One Man’s junk

June 8, 2011
The difference between living like a prince on a pauper’s budget and living like a pauper on a pauper’s budget is the difference of what job’s you’re willing to do. The business of state for all princes right now is finding a way to get what you need and want for less money.
I’m not trying to buy a nuclear missile, I’m just talking about household appliances.
I’m pleased to introduce you to my friend Craig. He has a list! He puts his nifty list online and makes it specific to each of our US areas. We can advertise our used goods for sale on Craigslist for free. How cool is that? Ever wonder how Craig makes his money? Commercial advertisers glean the purchases from people who didn’t find what they wanted online.
  If you have a good sized local paper, they also have classified ads. Most of them are online too.
Lastly, did you know that you can buy a subscription to Consumer Reports Magazine online. I LOVE Consumer Reports. I know it’s weird. I have no patience for magazines like Town and Country, who tell you how to live like a prince on a prince’s budget. (Last month I might have learned how to behave on a mega yacht. Do NOT wear florals. When you’re in nature, you should not compete with nature. Well, it seemed to me that there was an awful lot of au-natural in that story!) Back to Consumer reports. Did you know that they even review things like dishwasher soap and laundry detergent? Ever wonder how they make their money with absolutely NO advertising? Subscriptions. They recognize that their data has huge value to wise customers.
Yesterday, I was forced to admit that the weed-eater I bought three summers ago for more than a hundred dollars was truly dead. I can’t say that it lived a good life, since it misbehaved as SOON as the warranty expired. (I’ll never own a another Troy Built) unlike my friend Craig who shares his list, Troy builds junky weed whackers and charges a lot of money for them. 
Unfortunately, Craig had no good quality weed eaters on his list. (No wealthy grandparents were downsizing to a condo and getting rid of their premium yard care tools). So we went straight to Consumer Reports and looked up trimmers. It’s always interesting to me that the most expensive tools, appliances, cars, etc are very rarely the best. In this case, it was clear that Stihl makes the best trimmers. FS-45 functioned the very best and was priced mid-range. It breaks it down into categories including noise, ease of use and effectiveness.
Neither Home Depot or Lowes sell Stihl tools, but there was a dealer nearby. The dealer also offered a fantastic warranty extension to 4 years for the purchase of oil plus 5 dollars. (O’Conners for those of you in the OKC area.)
Now note, my friends, I want to save money wherever I can, but when I must spend money, I make sure that I get the best value. The money I’ll save on my one purchase of a best value weed eater would pay (again) for the subscription to Consumer Reports.
My daughter recently needed a new washer and dryer. Hers would have cost more to fix than she paid for them. So she found a pair on Craigslist that were priced well. She looked the models up on Consumer Reports and found that these folks paid about $2000 for the pair three years ago. They were very high quality and get clothes really clean, (and dry). But they had a lower rating for noise. All the way down to average. The people cited the noise as the reason they were getting front loaders. Soooo, after a bit of mild dickering, Tricia got a three year old washer and dryer set for $325. BOOYAH!  

How does a pauper live like a prince? Budgets can be fun!

June 1, 2011
I forget that budgeting doesn’t come naturally to some people. I’m not sure it came naturally to me, but my husband is a budgeting kind of guy. He has his chartered financial consultant designation, his Certified Internal Auditor designation as well as a BS in accounting. You might think he’d adore the Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet type vehicles, but when he does a budget for us or helps someone to set up a budget, he needs only four things. Two pieces of lined binder paper, a pencil and a calculator.

Step one: Make a list of all your expenditures. Allow for flexible bills to be higher now and then. Get as close as you can and if you’re spending $5.00 a week on slurpies, (or “icy drinks” as they’re called in OK) put it down on the budget. Once you have your comprehensive list of expenditures tally it up. For credit cards, and other outstanding bills, add the total owed. List food purchased in restaurants as ‘entertainment’ and food bought in grocery stores as ‘food’.

Step two: Make a list of all your income. Write down the gross amount. (I know, I know, I used to think the amount in this column (or single line) was gross sometimes too!)

Step three: subtract the lower number from the higher number. If you subtract income from expenditures, you’ll have a negative number. If you subtract expenditures from income you’ll have a positive number. Put a big ol’ plus or minus beside that number.

