Monday, March 16, 2009

A Weekend of DIY (Do it Yourself)

I was not bored this weekend. I was busily working away indoors while Houston received over half of our missing eight inches of rainfall in just three days. When it rains here at my small apartment complex, I have to hold off of the laundry. That's because the sewer drains get so full of water that the water backs up into my second bathroom, therefore rendering my laundry room useless.

This frugalista had two projects, one that popped up suddenly, the last of my four (albeit cheap) watches went kuput. The second project involved my vacuum cleaner literally blowing up in my face while trying to vaccum up kitty litter a couple of weekends ago.

The internet is great! How did I ever live without it before? Possibly the public library? I performed a Google search on "How to change a watch battery" and found all the details. I had to buy a few tools that my kiddo had misplaced from my powder puff toolbox. Some new needle nose pliers ($5.00 @ Target), two sets of eyeglass kits (for those small little screwdrivers ($4.00 @ Walgreens), and four watch batteries ($14.00 total @ Walgreens) saved me approximately $25.00, compared to the price of taking all four watches to the local mall. The service would have been $12.00 per watch for a total of $48.00. These days $25.00 savings is a windfall!

My other project, the vacuum cleaner, was nasty as usual. My vacuum cleaner gets gunked up with black dirt from outside and the teenager grease of tennis shoes. I took the vacuum totally apart and as many non-electrical parts as possible got a laundry detergent bath and a good hard scrubbing. This morning everything is nice and clean and ready to be put back together tonight, including taking the time to replace the vacuum cleaner belt. The secret to getting this type of project done? Take your time and remember what goes where. The cost of my project? $4.00 for vacuum cleaner belts (2/pack) and $1.00 (2/pack) for vacuum cleaner bags.

Who says you have to be bored in a difficult economy?