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Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: PencilThinStash on August 03, 2016, 03:47:42 PM

Title: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: PencilThinStash on August 03, 2016, 03:47:42 PM
Not sure what brought this to mind today, but it's a funny memory and I figured I'd share it with y'all:

One summer in high school, I went out of town for a few days with my parents. Don't remember the exact reason, probably a college visit or something. Younger siblings went to stay at friends' houses in the neighborhood. BrotherStash was probably in 7th grade at the time, and it was his responsibility to come home for a little bit every day and take care of the pets.

My parents and I get home a few days later, walk into the house and notice - It's absolutely freezing inside. BrotherStash comes in a few minutes later, and we immediately ask why it's so cold.

BrotherStash: "Well, whenever we leave town in the winter, you always turn the thermostat way down so that we don't have to pay for heat... I thought that since none of us were home this weekend, I'd help save you some money on the heating bill!"

Fantastic intentions, but young and dumb and just didn't think it through.

Height of summer, easily 95 degrees outside that week. Fairly large house with a lot of windows, tons of natural light that kept things pretty toasty... and he set the thermostat in the low 60s. For 3 or 4 days.

We laughed so hard, but I don't even want to imagine what it did to their electric bill that month.

Anyone else have similar stories of good intentions gone bad?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ender on August 03, 2016, 04:29:05 PM
That makes me glad I just bought a wifi programmable thermostat. Which can alert me for different thresholds. :P
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: scrubbyfish on August 03, 2016, 11:23:33 PM
Awwwww....! A hilarious and sweet story!! :)))
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on August 04, 2016, 12:30:27 PM
The grown son (20s) who put dishwashing liquid in his mother's dishwasher.

She went out of town, he dropped by unexpectedly, decided to load the dishwasher (apparently a rarity to help around the house). Used dishwasher liquid. Left.

Bubbles. Lots of bubbles!

Don't know that anything was damaged.

Years ago: friend's wife washer their new white car with soap impregnated steel wool....
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: cheapass on August 04, 2016, 12:34:22 PM
Purchased a sectional couch. Told the salesman I didn't want their $99 delivery bullshit; I'd rent a trailer for $20 and transport it myself.

Well, turns out I didn't tie one of the sections down well enough and it flew out on the expressway. Had to order a new piece for several hundred dollars and wait 6 weeks for it. I got it delivered. :(
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Hunny156 on August 04, 2016, 02:57:00 PM
It was summer, and our neighbor invited us over.  Mom & I went ahead, my (older) sister was coming right behind us.  After about an hour and no sister arriving, Mom sent me back home to see what was taking her so long.  I walked in the front door and noticed a trail of water coming down our very long hallway, nearly down the stairs.  I called out to my sister, who was in a panic.  I took my socks off to walk down the wet hallway, to find her in the bathroom, with the toilet overflowing.  She was filling up buckets and dumping them down the bathtub drain, and had been doing so for a while, trying to stem the flow.  I was probably 10, and I turned off the water to the toilet.  I didn't know if i would work, but it made sense to me to try!

We called my mom back over, and we all spent the rest of the afternoon mopping everything up, getting things off the floors in the closets that had flooded, etc.  Not one of us thought about what might have happened below us, in our tenant's apartment.  I felt horrible for her when she came home from work, surveyed the damage, and then rang our bell.  Doh!  I can only imagine what it cost my parents to fix that water damage, but I will always remember my sister furiously filling and dumping buckets of water, hoping that the flow of water would eventually stop.  Root cause analysis was never her thing...
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: TheGrimSqueaker on August 04, 2016, 03:13:01 PM
The grown son (20s) who put dishwashing liquid in his mother's dishwasher.

She went out of town, he dropped by unexpectedly, decided to load the dishwasher (apparently a rarity to help around the house). Used dishwasher liquid. Left.

Bubbles. Lots of bubbles!

Don't know that anything was damaged.

My father achieved the same effect while we were visiting his parents one summer. I think he would have been about 46. He was trying to show off how well he could do household chores, and I think his goal was to impress his dad who had taken over a lot of the cleaning and cooking after Grandma's stroke. Suds were pretty much exploding everywhere as if the dishwasher had rabies. There was some cleanup afterwards for the floor and also the inside of the dishwasher.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Jack on August 04, 2016, 06:06:40 PM
Obligatory XKCD:

(https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/household_tips.png) (https://www.xkcd.com/1715/)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on August 05, 2016, 08:00:44 AM
The grown son (20s) who put dishwashing liquid in his mother's dishwasher.

She went out of town, he dropped by unexpectedly, decided to load the dishwasher (apparently a rarity to help around the house). Used dishwasher liquid. Left.

Bubbles. Lots of bubbles!

Don't know that anything was damaged.

My father achieved the same effect while we were visiting his parents one summer. I think he would have been about 46. He was trying to show off how well he could do household chores, and I think his goal was to impress his dad who had taken over a lot of the cleaning and cooking after Grandma's stroke. Suds were pretty much exploding everywhere as if the dishwasher had rabies. There was some cleanup afterwards for the floor and also the inside of the dishwasher.

These are good skills to teach your kids along the way. ;) Home economics, personal finance, some basic home maintenance, and basic vehicle maintenance. I was sent into the world with only a couple of these topics well covered.  The school of hard knocks provided the rest. Expensive tuition at that school... ;) It isn't cheap to be ignorant.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: misshathaway on August 05, 2016, 09:31:32 AM
Went to bargain movie day when the tickets are $6. Parked in the municipal lot. You buy the ticket and put it in the windshield. 2 hours for $1 and 50 cents for each additional half hour. I arrived less than 15 mins early and I thought the movie would be less than 2 hours running. Bought a $1 ticket because I did not want to waste 50 cents.

Got to the car 10 mins after the 2 hours, cuz previews. $25 dollar parking ticket.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Mississippi Mudstache on August 05, 2016, 09:36:56 AM
Obligatory XKCD:

(https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/household_tips.png) (https://www.xkcd.com/1715/)

Best comic strip since Gary Larson and Bill Watterson put down the pencil.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Miss Piggy on August 05, 2016, 09:48:35 AM
The school of hard knocks provided the rest. Expensive tuition at that school... ;) It isn't cheap to be ignorant.

And the loans aren't cheap, either!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Inaya on August 05, 2016, 10:26:34 AM
Pinterest has so many lovely DIY wedding ideas. Favors, flowers, cakes, and whathaveyou.

"I know! I'll DIY some stuff and save money!"
*buys lots of supplies*
"Wow, I suck at DIY."
"Like I really suck at DIY."
"Screw this I'll buy it off Etsy."

So instead of buying it in the first place. I spent money on supplies, wasted time in my attempt to DIY, then ended up buying it anyway.

Turns out I'm more the Assemble-It-Yourself type than actual DIY.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: clarkfan1979 on August 07, 2016, 09:47:01 PM
One of my friends bragged about not taking out any student loans to finish undergrad. I asked him how he made it work. He told me that he maxed out a couple credit cards.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: johnny847 on August 07, 2016, 10:40:05 PM
One of my friends bragged about not taking out any student loans to finish undergrad. I asked him how he made it work. He told me that he maxed out a couple credit cards.

I mean this could still be smart if they were on 0% APR cards and he either paid them off by the end of the promo rate or he did a balance transfer to another 0% card.
But this is highly unlikely.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: kite on August 08, 2016, 01:14:08 AM
One of my friends bragged about not taking out any student loans to finish undergrad. I asked him how he made it work. He told me that he maxed out a couple credit cards.

I mean this could still be smart if they were on 0% APR cards and he either paid them off by the end of the promo rate or he did a balance transfer to another 0% card.
But this is highly unlikely.
Fully dischargeable in bankruptcy.. 
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ender on August 08, 2016, 07:22:38 AM
One of my friends bragged about not taking out any student loans to finish undergrad. I asked him how he made it work. He told me that he maxed out a couple credit cards.

I mean this could still be smart if they were on 0% APR cards and he either paid them off by the end of the promo rate or he did a balance transfer to another 0% card.
But this is highly unlikely.
Fully dischargeable in bankruptcy..

Step 1: attend expensive college on credit cards
Step 2: graduate
Step 3: start working fulltime
Step 4: file bankruptcy
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: No Name Guy on August 08, 2016, 07:26:29 AM
Step 5:  Have cc company object and force you into Chapter 13, a structured repayment plan, in lieu of the implied Chapter 7 liquidation.  Pay a sh@@ ton of attorney fees and court costs as well as the debt while your life is run for you.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Dezrah on August 08, 2016, 08:03:16 AM
When I was a pre-teen, we had a toilet where about 25% of the time the flap in the tank would get stuck in the up position and would just cycle water until you opened the tank and tapped it down.  Wasn't a big deal.

But then we left for summer vacation for nearly two weeks.  We get back and I go to the bathroom where the tank is cycling water.  I knew I was the last one to leave the house after a last minute restroom stop.  I just quietly closed the flap and didn't say anything.

A few weeks later I heard my mom on the phone with the water company arguing that we had a very consistent water history so there was clearly a mistake in our bill and it should be corrected.  I don't know whether she convinced them or not since I just passed through nonchalantly whistling.

I only just recently confessed to her now that the 20 year statute of limitations has passed.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: johnny847 on August 08, 2016, 08:18:40 AM
One of my friends bragged about not taking out any student loans to finish undergrad. I asked him how he made it work. He told me that he maxed out a couple credit cards.

I mean this could still be smart if they were on 0% APR cards and he either paid them off by the end of the promo rate or he did a balance transfer to another 0% card.
But this is highly unlikely.
Fully dischargeable in bankruptcy..

Step 1: attend expensive college on credit cards
Step 2: graduate
Step 3: start working fulltime
Step 4: file bankruptcy

True, student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Dunno if it's worth ruining your credit for the next ten years in lieu of paying your credit cards that funded tuition though...
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Miss Piggy on August 08, 2016, 08:27:03 AM
When I was a pre-teen, we had a toilet where about 25% of the time the flap in the tank would get stuck in the up position and would just cycle water until you opened the tank and tapped it down.  Wasn't a big deal.

But then we left for summer vacation for nearly two weeks.  We get back and I go to the bathroom where the tank is cycling water.  I knew I was the last one to leave the house after a last minute restroom stop.  I just quietly closed the flap and didn't say anything.

A few weeks later I heard my mom on the phone with the water company arguing that we had a very consistent water history so there was clearly a mistake in our bill and it should be corrected.  I don't know whether she convinced them or not since I just passed through nonchalantly whistling.

I only just recently confessed to her now that the 20 year statute of limitations has passed.

That's a great story.

How did the confession go?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on August 08, 2016, 08:32:58 AM
She grounded him... At age thirty something... ;)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Dezrah on August 08, 2016, 09:43:45 AM
When I was a pre-teen, we had a toilet where about 25% of the time the flap in the tank would get stuck in the up position and would just cycle water until you opened the tank and tapped it down.  Wasn't a big deal.

But then we left for summer vacation for nearly two weeks.  We get back and I go to the bathroom where the tank is cycling water.  I knew I was the last one to leave the house after a last minute restroom stop.  I just quietly closed the flap and didn't say anything.

A few weeks later I heard my mom on the phone with the water company arguing that we had a very consistent water history so there was clearly a mistake in our bill and it should be corrected.  I don't know whether she convinced them or not since I just passed through nonchalantly whistling.

I only just recently confessed to her now that the 20 year statute of limitations has passed.

That's a great story.

How did the confession go?

She didn't even remember the incident.

I’m the oldest of four.  This was part of a conversation where we a few of us were copping to a whole mess of things we did as kids that our parents didn’t know.

My brother and his friends didn’t bother to inform their naïve Mormon friend that hard lemonade wasn’t just a delicious fruit drink until he was already tipsy.  My sister called me out for using the “free rides” game where I would lift them on my legs (but only if they could get there fast enough) as a way to tease all of them (she was right, kids are awful).  We knew our youngest brother was being exposed to rude language all the time when he played online games, so we told him omfg = “out of my flower garden”, wtf = “water the flowers”, lmao = “laughing my arm off” so he wouldn’t just get banned from playing.

I think after hearing all of it she was happy just to return to a state of blissful ignorance.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on August 08, 2016, 12:28:47 PM
I read something once that suggested that these confessionals had the potential to cause just as much stress many years later as the original episode would have - had the parent known their child liked to run/jump over alleys from roof to roof or fight tigers or jump the Grand Canyon on their mopeds.

I'd like to think DW and I are more clever than our children but who knows?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: frugalnacho on August 09, 2016, 09:49:25 PM
I read something once that suggested that these confessionals had the potential to cause just as much stress many years later as the original episode would have - had the parent known their child liked to run/jump over alleys from roof to roof or fight tigers or jump the Grand Canyon on their mopeds.

I'd like to think DW and I are more clever than our children but who knows?

Sounds like they got you right where they want you.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on August 10, 2016, 08:40:20 AM
The hard part is catching them in a lie and trying not to laugh at them coaching each other with whispers back and forth so their stories match. Rarely happens but it is worth a good belly laugh later.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: BTDretire on August 10, 2016, 03:33:25 PM
It was summer, and our neighbor invited us over.  Mom & I went ahead, my (older) sister was coming right behind us.  After about an hour and no sister arriving, Mom sent me back home to see what was taking her so long.  I walked in the front door and noticed a trail of water coming down our very long hallway, nearly down the stairs.  I called out to my sister, who was in a panic.  I took my socks off to walk down the wet hallway, to find her in the bathroom, with the toilet overflowing.  She was filling up buckets and dumping them down the bathtub drain, and had been doing so for a while, trying to stem the flow.  I was probably 10, and I turned off the water to the toilet.  I didn't know if i would work, but it made sense to me to try!


 Reminds me of when I was in 5th grade art class, someone broke the drinking fountain of the sink.
Water was flowing out. I quickly opened the cabinet and turned the shut off knob, the wrong way, now water
is hitting the ceiling and everyone is running, including me.
Teacher got the janitor to turn it off.
 I don't recall any ramifications for the person that broke it or me!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: TexasRunner on August 18, 2016, 12:36:13 PM
Opened a savings account to hold moderate balances (2000$ish) while being fluidly able to transfer between the account and checking account.  Made under 10$ in interest, and over 20$ in misc. transfer fees. 

Lesson learned.  Free checking account holds all my fluid money now...
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Anon in Alaska on August 18, 2016, 03:39:53 PM
1991 - changed the oil on my car myself, to save $20. Stripped bolts on oil pan, they came loose, all the oil came out, and I destroyed the car's engine driving with no oil. New engine and associated repairs -$2,300!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Jack on August 18, 2016, 04:59:31 PM
1991 - changed the oil on my car myself, to save $20. Stripped bolts on oil pan, they came loose, all the oil came out, and I destroyed the car's engine driving with no oil. New engine and associated repairs -$2,300!

$2300 in 1991 dollars -- ouch!

I hope the lesson learned was "don't strip the bolts" and not "don't change your own oil."
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: SunshineAZ on August 18, 2016, 11:09:30 PM
I have a really good one happening right now.  We are in the process of updating our counter tops and back splash.  They installed the new countertops on a Friday, but the plumber wasn't available to reconnect the plumbing until Monday.   

DH decides to try to hook it up himself, because we had already been without water in the kitchen for a week, and to save the plumbing costs.  (He is fairly handy so not a terrible idea.)  However, it turns out they cut the holes for the faucet and soap dispenser too close to the wall and the wood piece at the back of the cabinet will have to be chiseled out for them to fit.  In the process of trying to force things to fit, he somehow catches the edge of the cabinet between two ribs, twists wrong and injures them.  After 3 days of pain, he finally has me take him to the emergency room ($150.00), where they take x-rays and say they are just bruised and prescribe pain meds and rest for a few days.

The next day he coughs while walking down the hall, hears and feels a loud pop in his back and goes to the floor screaming in pain, so back to the emergency room (another $150.00) where they take more x-rays and say, oh yeah, your ribs are broken, take more pain pills and rest.  He is taking the pain pills for several days and starts complaining that his stomach is not feeling well (it is making lots of noise and hurting a lot) so I suggest that he go see his regular doctor since they told him he should do a follow up at the emergency room. 

Fortunately, his regular doctor was able to see him the next day.  He goes to the appointment, the doctor probes around and tells him to immediately go get a CT scan at the hospital.  He goes for the CT scan, which takes forever because the machine breaks, they finally fix it, finish the scan and he is told they will call him later with the results.  Since now it is late afternoon, he stops to pick up some dinner and is headed home when the hospital calls and tells him to come back immediately for surgery to remove his appendix.  Since he is almost home, he calls me to tell me to be ready to drive him back to the hospital. 

We go back to the hospital where they put him on IV antibiotics and schedule him for surgery the next day.  So yesterday he had his appendix removed, which fortunately, they were able to do laparoscopically.  So now I have a grumpy DH who just had surgery, has 2 broken ribs, and on top of everything else,  is having a somewhat rare side effect from the anesthesia where all of his muscles are extremely sore and cramping....aaaaaaand we still had to pay the plumber! 

drops mic....
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: scrubbyfish on August 19, 2016, 12:00:35 AM
Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzz, SunshineAZ! What an awful situation! Your poor, poor H! Ack.

Sure hope he recovers shortly and feels back to normal ASAP. Man, oh, man...
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: SunshineAZ on August 19, 2016, 12:17:37 AM
Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzz, SunshineAZ! What an awful situation! Your poor, poor H! Ack.

Sure hope he recovers shortly and feels back to normal ASAP. Man, oh, man...

Uhhh yeah, he is not a happy camper.  I feel bad because he is in a lot of pain, fortunately I am working mostly from home right now, so I am here to help him up and get things for him.  The bad thing is we have a diving vacation scheduled for the end of September, so he really needs to rest up and heal so he will be able to dive. 

On the plus side, I do get to say "I told you so" because I told him to just leave it for the plumber when he discovered the stuff wouldn't fit.  :P 
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mbk on September 05, 2016, 11:05:54 AM
One of my friends bragged about not taking out any student loans to finish undergrad. I asked him how he made it work. He told me that he maxed out a couple credit cards.

I mean this could still be smart if they were on 0% APR cards and he either paid them off by the end of the promo rate or he did a balance transfer to another 0% card.
But this is highly unlikely.

I did that. One card had 3% APR for the lifetime of balance. I stupidly paid it off within 2 years of graduation.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ChipmunkSavings on October 05, 2016, 06:23:55 AM
Just did one of these. I've just come back from a 2-week trip. Wanting to conserve energy while we were gone, I decided to unplug all unnecessary appliances and lights.

Now my basement smells like death, and I could not figure out why. We had shut the water as well, so figured perhaps there was stagnant water. After searching pretty much every cause (short of calling a plumber), we finally realized that the basement freezer was unplugged... Apparently, it was plugged into a radio (go figure...) and I unplugged the radio, not knowing the freezer was plugged into it.

We wasted about 200$ Worth of food, 3 huge garbage bags that stink to high heavens (and will have to wait 1.5 weeks before being picked up) and our house smells terrible. Cleanup was also not fun, to say the least. The mixture of melted meats, fruits and vegetables that have been rotting for 2 weeks in a closed container...Gross.

Needless to say, next time I'm not unplugging anything near that *$%) freezer....
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on October 05, 2016, 09:23:08 AM
You don't have access to a dump or transfer station? I couldn't get that garbage out of my house fast enough even if I had to drive across the county to landfill.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ChipmunkSavings on October 05, 2016, 10:46:43 AM
We have outside garbage bins, which are emptied by the city every two weeks. The garbage bags are in those bins, which we also hid Inside our shed (to avoid pissing off the Neighbors with the smell). The smell Inside the house is residual, considering that the freezer is now open to air it out.

We left the Windows open all night and woke up to rooms at around 15-17 C temperature. Cleared 80% of the smell, and it should fade away today. We're just hoping that the next few days will be cold enough to avoid worsening the smell.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: TheEngineer on October 05, 2016, 11:47:11 AM
Use baking soda to remove the stench from the freezer. If its just residual smell, place a bowl with half a cup of dry baking soda in the freezer overnight, and close the lid. If its bad, wipe down the freezer with cloth using baking soda dissolved in warm water. Do the bowl thing overnight when its dry.
Hope this helps…
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Miss Piggy on October 05, 2016, 12:35:08 PM
Um....I really hope those meat trash bags are tightly closed.

Several years ago, by BIL helped clean up after a barbecue. He put uneaten meat in our trash can, pretty much out in the open in our garage. (Who does this???) Within days, the stench was horrible, and I opened the trash can to see a nasty-ass collection of flies and maggots. Just about made me vomit.

More recently (like, I'm still in pain over losing half a cow...I'm so sorry, Bessie), an electrician unplugged our freezer, and we didn't notice for at least a week (oddly, there wasn't much of a smell at all). Given that earlier experience, we plugged the freezer back in and put the bagged meat back into it so it could re-freeze until trash day.  Then we deep-cleaned our deep-freeze. Ugh.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: forumname123 on October 05, 2016, 12:39:13 PM

He put uneaten meat in our trash can, pretty much out in the open in our garage. (Who does this???)

I don't get it - what should he have done instead?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Miss Piggy on October 05, 2016, 12:46:10 PM

He put uneaten meat in our trash can, pretty much out in the open in our garage. (Who does this???)

I don't get it - what should he have done instead?

