Last weekend we smelled a rat - literally.
It escaped from Wolfie the cat and turned out to be a fat ole incredibly wiley critter.
Took apart half the kitchen hunting it down and then it still escaped us. Ran straight for my feet - yikes!
We finally tracked it down behind the amplifier in the living room but it escaped again and was nowhere to be found.
Anyway - it had tried to chew its way out to freedom through the kitchen window screen.
So we left off the screen overnight and that finally did the trick - thank goodness.
I was ready for roof-rat stew - Wolfie had no interest whatsoever in joining the hunt.
1. That finally brings me to the savings topic - saved $12 by hauling our dishwasher to the curb (which is what the local store charges for removing).
I would have died in mortification if the installer had seen the mess created by this rat.
The DW was picked up within the hour, that's one good thing about living on a busy road - our cast-offs are always gone, sometimes within minutes.
Sure glad Mr. R. is handy around the house since this involved shutting off the water.
I'm still traumatized, I had no idea how much damage and yuckiness one single rat can cause. I used so much disinfectant I had to treat my hands to a good portion of salve.
We'll not be replacing the dishwasher opting for a freezer instead - if I can find one that fits - not having any luck.
2. I'm on day 21 of self-quarantine since I'm high risk.
Our savings are due to
no eating out - around $150 - we are spending some money on restaurant take-out but no more than we usually do.
no birthday parties - another $100 in eating out expenses, but the gifting will remain - no savings there.
I am concerned that Mr. R. will bring home the virus since he is still working and doing the shopping, so in preparation, I ordered an oxygen monitor and actually found a few masks (20) - but I am not certain they are really medical-grade until I see them.
3. Researched the homemade masks and found an article by the Washington Post.
An interview with Peter Tsai the materials developer for the N95 masks (and others, incl how-to's).
He recommended using shop towels, a non-woven material that is the closest material to what is used in the 3M N95 masks.
It will contain the droplets better than cotton materials - so that will be my material of choice.
Cost zero - since we picked up a six-pack of blue shop towels a couple of weeks ago because around here there are no paper towels to be had.
I watched a couple of youtube videos on how to make one out of shop towels, but I think I can improve upon that design.
4. Garden - may indulge myself and order a couple of hard to find rare perennials. Pleasure and food for years to come.
Always worth the expense to a garden lover like me. Given the expectation that we might be dealing with this virus for another year or longer it will be nice to be distracted by blooms, scents and enjoy fresh fruit, tea, cooking herbs and veggies.
I am so grateful to have a new neighbor who loves gardening as much as I do - so we are collaborating and exchanging garden gifts, seedlings-plants.
The joy of gardening is priceless.
All in all - we might be $150 ahead this month plus the unanticipated $12 savings:) - I'll consider that a win, since it did not require scrimping to the contrary I get to indulge in some new fun plant endeavors.
We did spend money on border stones for the garden, a project I had planned on for months already. We just finished all the main parts of the new garden section only a bit more to go until I stop all projects during the heat of the summer.
I guess I'll spend the summer perusing all my new garden books.
There are still plenty of house projects and decluttering and spring cleaning to do, not to mention taxes and re-organizing some areas - so no boredom, in fact, I'll be glad to escape to Netflix and Prime Video and falling into the abyss of the net and youtube and Pinterest garden porn.