and damaging my hair.  I leave that to the professionals.  The cost is about $40.00 for each foil highlight session.  Normally it would be every 3 months; but I am getting by with every 4 months now.  I have switched my shampoo from Matrix to Suave Professionals and I have noticed no difference. We have saved about $70.00 a month by finding alternatives with haircare.

Nails:  I have acrylics and although this is far from a necessity my DH agreed that we could afford to have nails in the budget.  I have a friend that owns a nail salon and she attends our church and the SS class that we teach.  It costs me $21.00 per visit which is every other week.  If money got to be tight, I would have a very difficult time keeping nails in our budget.  For me it is 1 hour of pampering myself every two weeks with friendly ladies. It is cheaper than therapy.

Pets:  We have a black lab and a cat.  Both are in their geriatric years.  We buy Iams for the dog and the cat is on vet food.  The reason our pets are healthy is the fact that we feed them premium food and we budget money for the vet and for heart worm and flea control.  In the past I have made my own dog biscuits and I am going to start doing this again on my baking day.  We can afford our two pets.  We do not have more pets than we can afford.  I love animals but I can't save every stray animal in the world.

Jeans:  I could buy jeans at Wal-mart and I have in the past.  With the styles these days, I can't.  I refuse to wear jeans with a waist so low that - well - you get what I am saying.  We have a local clothing store in our town that sells jeans that fit me perfectly, are flared and have a waist that is not low and not high.   I look and feel really good in those jeans. The cost is only $30.00 which is very, very  reasonable They regularly have 20% off sales and I buy two pairs of jeans every year.  Wal-mart sells jeans for around $14.00.  I have tried them on.  They are okay but do not flatter me in the least.  I will buy other clothes used and if I came upon some used jeans at Goodwill that fit me, I would buy them.  I just haven't come across any there yet as obviously those women are hanging on to those jeans because they fit them!

Shoes:  Since my DH and I work out, we do not skimp on quality running or walking shoes.  We buy good shoes.  If you buy a knockoff or really cheap shoe, you will pay for it with knee trouble, hipt trouble, shin splints and so on.  We get good deals and major discounts on line for our New Balance and Asics shoes.  I know that I need a new walking shoe about every 6 months, so we budget accordingly.

Health care:  We visit our dentist every 6 months and go to the eye doctor once a year.  My DS has a physical every year at his doctor's office for school sports.  We do not take him to the $10.00 sports physical clinic as he is not really getting a physical.  His doctor examines him thoroughly.  I see my gynecologist once a year for an exam and pap smear.  I also have a mammogram each year.  My DH needs to go to the doctor.  His last physical was 3 years ago.  I have been on his case about this.  We have health insurance that covers a portion of our medical expenses.  We budget for health care.  Many people these days are not as fortunate as we are.

I believe that the other areas of my life that I am frugal in helps to offset the areas that I refuse to be frugal in.  In the end, I still save money and we are able to live on my husband's income alone without feeling deprived.

Next post:  areas I have cut back on in order to save money.

Appliances

In May our very old gas stove finally quit working.  It must have been close to 30 years old and when we bought our house 12 years ago it was included in the sale.  It was ugly.  The paint finish was flecking off the front and the back burners had to be lit with a match.  But as long as it was working and wasn't a safety hazard, I kept using it.  Then one Friday night, it quit working.

Saturday morning I went shopping.  We try to buy local as much as possible.  Fortunately in our small town we have a couple of choices.  One is Sears.  Sears has wonderful sales but they do not install appliances and if you need a service call they send someone from the Des Moines area (1 1/4 hours away) and it could take a couple of days.  The other choice is a local family business that sells appliances and services everything they sell.  I went to the local family business and purchased a gas stove at 9:30 a.m. and it was installed in my home within the hour.  The wife showed me several gas stoves.  I am not a frills person.  I don't need self cleaning nor anything fancy.  Basically I wanted 4 burners, an oven, light in the oven and window to the oven along with a broiler.  Yes, give me the basics.  When I have bought anything with more fancy gadgets on it I tend to use only what I would use day to day and I forget about the gadgets.

Case in point, my microwave.  It has too many options and features.  When it dies, I will buy a basic heat and eat microwave.

In choosing appliances I am replacing the old ones that are an almond/beige color with white.  In my opinion you can't go wrong with white.  Now I have a white stove, an almond fridge and an almond dishwasher.  Part of me would like to go out and be able to replace the fridge and dishwasher so they match the stove, but they are still working so I don't care about the color.

Our refrigerator is 20 years old and has never had a service call.  Now that I have said that, it will break down.  In May our freezer quit working.  Fortunately when I discovered it, all was not lost.  Many items could be salvaged such as roasts since they were still frozen rock solid but hamburger, orange juice, vegetables and such were very soft and defrosted.  I did not want to take a chance so I threw the stuff out.  I went shopping for a new freezer and  I kept thinking that I should be shopping for a new refrigerator.  When I went to the same appliance store that sold me the stove, they were surprised I wasn't in there to buy a fridge.  Again, the freezer was purchased and installed in the same day.

We had money in savings to cover the costs of the appliances.  In years prior, we would have had to put these purchases on plastic.  We have tried hard over the past year or so to put money into savings to prepare for such an emergency.  This brings me back to buying basic appliances.  When I am paying cold, hard earned and saved cash I find that I forgo any feeling of needing extras to purchase what I can afford. This is usually something basic.

I keep thinking I will be replacing that old fridge soon but..... the washing machine is acting up.  Again, here I go babying an appliance.  After the wash cycle when it spins out and goes to rinse; the dial gets stuck.  I have to set my kitchen timer and then go down to the basement and lift the lid to the washer and set it down once again and then it activates the dial/timer and spins out.  It will cost around $100 to repair this.  The washer and dryer are 6 years old.  I did not purchase them from the mom and pop appliance store.  However, they will repair it but I think that for $100 I can set a timer and go to the basement to lift the lid and close it in order to get the machine to continue working.  I do laundry for the most part on one day so I have it down to a system.

I was told that most appliances these days last 10 years.  So I will continue to baby that washer and be thankful that the fridge keeps running and running.