At the very least, put it in a plastic bag. Ideally in something that closes (like a Ziploc).
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: robtown on October 05, 2016, 01:00:14 PM
Several years ago my daughter attended a big state school.    I set her up with a high end HP Officejet all-in-one printer with a bulk ink system.
She knocked over the ink supply onto the carpet.   The school charged us $2,000 to replace the carpet in a 10 x 15  (approx) room that used carpet squares!  I suspect they bought a few extra.   It was this, or my daughter not getting credit for the semester.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on October 05, 2016, 01:21:47 PM
I might have been motivated to buy my own carpet squares and replace them in secret! Would have required a bit of sleuthing I think. Maybe a trip to facilities and asking to see the brand name on the carpet square box. Oh we would love to put that color/pattern in our basement!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: robtown on October 05, 2016, 01:33:55 PM
I might have been motivated to buy my own carpet squares and replace them in secret! Would have required a bit of sleuthing I think. Maybe a trip to facilities and asking to see the brand name on the carpet square box. Oh we would love to put that color/pattern in our basement!

I'm not sure why I did not fight it but a lot of shit was going on at the time.    In addition, my wife had been in communication with the school,  and her karma is to have a ton of pain dropped on her for any request.   That is absolutely any request,  valid, constitutional, time-of-day, anything.   

I, on the other hand,  can ask and receive refunds from Costco three years after buying an appliance,    get slightly overdue payment penalties reversed,   etc.     Not to worry,   I have my own version of kryptonite that balances out that super power.    Oh,  any negotiation started by my wife negates my powers.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on October 05, 2016, 01:35:51 PM
I have never seen it defined so well - but yeah, it seems to work out that way for some folks.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: scrubbyfish on October 05, 2016, 10:13:21 PM
Oh no, ChipmunkSavings!!! Ugh...    Feeling for you :(

robtown, the ink story was so painful, too!! At least that one's all over...
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Cathy on October 05, 2016, 11:59:32 PM
Step 1: attend expensive college on credit cards
Step 2: graduate
Step 3: start working fulltime
Step 4: file bankruptcy

True, student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. ...

As I've noted in various past posts (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/why-are-student-loan-rates-so-high/msg1240575/#msg1240575), this is not true. The correct statement is that "student loan debt [is] presumptively nondischargeable" in bankruptcy. United Student Aid Funds v. Espinosa, 559 US 260, 277 n 13 (2010) (emphasis mine).

The presumption of nondischargeability applies, as relevant here, to "any ... educational loan that is a qualified education loan, as defined in section 221(d)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, incurred by a debtor who is an individual". 11 USC § 523 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/221)(a)(8)(B).

The term "qualified education loan" means, in relevant part, "any indebtedness incurred by the taxpayer solely to pay qualified higher education expenses ... which are incurred on behalf of the taxpayer ... which are paid or incurred within a reasonable period of time before or after the indebtedness is incurred, and ... which are attributable to education furnished during a period during which the recipient was an eligible student", subject to certain exceptions. 26 USC § 221 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/221)(d)(1)(C).

Credit card debt incurred to attend school would appear to potentially fall within this definition, if all of the technical conditions are satisfied.

Also, incurring debt without any intention of repaying the money (or otherwise meeting the terms of the loan contract) may constitute fraud, theft by false pretenses, or similar offenses under various laws. For example, in California, a person is "punishable in the same manner and to the same extent as for larceny" if he or she "knowingly and designedly, by any false or fraudulent representation or pretense, defrauds any other person of money". CA Penal Code § 532 (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=528-539)(a). The term "false ... pretense" includes a false promise made "with fraudulent intent not to perform such promise[]". People v. Ashley, 42 Cal 2d 246 (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7214534191173298246) (1954).
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: zephyr911 on October 06, 2016, 08:48:58 AM
I've had so many of these in the last few years that DW introduced me to one of her favorite Spanish phrases, "lo barato sale caro" (that which is cheap comes out expensive) to try to convince me to stop trying to save money through creative solutions. My firm conviction that the average result is cheaper, despite occasional disasters, keeps me trying, but she sometimes takes matters into her own hands (with her own money) when fear gets the best of her. Win some, lose some.

Example: downsized 2yrs ago, installed spare programmable thermostat in place of previous dumb unit. Worked fine all winter, then AC wouldn't come on because I had a wire or two in the wrong position. Cost about $350 for a pro to fix it (ripoff, but oh well).

Example: hired shady solo operator to do some work for both myself and my rental partnership. The company actually got a real bargain on some quality work. I got some good help for cheap too, but he managed to get me about $1000 ahead on payments vs. work actually performed, with almost $1000 worth of my tools in his hands, then vanished.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: nora on October 06, 2016, 09:57:35 AM
To save delivery fee for a dishwasher, I managed to get it put it in the back seat of the car (by shop staff) and drive it home. I then had to convince my partner to help me get it inside which involved walking around the side of the house to a big door at the front. On the way, the bottom of the box slipped out of my hands and the box landed on a rock in the garden. We picked it up and struggled with it inside. It had a big dent in the front panel but luckily it still worked!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: MgoSam on October 06, 2016, 10:13:56 AM
To save delivery fee for a dishwasher, I managed to get it put it in the back seat of the car (by shop staff) and drive it home. I then had to convince my partner to help me get it inside which involved walking around the side of the house to a big door at the front. On the way, the bottom of the box slipped out of my hands and the box landed on a rock in the garden. We picked it up and struggled with it inside. It had a big dent in the front panel but luckily it still worked!

The horror! You must get a brand new one, how can you stand to have a dishwasher with a dent in it?

/s
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: jinga nation on October 06, 2016, 12:02:04 PM
To save delivery fee for a dishwasher, I managed to get it put it in the back seat of the car (by shop staff) and drive it home. I then had to convince my partner to help me get it inside which involved walking around the side of the house to a big door at the front. On the way, the bottom of the box slipped out of my hands and the box landed on a rock in the garden. We picked it up and struggled with it inside. It had a big dent in the front panel but luckily it still worked!

The horror! You must get a brand new one, how can you stand to have a dishwasher with a dent in it?

/s
All the clothes will come out wrinkly. Oh the horror!
You should switch to a non-dented clothes line, you know the retractable option that keeps line nicely curled up. You can never go wrong with a clothes line. And if anyone complains about you using a clothes line, you could use it on them. I'm not suggesting, just saying.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: MgoSam on October 06, 2016, 12:04:03 PM
To save delivery fee for a dishwasher, I managed to get it put it in the back seat of the car (by shop staff) and drive it home. I then had to convince my partner to help me get it inside which involved walking around the side of the house to a big door at the front. On the way, the bottom of the box slipped out of my hands and the box landed on a rock in the garden. We picked it up and struggled with it inside. It had a big dent in the front panel but luckily it still worked!

The horror! You must get a brand new one, how can you stand to have a dishwasher with a dent in it?

/s
All the clothes will come out wrinkly. Oh the horror!
You should switch to a non-dented clothes line, you know the retractable option that keeps line nicely curled up. You can never go wrong with a clothes line. And if anyone complains about you using a clothes line, you could use it on them. I'm not suggesting, just saying.

Well if you put your clothes in a dishwasher, having them come out wrinkly is likely a best case scenario.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: jinga nation on October 06, 2016, 12:07:29 PM
To save delivery fee for a dishwasher, I managed to get it put it in the back seat of the car (by shop staff) and drive it home. I then had to convince my partner to help me get it inside which involved walking around the side of the house to a big door at the front. On the way, the bottom of the box slipped out of my hands and the box landed on a rock in the garden. We picked it up and struggled with it inside. It had a big dent in the front panel but luckily it still worked!

The horror! You must get a brand new one, how can you stand to have a dishwasher with a dent in it?

/s
All the clothes will come out wrinkly. Oh the horror!
You should switch to a non-dented clothes line, you know the retractable option that keeps line nicely curled up. You can never go wrong with a clothes line. And if anyone complains about you using a clothes line, you could use it on them. I'm not suggesting, just saying.

Well if you put your clothes in a dishwasher, having them come out wrinkly is likely a best case scenario.
Brain fart of epic proportions. I win the Internets today!
MgoSam wants to be friends with my clothes line.
I need to buy a clothes line first.
That means I'm spending money for stuff I don't need.
Dammit, MgoSam gets to live another day.
/hijack foam
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: scrubbyfish on October 06, 2016, 12:44:50 PM
Brain fart of epic proportions. I win the Internets today!

:))))      Was awesome!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Papa Mustache on October 06, 2016, 01:13:10 PM
And it's probably last year's colors by now... ;)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Miss Piggy on October 06, 2016, 01:28:03 PM
Several years ago we remodeled a bathroom from the studs out.  I decided we would re-use the older but still OK toilet rather than spring for a $99 new one.  Old toilet was pulled out and set in the formal dining room for 6 weeks, on a towel to avoid scratching the solid oak floor in that room.  Sigh...6 weeks later the toilet goes back in to the new bathroom and I spent $800 getting the oak floor refinished due to the water damage left behind--apparently there was a tiny bit of moisture remaining in the unit and the towel held that water against the wood all nice and air-tight.  Though the floor is now redone I can still detect that dark water stain, they couldn't make it completely vanish without sanding a valley into the surface.  Lovely reminder, and I spent $800 to save $99.  Stoopid.

That really sucks.  But it does make me feel ever-so-slightly better about spending $800 on a very un-mustachian toilet earlier this year. I needed something very small for a very small bathroom, and options were quite limited.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Threshkin on October 07, 2016, 12:17:29 PM
One of my friends bragged about not taking out any student loans to finish undergrad. I asked him how he made it work. He told me that he maxed out a couple credit cards.

I mean this could still be smart if they were on 0% APR cards and he either paid them off by the end of the promo rate or he did a balance transfer to another 0% card.
But this is highly unlikely.

I did that. One card had 3% APR for the lifetime of balance. I stupidly paid it off within 2 years of graduation.

Gotta love a forum where paying of debt early is a bad thing!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: talltexan on October 07, 2016, 12:44:24 PM
perhaps forking over 3% of the original loan balance in interest could be the face-punchable activity?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Treedoc on October 08, 2016, 06:01:29 PM
I have a lot of these but by far the scariest was when I tried to tow a backhoe-loader home myself to save the delivery fee.  I didn't want to pay the $200 delivery fee to home depot to rent the backhoe so I brainstormed how I could do it myself.  The home depot trucks do not allow towing.  Uhaul trucks do come with a tow hitch, so rented a Uhaul truck and took it to Home Depot and the rental person hooked it up to the truck.  While Driving home down a hill, the hitch came off the ball (because it was the wrong size ball) and the trailer started jackknifing.  Eventually the trailer slammed into the back of the uhaul denting the bumper and breaking the trailer but it did stop the jackknifing.  Scariest movement in my life.  I pulled in a packing lot and spent 30 minutes freaking out over what this was going to cost me and how I almost killed a few people. 

I called the Home Depot rental guys and they were so afraid of getting fired for hooking it up wrong they brought their own truck out, hauled the backhoe to my house and then fixed the trailer without letting Home Depot know what happened.  The Uhaul was already so dented the Uhaul people didn't notice a new dent.  So I made it out alive but I learned a few lessons that day. 

Treedoc
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Metric Mouse on October 08, 2016, 11:51:12 PM
Several years ago we remodeled a bathroom from the studs out.  I decided we would re-use the older but still OK toilet rather than spring for a $99 new one.  Old toilet was pulled out and set in the formal dining room for 6 weeks, on a towel to avoid scratching the solid oak floor in that room.  Sigh...6 weeks later the toilet goes back in to the new bathroom and I spent $800 getting the oak floor refinished due to the water damage left behind--apparently there was a tiny bit of moisture remaining in the unit and the towel held that water against the wood all nice and air-tight.  Though the floor is now redone I can still detect that dark water stain, they couldn't make it completely vanish without sanding a valley into the surface.  Lovely reminder, and I spent $800 to save $99.  Stoopid.

That really sucks.  But it does make me feel ever-so-slightly better about spending $800 on a very un-mustachian toilet earlier this year. I needed something very small for a very small bathroom, and options were quite limited.

I'm kinda excited that the new minimum for a toilet is $800.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: SeaEhm on October 09, 2016, 10:12:12 AM
My closest confidant and I were talking.  He mentioned that he wanted to get some tea to brew to save money.

Went to tea store with Maisilph.  Maisilph started to smell all of these different teas.  Maisilph up walking out with $100 worth of tea.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ender on October 09, 2016, 01:20:01 PM
My closest confidant and I were talking.  He mentioned that he wanted to get some tea to brew to save money.

Went to tea store with Maisilph.  Maisilph started to smell all of these different teas.  Maisilph up walking out with $100 worth of tea.

Could still have saved money though, depending on how much it otherwise would have cost ;-)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: spicykissa on October 09, 2016, 09:00:05 PM
I wanted a cube bookshelf like the one from Ikea about 5 years ago, but didn't want to pay that much for it. Went on Craigslist, fell in love with a "homemade" cube bookshelf that had all these squares of various dimensions for $20. Drove to person's house to buy and pick it up. Didn't fit in our car. Borrowed father-in-law's truck, got it home, got it in the house, returned the truck (husband is pissed off because this has taken an entire Saturday at this point). Put my books on it. Went to bed. Got woken up by a crash, entire thing collapsed into a pile of wood and books in the living room! We put the broken wood bits outside on the patio in the middle of the night, and both got splinters. Eventually, we had to haul the wood to the dump. I finally bought the cube shelf from Ikea like 2 years later.

Husband still brings this up when he thinks I'm being unreasonably frugal. It has provided way too much ammunition!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: With This Herring on October 09, 2016, 10:57:40 PM
Posting to follow.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Goldielocks on October 09, 2016, 11:23:10 PM
Just did one of these. I've just come back from a 2-week trip. Wanting to conserve energy while we were gone, I decided to unplug all unnecessary appliances and lights.

Now my basement smells like death, and I could not figure out why. We had shut the water as well, so figured perhaps there was stagnant water. After searching pretty much every cause (short of calling a plumber), we finally realized that the basement freezer was unplugged... Apparently, it was plugged into a radio (go figure...) and I unplugged the radio, not knowing the freezer was plugged into it.

We wasted about 200$ Worth of food, 3 huge garbage bags that stink to high heavens (and will have to wait 1.5 weeks before being picked up) and our house smells terrible. Cleanup was also not fun, to say the least. The mixture of melted meats, fruits and vegetables that have been rotting for 2 weeks in a closed container...Gross.

Needless to say, next time I'm not unplugging anything near that *$%) freezer....

Reminds me of the time that DH unplugged the deep freeze (in the garage) to plug in power tools (just for a couple hours).    UGH.  you know what happened...
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Enigma on October 10, 2016, 09:05:13 AM
I have a million frugal intention stories....

I once bought a pair of Nike knock off running shoes while I was overseas.  I was pretty excited with my $20 purchase and figured I had saved $100.  Anyway a long story very short...  Within a month the sole on the left shoe started falling apart.  I even applied superglue and other glue to keep the sole on there.  To make matter worse, I was on a long run when the shoe came completely apart and I nearly lost the sole.  I had to awkwardly walk back to my place.  Every step I was trying to keep the shoe holding together just a little longer.  Taking them off was not an option because I was running on gravel and even some areas had glass.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Enigma on October 10, 2016, 09:08:35 AM
Another time I can think of was when I was working at McDonalds.  I had this pair of nice black slacks that I wore for over a year.  Probably more like 2 or 3 years and about 3-4x per week.  I could tell they were starting to wear on the legs and a couple of other minor areas.  Work was was extremely busy...

One day while I was working in the grill area with about 4 other individuals and someone had left a stack of bread buns behind me.  While I was doing about a hundred things at once (multitasking), I back up into the buns and somehow snagged my pants.  The whole back of my paints easily ripped open because the pants had dry rotted or the material had become so thin.   Instantly I felt a breeze coming in as if I was wearing nothing.  I was in charge of the grill changed the rotation that put everyone on the other side of the grill whereby I was behind them.  I took a few seconds to call my mother who brought me another pair of pants.  That 15 minute wait seemed to last an eternity and we were slammed pack with customers.  When my mom got there I asked someone to go grab them from my mom and then walked my bare ass downstairs to change.  If we were not so busy I think everyone would have noticed.  Thankfully only my mom found out.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: One Noisy Cat on October 11, 2016, 06:16:43 AM
A marriage
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ender on October 11, 2016, 07:27:28 AM
Reminds me of the time that DH unplugged the deep freeze (in the garage) to plug in power tools (just for a couple hours).    UGH.  you know what happened...

He plugged it back in and nothing happened?

Oh, silly me ;-)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Lizzaroo on October 11, 2016, 07:55:10 AM
A marriage

What is that one liner ? "Marriage is the most expensive way to get laundry done for free..."
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Goldielocks on October 11, 2016, 09:03:00 AM
Reminds me of the time that DH unplugged the deep freeze (in the garage) to plug in power tools (just for a couple hours).    UGH.  you know what happened...

He plugged it back in and nothing happened?

Oh, silly me ;-)
Ok he did it twice. The second time someone plugged it back in several days later, but the melted look inside clued me in.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Sibley on October 13, 2016, 07:09:52 AM
Reminds me of the time that DH unplugged the deep freeze (in the garage) to plug in power tools (just for a couple hours).    UGH.  you know what happened...

He plugged it back in and nothing happened?

Oh, silly me ;-)
Ok he did it twice. The second time someone plugged it back in several days later, but the melted look inside clued me in.

I hope you made him clean it out.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Saskatchewstachian on October 13, 2016, 09:09:42 AM
A marriage

What is that one liner ? "Marriage is the most expensive way to get laundry done for free..."

I actually laughed at this one while sitting at my desk, got some odd looks from the next cubicle.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Merrie on October 13, 2016, 09:13:04 PM
I had a coupon for a free coffee at Caribou once, went to the one down on campus, had to parallel park and hit a curb. I jarred something loose in my car's undercarriage and ended up paying $45 to the garage to fix it. Most expensive cup of coffee I've ever had.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: talltexan on October 14, 2016, 02:40:51 PM
My daughter recently bought a stuffed bunny rabbit at a garage sale. She's only four, so she got a pretty good price, perhaps $0.25. She was visiting her grandparents yesterday and came home without the bunny, refusing to sleep until we could find it. So my father-in-law drove 15 miles round trip to bring her this bunny. $6 in driving costs purely to deliver a $0.25 bunny.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: meghan88 on October 20, 2016, 04:18:02 PM
went to Shoppers last Friday to get some food items that were on sale and I had a digital points coupon for that day:  spend $20, get 8000 points (points value = about $10).  Got to the cash and their credit card readers were out of service.  Rather than pay all in cash (which I had), I used $10 of points that I'd accumulated.  Only to find out after the fact that because I'd purchased with points, that meant that I couldn't collect on the digital points coupon.

The really stupid thing is how much I let it bother me.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on October 20, 2016, 06:56:20 PM
My closest confidant and I were talking.  He mentioned that he wanted to get some tea to brew to save money.

Went to tea store with Maisilph.  Maisilph started to smell all of these different teas.  Maisilph up walking out with $100 worth of tea.

MiL received a voucher for a 'boutique' tea franchise that have popped up in a lot of shopping centres over here.

Spent 40 minutes trying samples and getting them to weigh out bits of this and that.

When it came time to pay, she handed over the voucher only to be told she was in the wrong store. The voucher was for the competing tea franchise.

Torn between saving her dignity or the money, she opted for the money. Left $150 worth of beautifully wrapped tea on the counter, and fled.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: theadvicist on October 21, 2016, 03:53:40 AM

MiL received a voucher for a 'boutique' tea franchise that have popped up in a lot of shopping centres over here.

Spent 40 minutes trying samples and getting them to weigh out bits of this and that.

When it came time to pay, she handed over the voucher only to be told she was in the wrong store. The voucher was for the competing tea franchise.

Torn between saving her dignity or the money, she opted for the money. Left $150 worth of beautifully wrapped tea on the counter, and fled.

I once argued over the price of wine per bottle at a wholesale place. I was super indignant because the sales flyer cleared showed it was on special offer this month!

I pulled out my Costco flyer... only be to reminded I was in Makro. I left very red-faced. And without any wine for the party.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: MrRealEstate on October 21, 2016, 04:27:21 AM
I have a lot of these but by far the scariest was when I tried to tow a backhoe-loader home myself to save the delivery fee.  I didn't want to pay the $200 delivery fee to home depot to rent the backhoe so I brainstormed how I could do it myself.  The home depot trucks do not allow towing.  Uhaul trucks do come with a tow hitch, so rented a Uhaul truck and took it to Home Depot and the rental person hooked it up to the truck.  While Driving home down a hill, the hitch came off the ball (because it was the wrong size ball) and the trailer started jackknifing.  Eventually the trailer slammed into the back of the uhaul denting the bumper and breaking the trailer but it did stop the jackknifing.  Scariest movement in my life.  I pulled in a packing lot and spent 30 minutes freaking out over what this was going to cost me and how I almost killed a few people. 

I called the Home Depot rental guys and they were so afraid of getting fired for hooking it up wrong they brought their own truck out, hauled the backhoe to my house and then fixed the trailer without letting Home Depot know what happened.  The Uhaul was already so dented the Uhaul people didn't notice a new dent.  So I made it out alive but I learned a few lessons that day. 

Treedoc

At this point I would be happy with the simple fact that no one was hurt. Pretty surprised the people at home depot didnt realize the ball was the wrong size.