Step four: All parties that have access to the check book, credit card or debit card or create expenses must participate in this phase. Post the list where everyone can see. Take a clean sheet of paper and from the “expense” list, write down the bills that are fixed and necessary. Start with Tithing. It is easily figured as ten percent of that ‘gross’ amount you listed. Even if you have not paid tithing in the past or have rigged your own style of paying God his share, pay it properly on the gross income and you’ll be astonished at how readily our Father in Heaven keeps his promises to ‘open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there is not room enough to receive it.’ (That’s from Malachi in the Bible).
Next list your taxes, insurance and other monies that are withheld from the check that you never see. Then list your mortgage and include the real estate tax and insurance with this amount. (Try to get your house payment automatically withdrawn from your account. This protects you from foreclosure, since the money can’t be spent as easily.)
Utilities, fuel, car payments, student loans etc. Tally this amount and see what the difference is between this amount and your gross. The remaining balance must be divided among the remaining expenditures.

Step 5: Based on the figure you have remaining, divide your remaining income between the remaining expenses. Food, clothing, entertainment(to include your TV dish, sports fees, equipment for sports, gym memberships, etc) phones, restaurants and your credit card bills. If you can’t pay off the credit card or creditors every month, you are morally obligated to trim the other budgets to the bare bones until you can give the money you borrowed back to the person you borrowed it from. Businesses are just people working together to make a living. If you have room in the initial budget to pay yourself, target the same amount you spent on tithing to tuck into a savings account. This is prosperity insurance. This is the phase where you determine whether you will prosper or not. If you can eliminate the cable TV and skip a season of soccer or forego new clothes or a trip that sounds fun for a few months and pay off bills or save the money, you are deciding to prosper. You’re taking control of your life and claiming the available blessings.  If you heard that there was a $1000 rebate for everyone that cancelled their cable bill, but it was not payable until the end of the year, you’d do it wouldn’t you? That is essentially the choice you make.

Step 6: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Post the budget and when a bill is paid, write down the amount beside it’s allowance.  Every time you spend a dollar, that spend is recorded on the budget. For food entertainment  and anything else that is bought incrementally, keep a running tally so you know exactly where you are at any given time. When the budget is getting low, stop spending. This is a grown up exercise. You force yourself to stop the magical thinking that you can ‘get money from somewhere’ and accept the limits.

What are reasonable cuts?  A couple years ago, I did an exercise where for two months I limited our food budget for two adults and two teen-age boys to $200 per months. I wanted to see if it was possible to eat WELL on that much money.  We ate hot cereal instead of cold cereal. I kept muffins or homemade bread available all the time. We had omelettes for dinner several times, I baked bread and though nobody likes to take homemade bread in their lunches, homemade bread is a dense, nutritious, filling snack or breakfast. We always pack lunches for everyone, but I kept sliced sandwich bread on hand for that.
I used powdered milk in cooking and if we ran short, I used it for banana smoothies. We ate bananas instead of apples, I used frozen vegetables instead of fresh. We dramatically increased our intake of rice, potatoes, pasta. I made sauces from scratch. I didn’t serve meat as a dish, but cut up the chicken in the pasta, stretched hamburger with chopped onions etc.
I baked all of our cookies from scratch and used four cake mixes during those four months. I made sure that they had a treat (usually cookies) in their lunches every day.
We didn’t eat in restaurants during that time. We bought no soda, and no chips and we don’t drink alchohol anyway.
We made it. It wasn’t much of a sacrifice. The only real change was that I made everything from scratch, so on Saturday mornings, I would spend several hours on Saturday making muffins, bread, etc.
Give it a try. Make it work. Take control. Feel free to ask questions and post about your successes. It will help and inspire others as you make progress. 

The Mission Call

May 28, 2011
Being a mother is not always a thankless job. There are occasions in a child’s life where no commercialization, no cultural tradition or ceremony could make it any sweeter for a mother. Sometimes they come in odd and unexpected ways, but when they come, we feel deluged, as though the windows of heaven are open and our Heavenly Father is pouring out a blessing that there is not room enough to receive.

