Ryan - Today we decided to buy a new fixture for our shower, because the existing one has been broken since we've owned the home. The reason we decided now was because of the student living with us. So I went to Home Depot and got it for $8. Talking to Lizzy today, we decided to return it and just deal with it. I like that we are back to truly analyzing our spending and distinguishing between want and need.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Days 134-142 (December 28th-January 5th)
Ryan - I know I spoke about keeping up on our blog. Our goal hit a speed bump, which I'll let Lizzy explain. We were tempted to not do our goal anymore and then decided to post only when we deemed important. But with encouragement from family, we will keep entering our adventures daily.
I suppose this is natural to have a set back and use it as an opportunity to learn and grow stronger in areas of our weakness. I'm glad to be back on track. I'd hate to give up now since we've gone so long at a steady (not perfect) pace.
Just to bring our situation up to date. We took on a Korean student in our home, to help out a friend and make some extra money. Her name is So Hui and she doesn't speak much English, but we are getting by. She's really nice and quiet (due to her nature and language barrier). We had to buy some bedding for her. We had to use the paint we were going to use to finish up our hallway, but Jack's bedroom need to be painted since she was going to stay in his room, so we thought it would be a good time for painting it. We did by some tape for painting the room. We borrowed a picture from Lizzy's mother to have something on the walls.
A big struggle with the temperatures dropping so low here in Utah is our windows let in so much of the cold. I'm sure our heating bill is a lot higher because of this. The frames are forming ice inside and then they melt and peal the paint back around the windows. By coincidence, a window company called and asked if they could estimate a cost to replace our windows in your home. I agreed to have them come by. We weren't going to buy, but I was curious about the price. Well it was a lot to say the least. Three window in our living room were going to cost $3000 at their "wholesale" price. Our neighbor across the street is getting 13 windows done for $4600. Of course the sales person said that he'll be replacing them in 3-4 years and they guarantee theirs for the life, because they are much better quality. This may be a good deal, but my mind thought, if we stay in our house for another 10 years and we can't afford the higher priced windows, we might as well stay pat and save our money, because we'll have to buy new windows in 3-4 years and that would equal the cost of the more expensive windows. That being said, when we do have money, I think we should get new ones, you can feel the cold air penetrate inside when you stand next to the windows. I think our utilities savings may justify this as well. We just need to decide if we are going to stay long term in this house. If we are then we should replace the window immediately after we decide to start saving on utilities. One thing I did learn is that we sometimes justify the need for quality to spend more money. Which I'm all for, but you need to decide if you'll be able to recoup the cost over the long term. Another factor to include is to determine if it's a want or a need. Most of the time if it's a want, then the cheaper priced item is the wise choice and conversely, if it's a need, quality generally is the way to go as the extra cost will be justified by savings in the long term.
Yesterday (January 5th), I started the truck in the morning and put on the emergency brake. Lizzy was going out to her car and asked where the truck was (thinking it was stolen). We'll it was worse than that. It rolled across the street and down our hill and ran over our neighbors mailboxes and knocked down the street light. I ran out immediately and moved the truck and called the power company. Later that day, I had to buy new post for the mailboxes and spend my evening installing them. It took just over an hour, but it cost me about $60 in those repairs and who know how much the power company will charge for the damage to the light pole. We may have to let the insurance pay for it once we cover the deductible.
Losses:
Total $3693.60 - "want" spending (TBD by Lizzy)
I suppose this is natural to have a set back and use it as an opportunity to learn and grow stronger in areas of our weakness. I'm glad to be back on track. I'd hate to give up now since we've gone so long at a steady (not perfect) pace.
Just to bring our situation up to date. We took on a Korean student in our home, to help out a friend and make some extra money. Her name is So Hui and she doesn't speak much English, but we are getting by. She's really nice and quiet (due to her nature and language barrier). We had to buy some bedding for her. We had to use the paint we were going to use to finish up our hallway, but Jack's bedroom need to be painted since she was going to stay in his room, so we thought it would be a good time for painting it. We did by some tape for painting the room. We borrowed a picture from Lizzy's mother to have something on the walls.
A big struggle with the temperatures dropping so low here in Utah is our windows let in so much of the cold. I'm sure our heating bill is a lot higher because of this. The frames are forming ice inside and then they melt and peal the paint back around the windows. By coincidence, a window company called and asked if they could estimate a cost to replace our windows in your home. I agreed to have them come by. We weren't going to buy, but I was curious about the price. Well it was a lot to say the least. Three window in our living room were going to cost $3000 at their "wholesale" price. Our neighbor across the street is getting 13 windows done for $4600. Of course the sales person said that he'll be replacing them in 3-4 years and they guarantee theirs for the life, because they are much better quality. This may be a good deal, but my mind thought, if we stay in our house for another 10 years and we can't afford the higher priced windows, we might as well stay pat and save our money, because we'll have to buy new windows in 3-4 years and that would equal the cost of the more expensive windows. That being said, when we do have money, I think we should get new ones, you can feel the cold air penetrate inside when you stand next to the windows. I think our utilities savings may justify this as well. We just need to decide if we are going to stay long term in this house. If we are then we should replace the window immediately after we decide to start saving on utilities. One thing I did learn is that we sometimes justify the need for quality to spend more money. Which I'm all for, but you need to decide if you'll be able to recoup the cost over the long term. Another factor to include is to determine if it's a want or a need. Most of the time if it's a want, then the cheaper priced item is the wise choice and conversely, if it's a need, quality generally is the way to go as the extra cost will be justified by savings in the long term.
Yesterday (January 5th), I started the truck in the morning and put on the emergency brake. Lizzy was going out to her car and asked where the truck was (thinking it was stolen). We'll it was worse than that. It rolled across the street and down our hill and ran over our neighbors mailboxes and knocked down the street light. I ran out immediately and moved the truck and called the power company. Later that day, I had to buy new post for the mailboxes and spend my evening installing them. It took just over an hour, but it cost me about $60 in those repairs and who know how much the power company will charge for the damage to the light pole. We may have to let the insurance pay for it once we cover the deductible.
Losses:
Total $3693.60 - "want" spending (TBD by Lizzy)
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