A marriage

What is that one liner ? "Marriage is the most expensive way to get laundry done for free..."

Step 1: read title of thread
Step 2: understand joke
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: PencilThinStash on October 21, 2016, 02:47:36 PM
Step 1: read title of thread
Step 2: understand joke

Step 3: ????
Step 4: PROFIT!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Astatine on November 11, 2016, 02:42:52 PM
Posting to follow
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Freedomin5 on November 12, 2016, 06:06:39 AM
My friend decided to sell some of his old collectibles and toys on eBay. Sold an item for $5. Paid $20 to ship it to the buyer.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: LadyMuMu on November 12, 2016, 11:27:22 AM
I recently tried to change the cartridge in my upstairs shower to address a slow drip. Researched the process for several days, bought the supplies, turned off the water main and went to work. Somehow, I managed to twist and strip the pipes in the wall behind the shower, so when I was testing the shower, TONS of water leaked down the back of the wall, through the chandelier on the first floor, and dripping on the fuse box in the basement. Husband came home, called emergency plumber and the kids and I went to a hotel--no flush toilets, etc. The plumber capped the pipes then came two days later to fix the shower. What I thought was going to be a $40 job turned out to be about $650 for the plumber and $100 extra supplies I bought and $100 hotel stay. I did, however, find an awesome new plumber who was sympathetic and non-shaming. He even mentioned that showers are easy to mess up compared to other plumbing issues and that if I had called them to do what I was trying to do, it would have cost about $350 anyway. Lesson learned, I'll stick to drain issues and leave supply issues to the pros.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: SeaEhm on November 13, 2016, 09:24:02 AM
I recently tried to change the cartridge in my upstairs shower to address a slow drip. Researched the process for several days, bought the supplies, turned off the water main and went to work. Somehow, I managed to twist and strip the pipes in the wall behind the shower, so when I was testing the shower, TONS of water leaked down the back of the wall, through the chandelier on the first floor, and dripping on the fuse box in the basement. Husband came home, called emergency plumber and the kids and I went to a hotel--no flush toilets, etc. The plumber capped the pipes then came two days later to fix the shower. What I thought was going to be a $40 job turned out to be about $650 for the plumber and $100 extra supplies I bought and $100 hotel stay. I did, however, find an awesome new plumber who was sympathetic and non-shaming. He even mentioned that showers are easy to mess up compared to other plumbing issues and that if I had called them to do what I was trying to do, it would have cost about $350 anyway. Lesson learned, I'll stick to drain issues and leave supply issues to the pros.

Kudos for trying!

I need to get to the point in life where I can say "if it doesn't work out, at least I tried to fix it first." 

I have very little OCD in my life, but it shows up in all the wrong places. :(
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Jouer on November 14, 2016, 02:27:16 PM
My closest confidant and I were talking.  He mentioned that he wanted to get some tea to brew to save money.

Went to tea store with Maisilph.  Maisilph started to smell all of these different teas.  Maisilph up walking out with $100 worth of tea.

MiL received a voucher for a 'boutique' tea franchise that have popped up in a lot of shopping centres over here.

Spent 40 minutes trying samples and getting them to weigh out bits of this and that.

When it came time to pay, she handed over the voucher only to be told she was in the wrong store. The voucher was for the competing tea franchise.

Torn between saving her dignity or the money, she opted for the money. Left $150 worth of beautifully wrapped tea on the counter, and fled.

I've had similar happen to me. When visiting Quebec City, noticed a couple of great pieces of art work for $150 each. I thought to myself they are worth triple that at least. Told sales person I'd be back in a few hours after some other exploring. Came back and told the new sales person that I would like those two pieces over there. Easiest sale of her life. She rings them up but the cost is $2300. Turns out, they were $1,150 each, which in French is written 1 150. There was a huge space between the ones so I didn't notice the first one. Wife and I apologized and walked out of there empty handed.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on November 14, 2016, 02:41:54 PM
My closest confidant and I were talking.  He mentioned that he wanted to get some tea to brew to save money.

Went to tea store with Maisilph.  Maisilph started to smell all of these different teas.  Maisilph up walking out with $100 worth of tea.

MiL received a voucher for a 'boutique' tea franchise that have popped up in a lot of shopping centres over here.

Spent 40 minutes trying samples and getting them to weigh out bits of this and that.

When it came time to pay, she handed over the voucher only to be told she was in the wrong store. The voucher was for the competing tea franchise.

Torn between saving her dignity or the money, she opted for the money. Left $150 worth of beautifully wrapped tea on the counter, and fled.

I've had similar happen to me. When visiting Quebec City, noticed a couple of great pieces of art work for $150 each. I thought to myself they are worth triple that at least. Told sales person I'd be back in a few hours after some other exploring. Came back and told the new sales person that I would like those two pieces over there. Easiest sale of her life. She rings them up but the cost is $2300. Turns out, they were $1,150 each, which in French is written 1 150. There was a huge space between the ones so I didn't notice the first one. Wife and I apologized and walked out of there empty handed.

I just cringed so hard it should have been audible.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Inaya on August 01, 2017, 09:57:29 AM
This thread deserves to be resurrected, so here's one.

I love a particular smoothie from a particular place that I walk by on the way to our downtown office. I don't get them often, but every time I do, it irks me to pay so freaking much. So I broke down and bought the ingredients. I made my homemade version for the first time this morning. And it was AWFUL. I tried to force it down, because I hate wasting food, but I just couldn't. I don't know if it's because my proportions were off, or my avocado was kinda old, or what. But just undrinkable.

I almost bought the actual smoothie on my way to work, but the line was too long.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: TartanTallulah on August 01, 2017, 11:18:52 AM
Many, many years ago, I had some money in a TESSA with a financial institution called the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society. I spotted that I could get a better interest rate in a different financial institution, and applied to transfer it. Days later, the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society announced that it was demutualising and people holding certain accounts, including TESSAs, would be entitled to a large wodge of cash or free shares.

If I'd kept my eye on the money pages of the newspaper instead of using them to line the cat litter tray, I'd have known that this was pending.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ms on August 01, 2017, 12:34:34 PM
went to Shoppers last Friday to get some food items that were on sale and I had a digital points coupon for that day:  spend $20, get 8000 points (points value = about $10).  Got to the cash and their credit card readers were out of service.  Rather than pay all in cash (which I had), I used $10 of points that I'd accumulated.  Only to find out after the fact that because I'd purchased with points, that meant that I couldn't collect on the digital points coupon.

The really stupid thing is how much I let it bother me.

This really bothers me too.  I've had my run-in with Shoppers points, a time or two.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ms on August 01, 2017, 12:41:31 PM
Many years ago, a friend of the family was trying to be frugal while getting a load of soil from the local garden centre.  He didn't want to pay for the delivery fee of perhaps $20 (maybe less). He borrowed my father's trailer and went to get the soil himself.

The load was too heavy for the trailer, and so it bent the axel on it.  Not sure if he managed to get the soil home but he was out a whole bunch in order to fix my father's trailer.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Cowardly Toaster on August 01, 2017, 01:00:54 PM
Well there's the classic one about saving money by heating with firewood. They had the list of all the things you ended up paying for (including the medical bills from dropping a tree on yourself)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on August 01, 2017, 03:07:48 PM
Oh, man, I have a trailer full of these from growing up with my mom, whose favorite line is "it's just as good."  [Side note:  current plan is to get her tombstone done in Corian instead of granite, because it's just as good] 

My own example has to be my fruit trees.  When we bought this house, it had a huge yard, and so I decided to make a mini-orchard in the back corner -- we have a pick-your-own place, and it's just so expensive, so I loved the idea of putting in some money up front, but then having delicious home-grown fruit for years and years.  We forked over for 8 trees (peaches, nectarines, apricots, apples, pears), and I paid up for installation because I wanted them done right (plus they came with a one-year money-back guarantee if they did the professional install), so it was probably around $600.  It has now been approximately 10 years, with of course more carrying costs -- fertilizer, deer and bug sprays, etc. -- and let's not even talk about all of the free manual labor we have provided.  So 8 trees x 10 years, and my fruit yield has been (you ready? drumroll please): one 3" pear. 

Oh well, at least my blackberries are growing like the weeds they are. . . .
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Fire2025 on August 01, 2017, 11:06:46 PM
following.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: dragoncar on August 02, 2017, 02:17:13 AM

One of my friends bragged about not taking out any student loans to finish undergrad. I asked him how he made it work. He told me that he maxed out a couple credit cards.

I mean this could still be smart if they were on 0% APR cards and he either paid them off by the end of the promo rate or he did a balance transfer to another 0% card.
But this is highly unlikely.

I did that. One card had 3% APR for the lifetime of balance. I stupidly paid it off within 2 years of graduation.

Oh man, I'm sure I bragged about this before, but I once had a promo where it was 0% forever as long as you made two purchases a month.  I regularly purchased $0.05 of gas (one small squirt) from the self-serve pump.  Still had to make minimum payments, though, so after about 8 years it was finally time to pay off the balance in full.

Just did one of these. I've just come back from a 2-week trip. Wanting to conserve energy while we were gone, I decided to unplug all unnecessary appliances and lights.

Now my basement smells like death, and I could not figure out why. We had shut the water as well, so figured perhaps there was stagnant water. After searching pretty much every cause (short of calling a plumber), we finally realized that the basement freezer was unplugged... Apparently, it was plugged into a radio (go figure...) and I unplugged the radio, not knowing the freezer was plugged into it.

We wasted about 200$ Worth of food, 3 huge garbage bags that stink to high heavens (and will have to wait 1.5 weeks before being picked up) and our house smells terrible. Cleanup was also not fun, to say the least. The mixture of melted meats, fruits and vegetables that have been rotting for 2 weeks in a closed container...Gross.

Needless to say, next time I'm not unplugging anything near that *$%) freezer....

Sounds like "free freezer" on Craigslist
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: misshathaway on August 02, 2017, 09:25:29 AM
Had a yard sale last summer after a household goods purge. Sold a popcorn air popper. Now I want to try roasting my own green coffee beans. Most popular beginner roasting option is an air popper, which I would have to buy again. Argh. I'll do my initial roasting attempts with a covered pan on the stove.

Still, after a year, out of all the stuff I got rid of, I only regret the popper and a hand drill.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: bunchbikes on August 02, 2017, 09:26:55 AM
I made my homemade version for the first time this morning. And it was AWFUL. I tried to force it down, because I hate wasting food, but I just couldn't. I don't know if it's because my proportions were off, or my avocado was kinda old, or what. But just undrinkable.

Smoothies are tough to get exactly right.

I've made the same smoothie every morning for more than a year, and it still tastes different from day to day, depending on small changes in amounts.

I remember my first week of smoothies just being the worst, however. 

Keep trying, you'll figure it out.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Sibley on August 02, 2017, 09:52:47 AM
Oh, man, I have a trailer full of these from growing up with my mom, whose favorite line is "it's just as good."  [Side note:  current plan is to get her tombstone done in Corian instead of granite, because it's just as good] 

My own example has to be my fruit trees.  When we bought this house, it had a huge yard, and so I decided to make a mini-orchard in the back corner -- we have a pick-your-own place, and it's just so expensive, so I loved the idea of putting in some money up front, but then having delicious home-grown fruit for years and years.  We forked over for 8 trees (peaches, nectarines, apricots, apples, pears), and I paid up for installation because I wanted them done right (plus they came with a one-year money-back guarantee if they did the professional install), so it was probably around $600.  It has now been approximately 10 years, with of course more carrying costs -- fertilizer, deer and bug sprays, etc. -- and let's not even talk about all of the free manual labor we have provided.  So 8 trees x 10 years, and my fruit yield has been (you ready? drumroll please): one 3" pear. 

Oh well, at least my blackberries are growing like the weeds they are. . . .

I'm guessing that there's something you can do about the lack of fruit. Whether you want to do it is an entirely different thing however. Find a garden place and ask?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Roe on August 02, 2017, 11:55:41 AM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on August 02, 2017, 12:31:52 PM
I'm guessing that there's something you can do about the lack of fruit. Whether you want to do it is an entirely different thing however. Find a garden place and ask?

I skipped that part of the story -- we've tried a number of different things and looked for guidance in a bunch of different places.  We've been working on it every year, but the problems seem to change -- one year it's fungus, the next it's bugs, the next it's weather -- and we just haven't gotten ahead of it yet (channeling Roseanne Roseannadanna: it's always something).  This year we have tons of peaches and three surviving pears, though, so I have my fingers crossed that some of them make it.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: zephyr911 on August 02, 2017, 01:09:25 PM
I know the actual OP of this thread was a full year ago, but... how can that have been anything but a bad joke by the bro?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on August 02, 2017, 02:34:11 PM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.

How long ago did you buy them?  If they haven't gone bad, you can peel them and stick them in ice water for a few hours, and they will plump back up (jr. high science experiment I actually remember -- and use!).
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: PencilThinStash on August 03, 2017, 10:53:30 AM
I know the actual OP of this thread was a full year ago, but... how can that have been anything but a bad joke by the bro?

OP reporting in...

Like I said, BrotherStash was probably in 7th grade at the time. Have you ever talked to a middle schooler? They can be pretty dang stupid sometimes.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: dragoncar on August 03, 2017, 01:13:47 PM
I know the actual OP of this thread was a full year ago, but... how can that have been anything but a bad joke by the bro?

OP reporting in...

Like I said, BrotherStash was probably in 7th grade at the time. Have you ever talked to a middle schooler? They can be pretty dang stupid sometimes.

If my kid did this to me today, I figure it would cost me about $60.  Not great, but hardly the end of the world.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: zephyr911 on August 03, 2017, 01:20:40 PM
I know the actual OP of this thread was a full year ago, but... how can that have been anything but a bad joke by the bro?

OP reporting in...

Like I said, BrotherStash was probably in 7th grade at the time. Have you ever talked to a middle schooler? They can be pretty dang stupid sometimes.
I like to think I was always this smart. Now get off my lawn! *shakes cane*
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Roe on August 03, 2017, 02:51:22 PM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.

How long ago did you buy them?  If they haven't gone bad, you can peel them and stick them in ice water for a few hours, and they will plump back up (jr. high science experiment I actually remember -- and use!).


This batch was sadly already on the wrong side of the tracks. The wrinkles matched with a distinctive "we probally shouldnt eat that"-smell.

Good advice tough, I will try to remember it for the next time!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: PencilThinStash on August 04, 2017, 11:02:14 AM
I know the actual OP of this thread was a full year ago, but... how can that have been anything but a bad joke by the bro?

OP reporting in...

Like I said, BrotherStash was probably in 7th grade at the time. Have you ever talked to a middle schooler? They can be pretty dang stupid sometimes.
I like to think I was always this smart. Now get off my lawn! *shakes cane*

Hahaha man, I wish I was as smart as I was back then. Middle/high school me knew EVERYTHING. (In my own mind, at least)

Now I just keep realizing how little I know. And the more I learn, the worse it gets!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on August 04, 2017, 12:08:51 PM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.

How long ago did you buy them?  If they haven't gone bad, you can peel them and stick them in ice water for a few hours, and they will plump back up (jr. high science experiment I actually remember -- and use!).

This batch was sadly already on the wrong side of the tracks. The wrinkles matched with a distinctive "we probally shouldnt eat that"-smell.


Good call.  Or you could have been in the next iteration of this thread, detailing your hospital visit from trying to save 10 cents on a potato.  ;-)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Ashyukun on August 04, 2017, 01:45:03 PM
So, my primary hobby (besides doing whatever the wife needs done for her non-profit, which I seem to spend more time on than anything else these days...) is working on cars, and if I have less than the max number I'm allowed to have (3) I tend to always be looking for the next project. About 15 months ago, I was looking to pick up another project and so went out to look at a $500 car that fixed up would have sold for solidly over twice that but had battery/charging issues. Most likely needed an alternator- less than $100 in parts and I'd make around $500 in profit. Test drove it, and sure enough it died a short ways from where we started on the way back.

Hopped out along with the seller to push it the rest of the way and end up pushing entirely the wrong way and snapping an Achilles' Tendon. Didn't get the car of course and had many thousands of dollars in medical bills from having the surgery to repair the tendon & the physical therapy for the next 3 months.

It's worth noting that I didn't learn a damn thing from that, as I bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee for $300 earlier this week to fix up. But I sure as hell won't try and push it anywhere! :P
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: paddedhat on August 04, 2017, 05:01:09 PM
Much admiration for anybody poster here with the stomach to salvage a fridge or freezer that has been off for a while. As An apprentice electrician I worked on a fire restoration crew. As we drove to my first day on the job the foreman asked, "Kid, do you know the first rule of fire jobs?  No, of course you don't. It goes like this kid, never, ever open the door on the fridge. Got it?"   The first thing that happens when the crew arrives on a serious house fire rebuild is they ratchet strap the fridge and freezer doors tight, then careful load them in the dumpster. I know of guys who were on their knees, violently puking just from the smell of the contents of a rotting fridge.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: MoMan on August 07, 2017, 09:51:21 AM
In the mid 1990s, my love of beer made me want to try my hand at home brewing. My girlfriend's family bought me a cheapo kit for Christmas, and that Spring I took the plunge carefully (I thought) following the instructions. With everything bottled and stored in the cool, dry comfort downstairs of her garage apartment, we packed our bags for a 2 week trip to Japan.

When we returned home and opened the garage door, the entire floor was littered with broken beer bottles. Apparently, I put too much sugar in the batch and every bottle exploded. Fortunately, I owned a good-sized wet/dry vacuum.

I think I'm ready to try home brewing again now that I'm closing in on retirement. But I will talk with some knowledgeable people first.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Inaya on August 15, 2017, 12:10:05 PM
I got lucky and scored some fresh Hatch green chiles at Whole Foods on Saturday (I popped in as I walked by to see if they had any good free samples). They couldn't find the right code, so they charged me the price for jalapenos, which I think was like $.50/lb less. I like to buy the cans from time to time, but I figured it's way cheaper (and tastier) to just roast and peel these while I can. So there's the frugal intentions.

Horribly executed?

1) I didn't wear gloves while peeling them. I didn't wear gloves last year and was fine, so I thought I'd be fine this year. Yeah, no. I was nursing chemical burns on my hands for two days. Imagine the worst sunburn you ever had, and then imagine it's on the palms of your hands. Not fun.
2) These were some HOT chiles. You can buy cans according to heat (my Gringo-mouth demands mild). Fresh chiles are a crapshoot. Last year's were perfectly fine and mild. This year's were extremely hot for me. And that's probably why my hands got burned so badly. I'm not sure I'll be able to eat them.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Lucky Recardito on August 15, 2017, 12:30:55 PM
I once celebrated not driving my car for two weeks, and instead left it safely parked down the block from my apartment while I settled into a new biking habit.

And during those two weeks, major tree work was done on that  block, and I was totally unaware. As a result, I received two parking tickets for about $250.

Cost me a lot to not drive those 2 weeks.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Roe on August 15, 2017, 01:12:01 PM
I once celebrated not driving my car for two weeks, and instead left it safely parked down the block from my apartment while I settled into a new biking habit.

And during those two weeks, major tree work was done on that  block, and I was totally unaware. As a result, I received two parking tickets for about $250.

Cost me a lot to not drive those 2 weeks.

The execution was perfect, it was the circumstances that were horrible.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: DangleStash on August 24, 2017, 02:20:35 PM
When I was in college and had a relative's house to myself for 6 weeks... There was only one condition: Have parties, drink, have fun, but just make sure the dog gets a lot of love!  I had a lot of friends over.  Specifically, every night for a month except 2 nights that I fell asleep when I got home from work.

When you have 15-20 people hanging out in the part of the house that doesn't have central air... what do you do?

CRANK THE AC ON THE OTHER SIDE AND PUT FANS IN THE HALLWAY!  If you set the dial to the coldest, it must come out of the vents colder too, right?

It definitely worked well enough, until said relative came home to a $350 electric bill.  Whoops.  I also woke up most mornings shivering. 

But that summer was and will always be legendary.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: misshathaway on August 25, 2017, 12:02:16 PM
I have a pair of former running shoes, now walking/yardwork shoes. They are about 5 years old and used daily. I patched the black soles which were separating from the inner white sole with ShoeGoo about 6 months ago. Yesterday I had them on while I was driving and the black part of the sole of the driving foot separated and got caught under the brake. Fortunately I was on a side street, not the highway. When I got home and checked, both shoes soles were in shreds. Not ShoeGoo's fault. I could not tell which part was the repair at this point.

The cheap could have come out very expensive.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: slugline on August 25, 2017, 01:25:22 PM
I have a pair of former running shoes, now walking/yardwork shoes. They are about 5 years old and used daily. I patched the black soles which were separating from the inner white sole with ShoeGoo about 6 months ago. Yesterday I had them on while I was driving and the black part of the sole of the driving foot separated and got caught under the brake. Fortunately I was on a side street, not the highway. When I got home and checked, both shoes soles were in shreds. Not ShoeGoo's fault. I could not tell which part was the repair at this point.

The cheap could have come out very expensive.

I would take that as a sign that I wasn't logging enough miles to properly supply the retired running shoe pipeline. :)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: misshathaway on August 27, 2017, 10:51:37 AM
I would take that as a sign that I wasn't logging enough miles to properly supply the retired running shoe pipeline. :)

Actually it's true. I used to run 7 days a week. Now only on weekends, swimming on the other 5. When I was running every day the cushioning would give out between 6 and 12 months. Now they last much longer.