I have one daughter and six sons, in that order. Of course they’re all different, (excuse me for stating the obvious) but the boys happen to all look a lot alike. Scott, Brian and Chris look more alike and Rob, Daniel and Thomas look alike but even in two sets anyone can see that they are brothers. Regardless of strong resemblances and traditions, our sixth child, Chris has always wanted to do things HIS way.

He was born in Colorado Springs and so we often attended Air Force Academy football games or basketball games. . .especially when they played BYU. BYU’s teams are the ones we yell ourselves hoarse over. We sometimes travel long distances to watch a football game. We have jewelry, sweatshirts, tee-shirts, shorts, hats and gloves with the BYU logo, etc, etc, etc. Chris cheered for the Air Force.

Chris was also an exceptionally shy boy when he was little. When he was still riding my hip, he would bury his head in my shoulder if anyone tried to flirt with him. He’s very far sighted and started wearing thick glasses when he was only four. He was the quintessential shy little kid. Then he decided he was tired of being shy. Shy kids didn’t have many friends and he wanted friends. So Chris decided not to be shy anymore. And the weird thing is that the transformation was sudden, and complete. Adults noticed and commented. I thought shyness was a lifelong personality trait. He laid it aside and transformed himself into a friendly, socially confident person.

Chris is burdened with a huge, tender heart. If you’ve ever known someone with this condition, you know that it’s not all good. He always tended to reach out to the less fortunate, to include the outcast, and to befriend the underprivileged. He would often be late coming home from school or track practice because he drove this person or that, who otherwise would have had to walk, home. He shared his lunch and though he bought treats for himself only occasionally, he liked to share. It didn’t bother him at all that his friends on the track team or at Frontier City were black, terribly poor with completely different life views. He saw the nobility in young boys who worked to help provide necessities for their younger siblings. They weren’t always wise, but they were doing their best and he loved them for it.

That’s the upside of having a big heart. A non-judgmental approach also keeps him from excluding friends that misbehave or who are not true to their faith and family values. “Everyone needs friends,” he often said. “I can’t exclude my friend just because he’s doing some bad things.” And as a teenager, he was not the most discerning or thoughtful fellow himself. His strong distaste for bullies was overgeneralized and turned ‘anti-law enforcement.’ We had to ban some of the music he liked. He got into some mischief here and there in the name of “funny pranks” that turned out not to be so funny. He was not immoral, but sometimes foolish and the un-doing of the pranks cost him.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, every young man is expected to prepare and keep himself worthy to serve a 2-year mission for the Church at about the age of nineteen. They must be virtuous, students of the Bible and Book of Mormon and committed disciples of Jesus Christ. As we were worrying our way through his high school years, he sometimes talked about “when” he went on his mission. . .but if we asked about it directly, he always said, “I want to go because I want to go and not because it’s expected of me or because everyone else went. I want it to be MY decision.” We were left to wonder if he was enjoying being the object of my husband’s and my nightly prayers, (and probably several of his siblings too) but fully intended to go, or if he was warning us that he planned a career as a black sheep. The only thing that always got a positive response was when I would say, “Someday you’re going to go to Africa on your mission and then you’ll be completely surrounded by blacks and the native cultures.” Invariably he’d say, “That would be SWEEET!”

But there were good signs too. He worked hard on the track team and took sixth in the 6¬¬-A state in the hurdles. He paid his tithing and saved most of the rest of his earnings. He earned very good grades his senior year.

He went away to BYU-Idaho after he graduated from High School. We worried and prayed for him as we always have when we fledge a chick from the nest, but almost immediately he got a girlfriend. Pre-missionaries are advised not to have a girlfriend, but to do lots of wholesome things in big groups. Everyone that knew her said she was a GREAT girl, and Chris told us she was beautiful, virtuous, kind hearted, fun, loved the Lord, etc. His friends that knew her came home and one boy said that he wanted to find someone just like her when he got home from his mission.

I know that Chris will have a hard time being away from this girl, but she showed him his own possibilities. She helped him channel his big, tender heart into righteous action and plans. She responded honestly to his tendency to dress with a gangsta flair. (“DUMB!”) Regardless of what happens in the future, she’s brought out the best in him and given him a genuine sense of his own possibilities. I will always love her for that.

