Category: Intentional Spending

Over the years, I’ve noticed two areas that are the first to go on my kids’ shoes: 1) the heel; and 2) the sole begins to separate from the top.

As far as the heel getting run down, I don’t have any inexpensive solutions – getting taps put on can cost more than you’d pay for a pair of used shoes, though it’s worth it if you’ve bought an expensive pair of shoes at top dollar.  (But I only buy good quality shoes at low dollar, lol!)  So my choice is when the heels are run down, I retire the shoes to the circular file.  But today I fixed my dd8’s Shabbos shoe that had a separating sole, and thought I’d share my very easy solution!

The answer is Shoe Goo. Shoe Goo is a transparent glue that you can buy for just a few dollars in the shoe department of your local Walmart.  It can glue leather, rubber, vinyl, and canvas.  You can use it to seal your boots, reattach a broken heel, and to reseal the sole and upper when they begin to come apart.  You just spread a little glue on the area that needs repair, and hold it closed for a few minutes until it holds the seal.

Since I’ve often found that the shoes can begin to separate when they are otherwise in excellent condition, this has been very valuable in extending the life of shoes around here.  It takes just a small amount of Shoe Goo to fix a shoe, and a tube contains over 3.5 oz and can last for a lot of shoes.  I’ve also found it useful for sneakers, to reattach the rubber tip at the top that begins to detach – that’s not a problem that affects the functionality, but fixing it keeps sneakers looking new longer.

Avivah

A while back, I wanted to see if I could inexpensively extend the amount of time my dishwashing liquid lasted, as it seems that we just blow through it.  Part of that is that my kids do dishes, and they aren’t conservative about how much they use.  And since they wash dishes, I’m not going to complain that they’re using too much soap. 

But still, making what you have last longer is an inherent part of saving money, so I was thinking about options.  One was to make my own dishwashing liquid, an idea I’ll eventually try but haven’t done yet.  What I did start doing several weeks ago was the following:

Take a bottle of the dishwashing liquid you buy, and then empty half of it into another bottle.  Fill the bottle with the liquid 1/4 of the way with ammonia, and the remaining 1/4 fill with either water or vinegar (I used water but vinegar would have more cleaning power).  Give it a shake, and use it the same way you’d use your regular dishwashing liquid. 

I was very happy with this mixture, since it cuts the grease much more effectively than the store bought stuff, and I needed to use less to get the dishes clean.  I mixed up a new batch of it tonight (this takes literally a few seconds), which reminded me to share this tip with you!

Avivah

On Purim day, my kids announced to me that our front door was cracking.  I took a look, and sure enough, the narrow edge of it where it locks was beginning to splinter.  Since it’s the original door and this house was built 70 years ago, it’s had a good long life, and it can’t be expected to last forever, especially with all the coming and going it endures with our family.  I mentioned it to my dh, but things were then busy with Pesach preparations and other things he had to take care of, and it wasn’t really urgent.  So it wasn’t until three weeks ago when it got so bad that I couldn’t lock the door that I strongly urged him to take care of it. 

Taking care of it meant replacing the door, no small quickie project, and one that he admitted he really didn’t want to do, the real reason he wasn’t getting around to it.  So off we went to Home Depot to order a door and pay someone else to do it.  Once there we learned that to replace our current door with the least expensive door and to have it installed would be around $400 – $500, and it would take another six weeks until they could do it.  I really didn’t want a door that didn’t lock for another six weeks, and that seemed like way too much money just for a simple door.  So back home we went, without ordering the door!  Dh started reading about how to replace doors, and a couple of days later, brought home a brand new preframed door from a building supply place for 50% of Home Depot’s price, for the exact same door – just $80 including tax.

Buying it was the easy part.  The big part of the project was putting it in.  So a week and a half ago on Friday (Friday is his day off which isn’t the best day for big projects, but that’s when things happen around here), the kids pulled the frame of the old door off with a crowbar, and he spent the rest of the afternoon installing it.  By the time Shabbos came in, I was relieved that we had a new door in place – sort of.  Our door frame isn’t a standard size, and the standard size door is two inches shorter than our frame, which means he needed to build the frame down to properly fit the door we bought (the alternative was custom ordering a door to fit the space, which was much more expensive).  So the door was in, but there was still a 2 inch gap at the top.  Fortunately it wasn’t very cold and it wasn’t hot enough to have to worry about mosquitoes, but still, it’s not the kind of situation you want to have long term, you know?

But it stayed like that until the following Friday, and then he built the door frame down.  Now there was no gap, and it looked a lot better, but it still didn’t look finished because he needed to insulate the door, paint the woodwork, and replace the molding on the inside of the door.  Well, we’re getting close to having it done – it’s now well insulated, the molding is on, and all that’s left is to paint the frame.  Oh, and I want him to put the little viewer thing and a mail slot, but that’s kind of extra. 