Tossed the danger shoes at the end of the pipeline, but not the laces, because some day they will come in handy for something.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: GuitarStv on August 27, 2017, 11:43:44 AM
Young GuitarStv worked as a telemarketer during highschool while saving for university.  At this job he met several people with pretty terrible stories.  The worst of which was a 40-50 year old lady.

When I met her she had been a housewife all her life and her husband handled the bills.  He died of some kind of liver problem without any life insurance and they had no savings, with about half the mortgage on their house paid off.  She took the job telemarketing to just barely make enough to pay the mortgage and feed herself.  At some point they cut the electricity to her house, so she would use candles at night to see.  One night she fell asleep and one of the candles was too close to some drapes . . . Long story short, the house burned down.  She had cancelled home insurance a couple months prior.

There were many stories like this at that telemarketing company.  It's one of the reasons I've always been a good saver, and one of the reasons I try not to be a dick to the annoying guys who call in the evenings.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: talltexan on August 30, 2017, 07:07:56 AM
While the story about the widow and the drapes-fire is horrifying, mustachian skepticism requires me to ask: if she still had a mortgage on the house, how could she cancel home-owner's insurance?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: theadvicist on August 31, 2017, 04:00:06 AM
While the story about the widow and the drapes-fire is horrifying, mustachian skepticism requires me to ask: if she still had a mortgage on the house, how could she cancel home-owner's insurance?

I had to provide proof of insurance when I took the mortgage out years ago, but have never had to provide anything since. Presumably I could have cancelled or let my policy lapse in that time? I'm in the UK, so things may be different, but it made sense to me.

I mean, I'd be in breach of the terms, but as far as I can see, the mortgage company would have no way of knowing.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on August 31, 2017, 06:48:56 AM
I'm guessing that there's something you can do about the lack of fruit. Whether you want to do it is an entirely different thing however. Find a garden place and ask?

I skipped that part of the story -- we've tried a number of different things and looked for guidance in a bunch of different places.  We've been working on it every year, but the problems seem to change -- one year it's fungus, the next it's bugs, the next it's weather -- and we just haven't gotten ahead of it yet (channeling Roseanne Roseannadanna: it's always something).  This year we have tons of peaches and three surviving pears, though, so I have my fingers crossed that some of them make it.

And to complete the humiliation:  we had easily 100+ peaches this year.  Except it turns out we had planned our vacation for when they were going to be ripe.  The day before we left, they were still hard.  The day we returned, we had none -- not one.*  So now I'm in for another couple hundred bucks for all the effort this year, with still nothing to show for it. 

*I seriously think someone must have known we were gone and picked them all, because the trees were picked clean and there was nothing on the ground, and I can't believe every peach would have ripened, fallen, and been eaten in 8 days.  So at least our efforts probably made someone happy, just not us.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: dragoncar on August 31, 2017, 09:02:32 AM
While the story about the widow and the drapes-fire is horrifying, mustachian skepticism requires me to ask: if she still had a mortgage on the house, how could she cancel home-owner's insurance?

I had to provide proof of insurance when I took the mortgage out years ago, but have never had to provide anything since. Presumably I could have cancelled or let my policy lapse in that time? I'm in the UK, so things may be different, but it made sense to me.

I mean, I'd be in breach of the terms, but as far as I can see, the mortgage company would have no way of knowing.

In the US, I believe the bank is a named party and is thus notified of any cancelations or changes
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Goldielocks on September 01, 2017, 12:20:32 AM
I'm guessing that there's something you can do about the lack of fruit. Whether you want to do it is an entirely different thing however. Find a garden place and ask?

I skipped that part of the story -- we've tried a number of different things and looked for guidance in a bunch of different places.  We've been working on it every year, but the problems seem to change -- one year it's fungus, the next it's bugs, the next it's weather -- and we just haven't gotten ahead of it yet (channeling Roseanne Roseannadanna: it's always something).  This year we have tons of peaches and three surviving pears, though, so I have my fingers crossed that some of them make it.

And to complete the humiliation:  we had easily 100+ peaches this year.  Except it turns out we had planned our vacation for when they were going to be ripe.  The day before we left, they were still hard.  The day we returned, we had none -- not one.*  So now I'm in for another couple hundred bucks for all the effort this year, with still nothing to show for it. 

*I seriously think someone must have known we were gone and picked them all, because the trees were picked clean and there was nothing on the ground, and I can't believe every peach would have ripened, fallen, and been eaten in 8 days.  So at least our efforts probably made someone happy, just not us.

?!?  how long were you gone for?  were your trees in your back yard? 
That is ghastly.

The only persons I know that would do this are my MIL (If I am gone for extended time, but she would leave me half, or leave a picked case on the counter), or my rear neighbor (tree hangs over yard and he always asks first, and yeah, our city can be prone to rats eating fallen fruit).
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: theadvicist on September 01, 2017, 03:32:24 AM

In the US, I believe the bank is a named party and is thus notified of any cancelations or changes

Ah, makes sense. Although, even if the bank were notified, they could surely only start foreclosure proceedings or something. It's not impossible for a mortgaged house to go uninsured because there would be a lag time between the bank being notified and taking action.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on September 01, 2017, 06:35:23 AM
I'm guessing that there's something you can do about the lack of fruit. Whether you want to do it is an entirely different thing however. Find a garden place and ask?

I skipped that part of the story -- we've tried a number of different things and looked for guidance in a bunch of different places.  We've been working on it every year, but the problems seem to change -- one year it's fungus, the next it's bugs, the next it's weather -- and we just haven't gotten ahead of it yet (channeling Roseanne Roseannadanna: it's always something).  This year we have tons of peaches and three surviving pears, though, so I have my fingers crossed that some of them make it.

And to complete the humiliation:  we had easily 100+ peaches this year.  Except it turns out we had planned our vacation for when they were going to be ripe.  The day before we left, they were still hard.  The day we returned, we had none -- not one.*  So now I'm in for another couple hundred bucks for all the effort this year, with still nothing to show for it. 

*I seriously think someone must have known we were gone and picked them all, because the trees were picked clean and there was nothing on the ground, and I can't believe every peach would have ripened, fallen, and been eaten in 8 days.  So at least our efforts probably made someone happy, just not us.

?!?  how long were you gone for?  were your trees in your back yard? 
That is ghastly.

The only persons I know that would do this are my MIL (If I am gone for extended time, but she would leave me half, or leave a picked case on the counter), or my rear neighbor (tree hangs over yard and he always asks first, and yeah, our city can be prone to rats eating fallen fruit).

8 days, and yep.  I had the same thing happen last year with the black raspberries, but I assumed that was a herd of deer.  But I don't think deer can get 15' up a tree.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Adventine on September 01, 2017, 07:52:36 AM
I finally have one for this thread:

A twentysomething family member decides to go solo backpacking in Southeast Asia for a week, waits patiently for cheap flights, books cheap hostels, takes public transport everywhere, and even quite sensibly buys some travel insurance for the trip... but at the same time, this family member doesn't have any kind of regular savings or investment plan and still lives with parents who pay most of their living expenses, even if the parents don't have any steady income and are stressed every day about paying the bills.

Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: BTDretire on September 01, 2017, 08:50:59 AM
It was summer, and our neighbor invited us over.  Mom & I went ahead, my (older) sister was coming right behind us.  After about an hour and no sister arriving, Mom sent me back home to see what was taking her so long.  I walked in the front door and noticed a trail of water coming down our very long hallway, nearly down the stairs.  I called out to my sister, who was in a panic.  I took my socks off to walk down the wet hallway, to find her in the bathroom, with the toilet overflowing.  She was filling up buckets and dumping them down the bathtub drain, and had been doing so for a while, trying to stem the flow.  I was probably 10, and I turned off the water to the toilet.  I didn't know if i would work, but it made sense to me to try!

We called my mom back over, and we all spent the rest of the afternoon mopping everything up, getting things off the floors in the closets that had flooded, etc.  Not one of us thought about what might have happened below us, in our tenant's apartment.  I felt horrible for her when she came home from work, surveyed the damage, and then rang our bell.  Doh!  I can only imagine what it cost my parents to fix that water damage, but I will always remember my sister furiously filling and dumping buckets of water, hoping that the flow of water would eventually stop.  Root cause analysis was never her thing...

  This one reminds me of when I was in 5th grade art class. Someone broke off the drinking fountain on the sink. I reached under the cabinet to turn off the water, I turned it the wrong way and then the water was hitting the ceiling, at that point I panicked and left the wet area.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on September 16, 2017, 12:38:12 PM
Once again, nominating myself (sigh).  Inlaws are coming tonight, we're feeding a crowd, so I wanted to make a nice meal and planned to make my lamb ragu that everyone loves,* along with a salad and a peach crisp.  Then I looked at the prices and realized the lamb was @$8.50/lb and it would cost me like $40-$50 just for that, and I thought, well, crap, that's stupid.  And then I thought, wait a minute, I can make pizza -- I have a pizza stone in the oven, Wegman's has pre-made dough for cheap, and everyone loves making their own.  I even got to the store and realized the pre-made dough was going to run $10 by the time I got enough for everyone, and said screw it, I can make my own for like a buck.

The problem is, since I didn't plan this before about 30 seconds before leaving the house, I just kept seeing "good ideas" for toppings for people to choose from -- here's some Italian sausage, oooh, I can do a bratwurst-and-mustard pizza, oh look there's a salad bar with artichokes and roasted peppers and olives; wait, I know they like veggies, so how about mushrooms and onions and such; DH likes pineapple and ham; oh wait, I can do a s'mores pizza so I need mini-marshmallows and dark chocolate chips -- wait a minute, DH likes white chocolate, let's add those too; oooh, and that raspberry jam-brie-chocolate one is good, too; oh, wait, there's truffle paste, taleggio-truffle-garlic is DH's favorite.  It wasn't until I got home that I realized exactly how much I had bought:  $128 of stuff.  One hundred and twenty-eight dollars.  For pizza.  Fuck.  I could have ordered enough pizza for everyone from the pizza place with the wood oven for that -- the place I limit my visits to because it's so expensive. Hell, I could have made everyone a prime rib roast for half of that. 

It's not a total waste, because I will use only little bits tonight and then find other things to use the rest in.  But still, damn.

*My MIL is going through chemo and struggling with her appetite, so I was really focused on making something that she would find tasty.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: jinga nation on September 17, 2017, 07:17:59 AM
Laura33,
I wouldn't have left the store or even the parking lot for $128. Maybe your mustachian sense had been rendered ineffective temporarily in the course of trying to accommodate your MIL.
On the bright side, enjoy it and laugh.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on September 17, 2017, 08:41:56 AM
Laura33,
I wouldn't have left the store or even the parking lot for $128. Maybe your mustachian sense had been rendered ineffective temporarily in the course of trying to accommodate your MIL.
On the bright side, enjoy it and laugh.

Yep, that's exactly what happened.  I am awesome at saying no to myself, but apparently making other people happy is a serious trigger to just turn off some circuits in the brain.  So one more learning opportunity; I already knew that I can stay under control better when I plan everything out and leave the kids at home, but I hadn't realized that doing nice things for other people circumvented those "control" circuits quite so effectively.*

I guess the only good thing is that it worked - MIL ate a ton, and FIL said I had ruined pizza for him forever.  ;-). But I could have accomplished all of that for 1/4 the price -- if I had taken the time to plan out a few pizzas, I would have guessed accurately which ones they'd go batshit over (truffle paste/tallegio/garlic), and I could have given everyone a huge treat that was still a splurge, but only $25-$30.

*You'd think I'd have figured this out, given that it's also how I ended up with a 3-legged cat - totally not in the market for another pet, but someone had shot her and she lost her leg, and she was so sweet, and aaaaalllll of those protective instincts kicked in, and presto, cat #3.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: faithless on September 17, 2017, 01:19:40 PM
Yep, that's exactly what happened.  I am awesome at saying no to myself, but apparently making other people happy is a serious trigger to just turn off some circuits in the brain.  So one more learning opportunity; I already knew that I can stay under control better when I plan everything out and leave the kids at home, but I hadn't realized that doing nice things for other people circumvented those "control" circuits quite so effectively.*

I guess the only good thing is that it worked - MIL ate a ton, and FIL said I had ruined pizza for him forever.  ;-). But I could have accomplished all of that for 1/4 the price -- if I had taken the time to plan out a few pizzas, I would have guessed accurately which ones they'd go batshit over (truffle paste/tallegio/garlic), and I could have given everyone a huge treat that was still a splurge, but only $25-$30.


Yeah, not ideal, I've done similar overcatering before, but not to quite such a percentage overspend!

On the other hand, $100 to learn something about your motivations, which could save you a bunch of money in the future if you plan not to fall into the same trap in the future, maybe isn't such a bad deal?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Hotstreak on September 17, 2017, 03:00:17 PM

In the US, I believe the bank is a named party and is thus notified of any cancelations or changes

Ah, makes sense. Although, even if the bank were notified, they could surely only start foreclosure proceedings or something. It's not impossible for a mortgaged house to go uninsured because there would be a lag time between the bank being notified and taking action.


Check your contract - your lender will buy a policy and bill you for it (at a rate much, much higher than what you paid your former insurance company).  It's called forced-placed insurance or lender-placed insurance.  This is in the USA, currently, not sure what GuitarStv's coworker's contract would have said a few decades ago in Canada.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: penguintroopers on September 17, 2017, 07:54:35 PM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.

How long ago did you buy them?  If they haven't gone bad, you can peel them and stick them in ice water for a few hours, and they will plump back up (jr. high science experiment I actually remember -- and use!).

This batch was sadly already on the wrong side of the tracks. The wrinkles matched with a distinctive "we probally shouldnt eat that"-smell.


Good call.  Or you could have been in the next iteration of this thread, detailing your hospital visit from trying to save 10 cents on a potato.  ;-)

I have an expensive potato story.   Bought a mandolin (fancy vegetable slicer).  Broke it out one day to make a potato dish.   Got annoyed with the finger guard thing because it was keeping me from using the whole potato.  Next thing I know I have sliced off the top of my thumb and blood is spurting everywhere.  Managed not to faint while getting it wrapped in a towel and getting a taxi to the ER (only a few minutes away).   No stitches -- hadn't brought the missing flap of skin.  Still ended up paying several hundred dollars for the visit ($200 annual deductible + 20% copay for the ER visit, which I think was around $1000).

I have not used the  mandolin since.  Though I did keep it/bring it back from China.   Paid $40 for the thing (+ those medical costs), and it wasn't heavy.

I love my mandolin! This post finally made me order a pair of cut-resistant gloves from amazon ($7). Hopefully I won't have to post about this being a frugal intention (via avoiding medical trips from me cutting my finger) that was horribly executed.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: chaskavitch on September 18, 2017, 06:50:43 AM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.

How long ago did you buy them?  If they haven't gone bad, you can peel them and stick them in ice water for a few hours, and they will plump back up (jr. high science experiment I actually remember -- and use!).

This batch was sadly already on the wrong side of the tracks. The wrinkles matched with a distinctive "we probally shouldnt eat that"-smell.


Good call.  Or you could have been in the next iteration of this thread, detailing your hospital visit from trying to save 10 cents on a potato.  ;-)

I have an expensive potato story.   Bought a mandolin (fancy vegetable slicer).  Broke it out one day to make a potato dish.   Got annoyed with the finger guard thing because it was keeping me from using the whole potato.  Next thing I know I have sliced off the top of my thumb and blood is spurting everywhere.  Managed not to faint while getting it wrapped in a towel and getting a taxi to the ER (only a few minutes away).   No stitches -- hadn't brought the missing flap of skin.  Still ended up paying several hundred dollars for the visit ($200 annual deductible + 20% copay for the ER visit, which I think was around $1000).

I have not used the  mandolin since.  Though I did keep it/bring it back from China.   Paid $40 for the thing (+ those medical costs), and it wasn't heavy.

I love my mandolin! This post finally made me order a pair of cut-resistant gloves from amazon ($7). Hopefully I won't have to post about this being a frugal intention (via avoiding medical trips from me cutting my finger) that was horribly executed.

My dad cut off the end of one of his fingers on a mandolin while chopping a head of lettuce for salad for a church picnic.  I was 10 or 12, and I still remember him holding his hand and stomping around the kitchen trying not to curse in front of me and my little sister.  She refused to wash or use it for, oh, the next 10 years or so.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: dragoncar on September 18, 2017, 12:56:18 PM

I have an expensive potato story.   Bought a mandolin (fancy vegetable slicer). 

Stopped reading there because I already know where this is going and I'm squeamish
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Ze Stash on September 19, 2017, 05:16:15 AM
My dad is pretty mustachian, especially when it comes to energy related issues because he is an environmentalist. He rides his electric bike the 20km (12 miles) to work almost every day in his fifties, dislikes air travel because of the environmental impact it has, makes sure no one showers too long and so on. One day he realized that the temperature in the big freezer in the basement could be adjusted and was currently set on the coldest option. He thought this was not neccessary and sligthly increased the setting to decrease the energy use of the freezer. A day later he checked again and found everything to still be frozen and very cold, so he adjusted the temperature slightly upwards again. This repeated for a few days until they went on a 2 week vacation. When they returned from their vacation my parents found the whole basement reeking of spoiled meats and it turned out that his last temperature adjustment had finally defrosted the whole freezer. They lost more than €100 in frozen meats and fish and had to spend a significant amount of time cleaning the freezer and getting the stench out of the basement. All of this just to save a few bucks in electricity costs.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Sibley on September 19, 2017, 08:30:47 AM
My dad is pretty mustachian, especially when it comes to energy related issues because he is an environmentalist. He rides his electric bike the 20km (12 miles) to work almost every day in his fifties, dislikes air travel because of the environmental impact it has, makes sure no one showers too long and so on. One day he realized that the temperature in the big freezer in the basement could be adjusted and was currently set on the coldest option. He thought this was not neccessary and sligthly increased the setting to decrease the energy use of the freezer. A day later he checked again and found everything to still be frozen and very cold, so he adjusted the temperature slightly upwards again. This repeated for a few days until they went on a 2 week vacation. When they returned from their vacation my parents found the whole basement reeking of spoiled meats and it turned out that his last temperature adjustment had finally defrosted the whole freezer. They lost more than €100 in frozen meats and fish and had to spend a significant amount of time cleaning the freezer and getting the stench out of the basement. All of this just to save a few bucks in electricity costs.

If I were your mother, I'd flat out tell him that I'd set the temperature of the fridge/freezer and he wasn't allowed to touch it, under pain of death. Because that is just awful. The SMELL. OMG.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Ze Stash on September 19, 2017, 09:12:44 AM
My dad is pretty mustachian, especially when it comes to energy related issues because he is an environmentalist. He rides his electric bike the 20km (12 miles) to work almost every day in his fifties, dislikes air travel because of the environmental impact it has, makes sure no one showers too long and so on. One day he realized that the temperature in the big freezer in the basement could be adjusted and was currently set on the coldest option. He thought this was not neccessary and sligthly increased the setting to decrease the energy use of the freezer. A day later he checked again and found everything to still be frozen and very cold, so he adjusted the temperature slightly upwards again. This repeated for a few days until they went on a 2 week vacation. When they returned from their vacation my parents found the whole basement reeking of spoiled meats and it turned out that his last temperature adjustment had finally defrosted the whole freezer. They lost more than €100 in frozen meats and fish and had to spend a significant amount of time cleaning the freezer and getting the stench out of the basement. All of this just to save a few bucks in electricity costs.

If I were your mother, I'd flat out tell him that I'd set the temperature of the fridge/freezer and he wasn't allowed to touch it, under pain of death. Because that is just awful. The SMELL. OMG.

She wasn't aware he was fiddling with it until they returned. He is not allowed near it any more, but the story still gets told sometimes and everyone has a friendly laugh at his expense.

A few months after I moved out of my parents house for university I noticed some ice building up in the freezer in my apartement that made it difficult to store larger items. Because I was impatient and didn't want to defrost the whole thing I thought I could just scrape at it with a fork until the ice falls off the wall. I ended up stabbing a hole in the wall however, which lead to the coolant leaking out and the freezer breaking. This story mostly gets told soon after my dads story.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Inaya on September 19, 2017, 04:12:50 PM
Mine's not as bad as what you guys are saying, but here goes:

A coworker is getting married this weekend and we had a little bridal shower for her on Monday. I didn't feel like tossing $15 bucks in for the gift card and decided I would make some nice cloth napkins with her and her future husband's initials on them. I had the perfect fabric at home and fabric paint and could make up a stencil no problem. To save on fabric I decide to make 4 napkins out of my fabric length, and start cutting squares. Once it's all cut, I make the stencil, dab on the paint and let it dry while making/ eating dinner.
Feeling rather proud of myself I start the process of folding and pressing to do some fancy mitered corners on the hem. Can't do it with my preferred 1/4" hem so do a 1/2". Get it all sorted, pinned and ready for the sewing machine. A napkin falls on my lap and I realize that my cheaping out by squeezing 4 napkins on the length, plus the bigger hem means that I have measly 9" napkins which look awful. Give up on the whole project, see that target is still open for another 30 minutes and run out and buy a gift.
Wasted an entire evening and a good chunk of lovely fabric and spent the money I would have if I had just thrown money in the pot in the first case.