Chris got his mission call this week. He expected it on Thursday, but he haunted the box on Wednesday, just in case. He went to work and called at 12:30 (the earliest possible time the mail is delivered) to see if it had been delivered. It had. He came home between training and his actual work but waited until the evening so that his family (and that cute little gal at BYU-I) could be on the phones all together. Those hours were torture.

The moment had come. Their mission is to teach anyone who will listen to come to Christ and follow Him throughout their lives. They are urged to work hard and save their money and pay as much as the $10,000 cost for their two years of service themselves. (Their parents make up the difference.) When they are close to their 19th birthday, they have medical and dental exams and a series of in-depth interviews by their ecclesiastical leaders. They send off their applications and then they wait. They have no control over the assignment. They can’t make any requests. Their health history is known to the Apostles making the assignments. About 1000 mission calls are issued per week to approximately 350 possible missions in about half that many countries.

His hands trembled a little as he tore open the large white envelope. His brother reminded him that he had to read the whole thing and not jump to the place he had been assigned. But this is my sixth missionary and I know exactly where to look and I saw the place a few seconds before he did. I burst out, not exactly with tears but with the jet power force of the windows of heaven being poured out and hitting me in the heart.

This 6’5” tall, very white boy who looks as suburban as anyone, is going to Harare, Zimbabwe, (Africa.) He’ll be getting his missionary training in South Africa. His mission also covers the countries of Zambia and Malawi. He leaves a week before school starts at BYU-I which means he’ll come home in two years in time to get back to school. The beautiful mission president and his wife are licorice black and native Zimbabweans. Oh the heavens are open! God hears our prayers and prepares us for our life’s work. I am deluged in His love.

Oklahoma Tornadoes

May 25, 2011
   The dense moist air that always accompanies tornado weather settled heavily in our underground hidey hole. The shelter has two types of air vents which seemed like it would keep the air fresh and pleasant, but we needed the hatch open too. The dogs panted and panted and the thought that I was breathing dog breath with every gasp didn’t ease the electrified atmosphere. They’re not even my dogs. They’re the two mutts our daughter rescued from the shelter, and her faithful friends. Not counting the dogs, there were six members of our family and six of our neighbors.
   We had the tornado shelter installed this year after living in Oklahoma 5 years. It seemed like good timing as immediately after we ordered it, North Carolina had a devastating series of tornadoes.  Then Joplin Missouri was destroyed.  We knew there was heavy weather forecast yesterday. Businesses closed and employers sent their employees home early.
The Savior said, “How oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chicks under her wing, but you would not.” I know what he is telling us. He wants to call us home from the work places and the activities and trivial pursuits and collect us into the safety of his storm sheltering wings. He knows what’s ahead and knows that He is the only safe place.
   We watched the storms on the TV and monitored our personal threat with our weather service radio. It sounds a blaring alarm when we need to be alerted to danger. We thought we had plenty of time, but suddenly the city sirens began their wailing scream. We left our dinner on the table and Jeff ran next door to encourage them to come into the shelter.
With all the confusion and devastation of a tornado, it certainly orders our priorities. The people I loved were safe, and I was so glad to have some of our neighbors come in to safety too. It worried me that some stayed back because of other concerns. (I think they were worried about bringing a little dog in. We would not have minded if it meant that they were safe too.) Even Americans can disregard the personal space bubble when it’s a matter of life and death.
    We huddled, mostly quiet, listening and waiting.  The rain started in earnest, (you have to LIVE in the Midwest to know what earnest rain is. I think you can drown in it!) We dont’ know our neighbors very well and their children and grandchildren even less. Funny how the most natural thing in the world doesn’t always come naturally.  Brian moved over beside the children where he had more headroom and began asking them about themselves and teasing them, adding little jokes about himself too. He eased the situation from tense to fun and exciting. As I look inward, I wonder why I didn’t start with that myself. I know from observation that my neighbors are people I WANT to know better. I know we’d enjoy each other if we spent more time together. But as it was, I was glad that Brian did the natural thing for him and made friends. It made it easier for all of us.
   After a while, the siren quieted. The rain stopped and the voice on the crank radio told us that the danger was had passed. We separated back into our sturdy brick homes, to watch and weep for those in the surrounding counties whose lives will never be the same.
But I learned something about myself and see ways that I need to change. Perhaps the tornado that passed 5 miles to the north changed me too.
  

What’s keeping you?