One thing that’s nice about doing your own repairs, aside from the money you save (and that’s not unsubstantial – if it was the same cost he’d rather have someone else do it!), is that you can often do a better and more thorough job than those you would pay.  My dh added in a security feature he read about to make it harder to break in, and the insulation he added should keep out cold air leaks in the winter.  (Leaks around windows and doors let in a surprising amount of cold.)

To keep the costs down, he reused as much lumber from the original door frame as he could, turning it over so that the unused side was facing out. He also reused the original molding.  It got a bit chipped in the process of removing it, but once it’s touched up, it will look fine. Using two strategies – ‘do instead of buy’, and ‘shop at home’ (ie, see what you already have that can be used before going to the store) have so far saved us around $400 on this one project alone, so I’d say his time was well spent!

Avivah

I was planning to take the kids out tonight for a cheap scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robbins, but had a change in my plans.  First of all, our homeschooling gathering is today, and the friend who is hosting told me she’ll be serving a meat meal.  Waiting six hours for the kids to be dairy means it would be late at night when we went out for the ice cream, and that doesn’t sound very fun to me.  

Secondly, my two littlest ones seem to have come down with a stomach bug.  Even if we weren’t having a late fleishig (meat) lunch, I won’t feed them ice cream when their systems are already down.  But – I’m sharing the information in case any of you want to take advantage of this offer.  Here are details: http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Spotlight/31CentScoopNight.aspx?cid=718465&jid=17365689&mc=XX&eid=1323989&cmpid=email_ext_000019_1

Be prepared for a long line.  If you can, you might want to go at the very beginning (the hours are 5 – 10, so get there before 5), so that your wait won’t be as long.  The advantage of waiting longer is it gives your children more time to decide what flavor they want – you need to know by the time you get up to the front and they’re ready to serve you.

The last time I went was two years ago, and someone came over to me and told me she wanted to pay for our entire family’s ice creams.  And when we got to the front, sure enough, she had paid for double scoops for everyone – wasn’t that nice?  But even if you don’t have the good fortune that we had to get free ice cream, it’s still quite inexpensive and a nice treat.   We only go out for ice cream on bargain or free nights (meaning once or twice a year, max), so it keeps it special for the kids. 

Avivah

Today I received an order of cloth diapers that I ordered especially for nighttime usage.  These diapers, and almost all of the diapers that I bought in the past were from www.clothdiaper.com – their prices are low and if you don’t care about getting a name brand diaper, you can get well made diapers for about half what it would cost otherwise.  (It’s not so good for resale, though, since people like to buy known names when they buy used.  But I wasn’t concerned with that.)  They have a sliding scale as far as pricing, with increased discounts depending on the amount you buy.  Not only that, they regularly have sales on seconds (almost always prefolds and doublers), and then you can get really super deals.  I have 24 large fitteds from them that I’ve used simultaneously since last year for my two youngest (24 because that gave me the biggest discount, and size large because it’s the size most babies wear for the longest time), as well as 4 dozen Indian prefolds, and I’ve been very pleased with them.

The diaper sprayer that we bought at the same time we made those purchases was still untouched in the box (after more than ten months), and in the name of trying to help him through his to-do list, I finally decided to forget about asking my husband to install it.  (I think he had totally forgotten about it, so he didn’t feel like it was one thing less, but I knew that it was! :))  (And since I’ve been using fleece inserts – which I love! – I really don’t feel a need for the sprayer, anyway.  Solids fall right off of them into the toilet, no need for swishing.)  And of course, it doesn’t make sense to pay for something that you’re never going to use – you might as return the item and get some of your money back. 

About a week and a half ago, late Thursday night, I was browsing the cloth diaper site to see about their return policy, and noticed that they had all-in-ones in the ‘seconds’ listing.  (All in ones -AIOs- for those unfamiliar with cloth diapering terms, means that they don’t require inserts or a waterproof cover – they are one piece and are most similar to disposable diapers.  They are the most expensive cloth diapering option, but generally considered the easiest to use.)  These weren’t actually seconds, but prototypes from the first production run.  The company decided after doing more research and getting feedback that they were too thick for daily wear so this won’t be the final design that is coming out in a month or so, but they would be good for nighttime wear (which is when I have been unsuccessful so far in using cloth).  The diapers were selling for the extremely low price of $4.95 each, which was so super cheap that it was too good a deal for me to pass up (I couldn’t make them that cheaply even if I wanted to!). 

First thing the next morning, I called the company to ask about the return policy and order some of these diapers.  I was going to do an even exchange (of diapers for the sprayer), but decided to buy the diapers right away rather than take the chance they wouldn’t have the size I wanted by the time they received the diaper sprayer.  That ended up being a really good thing, for two reasons.  It seems I was the very first person to order the AIOs- they had been posted after business hours the night before (right when I saw them), so the person handling the orders hadn’t even yet heard about it.  Anyway, I ordered 2 size medium, 4 large, and 4 toddler size for $4.95 each.  I checked back at the site two days later on Sunday (I placed my order on Friday), and they had raised the price to $5.95 each, so ordering right away meant I got a price that very few people got (I don’t know how soon after my call they raised the price).  Still a very good deal at that price, but I was glad to have saved $10 by ordering right then – if they had waited for my diaper sprayer to arrive, I would have been charged the higher price.

