Spending Less 101 » DIY

Crazy Savings: Saving Money on Pickles

John — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:09:29 +0000

I know this might seem kind of strange, but I thought I’d get back into blogging about saving money, and I am starting by passing on information on saving money on pickle.

Really, the only way to save money on pickles is to can your own, so here are some links on canning your own pickles:

Why pickles? It was the first thing that came to mind. More tomorrow.

It’s Time For Yard Work

John — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:41:21 +0000

It’s that time of year again and I am about to spend money to get my yard ready for the spring and summer seasons. Do I have to spend money? Probably not. These days, however, convenience has prevailed over keeping money in my wallet.

If you are ready to get your yard ready, but you feel compelled to do it cheaply…or free, here are some ideas that can get you going in the right direction:

Golf Shoes - Put on a pair of golf shoes and take a stroll around your yard for 15-20 minutes. Make sure you get into the corners and that you follow a pattern so you can hit every part of the yard. In the spring, you should core aerate your yard. If you don’t want to rent an aerator, golf shoes will do an OK job and won’t cost you any money.
Overseeding – I can’t help you with this one, other than to say that you should reduce the size of your yard by setting up a garden. This will reduce the amount of seed you need to purchase. You can also just skip overseeding and let your yard thicken naturally. This will take years, though so be prepared to have some patience while your neighbor spends hundreds of dollars to make you look bad.
Fertilizer – YES, you can make your own fertilizer. Instead of wasting two more sentences talking about something I know nothing about, here are some links where you can find out more:
Catch the Rain - If you want to water your yard and not have to pay a fortune, you can catch the rain water. This is something I am going to try this year. It’s somewhat difficult if you live in an area that has a lot of mosquitos because they breed in water. You can’t have an open-top rain catcher. Here are some links to some ways to make your own rain catcher.

I hope this information helps you save some money and get your yard ready for spring.

Recent Savings on Car Repair

John — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:02:10 +0000

A yer or two ago, Firestone told me that my bearings were going out. A second trip to Firestone yielded the same diagnosis, along with a refusal to perform an all-wheel-alignment on my vehicle. Since I purchased the lifetime all-wheel alignment package, they would have been doing this work for free. I believed them concerning the diagnosis, but did not have the $800 to get the job done.

Finally, I decided to take care of this problem. I am going to have my car for a while and I wanted to get new tires. I can’t get tires unless I can get an alignment, You get the picture.

Replacing the hub bearings is not something I have done before. I decided to see if someone had a video on YouTube detailing this procedure. What do you know? I found a video detailing the procedure on my exact car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-TsTn-3ktk

It took me about 6 hours, but it was worth it. First, I would have probably spent the day laying on the couch, so it was a productive day. After all was said and done, I spent $332.00 on the whole project, which also included replacing my front brakes and rotors (which were not in that $800 price mentioned above). I actually saved about $650.00.

My tires will be installed this coming Saturday. It’s not always financially feasible to do it yourself. Each instance needs to be examined to determine if taking the time to do it is worth it. I’d have to say that, in this case, it was worth it.

Looking to save some money as winter sets in???

John — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:04:18 +0000

There are plenty of ideas that have been presented here before. I am going to represent some of these ideas and some new ideas. We all want to keep from spending money when there is no need to (unless you are rich).

Insulate Hot Water Pipes – Insulating your hot water pipes can save a lot of money during the cold weather months. It can even save you money during the warm weather months. If the purpose of your AC unit is to cool the air in the house and heat is escaping from your hot water pipes into the air, you are paying money to cool the air you are paying to heat.

Convert to CFLs – In the winter months, you might think it would be OK to have your light bulbs heating up the air in your house, however, the amount of energy being lost by way of heat does not equate to what would be saved from the change over to CFLs.

Replace Your Furnace Filter – Running your furnace with a dirty filter in place can be costly to your wallet. All that additional dirt creates resistance.

Thermostat Tips – Aside from getting a set back thermostat, there are some other tips you can apply to your thermostat usage that can help you to save big.

There are plenty more ideas. Stay tuned to this blog…

Insulate Your Hot Water Pipes

John — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Research indicates that humans lose most of their heat through their heads and that if we are going to be out in the cold, we need to have something on our heads. The same goes for hot water pipes in the house.

Between 2 and 4 degrees of heat is lost in pipes that are not insulated. If that 2-4 degrees were not lost, the thermostat on those water heaters could be set a bit lower, saving money on the monthly gas or electric bill.

You should insulate all pipes that you can see. Pipe sleeves are the most common type of hot water pipe insulation, but there are others. The typical pipe sleeve is made from polyethylene or neoprene foam. You need to match the inside diameter of the pipe sleeve to the diameter of the pipe being insulated.

More information on insulating water pipes can be found:

A Month Of Savings – 07/11/2008

John — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:50:51 +0000

I always thought that if you can get something for free, the only better deal than that is the one where you get paid to take something of value away. Well, I didn’t get paid, but I did strike gold today on Freecycle.

I am a member of the Freecycle group in St. Louis, MO. I was watching the posts today, and a post entitled “OFFER: Power lawn mower, 63130″. When I contacted the person, they told me “Yard Machine power mower with 4 horse power engine, about 8 years old. Won’t start. Needs work.” I decided to take it because I was the first person to respond, I know someone who works on mowers, and I need a mower.

When I got it, it looked like it had been kept up. On the way home, I purchased an air filter, a spark plug, a blade sharpener attachment for my drill, and some 30 weight oil. I started working on it at 5:34pm. By 5:57pm, I was done and it started on the first pull. Check out the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUOki0lJMFs

A new mower like this would normally run around $150. A used one in good condition would, by my guess, be about $60-$80. The mower was free and I spent $15.70 (w/tax) on the tune-up parts. My net gain was between $44.30-$64.30.

I could turn around and sell the mower for $80, but I need one so I’m keeping it. This experience has made me think that I could probably do this again and get another mower to sell.