May 11, 2011
The sky is already lowering and the gusty wind waves the trees for my attention. Why is it so difficult to collect the 72 hour food packets into a couple of bags and deposit them in the tornado shelter? It’s true, I’m tired, wishing for a nap and a delicious calorie-free chocolate milk shake. They seem equally unlikely. I think sitting at a computer compresses the nerve that controls ambition. My brain says, “Woman, Stand up! Go get the food packs and put them in the ground. It’s a two minute project! 
  I have decided that I will be governed by my intellect and not my impulses. . .I’ll be right back.
TAKE BREAK HERE!
Okay, now the food packets are in the shelter and I picked the strawberries. Today I got up at 5:00 as usual dressed and went to Seminary. I took Thomas directly to school afterward. Wrote to my mom, ate 2/3 cup of bran buds with an equal amount of milk, Started a poem, AND finally put the packets in the shelter.
I’m willing to bet that every one of my readers has something that niggles them that they procrastinate for some reason.  GO TAKE CARE OF IT NOW. . .and then tell us about it in the comments. I’m on a roll. I’m going to make an eye appointment for Chris while the ambition nerve is still uncompressed.

Gratitude makes everyone’s world better!

May 6, 2011
Last week was a women’s conferenence and I signed up to help my friend Kathy with the luncheon. Before you assume that I am motivated by strictly benevolant motives, I wanted a brainless job after a tiring week teaching. And it WAS fun. I got to visit with two women that I have not known as well as I wanted to, and it was lots of fun.
   But the interesting thing about the event was the note I recieved afterward. It was from one of the women who had planned the event. The short, personal note expressed gratitude and a warm friendship. I find that though I’ve read it a few times, I just don’t want to throw it away.
Similarly, I have a new friend in my writing group who thanked me warmly for helping her establish her blog. It only took me a few minutes, but her warm thanks made me feel so good. It promotes the impulse to shed kindness.

I realize that my life would be better if I was more diligent in expressing the warm friendship and gratitude I feel for all those who serve and help me. Writer’s of sweet little thank-you notes have class. When we make others feel appreciated, we feel happy ours/elves. When we notice other’s goodness, we have a greater measure of it ourselves.

A prince/ssly person has a grateful heart and expresses it clearly. Join me in doing better.  

Prince/sses don’t procrastinate:

May 5, 2011
I’m a seminary teacher. For my uninitiated friends and readers, that means that I get up at 5:00 a.m. every day that high school is in session to teach a religion class to high school students. Class starts at 6:00 a.m.
It’s tough. It’s tough for everyone. Kids need their sleep and if they indulge in staying up late for some reason, it becomes a huge sacrifice. But most of the eligible students make that sacrifice and I know they are tremendously blessed for it. I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the church requires attendance in Seminary for members who plan to attend one of the 4 church owned Universities and college. (BYU, BYU Hawaii, BYU Idaho, and LDS Business College). But they set the standard for attendance at a minimum of 80%. It makes sense that sometimes there will be conflicts with school events, illness, testing times etc, when a student might need to miss seminary.
It’s a sacrifice for me too. I like to sleep, and I have lots of other good things in my life (Home, family, writing, hobbies) that take my time and attention. Sometimes I can get my class preparation down to an hour and sometimes it takes longer. I love teaching, I love studying the scriptures and I love my students, but I still look forward to the summer.
But I hate this time of year. Some of the students have gotten behind and let their attendance drop below 80%. This means that I have to develop makeup work that is equal in time and even greater in effort to replace those days missed. After I prepare tomorrow’s lesson, I spend about half again as long preparing makeup work or grading the work I’ve received.
 Some have procrastinated enough that I worry every day that they won’t get it done and won’t get credit for the year. I nag. I remind. (Maybe that’s restating ‘nag’.) I notify parents consistently so they know their child’s status. I fret myself into needing a course of Prilosec every year at this time.
The worst part is that I know it adds stress to those students who have finals coming up and need to do a slough of makeup work. They STILL need their sleep. Procrastination always doubles stress!
Now I know that you would advise me (like my husband regularly does,) ‘Just don’t worry. It’s their decision.’ He’s/you’re right of course.
 I wish I could just stop worrying. And as I try to do that, I advise you in whatever aspect of your life that procrastination is causing additional unnecessary stress, just take care of it. Stop worrying or feeling guilty and take care of the problem. If you need to take something out of your life so that you have only your highest priorities left, do it. If you need to repent of a hidden sin, just do it. Claim the peace offered through Jesus Christ by focusing your attention on being a true disciple and let Him help you see the strait course you must take. (The word ‘strait’ is not misspelled. If you don’t know what it means, look it up.) I hope you can. . .for the sake of those who care about you as well as for your own benefit.  Happy Trails!