This is pretty much how my wedding planning went. Attempt to save some money on a thing via DIY. Spend money on DIY supplies. Fail miserably at DIY, wasting time and supplies, and end up buying the thing after all. I think maybe 2 of my DIYs actually worked as intended, but they took so. freaking. long. that I would have been better off just buying them to begin with.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on September 19, 2017, 08:51:39 PM
Relevant.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Goldielocks on September 19, 2017, 09:17:57 PM
I made Relish for the first time this week from an old recipe that I was given by an older acquaintance.

The recipe was so freaking huge.  Her hand written comments on it were to use a "Very large pot", and to pre-heat the vinegar / salt / spice / flour mixture prior to adding in the chopped veggies because cooking takes a very long time otherwise.
 
I have a "That's-a -bowl" from tupperware (the big one).  It was too small and I needed to use my extra large turkey roaster instead.  I preheated the 8 cups of vinegar + 6 cups of liquid from the veggies, with sugar, tumeric, spices, etc all mixed, in my large dutch oven  (about 3/4 full) on the stove.  It was taking a long time to boil, so I went to get dressed for a meeting.   I was gone 10 minutes and the mixture was boiling over.   Vinegary syrupy mess, with tumeric, all over the stove top, rolling down the front of the stove, and all over the floor.  Under the stove and seeping behind the toekicks.  The biggest, staining mess ever. Took three bath towels (now stained yellow) to clean it up.

I had to buy more vinegar and remake the solution, I still have to pull the stove out to fully clean under it.

The worst part is the the syrup got under the canner (very large pot with boiling water on high heat) also on the glass top stove, and yep, I can confirm that sugar badly burned onto a glass top will indeed pit and damage it.  Damn.  First glass stovetop damage I have ever caused, in over 15 years.  I certainly hope that I don't need to replace it.

Now I have 18?! jars of relish of various sizes.   I think we usually eat about 3 per year....   
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: honeybbq on September 20, 2017, 11:15:13 AM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.

How long ago did you buy them?  If they haven't gone bad, you can peel them and stick them in ice water for a few hours, and they will plump back up (jr. high science experiment I actually remember -- and use!).

This batch was sadly already on the wrong side of the tracks. The wrinkles matched with a distinctive "we probally shouldnt eat that"-smell.


Good call.  Or you could have been in the next iteration of this thread, detailing your hospital visit from trying to save 10 cents on a potato.  ;-)

I have an expensive potato story.   Bought a mandolin (fancy vegetable slicer).  Broke it out one day to make a potato dish.   Got annoyed with the finger guard thing because it was keeping me from using the whole potato.  Next thing I know I have sliced off the top of my thumb and blood is spurting everywhere.  Managed not to faint while getting it wrapped in a towel and getting a taxi to the ER (only a few minutes away).   No stitches -- hadn't brought the missing flap of skin.  Still ended up paying several hundred dollars for the visit ($200 annual deductible + 20% copay for the ER visit, which I think was around $1000).

I have not used the  mandolin since.  Though I did keep it/bring it back from China.   Paid $40 for the thing (+ those medical costs), and it wasn't heavy.

I also had a trip to the urgent care after making lasagna. Get the metal gloves from amazon!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Ann on October 04, 2017, 10:20:16 PM
Okay, this story wasn't HORRIBLY executed but I was trying so hard to be a bad ass Mustachian I forgot to be a regular person:

The second hand on my bathroom clock was stuck.  It was still "trying" to tick, so I googled Wikihow.  I disassembled the clock.  I took off the hands, even removed and opened the clock movement (and learned what that was).  Nothing I could see.  I googled another YouTube video and the very helpful watch repair woman said that, first of all, try a new battery because that is often the problem EVEN if the second hand is trying to move.

Yup.  Just needed a new battery.  But I was able to put the clock back together and it works!  So I am both embarrassed AND proud.  I usually don't ever try to "DIY" and am trying to grow some MMM stubble here.

I wasn't sure where to post this.  I have far more shameful anti-mustachian moments, but sadly most of those were just me being lazy or hedonistic.  Lots of ignorance too, though.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: misshathaway on October 05, 2017, 07:40:42 AM
Okay, this story wasn't HORRIBLY executed but I was trying so hard to be a bad ass Mustachian I forgot to be a regular person:

The second hand on my bathroom clock was stuck.  It was still "trying" to tick, so I googled Wikihow.  I disassembled the clock.  I took off the hands, even removed and opened the clock movement (and learned what that was).  Nothing I could see.  I googled another YouTube video and the very helpful watch repair woman said that, first of all, try a new battery because that is often the problem EVEN if the second hand is trying to move.

Yup.  Just needed a new battery.  But I was able to put the clock back together and it works!  So I am both embarrassed AND proud.  I usually don't ever try to "DIY" and am trying to grow some MMM stubble here.

I wasn't sure where to post this.  I have far more shameful anti-mustachian moments, but sadly most of those were just me being lazy or hedonistic.  Lots of ignorance too, though.

You made other MM's laugh with you, and you honed your DIY confidence. This was a win.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Astatine on October 06, 2017, 12:58:48 AM
This is utterly trivial but I still managed to eye-roll myself.

We use liquid handwash in the bathroom and get cheap refills from Aldi. Unfortunately the top of the redesigned refills don't allow you to easily balance it on the top of the soap dispenser to allow all of the dregs to drain into the dispenser.

So I thought I'd be clever and carefully prepped the near-empty refill by lying it on its side for a few days for all the soap to accumulate in a puddle inside the bottle. Then I thought I'd be super clever and tipped it upside down, balancing on the lid. Which meant that pouring it in to the dispenser it went all over the place. Some went in the dispenser, but most of it dripped on the outside and over the freshly-cleaned sink. I then had to spend quite a bit of time wiping up the slippery mess. Ick.

Easy to fix but super annoying, specially since I don't have much energy to spare atm.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on October 06, 2017, 07:26:42 AM
This is utterly trivial but I still managed to eye-roll myself.

We use liquid handwash in the bathroom and get cheap refills from Aldi. Unfortunately the top of the redesigned refills don't allow you to easily balance it on the top of the soap dispenser to allow all of the dregs to drain into the dispenser.

So I thought I'd be clever and carefully prepped the near-empty refill by lying it on its side for a few days for all the soap to accumulate in a puddle inside the bottle. Then I thought I'd be super clever and tipped it upside down, balancing on the lid. Which meant that pouring it in to the dispenser it went all over the place. Some went in the dispenser, but most of it dripped on the outside and over the freshly-cleaned sink. I then had to spend quite a bit of time wiping up the slippery mess. Ick.

Easy to fix but super annoying, specially since I don't have much energy to spare atm.

Gah.  I do this sort of thing all the time, if it makes you feel any better.  Like the other night I put my half-drunk glass of tea in the fridge for the next day, and in the morning DH opened the fridge door and it fell out on top of him; unfortunately, he was wearing his suit and nice white shirt on his way out the door for an important meeting, so he had to change, wash the shirt, hope the stains came out (they did), and then rush out the door late (and very pissed off).  I've also done things like used a pen to try to squish out the last of the tube of toothpaste and squirted the toothpaste all over the countertop.  And, yeah, poured the remaining bath gel all outside the new container because it wasn't balanced appropriately. 

I think that's called being human.  :-)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Just Joe on October 06, 2017, 08:42:07 AM
I just put a tiny bit of water in the soap bottle, shake it around to loosen the soap in the bottle and use that as the final shampoo or hand wash for that bottle. No transfer mess b/c I'm not that talented. My kids do the same with chocolate syrup (a rare treat since it is mostly sugar). Final use pour in a little milk over the sink, put the lid back on the chocolate (make sure it is closed) and shake it. Squeeze into a glass and add milk to taste.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: GuitarStv on October 06, 2017, 10:26:19 AM
This is utterly trivial but I still managed to eye-roll myself.

We use liquid handwash in the bathroom and get cheap refills from Aldi. Unfortunately the top of the redesigned refills don't allow you to easily balance it on the top of the soap dispenser to allow all of the dregs to drain into the dispenser.

So I thought I'd be clever and carefully prepped the near-empty refill by lying it on its side for a few days for all the soap to accumulate in a puddle inside the bottle. Then I thought I'd be super clever and tipped it upside down, balancing on the lid. Which meant that pouring it in to the dispenser it went all over the place. Some went in the dispenser, but most of it dripped on the outside and over the freshly-cleaned sink. I then had to spend quite a bit of time wiping up the slippery mess. Ick.

Easy to fix but super annoying, specially since I don't have much energy to spare atm.

Gah.  I do this sort of thing all the time, if it makes you feel any better.  Like the other night I put my half-drunk glass of tea in the fridge for the next day, and in the morning DH opened the fridge door and it fell out on top of him; unfortunately, he was wearing his suit and nice white shirt on his way out the door for an important meeting, so he had to change, wash the shirt, hope the stains came out (they did), and then rush out the door late (and very pissed off).  I've also done things like used a pen to try to squish out the last of the tube of toothpaste and squirted the toothpaste all over the countertop.  And, yeah, poured the remaining bath gel all outside the new container because it wasn't balanced appropriately. 

I think that's called being human.  :-)

Toothpaste Pro-tip:
Just cut the bottom off the tube.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ixtap on October 06, 2017, 10:28:57 AM
I have done this with laundry detergent. The big, cheaper per ounce (sometimes) bottle is too awkward to handle regularly, so I wanted to put it in the smaller bottle. I can't really hold the spigot and the smaller bottle, so I set up the larger bottle to come out the vent...It splurted out, all over the floor and me and goodness knows what else.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on October 06, 2017, 11:55:22 AM
This is utterly trivial but I still managed to eye-roll myself.

We use liquid handwash in the bathroom and get cheap refills from Aldi. Unfortunately the top of the redesigned refills don't allow you to easily balance it on the top of the soap dispenser to allow all of the dregs to drain into the dispenser.

So I thought I'd be clever and carefully prepped the near-empty refill by lying it on its side for a few days for all the soap to accumulate in a puddle inside the bottle. Then I thought I'd be super clever and tipped it upside down, balancing on the lid. Which meant that pouring it in to the dispenser it went all over the place. Some went in the dispenser, but most of it dripped on the outside and over the freshly-cleaned sink. I then had to spend quite a bit of time wiping up the slippery mess. Ick.

Easy to fix but super annoying, specially since I don't have much energy to spare atm.

Gah.  I do this sort of thing all the time, if it makes you feel any better.  Like the other night I put my half-drunk glass of tea in the fridge for the next day, and in the morning DH opened the fridge door and it fell out on top of him; unfortunately, he was wearing his suit and nice white shirt on his way out the door for an important meeting, so he had to change, wash the shirt, hope the stains came out (they did), and then rush out the door late (and very pissed off).  I've also done things like used a pen to try to squish out the last of the tube of toothpaste and squirted the toothpaste all over the countertop.  And, yeah, poured the remaining bath gel all outside the new container because it wasn't balanced appropriately. 

I think that's called being human.  :-)

Toothpaste Pro-tip:
Just cut the bottom off the tube.

I am now flashing back to the earlier discussion of ER trips involving sliced-off fingers.

Yeah.  I know myself a little too well -- if I can't be trusted to operate a pen correctly, then Laura + metal/thick plastickey tubes + sharp implements is not a good combination. :-)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Goldielocks on October 07, 2017, 01:01:51 AM
I have done this with laundry detergent. The big, cheaper per ounce (sometimes) bottle is too awkward to handle regularly, so I wanted to put it in the smaller bottle. I can't really hold the spigot and the smaller bottle, so I set up the larger bottle to come out the vent...It splurted out, all over the floor and me and goodness knows what else.

The trick is to do this, while holding the smaller bottle over the open laundry machine (I have a top loader).   Any detergent spills become the soap for the next load.  And yes, I unfortunately know exactly what you mean from this description.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: 11ducks on October 07, 2017, 01:37:49 AM
Okay, this story wasn't HORRIBLY executed but I was trying so hard to be a bad ass Mustachian I forgot to be a regular person:

The second hand on my bathroom clock was stuck.  It was still "trying" to tick, so I googled Wikihow.  I disassembled the clock.  I took off the hands, even removed and opened the clock movement (and learned what that was).  Nothing I could see.  I googled another YouTube video and the very helpful watch repair woman said that, first of all, try a new battery because that is often the problem EVEN if the second hand is trying to move.

Yup.  Just needed a new battery.  But I was able to put the clock back together and it works!  So I am both embarrassed AND proud.  I usually don't ever try to "DIY" and am trying to grow some MMM stubble here.

I wasn't sure where to post this.  I have far more shameful anti-mustachian moments, but sadly most of those were just me being lazy or hedonistic.  Lots of ignorance too, though.


MY husband is very into English  military history. When a family member was visiting London, I got them to purchase a military-style museum clock I knew he wanted, and bring it back. I gave it to him for Xmas, he loved it. We set it up, and everything works except for the seconds hand. I told him, no worries, I'll take it to a repairer. Nope no no, he was sure he could do it himself (I love my DH, but he is NOT handy. He thinks he is, but he's really not).

So, he takes apart the electrical part, managing to break the backing plate, pulls the clock open, and tiny cogs and springs go everywhere. We try and try (with youtube help) but cant get it back together. I again suggest I'll take it to the shop. No, he says, he will take down our kitchen clock and use those internal mechanisms in this  one.

So, off we go, round two. He manages to disassemble clock 2 with only a bent minute arm, but the internal mechanism doesn't fit with the museum clock. Tries to put kitchen clock back together, will not fit back in and work, drops it, manages to land it in the pile of cogs from clock #1, now the ground is covered in teeny metal parts belonging to one of the two now-useless clocks. At this time, I sneak out.

Eventually, I find him on google, ordering two different sixed internal clock mechanisms on Google.  They arrive, neither fit, DH manages to damage both. At this point, it is Clocks:4, DH:0.  It is now jammed in a box somewhere with our broken kitchen clock and the two google mechanisms.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Hula Hoop on October 09, 2017, 08:04:12 AM
11ducks - hilarious.  Your husband sounds just like my husband.  :)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Just Joe on October 09, 2017, 09:23:53 AM
Hey that's how I got my DIY start as a little kid. I broke far more than I repaired for several years. Its only taken 40 years to get where I'm at now - which is repairing more than a break by a little bit.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on October 09, 2017, 09:34:47 AM
@11ducks -- I remember as a pre-teen thinking that it would be fun to take my bike apart to see how everything worked.  And then, with it in pieces in front of me, I thought, "oh, shit."

Luckily, I did manage to get it back together correctly.  :-)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: PoutineLover on October 09, 2017, 09:43:27 AM
I did the same thing with my rollerblades. What a surprise when I found a million little metal balls that rolled all over my driveway. The rollerblades were never the same after that :(
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ixtap on October 09, 2017, 10:22:09 AM
Y'all just needed older tinkers around. I knew all about how the mechanical stuff went back together from watching the fail. For some reason, they must have played with the chemistry set when I was around, because that and mixing stuff together in the bathroom certainly allowed me to wreak havoc.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on October 15, 2017, 10:22:56 PM

Gah.  I do this sort of thing all the time, if it makes you feel any better.  Like the other night I put my half-drunk glass of tea in the fridge for the next day, and in the morning DH opened the fridge door and it fell out on top of him; unfortunately, he was wearing his suit and nice white shirt on his way out the door for an important meeting, so he had to change, wash the shirt, hope the stains came out (they did), and then rush out the door late (and very pissed off).

I'm getting anxious just reading that!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: talltexan on October 19, 2017, 07:23:21 AM
Okay, this story wasn't HORRIBLY executed but I was trying so hard to be a bad ass Mustachian I forgot to be a regular person:

The second hand on my bathroom clock was stuck.  It was still "trying" to tick, so I googled Wikihow.  I disassembled the clock.  I took off the hands, even removed and opened the clock movement (and learned what that was).  Nothing I could see.  I googled another YouTube video and the very helpful watch repair woman said that, first of all, try a new battery because that is often the problem EVEN if the second hand is trying to move.

Yup.  Just needed a new battery.  But I was able to put the clock back together and it works!  So I am both embarrassed AND proud.  I usually don't ever try to "DIY" and am trying to grow some MMM stubble here.

I wasn't sure where to post this.  I have far more shameful anti-mustachian moments, but sadly most of those were just me being lazy or hedonistic.  Lots of ignorance too, though.


MY husband is very into English  military history. When a family member was visiting London, I got them to purchase a military-style museum clock I knew he wanted, and bring it back. I gave it to him for Xmas, he loved it. We set it up, and everything works except for the seconds hand. I told him, no worries, I'll take it to a repairer. Nope no no, he was sure he could do it himself (I love my DH, but he is NOT handy. He thinks he is, but he's really not).

So, he takes apart the electrical part, managing to break the backing plate, pulls the clock open, and tiny cogs and springs go everywhere. We try and try (with youtube help) but cant get it back together. I again suggest I'll take it to the shop. No, he says, he will take down our kitchen clock and use those internal mechanisms in this  one.

So, off we go, round two. He manages to disassemble clock 2 with only a bent minute arm, but the internal mechanism doesn't fit with the museum clock. Tries to put kitchen clock back together, will not fit back in and work, drops it, manages to land it in the pile of cogs from clock #1, now the ground is covered in teeny metal parts belonging to one of the two now-useless clocks. At this time, I sneak out.

Eventually, I find him on google, ordering two different sixed internal clock mechanisms on Google.  They arrive, neither fit, DH manages to damage both. At this point, it is Clocks:4, DH:0.  It is now jammed in a box somewhere with our broken kitchen clock and the two google mechanisms.

Did anyone else read this and recall the part of "Alice in Wonderland" where they're fixing the White Rabbit's watch and putting like butter and jam in it?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: steviesterno on October 23, 2017, 01:37:27 PM
I did a home DIY project on the electrical system in my truck back before YouTube was a thing. A door alarm was broken and kept dinging. I figured it was the switch, took it all apart, cut the wire to it and presto, truck fixed! In my excitement I forgot to tape the now exposed wire off. Putting it back together it hit the ground, sparked, and my headlights, radio, inside lights, turn signals, etc were all dead.

Limped it to the repair place and got to explain how I turned a $4 problem into a $400 by being an idiot :(
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ketchup on October 24, 2017, 01:48:47 PM
I did a home DIY project on the electrical system in my truck back before YouTube was a thing. A door alarm was broken and kept dinging. I figured it was the switch, took it all apart, cut the wire to it and presto, truck fixed! In my excitement I forgot to tape the now exposed wire off. Putting it back together it hit the ground, sparked, and my headlights, radio, inside lights, turn signals, etc were all dead.

Limped it to the repair place and got to explain how I turned a $4 problem into a $400 by being an idiot :(
I almost did that once by forgetting to disconnect the battery before poking a screwdriver around near my starter motor.  Holy shit, do not do that.  Scary stuff.  Luckily I didn't die, and nothing bad happened to the car either, but sparks did fly (literally).
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: dragoncar on October 24, 2017, 02:43:37 PM
I did a home DIY project on the electrical system in my truck back before YouTube was a thing. A door alarm was broken and kept dinging. I figured it was the switch, took it all apart, cut the wire to it and presto, truck fixed! In my excitement I forgot to tape the now exposed wire off. Putting it back together it hit the ground, sparked, and my headlights, radio, inside lights, turn signals, etc were all dead.

Limped it to the repair place and got to explain how I turned a $4 problem into a $400 by being an idiot :(
I almost did that once by forgetting to disconnect the battery before poking a screwdriver around near my starter motor.  Holy shit, do not do that.  Scary stuff.  Luckily I didn't die, and nothing bad happened to the car either, but sparks did fly (literally).

I did something similar using my screwdriver to remove a done bulb.  Luckily it was just a 25 cent fuse.  Why wasn’t the door wire fused???
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Astatine on October 25, 2017, 01:54:04 AM
If we make stews or soups, we often make extra to freeze for lunches or dinners later on.

Tonight I had a leftover pumpkin soup that I found in the freezer and was looking forward to it because pumpkin soup usually freezes pretty well.

Unfortunately it was pretty gross which is an achievement for pumpkin soup. The texture had also gone very strange, a bit claggy/gluey. Bleah. (I must have done something a bit creative with the soup when I first made it)

I got through as much as I could by judicious use of stock powder to mask the worst of the flavour but I just couldn't do the last bowlful without retching. Unfortunately my response to food I don't like isn't just 'I don't like that food' - I retch and gag and it can put me off eating that particular food for a while. So I mixed it with some water and poured it on the compost.

:(
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: misshathaway on October 25, 2017, 08:55:36 AM
Unfortunately it was pretty gross which is an achievement for pumpkin soup. The texture had also gone very strange, a bit claggy/gluey. Bleah. (I must have done something a bit creative with the soup when I first made it)

I got through as much as I could by judicious use of stock powder to mask the worst of the flavour but I just couldn't do the last bowlful without retching.

LOL - no thought of throwing it out immediately. Nope, it's food, it's still "good". This thread is so enlightening because one can see oneself in many of the posts.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on October 26, 2017, 07:37:27 PM
If we make stews or soups, we often make extra to freeze for lunches or dinners later on.

Tonight I had a leftover pumpkin soup that I found in the freezer and was looking forward to it because pumpkin soup usually freezes pretty well.

Unfortunately it was pretty gross which is an achievement for pumpkin soup. The texture had also gone very strange, a bit claggy/gluey. Bleah. (I must have done something a bit creative with the soup when I first made it)

I got through as much as I could by judicious use of stock powder to mask the worst of the flavour but I just couldn't do the last bowlful without retching. Unfortunately my response to food I don't like isn't just 'I don't like that food' - I retch and gag and it can put me off eating that particular food for a while. So I mixed it with some water and poured it on the compost.