Not only that, but today I called to ask a question about how to prep the diapers, and inquired about if they received the sprayer yet.  They had received it, but not yet processed the return.  I asked her how many diapers there had been initially in the production run, and how many they had left.  She told me they were sold out of every size but small (they still have 90 of those left).  They initially had fewer than 150 diapers in each size.  I knew there was a strong likelihood that they would be sold out fast, and feel badly that I didn’t share the details in time for you to benefit from the full selection of sizes available.  It was because I don’t generally share about something until I’ve used it and am happy with it that I didn’t post sooner.  In this case, I still haven’t used them – we washed them a couple of times to prep them and will use them tonight on ds3- they look very soft and absorbent -but thought I should post this in case any of you would be interested in the small size.

Avivah 

I mentioned in response to the concern about using raw eggs in the Pesach ice cream recipe that we try to use eggs that are from the farmer whenever we can (not always), but realize that it sounds like a foreign idea to a lot of people.  Free range eggs are much higher in nutritional value, and though you can find them in the health food store, they tend to be pricey.  Don’t think that eating well means paying high prices.  Sometimes it does and it’s often worth it, but it doesn’t have to be significantly more than the regular eggs you buy.

 I was able to find farm fresh eggs from the dairy farmer that I get our raw milk from – they have neighbors who provide the eggs for sale and bring the eggs to the little one room ‘store’ where the milk is sold.  Then I found an Amish store that sells what looks like regular eggs, but I found out that the eggs are provided by different Amish workers from their private farms.  None of these eggs are expensive – they’re about the same price as regular eggs in the store.  I’ve also seen signs when driving through rural areas ‘Eggs for sale’, though I’ve never stopped to buy because I already have sources I’m happy with.  In fact, just today I saw a sign I never noticed before for fresh eggs for $1 a dozen (I had already bought my eggs or I would have stopped to buy them here – next time!), and today I also noticed someone who had a large number of chickens in their backyard – so I made a mental note of the address in case I ever wanted to ask them about if they sell their eggs.

Another option is to look on Craig’s List.  I’ve seen people advertising their farm fresh eggs a number of times, usually priced from $2 – $4 a dozen.  Look in the ‘farm/garden’ section to see what your local options are.  You can also visit a farmer’s market and chat with the people selling there to find out about local options.  More and more people across the country are raising chickens in their own backyards (did you know even in many urban areas, it’s legal to raise chicken? – in our city, I’d be allowed to have four), people who aren’t officially farming but have eggs that they might be willing to sell or barter for.   I know someone just a few minutes away from me, in the same semi-urban neighborhood I live in, who has a few chickens.  I’m sure I could buy eggs from her. 

My daughters volunteered for three years at a small hobby farm that had chickens, and the woman there sold the eggs on a small scale basis.  The people who bought from her all heard about her through word of mouth; she didn’t do any advertising of any sort.  My girls at one point each had a chicken that they were raising on that farm, and when we decided they needed to sell their chickens, we met another local woman who purchased them.  She’s just a fifteen minute drive from our neighborhood, and also has chickens; I asked her if she sells the eggs, and she said she did.  

So there are lots of good options to buying from the health food store, and eating these eggs raw shouldn’t pose a health concern!

Avivah

My sink faucet has been loose for a while, resulting in slight leaking into the cabinet below, which was annoying but manageable since I put a dishpan there to catch the water.  Recently the top of the faucet started coming off when we turned the water on – I think it was a little disconcerting for a couple of guests to turn it on with the intent to fill up the washing cup, and have a piece of it end up in their hands!  So the time to replace it had finally come. 

Dh bought a replacement for it, but as you might have realized, he has more things to do around here than time to do them!  So the replacement faucet has been sitting on top of the computer for over a month, waiting to be replaced.  Today dh took care of it, and the kids learned some new home repair skills in the process.  We’re an equal opportunity home – boys and girls get to learn useful skills, regardless of what gender traditionally performs them – girls have learned to drywall and cut tile, and boys cook and do dishes. 

Today dh and ds15 wrestled the old sink out – part of the piece below the sink had rusted and what should have been a quick and easy repair job became very time consuming and laborious.  Once they got the hacksaw out and cut through the metal pipe, the rest went quickly.  Dd12 put in the new faucet once the old one was out of the way.  It’s a nice feeling of accomplishment for her, to have done it herself and to see the very visual difference. 

Once again, being willing to learn to take care of our own repairs has saved us a bundle, while simultaneously teaching our children practical skills that will stand them in good stead!  Now, on to the next project….

Avivah