Live like a Princess on a Pauper’s budget: Phase 1 day 8: Coupons?

May 4, 2011
Before I get to the rant about coupons, I hope you enjoy the short story posted this week lower down int he blog. It’s called “The Great Wall” I’m interested to see how you compare it to previous stories on this site.
Instruction for the day: If you haven’t already bought the items on the shopping list, do so and add 4 doz eggs. Don’t keep more than that unless you have a large family. Refrigerated eggs last a long time and are high in vitamin A and other minerals, and are an excellent source of high quality protein. But you shouldn’t eat them too often, since they are loaded with cholesterol.

I watched a show last night about women who spend 60 hours a week couponing. As I watched, I had the same sensation I had when I watched “Buried Alive.” which is about hoarders. The statistics for people who relinquish their lives to play video games also come to mind. Imagine if these people spent 60 hours a week at a home based business, or sitting at a reception desk earning $10. an hour. It’s true that they got 4-5 shopping carts full of stuff for free, “worth” $500-$600. But if they worked at a job, they would have about $400 left after the list of taxes was taken out and they could spend it on anything they wanted. They showed their store rooms stuffed with 4 dozen bottles of shampoo, 50 sticks of deodorant, 50 bottles of flavored water, piles and piles of candy and other treats. Who wants to store all that? When do you reach a saturation point? How is this different than hoarding or obsessively playing games?

Another point that the show brushed over, (I don’t know if it’s a series or a one time documentary) was that there was no indication of what they actually spend each month on groceries. The focus was on what they don’t pay for. But there wasn’t any bread or milk or eggs and certainly not any fresh fruits or vegetables. The women  featured all had weight problems and I had to wonder if they became obese as a result of letting advertisers choose their diet or if they started the behaviors already too heavy.

I also question the honesty of such behaviors. Coupons obtained online have a limit of two per person and one of the couponers was using 5 computers to multiply the number she could print. Many have limits printed on the coupon and stores may not be able to claim reimbursement for multiple uses on the same order.

A prince/ss spends no more time on coupons than it takes to breeze through the advertising and pick out products you already use or would like to try. Clip the coupon, circle the date of expiration and put it with your method of payment, (in your check book or with your debit card).  If you wait a week or two to spend it, you’ll likely get more bang from it. I’ve heard, (but have never really tested) that advertisers offer a coupon and then a week or two later put the same item on sale. This way, you’ve used it twice or brought it home twice and are much more likely to do so again.

There was a nice, red chair in the dumpster beside my son’s school a couple of weeks ago. (It was sticking out the top. No, I wasn’t in the dumpster!) I thought “Wow, that’s a nice looking chair to be tossed into the trash.” But I have no use for a red chair. I have more furniture than I need already. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean I want or need it. Same thing goes for couponing. Don’t spend time or resources for things that have no value to you. Imagine all things you could learn or create in 60 hours a week!
(To you folks who wish you’d seen the red chair and would have been happy to rescue it, somebody did rescue it by the next morning. I admit I was relieved. (I couldn’t have fit it in my car, even to take it to a thrift store).)

Princess daily tip: Are you as smart as the plumber?