:(

The last lot of pumpkin soup I froze separated into water and pumpkin pulp, which was a horrible new accomplishment.

I agree - it usually freezes really well!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: dragoncar on November 11, 2017, 12:08:07 AM
Unfortunately it was pretty gross which is an achievement for pumpkin soup. The texture had also gone very strange, a bit claggy/gluey. Bleah. (I must have done something a bit creative with the soup when I first made it)

I got through as much as I could by judicious use of stock powder to mask the worst of the flavour but I just couldn't do the last bowlful without retching.

LOL - no thought of throwing it out immediately. Nope, it's food, it's still "good". This thread is so enlightening because one can see oneself in many of the posts.

https://youtu.be/MWvevkE0kAI
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Chaplin on November 12, 2017, 09:20:08 AM
A near miss: I replaced the battery on my car. I've done this at least five or six times before on various cars. Great, the car now starts. But now it keeps stalling every time I let off the gas. Did I do something wrong, or was the problem that caused me to replace the battery more serious than I thought?

I have little faith in Canadian Tire's ability to fix anything, but it's close and I can make it there despite the stalling. After a communication fiasco involving not being able to connect with them on the phone, I find out they couldn't figure it out, but suggested some useless things which I declined. I called a Subaru dealer and they told me what to do over the phone. I picked up the keys from Canadian Tire and fixed it in the parking lot in 15 minutes.

The real mistake here was not checking on line if there were any quirks to replacing a battery on this model of car. If I had then a lot less time would have been wasted. It didn't really cost me anything other than time though.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Chaplin on November 12, 2017, 09:22:20 AM
I posted this one in my Journal a while back, but it seemed appropriate here:

My wife keeps her eyes open for deals and found a nice little butcher shop that has a good price for the goat cheese we buy due to the boy's cow milk allergy. She picked up some ground beef too and made chili. The chili tasted odd and was full of chunks of bone or gristle. She went back to the butcher and realized that she had bought dog food. If the price seems too good to be true...
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Carless on November 12, 2017, 07:49:03 PM
If we make stews or soups, we often make extra to freeze for lunches or dinners later on.

Tonight I had a leftover pumpkin soup that I found in the freezer and was looking forward to it because pumpkin soup usually freezes pretty well.

Unfortunately it was pretty gross which is an achievement for pumpkin soup. The texture had also gone very strange, a bit claggy/gluey. Bleah. (I must have done something a bit creative with the soup when I first made it)

I got through as much as I could by judicious use of stock powder to mask the worst of the flavour but I just couldn't do the last bowlful without retching. Unfortunately my response to food I don't like isn't just 'I don't like that food' - I retch and gag and it can put me off eating that particular food for a while. So I mixed it with some water and poured it on the compost.

:(

The last lot of pumpkin soup I froze separated into water and pumpkin pulp, which was a horrible new accomplishment.

I agree - it usually freezes really well!

I've had this happen with starchy soups lots of times.  Just biz it up again (I use an immersion blender).
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on November 12, 2017, 07:50:54 PM
If we make stews or soups, we often make extra to freeze for lunches or dinners later on.

Tonight I had a leftover pumpkin soup that I found in the freezer and was looking forward to it because pumpkin soup usually freezes pretty well.

Unfortunately it was pretty gross which is an achievement for pumpkin soup. The texture had also gone very strange, a bit claggy/gluey. Bleah. (I must have done something a bit creative with the soup when I first made it)

I got through as much as I could by judicious use of stock powder to mask the worst of the flavour but I just couldn't do the last bowlful without retching. Unfortunately my response to food I don't like isn't just 'I don't like that food' - I retch and gag and it can put me off eating that particular food for a while. So I mixed it with some water and poured it on the compost.

:(

The last lot of pumpkin soup I froze separated into water and pumpkin pulp, which was a horrible new accomplishment.

I agree - it usually freezes really well!

I've had this happen with starchy soups lots of times.  Just biz it up again (I use an immersion blender).

So do I when I'm at home. At work I had the high-tech options of spoon or fork available.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Astatine on November 12, 2017, 10:56:55 PM
^^ If I'm reheating soup from the freezer for a meal, it's because I'm too tired/out of spoons to eat anything else. So re-blitzing with a mixer is never going to happen.

I posted this one in my Journal a while back, but it seemed appropriate here:

My wife keeps her eyes open for deals and found a nice little butcher shop that has a good price for the goat cheese we buy due to the boy's cow milk allergy. She picked up some ground beef too and made chili. The chili tasted odd and was full of chunks of bone or gristle. She went back to the butcher and realized that she had bought dog food. If the price seems too good to be true...

Oh no... :(
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Boll weevil on November 13, 2017, 10:46:26 PM
I'm not sure this quite fits the theme of the thread, but have to share...

I recently got a new expensive ergonomic mouse at work to replace my old expensive ergonomic mouse.

What happened to my old expensive ergonomic mouse? The left click button was starting to misbehave: releasing when I didn't want it to and double or triple clicking when I single-clicked. I did some digging online and the likely problem is that the switch under the button was going bad. There's a few helpful webpages explaining how it can be fixed. You have to take the mouse apart, open up the switch, remove a fiddly little metal piece, bend it, reinstall it, and then put everything back together.

I did contact our ergo specialist to see what the process was for getting a new mouse. But my due dates were far enough off that I felt comfortable taking some time to try to fix it myself. So I brought in a set of mini screwdrivers and started taking things apart. Only a couple of the fasteners came out easy. I don't know if they used some sort of glue, but it took 2-3 hours over 2 days to remove all the pieces to get to the switch. Opening the switch, removing the fiddly little metal piece, and bending it went pretty fast, but I tinkered with it for another 1-2 hours and never was able to get the little metal piece re-installed.

So I ended up having to order a new mouse.

If you add up the time, I spent 3-5 hours of on-the-clock time trying to fix the mouse. My gross salary for that time would have purchased two of these things. I don't know the exact wrap rate my employer charges its customers, but am guessing they technically started losing money 1/2 hour into this little side project. But at the same time, we were sort of in a lull, so that time wasn't necessarily going to be productive anyway.

I brought the mouse home and purchased a soldering iron and desoldering pump. My plan is to disassemble one of the spare mice I've picked up over the years and use a switch from that to replace the switch I was unable to put the fiddly little metal piece back into. But I've been procrastinating on it for a while now, so the soldering iron and desoldering pump could be considered a waste of money, and will continue to be until I follow through and try to make the repair.   
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on November 14, 2017, 07:13:26 PM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.

How long ago did you buy them?  If they haven't gone bad, you can peel them and stick them in ice water for a few hours, and they will plump back up (jr. high science experiment I actually remember -- and use!).

This batch was sadly already on the wrong side of the tracks. The wrinkles matched with a distinctive "we probally shouldnt eat that"-smell.


Good call.  Or you could have been in the next iteration of this thread, detailing your hospital visit from trying to save 10 cents on a potato.  ;-)

And revisiting August’s discussion:  last week DH was out of town, so I didn’t really cook, so I didn’t have leftovers to bring to the office.  To avoid running out and grabbing a $12 salad, I scrounged for stuff I had brought in previously and found some Eggbeaters in the fridge that I had forgotten about.  Lunch solved! 

Later that afternoon, I didn’t feel awesome, so I figured the eggbeaters must have gone off and emailed my assistant to ask her to pitch the rest of it.  The next day, I get in and she is laughing at me:  the expiration date on the carton was, well, right about the time we were discussing spoiled potatoes.  Guess I got off light! 
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Dicey on November 16, 2017, 11:08:53 AM
Okay, this story wasn't HORRIBLY executed but I was trying so hard to be a bad ass Mustachian I forgot to be a regular person:

The second hand on my bathroom clock was stuck.  It was still "trying" to tick, so I googled Wikihow.  I disassembled the clock.  I took off the hands, even removed and opened the clock movement (and learned what that was).  Nothing I could see.  I googled another YouTube video and the very helpful watch repair woman said that, first of all, try a new battery because that is often the problem EVEN if the second hand is trying to move.

Yup.  Just needed a new battery.  But I was able to put the clock back together and it works!  So I am both embarrassed AND proud.  I usually don't ever try to "DIY" and am trying to grow some MMM stubble here.

I wasn't sure where to post this.  I have far more shameful anti-mustachian moments, but sadly most of those were just me being lazy or hedonistic.  Lots of ignorance too, though.

You made other MM's laugh with you, and you honed your DIY confidence. This was a win.
Indeed. Go, Ann!
Or maybe that should read: "Grow, Ann!"
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: meghan88 on November 17, 2017, 05:13:23 PM
Bought an allegedly new pair of running shoes on ebay, at what I thought was a good price even after shipping costs (they're expensive in Canada).

Picked them up at the post office today.  The shipper used DHL (gahhh) which resulted in a COD charge of over $46.  $19 in duties, $17 in taxes, $10 in "fees" (I'd already paid the seller for shipping).  Shipping in the listing led me to believe they'd be using USPS, which always arrives just fine with no extra charges.

To make matters worse, the shoes are most definitely not new - the soles are dirty and there's a rub A5-35-like aroma.  Yuck.

No point in sending them back, since I am already out the $46.  Shitshitshit.  Anyway I wrote the seller and included pics of the time-stamped receipt, and the dirty soles.  I wish I could've included a scratch-n-sniff pic as well.

Grrr.

Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on November 17, 2017, 06:00:38 PM
Bought an allegedly new pair of running shoes on ebay, at what I thought was a good price even after shipping costs (they're expensive in Canada).

Picked them up at the post office today.  The shipper used DHL (gahhh) which resulted in a COD charge of over $46.  $19 in duties, $17 in taxes, $10 in "fees" (I'd already paid the seller for shipping).  Shipping in the listing led me to believe they'd be using USPS, which always arrives just fine with no extra charges.

To make matters worse, the shoes are most definitely not new - the soles are dirty and there's a rub A5-35-like aroma.  Yuck.

No point in sending them back, since I am already out the $46.  Shitshitshit.  Anyway I wrote the seller and included pics of the time-stamped receipt, and the dirty soles.  I wish I could've included a scratch-n-sniff pic as well.

Grrr.

So frustrating.

Sellers like that give eBay a bad name.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Goldielocks on November 18, 2017, 12:40:26 AM
Bought an allegedly new pair of running shoes on ebay, at what I thought was a good price even after shipping costs (they're expensive in Canada).

Picked them up at the post office today.  The shipper used DHL (gahhh) which resulted in a COD charge of over $46.  $19 in duties, $17 in taxes, $10 in "fees" (I'd already paid the seller for shipping).  Shipping in the listing led me to believe they'd be using USPS, which always arrives just fine with no extra charges.

To make matters worse, the shoes are most definitely not new - the soles are dirty and there's a rub A5-35-like aroma.  Yuck.

No point in sending them back, since I am already out the $46.  Shitshitshit.  Anyway I wrote the seller and included pics of the time-stamped receipt, and the dirty soles.  I wish I could've included a scratch-n-sniff pic as well.

Grrr.
I've been hit by that DHL thing... to the point where I nearly refused the item.   
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: theadvicist on November 18, 2017, 07:47:36 AM
Bought an allegedly new pair of running shoes on ebay, at what I thought was a good price even after shipping costs (they're expensive in Canada).

Picked them up at the post office today.  The shipper used DHL (gahhh) which resulted in a COD charge of over $46.  $19 in duties, $17 in taxes, $10 in "fees" (I'd already paid the seller for shipping).  Shipping in the listing led me to believe they'd be using USPS, which always arrives just fine with no extra charges.

To make matters worse, the shoes are most definitely not new - the soles are dirty and there's a rub A5-35-like aroma.  Yuck.

No point in sending them back, since I am already out the $46.  Shitshitshit.  Anyway I wrote the seller and included pics of the time-stamped receipt, and the dirty soles.  I wish I could've included a scratch-n-sniff pic as well.

Grrr.

So frustrating.

Sellers like that give eBay a bad name.

This happened to me on eBay - bought a “new without tags” suit for work. It arrived covered in hairs and smelling of perfume. I just opened a case and got a full refund. Didn’t even have to return it I don’t think. And if it said shipping would be one thing and they did another, isn’t that misselling? I’d ask for a refund for the charges as well. They said one thing and did another (assuming it was explicit in the listing) so they are responsible. But maybe consumer protection laws are less strict over there? Seems like shops are more lenient though - I’ve heard of people returning opened makeup just because they don’t like the colour and that would not fly here.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: meghan88 on November 18, 2017, 05:41:26 PM
Bought an allegedly new pair of running shoes on ebay, at what I thought was a good price even after shipping costs (they're expensive in Canada).

Picked them up at the post office today.  The shipper used DHL (gahhh) which resulted in a COD charge of over $46.  $19 in duties, $17 in taxes, $10 in "fees" (I'd already paid the seller for shipping).  Shipping in the listing led me to believe they'd be using USPS, which always arrives just fine with no extra charges.

To make matters worse, the shoes are most definitely not new - the soles are dirty and there's a rub A5-35-like aroma.  Yuck.

No point in sending them back, since I am already out the $46.  Shitshitshit.  Anyway I wrote the seller and included pics of the time-stamped receipt, and the dirty soles.  I wish I could've included a scratch-n-sniff pic as well.

Grrr.

So frustrating.

Sellers like that give eBay a bad name.

This happened to me on eBay - bought a “new without tags” suit for work. It arrived covered in hairs and smelling of perfume. I just opened a case and got a full refund. Didn’t even have to return it I don’t think. And if it said shipping would be one thing and they did another, isn’t that misselling? I’d ask for a refund for the charges as well. They said one thing and did another (assuming it was explicit in the listing) so they are responsible. But maybe consumer protection laws are less strict over there? Seems like shops are more lenient though - I’ve heard of people returning opened makeup just because they don’t like the colour and that would not fly here.

I've been hit by that DHL thing... to the point where I nearly refused the item.   

Update - here's the seller's pathetic answer, followed by my response:

Thank you for contacting us!

I do apologize that the shoes you received were not as you expected. Please note that we are an outlet warehouse selling overstock/liquidation items, some of which have been subject to many try-ons along with numerous shipping and handling before they reach us. Shoes can have scuffs and small signs of wear due to trying on multiple times in a retail environment.

As you may know, it is required by your local government to pay duties and taxes on items coming into the country that are valued at $20 CAN or more. Our shipping carrier pays these duties and taxes for you upfront. In return, Canada Post has to pay these Duties and taxes back to our shipping carrier (DHL). Canada Post then Charges you a $10 handling fee to collect these Duties and taxes, and returns the duties and taxes owed back to DHL.

Please let me know if I can assist you any further as your feedback matters. All of us here at BHFO appreciate your business.

Sincerely, ...
---------------------------
Apologies, but the description does NOT match the item I received, in terms of wear.  The photos I sent you on the same day I received the item show that the wear is more than just in-store try-ons.  You listed them with the following description/classification:

New without box: A brand-new, unused, and unworn item (including handmade items) that is not in original packaging or may be missing original packaging materials (such as the original box or bag). The original tags may not be attached. For example, new shoes (with absolutely no signs of wear) that are no longer in their original box fall into this category

How can you possibly claim that the shoes that I received show ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNS OF WEAR?  I can attach the photos again if you need to see them.  These shoes were clearly worn outside.  They show dirt, creases, and they smell.

Check the feedback I leave for other sellers please.  I am an honest purchaser and was expecting a new set of shoes.

Moreover, you didn't say anywhere in your description of the item that you use DHL for shipping.

Had I known this, I would NEVER have purchased these shoes.  I avoid DHL like the plague.

Please check the feedback I've left for other sellers.  I've been on ebay since 1999 and have never had a purchase go so very wrong.

----------------------------

Thanks for letting me vent.  I am about as pissed off about this as I ever get.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Roe on November 19, 2017, 02:03:21 AM
Bought an allegedly new pair of running shoes on ebay, at what I thought was a good price even after shipping costs (they're expensive in Canada).

Picked them up at the post office today.  The shipper used DHL (gahhh) which resulted in a COD charge of over $46.  $19 in duties, $17 in taxes, $10 in "fees" (I'd already paid the seller for shipping).  Shipping in the listing led me to believe they'd be using USPS, which always arrives just fine with no extra charges.

To make matters worse, the shoes are most definitely not new - the soles are dirty and there's a rub A5-35-like aroma.  Yuck.

No point in sending them back, since I am already out the $46.  Shitshitshit.  Anyway I wrote the seller and included pics of the time-stamped receipt, and the dirty soles.  I wish I could've included a scratch-n-sniff pic as well.

Grrr.

So frustrating.

Sellers like that give eBay a bad name.

This happened to me on eBay - bought a “new without tags” suit for work. It arrived covered in hairs and smelling of perfume. I just opened a case and got a full refund. Didn’t even have to return it I don’t think. And if it said shipping would be one thing and they did another, isn’t that misselling? I’d ask for a refund for the charges as well. They said one thing and did another (assuming it was explicit in the listing) so they are responsible. But maybe consumer protection laws are less strict over there? Seems like shops are more lenient though - I’ve heard of people returning opened makeup just because they don’t like the colour and that would not fly here.

I've been hit by that DHL thing... to the point where I nearly refused the item.   

Update - here's the seller's pathetic answer, followed by my response:

Thank you for contacting us!

I do apologize that the shoes you received were not as you expected. Please note that we are an outlet warehouse selling overstock/liquidation items, some of which have been subject to many try-ons along with numerous shipping and handling before they reach us. Shoes can have scuffs and small signs of wear due to trying on multiple times in a retail environment.

As you may know, it is required by your local government to pay duties and taxes on items coming into the country that are valued at $20 CAN or more. Our shipping carrier pays these duties and taxes for you upfront. In return, Canada Post has to pay these Duties and taxes back to our shipping carrier (DHL). Canada Post then Charges you a $10 handling fee to collect these Duties and taxes, and returns the duties and taxes owed back to DHL.

Please let me know if I can assist you any further as your feedback matters. All of us here at BHFO appreciate your business.

Sincerely, ...
---------------------------
Apologies, but the description does NOT match the item I received, in terms of wear.  The photos I sent you on the same day I received the item show that the wear is more than just in-store try-ons.  You listed them with the following description/classification:

New without box: A brand-new, unused, and unworn item (including handmade items) that is not in original packaging or may be missing original packaging materials (such as the original box or bag). The original tags may not be attached. For example, new shoes (with absolutely no signs of wear) that are no longer in their original box fall into this category

How can you possibly claim that the shoes that I received show ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNS OF WEAR?  I can attach the photos again if you need to see them.  These shoes were clearly worn outside.  They show dirt, creases, and they smell.

Check the feedback I leave for other sellers please.  I am an honest purchaser and was expecting a new set of shoes.

Moreover, you didn't say anywhere in your description of the item that you use DHL for shipping.

Had I known this, I would NEVER have purchased these shoes.  I avoid DHL like the plague.

Please check the feedback I've left for other sellers.  I've been on ebay since 1999 and have never had a purchase go so very wrong.

----------------------------

Thanks for letting me vent.  I am about as pissed off about this as I ever get.

I didn't pay for those shoes, and that response still makes me steam.

I  think the seller might be right about the shoes only being worn in a (very dirty) warehouse, but that's irrelevant. They didn't write that the shoes show no signs of wear from a customer that bought them.

This is answer is like you telling them that yes, I bought your shoes for §100, but as you may know, Christmas is coming. Apart from your shoes, I have to pay for gifts and food for my family. Therefore the actual amount I pay you will be §60. Please let me know if you have any other questions I can give deflective and meaningless answers to.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Dezrah on November 21, 2017, 12:49:41 PM
Decided to save on potatoes. Instead of buying the amount I needed, I picked up a big bulk bag of them.

Was going to use them today, and all of them were soft and wrinkly. Boh.

How long ago did you buy them?  If they haven't gone bad, you can peel them and stick them in ice water for a few hours, and they will plump back up (jr. high science experiment I actually remember -- and use!).

This batch was sadly already on the wrong side of the tracks. The wrinkles matched with a distinctive "we probally shouldnt eat that"-smell.


Good call.  Or you could have been in the next iteration of this thread, detailing your hospital visit from trying to save 10 cents on a potato.  ;-)

And revisiting August’s discussion:  last week DH was out of town, so I didn’t really cook, so I didn’t have leftovers to bring to the office.  To avoid running out and grabbing a $12 salad, I scrounged for stuff I had brought in previously and found some Eggbeaters in the fridge that I had forgotten about.  Lunch solved! 

Later that afternoon, I didn’t feel awesome, so I figured the eggbeaters must have gone off and emailed my assistant to ask her to pitch the rest of it.  The next day, I get in and she is laughing at me:  the expiration date on the carton was, well, right about the time we were discussing spoiled potatoes.  Guess I got off light!

Lol at potatoes.

Not long ago my husband decided to try a diet where he would eat almost nothing but potatoes.  This included a single steamed potato for lunch.  Obviously this was far from sustainable but we made it through the big bag of spuds.

Weeks later we're on our way through security to catch a flight.  DH never cleans out his backpack, so it's full of pens, old gum, ibuprofen, scrap paper from work, broken headphones, etc.  There's so much junk that it's no surprise when his bag gets pulled out of the x-ray line for a manual search.  A quick search later, we get the greenlight and move on.