May 3, 2011
Recently, my daughter decided to redo her kitchen. Her formica countertops were marred and her old cast iron sink had sunk into rattiness. The faucet was the cheapest of the cheap and since the kitchen is at the very front of the house she wanted to dress the sink up also.
She and I had great fun at the Habitat for Humanity store near the capitol in OKC. (There is probably a salvage store near you too. The HfH store the sell goods donated by overstocked builders and decorators as well as some used fixtures like chandaliers and furniture) She got a  shiney new stainless steel double sink and a fancy new Delta faucet for under a hundred dollars. She bought the big 12″ ceramic tiles at Home Depot along with the high grade thinset mortar. The cheap stuff is not worth the time. Don’t even think about it! I learned to do tile years ago through printed tutorials from Home Depot (Home Depot is one of my very favorite stores and we own stock in it), and asking the sales clerks there lots of questions. If a contractor comes into the store to buy something I’m looking at, I ask them questions too. They’ve always been super nice about answering which materials or tools they like best and why.
Tricia’s original counter had flat edges, so she laid the new tile directly on the old counter. She cut the tile with a plasplugs wet saw she borrowed from me, (a great tool for the occasional project).  When the tile was all set and grouted, (and looking fantastic) it was time to install the sink. We quickly realized that the under the sink shutoff was no good nor was the house shutoff in good order and had to shut the water off at the street.
  A few things to know: In OK the common practice is to glue rather than screw plumbing fixtures together. Less likely to leak, less likely to be sucessfully replaced by an amature.
  We got it apart, got the faucet installed on the sink but absolutely could not get the old water supply pipe off the inlet. We knew HOW to do it, but it just wouldn’t happen. We struggled, muttering and mumbling about inferior workmanship etc. until at last it seemed like it MIGHT be secure. We turned the water back on with fingers and toes all crossed…Drip drip drip. I gave the nut a quarter turn and the whole thing blasted off the pipe, shooting water all through the lower cabinets. I jammed my finger into the pipe, shouting for her to turn it off.  She’s got very good water pressure and my finger in the pipe succeeded in redirecting the spray into my face and every other semi-dry place within 20 feet.
So we called a plumber. He was there in 15 minutes and the pipe was all fixed and assembled with a new fitting in about 5more. He charged about $50. He explained that having the right tool keeps him in business. He wasn’t mad that we tried to do without his services. His certifiably low riding pants and high riding shirt instilled great confidence that the job was done right and would last forever.
 What does this have to do with saving money and time? I want to point out the fact that this is the worst case senerio.  If we’d called a plumber to do the little tasks of disconnecting and  installing the faucet and sink and drain pipes, it would have cost 4 times as much. So, by doing as much as you can and then calling an expert when you really need them, you’ll save a lot of money. Tricia spent a total of about $450 for new countertops, sink and kitchen faucet. I would estimate that the upgrade added about $2000. to her home. A little bit of hard work and inconvenience paid off with a more royal lifestyle.  (I’ll ask her to send a picture so I can prove it, but she’s at work right now.)
  

Princess’s daily tip: Horseless carriage

May 2, 2011
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
This old American addage still applies today. But if that’s already your mode and you’re wearing out an older car, it might be burning oil without showing any signs of leaking. This happens when a little grit gets through the air filter into the oil and then gets caught between the cylinder and piston. It makes a tiny groove on the inside of the cylinder and a bit of oil leaks into the combustion chamber and is combusted with the fuel.
 So the tip of the day is to go run your car(s) for about 5 minutes, shut off the engine(s) and after a minute or so, pull out the dip stick. (look in your manual if you don’t know where the dip stick is.) Wipe off the oil and put it all the way back in. Pull it out and the oil should be almost to the top line. If it’s nearer the bottom line or dot, add a quart of motor oil through the screw on cap on the top of the engine marked ‘oil’. The type you need will be either on the top of the engine or in your manual. Check the level again with the dipstick and see if it’s up to the top. Add gradually so you don’t overfill. Replace the screw on cap on the top of your engine.
   Our little corolla burns almost a quart of oil per fuel fill-up. It doesn’t smoke (but it does take alchohol). It’s getting close to 200,000 miles. It’s dinged and scratched but I want it to last through the summer at least. If it burns out all its oil, the engine will sieze and it will throw a rod and we’ll have it towed to the salvage yard. Insurance doesn’t cover it. Do this today! It is not a man’s job, it’s a driver’s job. It’s SO much easier to add oil than to shop for a new car!

(PS)I grocery shopped early this morning. I found boneless chicken breasts for $1.80 lb. when I got home, I spent 15 minutes bottling 12 pints of chicken. Now it’s ready to eat, needs no refridgeration and I can have chicken sandwiches, barbeque pulled chicken, chicken enchaladas etc in a few minutes. Want instructions?

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