We get to our gate and DH decides to pull out a book.  As he digs in, he finds not one, not two, but three raw potatoes he had shoved in his bag and forgotten about.  I like to think the x-ray tech was staring at the screen trying to figure out what the fuck those things are.  Then the guy who searched the bag must have had the thought "Well I guess there's no rule saying you can't carry on potatoes."

So we flew to the wedding with potatoes.  At least we found them before they started to shrivel.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Kitsunegari on November 24, 2017, 08:22:26 AM
A few years ago my company bought automatic dispensers that made terrible coffee for just .25 $, and the first week it was completely free. The whole office went apeshit, everybody was drinking 5+ coffees per day. The thing is, the only mugs available were styrofoam cups, and everybody was making heaps of garbage.
I went to HR to bring up the issue, and they said they couldn't not provide the cups (bullshit, people will bring their own mugs on day 2 or 3) but they'd look into providing reusable mugs. I suggested a trip to the thrift store and buying a bunch for .50 $ each, but my solution was dismissed with no real reason.
After a few weeks HR calls me in their office, to proudly show me the solution they found: they ordered cheap plastic travel mugs with the company logo, and gave one to each permanent employé. WITHOUT stopping to provide the styrofoam disponsable ones.
People used the travel mugs a couple of times, but pretty much stopped when they were too dirty, they didn't bother washing them. It made me so angry!
Anyway, in all this at some point I went to the thrift store myself and bought a few dozens, all different, and lots of people actually "adopted" them as their own office mugs, thus stopping to use styrofoam or plastic ones altogether. I don't cake I spent my own dollars on them, I just could't ignore those heaps of garbage and do nothing about it. A few times I even stayed a bit longer in the office to collect the dirty ceramic mugs from under the desks, wash them and made them available again for my workmates.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Dicey on November 24, 2017, 12:55:09 PM
Kitsunegari, you're my kind of frugal girl!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on November 26, 2017, 08:04:59 PM
A few years ago my company bought automatic dispensers that made terrible coffee for just .25 $, and the first week it was completely free. The whole office went apeshit, everybody was drinking 5+ coffees per day. The thing is, the only mugs available were styrofoam cups, and everybody was making heaps of garbage.
I went to HR to bring up the issue, and they said they couldn't not provide the cups (bullshit, people will bring their own mugs on day 2 or 3) but they'd look into providing reusable mugs. I suggested a trip to the thrift store and buying a bunch for .50 $ each, but my solution was dismissed with no real reason.
After a few weeks HR calls me in their office, to proudly show me the solution they found: they ordered cheap plastic travel mugs with the company logo, and gave one to each permanent employé. WITHOUT stopping to provide the styrofoam disponsable ones.
People used the travel mugs a couple of times, but pretty much stopped when they were too dirty, they didn't bother washing them. It made me so angry!
Anyway, in all this at some point I went to the thrift store myself and bought a few dozens, all different, and lots of people actually "adopted" them as their own office mugs, thus stopping to use styrofoam or plastic ones altogether. I don't cake I spent my own dollars on them, I just could't ignore those heaps of garbage and do nothing about it. A few times I even stayed a bit longer in the office to collect the dirty ceramic mugs from under the desks, wash them and made them available again for my workmates.

Awesome. Sometimes the best way is to lead by example.

I used to do the same with cutlery in the kitchen at old work. I would pay a dollar for a bag full of mixed cutlery from an op shop, run it through my dishwasher twice, then deposit it in the work kitchen.

After about six months it would all disappear (do people eat spoons?) and I'd do it all over again.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: TheGrimSqueaker on November 26, 2017, 09:30:07 PM
A few years ago my company bought automatic dispensers that made terrible coffee for just .25 $, and the first week it was completely free. The whole office went apeshit, everybody was drinking 5+ coffees per day. The thing is, the only mugs available were styrofoam cups, and everybody was making heaps of garbage.
I went to HR to bring up the issue, and they said they couldn't not provide the cups (bullshit, people will bring their own mugs on day 2 or 3) but they'd look into providing reusable mugs. I suggested a trip to the thrift store and buying a bunch for .50 $ each, but my solution was dismissed with no real reason.
After a few weeks HR calls me in their office, to proudly show me the solution they found: they ordered cheap plastic travel mugs with the company logo, and gave one to each permanent employé. WITHOUT stopping to provide the styrofoam disponsable ones.
People used the travel mugs a couple of times, but pretty much stopped when they were too dirty, they didn't bother washing them. It made me so angry!
Anyway, in all this at some point I went to the thrift store myself and bought a few dozens, all different, and lots of people actually "adopted" them as their own office mugs, thus stopping to use styrofoam or plastic ones altogether. I don't cake I spent my own dollars on them, I just could't ignore those heaps of garbage and do nothing about it. A few times I even stayed a bit longer in the office to collect the dirty ceramic mugs from under the desks, wash them and made them available again for my workmates.

Awesome. Sometimes the best way is to lead by example.

I used to do the same with cutlery in the kitchen at old work. I would pay a dollar for a bag full of mixed cutlery from an op shop, run it through my dishwasher twice, then deposit it in the work kitchen.

After about six months it would all disappear (do people eat spoons?) and I'd do it all over again.

People don't eat spoons, but some individuals are convinced that everything is (or ought to be) disposable, so they throw metal cutlery away in the garbage without thinking about it.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: horsepoor on November 26, 2017, 09:59:59 PM
Lol at potatoes.

Not long ago my husband decided to try a diet where he would eat almost nothing but potatoes.  This included a single steamed potato for lunch.  Obviously this was far from sustainable but we made it through the big bag of spuds.

Weeks later we're on our way through security to catch a flight.  DH never cleans out his backpack, so it's full of pens, old gum, ibuprofen, scrap paper from work, broken headphones, etc.  There's so much junk that it's no surprise when his bag gets pulled out of the x-ray line for a manual search.  A quick search later, we get the greenlight and move on.

We get to our gate and DH decides to pull out a book.  As he digs in, he finds not one, not two, but three raw potatoes he had shoved in his bag and forgotten about.  I like to think the x-ray tech was staring at the screen trying to figure out what the fuck those things are.  Then the guy who searched the bag must have had the thought "Well I guess there's no rule saying you can't carry on potatoes."

So we flew to the wedding with potatoes.  At least we found them before they started to shrivel.

I'm guessing DHS sees people bring all kinds of crazy crap come through.

A few years ago I had an afternoon flight, so I was out puttering in the garden, then headed to the airport and through security.  After I got to my gate, reached in the breast pocket of my shirt and discovered a full head of garlic.  It would have been amusing if that had been discovered in a pat-down!

My dad swears no recollection of this, but he used to bake potatoes and just take them along to the beach or wherever, and eat them cold like Nature's Power Bar.  Skin and all.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on November 26, 2017, 10:20:51 PM
My dad swears no recollection of this...

Oh those conversations are always fun.

"Remember when you used to-" "No!"

My MiL is a demon for that. There are a few infamous exchanges between her and my husband that all our friends know about but she will strenuously deny.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: dragoncar on November 27, 2017, 12:56:14 AM
Bought an allegedly new pair of running shoes on ebay, at what I thought was a good price even after shipping costs (they're expensive in Canada).

Picked them up at the post office today.  The shipper used DHL (gahhh) which resulted in a COD charge of over $46.  $19 in duties, $17 in taxes, $10 in "fees" (I'd already paid the seller for shipping).  Shipping in the listing led me to believe they'd be using USPS, which always arrives just fine with no extra charges.

To make matters worse, the shoes are most definitely not new - the soles are dirty and there's a rub A5-35-like aroma.  Yuck.

No point in sending them back, since I am already out the $46.  Shitshitshit.  Anyway I wrote the seller and included pics of the time-stamped receipt, and the dirty soles.  I wish I could've included a scratch-n-sniff pic as well.

Grrr.

OK, this totally sucks for you.  But... when you received the shoes you agreed to pay an additional $46?  For me this would definitely be a "return to sender" kind of deal.  VERY generally speaking, if you refuse delivery you can get your money back, or at least not lose more money
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Goldielocks on November 27, 2017, 01:33:26 AM
A few years ago my company bought automatic dispensers that made terrible coffee for just .25 $, and the first week it was completely free. The whole office went apeshit, everybody was drinking 5+ coffees per day. The thing is, the only mugs available were styrofoam cups, and everybody was making heaps of garbage.
I went to HR to bring up the issue, and they said they couldn't not provide the cups (bullshit, people will bring their own mugs on day 2 or 3) but they'd look into providing reusable mugs. I suggested a trip to the thrift store and buying a bunch for .50 $ each, but my solution was dismissed with no real reason.
After a few weeks HR calls me in their office, to proudly show me the solution they found: they ordered cheap plastic travel mugs with the company logo, and gave one to each permanent employé. WITHOUT stopping to provide the styrofoam disponsable ones.
People used the travel mugs a couple of times, but pretty much stopped when they were too dirty, they didn't bother washing them. It made me so angry!
Anyway, in all this at some point I went to the thrift store myself and bought a few dozens, all different, and lots of people actually "adopted" them as their own office mugs, thus stopping to use styrofoam or plastic ones altogether. I don't cake I spent my own dollars on them, I just could't ignore those heaps of garbage and do nothing about it. A few times I even stayed a bit longer in the office to collect the dirty ceramic mugs from under the desks, wash them and made them available again for my workmates.

Awesome. Sometimes the best way is to lead by example.

I used to do the same with cutlery in the kitchen at old work. I would pay a dollar for a bag full of mixed cutlery from an op shop, run it through my dishwasher twice, then deposit it in the work kitchen.

After about six months it would all disappear (do people eat spoons?) and I'd do it all over again.

People don't eat spoons, but some individuals are convinced that everything is (or ought to be) disposable, so they throw metal cutlery away in the garbage without thinking about it.

The other trick is that an office of 60 people, with a drawer of 20 spoons...   it only takes a few left in the desk drawer, a few taken home with the free lunch leftovers or for that yogurt on the drive home..., and a couple migrated to another floor, for them all to disappear.   
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Laura33 on November 27, 2017, 09:33:42 AM
A few years ago my company bought automatic dispensers that made terrible coffee for just .25 $, and the first week it was completely free. The whole office went apeshit, everybody was drinking 5+ coffees per day. The thing is, the only mugs available were styrofoam cups, and everybody was making heaps of garbage.
I went to HR to bring up the issue, and they said they couldn't not provide the cups (bullshit, people will bring their own mugs on day 2 or 3) but they'd look into providing reusable mugs. I suggested a trip to the thrift store and buying a bunch for .50 $ each, but my solution was dismissed with no real reason.
After a few weeks HR calls me in their office, to proudly show me the solution they found: they ordered cheap plastic travel mugs with the company logo, and gave one to each permanent employé. WITHOUT stopping to provide the styrofoam disponsable ones.
People used the travel mugs a couple of times, but pretty much stopped when they were too dirty, they didn't bother washing them. It made me so angry!
Anyway, in all this at some point I went to the thrift store myself and bought a few dozens, all different, and lots of people actually "adopted" them as their own office mugs, thus stopping to use styrofoam or plastic ones altogether. I don't cake I spent my own dollars on them, I just could't ignore those heaps of garbage and do nothing about it. A few times I even stayed a bit longer in the office to collect the dirty ceramic mugs from under the desks, wash them and made them available again for my workmates.

So what you're saying is that your company executed their strategy brilliantly?  They "fixed" the problem so poorly that they now have (i) ceramic mugs, and (ii) housekeeping services, (iii) neither of which they have to pay for.

I believe this is known as a "strategic failure."

;-)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Kitsunegari on November 27, 2017, 07:19:19 PM
A few years ago my company bought automatic dispensers that made terrible coffee for just .25 $, and the first week it was completely free. The whole office went apeshit, everybody was drinking 5+ coffees per day. The thing is, the only mugs available were styrofoam cups, and everybody was making heaps of garbage.
I went to HR to bring up the issue, and they said they couldn't not provide the cups (bullshit, people will bring their own mugs on day 2 or 3) but they'd look into providing reusable mugs. I suggested a trip to the thrift store and buying a bunch for .50 $ each, but my solution was dismissed with no real reason.
After a few weeks HR calls me in their office, to proudly show me the solution they found: they ordered cheap plastic travel mugs with the company logo, and gave one to each permanent employé. WITHOUT stopping to provide the styrofoam disponsable ones.
People used the travel mugs a couple of times, but pretty much stopped when they were too dirty, they didn't bother washing them. It made me so angry!
Anyway, in all this at some point I went to the thrift store myself and bought a few dozens, all different, and lots of people actually "adopted" them as their own office mugs, thus stopping to use styrofoam or plastic ones altogether. I don't cake I spent my own dollars on them, I just could't ignore those heaps of garbage and do nothing about it. A few times I even stayed a bit longer in the office to collect the dirty ceramic mugs from under the desks, wash them and made them available again for my workmates.

So what you're saying is that your company executed their strategy brilliantly?  They "fixed" the problem so poorly that they now have (i) ceramic mugs, and (ii) housekeeping services, (iii) neither of which they have to pay for.

I believe this is known as a "strategic failure."

;-)


Nope, Hanlon's razor docet.

Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Just Joe on November 28, 2017, 10:39:14 AM
I keep some campgear at my desk - utensils and mug. Take them home occasionally for a wash. Everyone else can do whatever they want to for themselves. They do so anyhow. ;)

I'd love to see less waste. Can't change the folks who go out to eat fastfood every day. Wasted fuel, wasted food containers, etc.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Cassie on November 28, 2017, 03:03:44 PM
When I worked I used to buy silverware at garage sales and bring them to work. Then I noticed people throwing stuff away instead of washing it so I quit. Then I just brought stuff for me and kept it in my office.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: barbaz on November 29, 2017, 09:15:08 AM
When I worked I used to buy silverware at garage sales and bring them to work. Then I noticed people throwing stuff away instead of washing it so I quit. Then I just brought stuff for me and kept it in my office.
I knew that the US is a country of savages, but ... WTF
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: TheGrimSqueaker on November 29, 2017, 12:11:25 PM
When I worked I used to buy silverware at garage sales and bring them to work. Then I noticed people throwing stuff away instead of washing it so I quit. Then I just brought stuff for me and kept it in my office.
I knew that the US is a country of savages, but ... WTF

There's an entire subculture of people who genuinely don't care about anything except getting their immediate needs met. Whether someone else's belongings end up in a landfill isn't a blip on their radar screen. These are people who show up to your house when it's not a mealtime demanding to be fed, expect to get the food "to go", and expect to take the plate, the utensils, the glass, and everything else with them because something else so much more important is occurring. They will not eat at a table and frequently migrate to other rooms in the house, spilling drinks and dribbling crumbs as they go, and they will not clean up the spills or messes they make because they prefer for them to be ground into the flooring. They treat their own homes and apartments the same way, which is why their belongings are generally stained and smell like spoiled milk.

If you see someone tossing cutlery or plates into the trash and they aren't disposable items, NEVER invite them to your home, never go to visit theirs, and definitely don't accept an offer of shared food.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Spiffsome on November 30, 2017, 10:40:37 PM
I'm in the middle of one right now.

I have a six-year-old smartphone. I use it for receiving phone calls in emergencies, plus my banking app. I needed to upgrade the operating system to load a second app. During that process I deleted the first app. Called the bank. Banking app is outdated, and no longer offered by the bank. Try our new 'upgraded' app!

New 'upgraded' bank app doesn't work on upgraded operating system. Old app is nowhere to be found on the Internet. Six-year-old phone does not support latest (or even near-latest) operating system.  I start to investigate custom software, and spend a weekend learning about the fine world of Android, Samsung, custom recovery, custom ROM, Odin and other open-source software. Phone flashes garish warnings about voiding my warranty. I decide no warranty on earth lasts six years, and start messing around anyway.

At this point, I have a phone that makes and receives calls and texts, and NOTHING ELSE. I have deleted both apps and all of my previous contacts. I have successfully re-dumbed my smartphone.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: UKMustache on December 01, 2017, 03:43:11 AM
My granddad wants a DVD for Christmas, I didn't want to pay full retail for it so found one on ebay (unused) for 50% off!

It arrived this week, it's a US copy and probably won't work on their player.  God dammit.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Dave1442397 on December 01, 2017, 06:50:55 AM
My granddad wants a DVD for Christmas, I didn't want to pay full retail for it so found one on ebay (unused) for 50% off!

It arrived this week, it's a US copy and probably won't work on their player.  God dammit.

Find out which DVD player he has and do a Google search for the region hacking procedure. It can't be done to all DVD players, but on many of them it's a simple sequence of button presses on the remote control.

Back before blu-ray players, I always made sure I bought a DVD player that could be region hacked. I used to get the occasional DVD set from Amazon UK, such as The Clangers for my daughter, and Fawlty Towers for myself :)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Sid Hoffman on December 01, 2017, 10:39:13 AM
Step 1: attend expensive college on credit cards
Step 2: graduate
Step 3: start working fulltime
Step 4: file bankruptcy

That's not how... wait, but the law says....

Holy cow, this guy really was brilliant!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on December 19, 2017, 10:51:52 PM
Boss took me out for lunch, insisted I keep the leftovers.

I stashed the container in my bag for the cab ride back to the office, where I discovered I have an oil patch the size of a 50 cent coin on my leather bag.

Any tips on getting oil out of leather would be most appreciated!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: meghan88 on December 20, 2017, 10:03:46 AM
My granddad wants a DVD for Christmas, I didn't want to pay full retail for it so found one on ebay (unused) for 50% off!

It arrived this week, it's a US copy and probably won't work on their player.  God dammit.
Some friends from the UK mailed us a DVD of Twin Town a few years ago ... it's still in its wrapper.  How about a swap!!  Same as this one (I believe): https://www.ebay.com/i/191843372454?rt=nc
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: jinga nation on December 20, 2017, 10:10:29 AM
Boss took me out for lunch, insisted I keep the leftovers.

I stashed the container in my bag for the cab ride back to the office, where I discovered I have an oil patch the size of a 50 cent coin on my leather bag.

Any tips on getting oil out of leather would be most appreciated!
I've used this in the past on leather shoes: http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/how-to-remove-grease-stains-from-leather/
I used cornstarch instead of talcum powder.
This guide is better at explaining the process: https://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Grease-Stains-on-Leather
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: mustachepungoeshere on December 21, 2017, 01:12:16 AM
Boss took me out for lunch, insisted I keep the leftovers.

I stashed the container in my bag for the cab ride back to the office, where I discovered I have an oil patch the size of a 50 cent coin on my leather bag.

Any tips on getting oil out of leather would be most appreciated!
I've used this in the past on leather shoes: http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/how-to-remove-grease-stains-from-leather/
I used cornstarch instead of talcum powder.
This guide is better at explaining the process: https://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Grease-Stains-on-Leather

Thanks!

I covered the patch with corn flour and left it overnight.

Husband got back from a work trip this morning.

"What's on your bag?"
"Corn flour."
" ... ok."

He didn't pursue that line of questioning. :D

I dusted it off once and the mark was still there so I put more on and left it a bit longer.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Kitsunegari on December 21, 2017, 08:02:16 AM

Husband got back from a work trip this morning.

"What's on your bag?"
"Corn flour."
" ... ok."

He didn't pursue that line of questioning. :D


LOL!
Mine learnt not to question my "female habits" after throwing out a "stone" he found in the shower. He was seriously baffled when I got another one. He didn`t know exfoliation was a thing. (yes, it was in my pre-mustachian days)
Another one that confused him a lot was "I'm gonna take a shower, do we have chickpea flour?"
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Astatine on December 23, 2017, 04:52:45 PM
There is a landfill-diversion shed at the rubbish tip where you can drop off saleable goods instead of them going to landfill. We buy stuff from there from time to time. We bought 3 outdoor chairs from the shed a few years back, very cheap and quite comfortable. We've just been leaving them out in the backyard (frost in winter, harsh sun in summer with high UV).

Anyway, DH sat in one yesterday and the fabric seat broke, irreparably. *sigh* So now we will have to pay to dispose of it in landfill. (we're not handy and there is a massive glut of second-hand goods in my city so nobody will want a broken chair)
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: chaskavitch on January 07, 2018, 08:00:48 AM
We ruined our clothes iron months and months ago removing a vinyl floor - we ironed it to heat up and loosen the glue on the backing so we could pry up the tiles more easily - and I haven't bought a new one yet, because I iron DH's shirts like once a year.   Well, I needed an iron for a sewing project, so I borrowed one from our neighbor.  Turns out the interfacing I am using has somehow gone bad, or actually has a directionality I didn't realize or something, because the very first time I tried to iron it to my fabric, it literally dissolved and melted directly onto the iron.

Now I'm out my interfacing and my time, and I have to buy TWO irons - one for me and one to replace my neighbor's :(
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Sibley on January 07, 2018, 11:27:31 AM
We ruined our clothes iron months and months ago removing a vinyl floor - we ironed it to heat up and loosen the glue on the backing so we could pry up the tiles more easily - and I haven't bought a new one yet, because I iron DH's shirts like once a year.   Well, I needed an iron for a sewing project, so I borrowed one from our neighbor.  Turns out the interfacing I am using has somehow gone bad, or actually has a directionality I didn't realize or something, because the very first time I tried to iron it to my fabric, it literally dissolved and melted directly onto the iron.

Now I'm out my interfacing and my time, and I have to buy TWO irons - one for me and one to replace my neighbor's :(

Yes, the little bumps on the interfacing are glue. You may be able to get it off - try dryer sheets. Warm the iron a bit and scrub with the dryer sheet. Also try googling for other methods. Maybe you can keep that one for yourself!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: chaskavitch on January 07, 2018, 11:41:17 AM
We ruined our clothes iron months and months ago removing a vinyl floor - we ironed it to heat up and loosen the glue on the backing so we could pry up the tiles more easily - and I haven't bought a new one yet, because I iron DH's shirts like once a year.   Well, I needed an iron for a sewing project, so I borrowed one from our neighbor.  Turns out the interfacing I am using has somehow gone bad, or actually has a directionality I didn't realize or something, because the very first time I tried to iron it to my fabric, it literally dissolved and melted directly onto the iron.

Now I'm out my interfacing and my time, and I have to buy TWO irons - one for me and one to replace my neighbor's :(

Yes, the little bumps on the interfacing are glue. You may be able to get it off - try dryer sheets. Warm the iron a bit and scrub with the dryer sheet. Also try googling for other methods. Maybe you can keep that one for yourself!

Thank you!  I'll definitely try it.

I've never had the whole thing just disappear before, but maybe this is just thin enough that choosing the wrong side was an instant disaster.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: faithless on January 07, 2018, 12:51:13 PM
I've got stuck on stuff off the iron by putting it on hot and scrubbing with scrunched up tin foil.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: zolotiyeruki on January 08, 2018, 08:03:36 AM
One of our kids was banging on a window to scare the geese in our yard, and broke the pane.  I ordered a new pane from the mfr ($72).  When I went to install it, the new pane was slightly large (or the window frame had shrunk, or the builder had installed the frame so out of square it wouldn't fit).  In my efforts to massage it into place (it was literally like 1/32" away from fitting), I broke the new window pane.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Goldielocks on January 14, 2018, 01:03:15 AM
My son paid for a lovely engraved desk ornament  for me a year ago.  He was 14 and selected it and paid with his own money that he earned shoveling snow.   It has a little clock in it that never ran from the day I received it.   I finally purchased the tiny watch battery from amazon this month, but had to buy 5 of them (still cheaper than just one in store).

Then I realized :
a)  That the clock had a small retainer tab on it to prevent it from running before the box was opened.  (The battery was still good after all).
b)  I found 2 more of the identical batteries in an old wallet I went to donate last week.

I now have 7 tiny watch batteries, in a size I will never need again.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: chaskavitch on January 17, 2018, 08:35:20 PM
We ruined our clothes iron months and months ago removing a vinyl floor - we ironed it to heat up and loosen the glue on the backing so we could pry up the tiles more easily - and I haven't bought a new one yet, because I iron DH's shirts like once a year.   Well, I needed an iron for a sewing project, so I borrowed one from our neighbor.  Turns out the interfacing I am using has somehow gone bad, or actually has a directionality I didn't realize or something, because the very first time I tried to iron it to my fabric, it literally dissolved and melted directly onto the iron.

Now I'm out my interfacing and my time, and I have to buy TWO irons - one for me and one to replace my neighbor's :(

Yes, the little bumps on the interfacing are glue. You may be able to get it off - try dryer sheets. Warm the iron a bit and scrub with the dryer sheet. Also try googling for other methods. Maybe you can keep that one for yourself!

Thank you!  I'll definitely try it.

I've never had the whole thing just disappear before, but maybe this is just thin enough that choosing the wrong side was an instant disaster.

Guys. This worked SO WELL, and I didn't even burn myself to make it another epic fail. Why does this work? Wtf is in dryer sheets that removes hot glue? Crazy awesomeness.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Cowardly Toaster on January 18, 2018, 12:58:43 PM
I don't know if this counts.

Last year my wife was after me for a newer car. AntiMustachian alert!!!

So I talked her into keeping her old car, but said we would do our best to make it more sexy. I bought $400 halo projector headlights for her car and installed them myself.

The halo on the one side always flickered a bit, then stopped working. A few months later, the whole headlight quit. On these lights the light is one assembly, there are no bulbs.

Disgusted, I fished the old headlights out of the basement, reinstalled them, and used a $10 kit from the auto store to polish the scratched lens. As good as new!

At least we didn't buy a new car!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Freedomin5 on January 21, 2018, 08:49:53 PM
DH accidentally bought kumquats instead of clementines. We don't eat kumquats and were just going to give them away, but I thought I could use them by making marmalade. I ended up spending another $10 buying not-in-season oranges, lemons, and sugar in order to make the marmalade. Sigh. Hopefully the marmalade will turn out well.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: AnnaGrowsAMustache on January 23, 2018, 04:40:22 AM
DH accidentally bought kumquats instead of clementines. We don't eat kumquats and were just going to give them away, but I thought I could use them by making marmalade. I ended up spending another $10 buying not-in-season oranges, lemons, and sugar in order to make the marmalade. Sigh. Hopefully the marmalade will turn out well.

You could have just prepped the kumquats and whacked them in the freezer to make marmalade when the rest was in season......
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Freedomin5 on January 23, 2018, 06:25:39 AM
DH accidentally bought kumquats instead of clementines. We don't eat kumquats and were just going to give them away, but I thought I could use them by making marmalade. I ended up spending another $10 buying not-in-season oranges, lemons, and sugar in order to make the marmalade. Sigh. Hopefully the marmalade will turn out well.

You could have just prepped the kumquats and whacked them in the freezer to make marmalade when the rest was in season......

Yes, you are right...it was “horribly executed”. It’s my first time making marmalade, Google didn’t tell me that kumquats could be frozen 🤔. Btw, they turned out watery, but apparently kumquats are good for sore throats, so I’m going to add hot water. And turn it into “tea”.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: AnnaGrowsAMustache on January 23, 2018, 05:40:44 PM
Slice up some ginger and leave it soaking in the watery kumquat for the sore throat tea. It'd probably also be just fine as an add to muffins, pancakes etc as a flavouring (without the ginger). Probably quite simple to turn into a dessert sauce. All sorts of things you can do with kitchen screw ups!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Freedomin5 on January 23, 2018, 08:50:22 PM
Slice up some ginger and leave it soaking in the watery kumquat for the sore throat tea. It'd probably also be just fine as an add to muffins, pancakes etc as a flavouring (without the ginger). Probably quite simple to turn into a dessert sauce. All sorts of things you can do with kitchen screw ups!

Good to know! I will definitely slice up ginger and add it to the kumquat. That is an excellent idea, since there is a major flu going around right now. Most days, only half of DD's classmates show up at school.

Since chopped up kumquat can be frozen, I'm assuming watery sweetened kumquat semi-marmalade can also be frozen?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: AnnaGrowsAMustache on January 24, 2018, 12:28:12 AM
Slice up some ginger and leave it soaking in the watery kumquat for the sore throat tea. It'd probably also be just fine as an add to muffins, pancakes etc as a flavouring (without the ginger). Probably quite simple to turn into a dessert sauce. All sorts of things you can do with kitchen screw ups!

Good to know! I will definitely slice up ginger and add it to the kumquat. That is an excellent idea, since there is a major flu going around right now. Most days, only half of DD's classmates show up at school.

Since chopped up kumquat can be frozen, I'm assuming watery sweetened kumquat semi-marmalade can also be frozen?

If you have honey, add that as well. It will last forever in the fridge. I always make up a batch of ginger, lemon peel and honey to keep in the fridge at flu season.

Yes, watery semi marmalade can be frozen! If you really wanted to, you could just reboil it to make actual marmalade, but it's probably more versatile as it is. Freeze it in portions of about a cup, and add to a cake. It'll be a lovely flavour, but a more pudding like texture. Add it instead of a bit of the milk and a bit of the sugar. You could add a bit to cream cheese and icing sugar to make a lovely icing or filling, add to softened vanilla ice cream and re freeze, add a little to smoothies, the possibilities are endless.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Roadrunner53 on January 24, 2018, 05:00:29 AM
This guy I used to work for was from China originally. He was a scientist but sometimes didn't use his thinking cap. One time, in the winter, he took his family to FL for a vacation. He turned off his heat to save money. Up here in CT a lot of homes are water baseboard heat. Well, sure enough, his pipes froze and busted and water went everywhere ruining floors and walls. His insurance company paid of ton of money to fix the mess. So much for saving money by shutting off the heat...
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Gimesalot on January 24, 2018, 01:15:18 PM
I had one of these a few days ago...  The weather was really nice after a few days of below freezing temperatures, and we needed to pick up some groceries.  We live in a food desert so we are really excited about a new grocery store within biking distance.  I convince my DH to ride our bikes there and back.  On the way there, about a block from the store, my tricycle gets a flat.  We call our friend that borrowed our pick-up to come get us.  She is in the middle of picking up flooring, so we ended up taking the bus home. 

In the end, we spent $2.50 on the bus and the gas for a round trip with the pick-up truck to get the bikes.  If we would of driven my small car, we would have used a lot less gas and saved about an hour of time.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Miss Piggy on February 16, 2018, 03:13:59 PM
On the way there, about a block from the store, my tricycle gets a flat. 

You still had two good tires...where's that mustachian spirit?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Just Joe on February 19, 2018, 09:09:39 AM
I've been watching a 20-something (I think) college kid in our town ride a bicycle with a flat tire for months now. Don't know why he doesn't repair it.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: zolotiyeruki on February 19, 2018, 10:50:38 AM
I've been watching a 20-something (I think) college kid in our town ride a bicycle with a flat tire for months now. Don't know why he doesn't repair it.
Maybe he's leaving it that way so he gets extra exercise?
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Just Joe on February 20, 2018, 09:22:45 AM
Looked like a pain in the backside with the flat tire rolling this way and that (sideways). A new tube is $10 locally. Tire prob the same. He'd prob be better off just taking the tire off and riding the bare rim. 
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Hula Hoop on May 26, 2018, 05:42:36 AM
I was following the budget grocery thread here and saw 2 kilos of chicken parts on mega sale as they were expiring the next day.  I bought a package and lugged it home only to find that they smelled 'off' so I had to chuck them.  Bringing groceries back to the store is not a 'thing' here so buyer beware.  Not doing that again.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Happily Irrelevant on May 29, 2018, 05:51:23 PM
Son and his wife have the first grandchild.  My wife is of course excited and decided that she will get back into sewing just to make him outfits.  Buys a $7500 sewing machine (that is not a typo) so she can make outfits that we can buy at Costco for about $12 each.  After about 5 outfits she starts buying them at Costco.  She is now into knitting. 
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: bacchi on May 30, 2018, 09:40:10 AM
This one's about a family friend.

He's a serious environmentalist and really tight, to the point of annoying his wife. The light above the kitchen sink is 10w of dimness (this is pre-LED). The AC is set to 85 at night, and it's humid, so everything is sticky.

He decides that the front door needs to be closed immediately whenever someone leaves. When the wife is at work, he connects some old window iron as counterweights so that the door swings shut. Wife comes home, gets bonked by the door, screaming match ensues. That was the final straw and, needless to say, he's now divorced.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Sibley on May 30, 2018, 11:05:49 AM
Son and his wife have the first grandchild.  My wife is of course excited and decided that she will get back into sewing just to make him outfits.  Buys a $7500 sewing machine (that is not a typo) so she can make outfits that we can buy at Costco for about $12 each.  After about 5 outfits she starts buying them at Costco.  She is now into knitting.

I hope you can sell it at least. And next time, remind her of this adventure.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: geekette on May 30, 2018, 11:12:14 AM
Son and his wife have the first grandchild.  My wife is of course excited and decided that she will get back into sewing just to make him outfits.  Buys a $7500 sewing machine (that is not a typo) so she can make outfits that we can buy at Costco for about $12 each.  After about 5 outfits she starts buying them at Costco.  She is now into knitting.
I've started sewing a bit, and I thought the $1500 machine I saw (didn't buy) was high end.  $7500?!?  Maybe it does embroidery or something too?  Wow.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: ketchup on May 30, 2018, 11:15:14 AM
Son and his wife have the first grandchild.  My wife is of course excited and decided that she will get back into sewing just to make him outfits.  Buys a $7500 sewing machine (that is not a typo) so she can make outfits that we can buy at Costco for about $12 each.  After about 5 outfits she starts buying them at Costco.  She is now into knitting.
I've started sewing a bit, and I thought the $1500 machine I saw (didn't buy) was high end.  $7500?!?  Maybe it does embroidery or something too?  Wow.
It must be what the astronauts use to do their taxes.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Roadrunner53 on May 30, 2018, 11:39:24 AM
Several years ago I HAD to have a bread maker. I bought one of the top of the line ones and bought all the things to make bread. Made a few loaves and there it sits like a giant statue on the top of my refrigerator.

Then I HAD to have the Instant Pot. The one that is the biggest size and cost. I have used it a few times and it isn't the greatest thing on earth that everyone seems to think it is! It has made a few batches of yogurt and now sits in a closet.

HAD TO HAVE THIS STUFF!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Dicey on May 30, 2018, 12:06:07 PM
This one's about a family friend.

He's a serious environmentalist and really tight, to the point of annoying his wife. The light above the kitchen sink is 10w of dimness (this is pre-LED). The AC is set to 85 at night, and it's humid, so everything is sticky.

He decides that the front door needs to be closed immediately whenever someone leaves. When the wife is at work, he connects some old window iron as counterweights so that the door swings shut. Wife comes home, gets bonked by the door, screaming match ensues. That was the final straw and, needless to say, he's now divorced.
Nobody likes a cheapskate. Alas, he probably exhibited these tendencies prior to marriage. Buyer beware. Good story, though!
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Happily Irrelevant on May 30, 2018, 05:51:39 PM
Son and his wife have the first grandchild.  My wife is of course excited and decided that she will get back into sewing just to make him outfits.  Buys a $7500 sewing machine (that is not a typo) so she can make outfits that we can buy at Costco for about $12 each.  After about 5 outfits she starts buying them at Costco.  She is now into knitting.
I've started sewing a bit, and I thought the $1500 machine I saw (didn't buy) was high end.  $7500?!?  Maybe it does embroidery or something too?  Wow.

It does embroidery.  She would have it embroider little animals on his onesies.  But they outgrow everything so fast it quickly proved to not be worth investing the time.  She uses it every now and again to make herself yoga pants or just to sew cell phone pockets on the store bought ones.   
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: barbaz on June 21, 2018, 07:09:33 AM
A bit different from the other submissions in this thread, but I think it still fits.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: I'm a red panda on June 21, 2018, 07:25:15 AM
Son and his wife have the first grandchild.  My wife is of course excited and decided that she will get back into sewing just to make him outfits.  Buys a $7500 sewing machine (that is not a typo) so she can make outfits that we can buy at Costco for about $12 each.  After about 5 outfits she starts buying them at Costco.  She is now into knitting.
I've started sewing a bit, and I thought the $1500 machine I saw (didn't buy) was high end.  $7500?!?  Maybe it does embroidery or something too?  Wow.

$1500 is like the lowest end Bernina you can get.

I have a $3000 machine. It does not do embroidery without an add on module. It kicks the pants off the $500 machine I had previously (and even more so the $200 machine before that). The motor is amazing. It's all metal parts. I appreciated the dealer who sold me the "sewing computer" describing it's features in terms of mechanics, and not "look it does all these alphabest stitches (that no one will ever use).  It is extremely high quality.

I have friends with $12,000 machines (they do embroider). They do some cool stuff, but no way...
(Domestic sit down sewing machines; I also have friends with long arm quilting machines - those cost in the ten thousands too)

Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: a286 on June 21, 2018, 11:33:30 AM
Several years ago I HAD to have a bread maker. I bought one of the top of the line ones and bought all the things to make bread. Made a few loaves and there it sits like a giant statue on the top of my refrigerator.

Then I HAD to have the Instant Pot. The one that is the biggest size and cost. I have used it a few times and it isn't the greatest thing on earth that everyone seems to think it is! It has made a few batches of yogurt and now sits in a closet.

HAD TO HAVE THIS STUFF!
My husband keeps bugging me about a bread maker. I keep telling him no. Then he brings up the bread maker he gave me and my roommate in college. Basically, his mom bummed hers off on his in college, then he gave it to us. I didnt want it but my roommate said yes. So we had it about two and a half years. Itd go in the hall closet, then into storage with the rest of our stuff for the summer, and then into the hall closet at the new place. I left it for my roommate to deal with when I moved out.

I think the real kicker is, I made bread by hand at least once a week in college.. never sandwich but French, rolls, breadsticks. We graduated college in 2012 and to this day neither my husband nor my college roommate have made bread from scratch.

I did buy myself an instant pot for black Friday 2016. I use it about once a week. Especially for rice, because I can't seem to make rice on the stove to save my life. Also use it for beans, meat, and one pot meals. I am disappointed that so far I haven't had luck with the slow cook feature, because I'd like it to replace the crockpot too.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Davnasty on June 21, 2018, 12:54:15 PM
When I worked I used to buy silverware at garage sales and bring them to work. Then I noticed people throwing stuff away instead of washing it so I quit. Then I just brought stuff for me and kept it in my office.
I knew that the US is a country of savages, but ... WTF

There's an entire subculture of people who genuinely don't care about anything except getting their immediate needs met. Whether someone else's belongings end up in a landfill isn't a blip on their radar screen. These are people who show up to your house when it's not a mealtime demanding to be fed, expect to get the food "to go", and expect to take the plate, the utensils, the glass, and everything else with them because something else so much more important is occurring. They will not eat at a table and frequently migrate to other rooms in the house, spilling drinks and dribbling crumbs as they go, and they will not clean up the spills or messes they make because they prefer for them to be ground into the flooring. They treat their own homes and apartments the same way, which is why their belongings are generally stained and smell like spoiled milk.

If you see someone tossing cutlery or plates into the trash and they aren't disposable items, NEVER invite them to your home, never go to visit theirs, and definitely don't accept an offer of shared food.

I know I can't hit people on account of laws and stuff, but... when I see people do stuff like this I really want to give them a backhand to the ear. Not a face punch that would actually hurt, but just enough to surprise them. Then when they give me that "you can't do that, there are rules" look, I'll say "That's so you will never forget this moment. Now dig that fork out of the trash and wash it".
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: Davnasty on June 26, 2018, 01:14:48 PM
I once biked to the bike shop carrying a bike rather than driving 1.5 miles to drop it off. I actually succeeded but once I arrived I realized I didn't know how to dismount so I more or less fell to one side. It wasn't pretty but it worked. After leaving the shop and feeling rather proud of myself I noticed a tear down the side of my shorts I had bought just a couple days ago. $8 shorts to save ~$1.00 driving cost. For shame.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: MishMash on June 26, 2018, 03:12:29 PM
in line with potatoes going through security.  DH was deployed last year and on his way home has to go through a few airports and customs stops with his bags.  First stop out of country the Xray guy gets a real weird look on his face and starts speaking very rapidly to the security guy.  DH thinks shit...I know I turned in all my weapons stuff, maybe ammo?  Security guy comes over and starts going through the bag while lecturing DH on morality.  Husband is completely clueless, until the guy pulls out a huge silver tube....of aluminum foil that had unrolled and DH tried to stick back on.  Apparently it looked like a dildo to a Middle Eastern Xray tech.

This proceeded to happen at three different checkpoints.  I go to DH, why didn't you just throw out the aluminum foil?  He goes, but it cost like 2 bucks!  I went and how much time did you waste getting home being pulled over and risking detention over a misunderstanding..

Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: TheGrimSqueaker on June 26, 2018, 03:14:39 PM
in line with potatoes going through security.  DH was deployed last year and on his way home has to go through a few airports and customs stops with his bags.  First stop out of country the Xray guy gets a real weird look on his face and starts speaking very rapidly to the security guy.  DH thinks shit...I know I turned in all my weapons stuff, maybe ammo?  Security guy comes over and starts going through the bag while lecturing DH on morality.  Husband is completely clueless, until the guy pulls out a huge silver tube....of aluminum foil that had unrolled and DH tried to stick back on.  Apparently it looked like a dildo to a Middle Eastern Xray tech.

This proceeded to happen at three different checkpoints.  I go to DH, why didn't you just throw out the aluminum foil?  He goes, but it cost like 2 bucks!  I went and how much time did you waste getting home being pulled over and risking detention over a misunderstanding..

Reminds me of that one scene from "Spinal Tap".
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: talltexan on July 02, 2018, 08:22:15 AM
I once biked to the bike shop carrying a bike rather than driving 1.5 miles to drop it off. I actually succeeded but once I arrived I realized I didn't know how to dismount so I more or less fell to one side. It wasn't pretty but it worked. After leaving the shop and feeling rather proud of myself I noticed a tear down the side of my shorts I had bought just a couple days ago. $8 shorts to save ~$1.00 driving cost. For shame.

This is seriously badass. No joke. Tearing the clothes costs the money, but being able to bike around carrying a bike means earning $7 really shouldn't be hard for you.
Title: Re: Frugal intentions... horribly executed
Post by: robartsd on July 02, 2018, 10:35:35 AM
This proceeded to happen at three different checkpoints.  I go to DH, why didn't you just throw out the aluminum foil?  He goes, but it cost like 2 bucks!  I went and how much time did you waste getting home being pulled over and risking detention over a misunderstanding..
If he didn't miss (or delay) his flight, how much time did he really lose? Just time waiting at an airport. Perhaps he would have done something productive that is worth more than $2, or dealing with security cost more "happiness" than is worth $2, but that's not really a given.