Share your (cheapo) workarounds that seem second nature now

[Elaine]

I was just thinking about some of the hilariously cheap workarounds I have in my apartment, and I'm sure my fellow mustachians have many as well. I thought it'd be fun for us to share those things you've learned to live with, refuse to throw out despite some damage, or rigged into being in working condition for as long as possible. I'll start:

Three years ago my then roommate broke my food processor lid by dropping it, it now has a huge jagged hole in it. So, every time I use my food processor (about three times a week) I hold a folded towel over the lid to prevent food from flying out of it. I don't even think about it anymore, but a friend who came over recently asked what the deal was with the shattered lid and my towel method. I just laughed and explained that since I'm too cheap to replace it I've just accepted that this is what must be done. It's cuisinart brand so I'll probably be employing this method for the next 20 years.

[ruthiegirl]

The door latch on our washing machine broke.  The latch needs to be engaged for the washer to spin.  I took the thing apart and connected the wires, bypassing the need for the door latch mechanism. 

Been 6 months and still going strong. 

My MIL was visiting and she noticed that our washer doesn't stop spinning when she opened it during the spin cycle. 

"Is that a new feature?" 

"Uh....no.  Just a hack job."

[CommonCents]

Not me, but I still remember the workaround of a friend of mine's.  In high school (~1995 for him), he had a terrible orange colored 25 year old VW bug from his dad that he used a tennis ball to hold up the e-brake.  Perhaps not the safest workaround, and we did tease him about it....  Some years later he repainted the car blue and learned how to take it apart (and other) and fixed the brake I believe.

[anastrophe]

A few years ago I found a clothes drying rack in the basement of our rental that had clearly been discarded because it was broken. I tried replacing the broken dowel but the frame was pretty badly damaged. So I took a piece of wire and just kind of wrapped it up until it would stand properly (but only if you put the clothes on in a certain way to distribute the weight). Looked like a piece of junk but I used it for another three years like that until it really fell apart.

[MicroRN]

I had a Dodge Neon that started randomly turning on the dome light and leaving it on.  After trying some troubleshooting and having the car jumped twice, I just removed the light bulb rather than go to the expense of taking it to the shop.  Same car had nonfunctional speedometer and gas gauge.  I got used to driving conservatively and tanking up whenever I thought I was around a half tank.  My husband hated that car so much...  I bought it for $1000 cash and never did any major repairs to it.  Oil changes, new tires, and one new battery.   

[Greg]

My wife's BMW's ignition switch started failing (31 y.o. part) and new ones are over $100.  I took a toggle switch, some wiring and connectors and made an insertable harness to bypass the switched circuits to the toggle and fixed it for just my time and effort, about an hour.  The only weird thing is you have to use the toggle to turn the car on/off in addition to the key now.

[NV Teacher]

My brother dragged home an old freezer with a busted door that wouldn't stay shut.  He attached a bungee cord to the wall and used it to keep the door shut.  Still using that freezer almost 25 years later.

[lcg377]

I've always had dogs, sometimes 2 at a time, and I hate paying for poop pickup bags.  My parents started saving their newspaper bags for me years ago.  Then my sister started saving hers.  Then my mom's neighbor started saving them.  Now my 20 year old nephew in college saves them for me.  So my workaround is actually second nature to many different people! My sister even told me that now she felt bad if the bag was torn from skidding on her sidewalk, knowing it wouldn't get reused. 

[jenstill]

I bought a new clothes dryer years ago that had a little switch that notices when the door is closed; it must be closed to operate. About a year after buying it, that little switch got broken off. The quote for taking it apart & replacing the switch was over $100. So, I just folded scrap paper over & over until it was small enough and rigid and tucked it into the slot, pushing the lever back. It's been running that way, with the same slip of paper, for 8 years now. I only use it in the winter and it vents inside, so is part of my heating system and cheaper than the oil to heat with.

[teen persuasion]

We have an old house, probably 175 years old, so things have shifted a bit w/ time.  The outside door on the glassed-in porch no longer latches, so we just have an old sock thrown over the top edge of the door to keep it wedged shut.  Depending on the season, wind, humidity, etc. we have to sometimes fold the sock over a few times to tighten it up a bit more.

[Zamboni]

I was just thinking about some of the hilariously cheap workarounds I have in my apartment, and I'm sure my fellow mustachians have many as well. I thought it'd be fun for us to share those things you've learned to live with, refuse to throw out despite some damage, or rigged into being in working condition for as long as possible. I'll start:

Three years ago my then roommate broke my food processor lid by dropping it, it now has a huge jagged hole in it. So, every time I use my food processor (about three times a week) I hold a folded towel over the lid to prevent food from flying out of it. I don't even think about it anymore, but a friend who came over recently asked what the deal was with the shattered lid and my towel method. I just laughed and explained that since I'm too cheap to replace it I've just accepted that this is what must be done. It's cuisinart brand so I'll probably be employing this method for the next 20 years.

Haha, love it! I used an homemade aluminum foil lid on my blender for years after the top broke.  I'd stopped thinking about it when a friend visited and said she was impressed.  Then someone gave me a new blender, so I gave away the old one, only to regret it shortly thereafter because the new blender looks nice and heavy duty but doesn't blend very well.

Another work around:
The clothes washing machine hot water inlet was giving me trouble, so I just shut off the valve at the wall a couple of years ago and have been using only cold since then.  Also the outlet pipe had a problem at the wall so I routed that to the mud sink to drain.  The clothes seems as clean as ever. 

My brother dragged home an old freezer with a busted door that wouldn't stay shut.  He attached a bungee cord to the wall and used it to keep the door shut.  Still using that freezer almost 25 years later.

Awesome!  My parents used to do all kinds of stuff like this.  Unfortunately now that we are all grown my Mom kind of takes it to an unreasonable extreme (like letting the floors basically rot out under the toilet and telling people they can only step in certain spots in the bathroom, or duct taping the glove compartment shut because the latch is broken, or heating her bath water on the stove like it's 1802 because she got mad at the guy who came to fix her hot water heater, so she tossed him and just doesn't have hot water.)  After watching her have so many odd things like this, I decided that for the most part I will be a normal person and repair things properly when they break.

[nikki]

The timer knob on my toaster oven pops off randomly. I can wedge it on to turn the knob and start it working, but it usually pops off again before time's up. My boyfriend said my toaster oven is wasting space because it's busted, but it still works just fine! Besides, it was free to me; a friend was going to toss it out. Can't expect a free toaster oven to be perfect!

[wtjbatman]

I've always had dogs, sometimes 2 at a time, and I hate paying for poop pickup bags.  My parents started saving their newspaper bags for me years ago.  Then my sister started saving hers.  Then my mom's neighbor started saving them.  Now my 20 year old nephew in college saves them for me.  So my workaround is actually second nature to many different people! My sister even told me that now she felt bad if the bag was torn from skidding on her sidewalk, knowing it wouldn't get reused.

I'm sure this is the most obvious workaround in the world, but me and the GF use our plastic shopping bags. Target, Wal-Mart, Dollar General... all bags are equal in the eyes of dog duty.

[MissStache]

heating her bath water on the stove like it's 1802 because she got mad at the guy who came to fix her hot water heater, so she tossed him and just doesn't have hot water

HAHA!  Like you, I think that may be taking a work-around to an extreme, but your mom could probably out-survive all of us if the zombies came!

[Rural]

I do the cold water only on the washing machine, but in my case it was originally  because the hot water intake on the washer has leaked since it froze one year (laundry on the carport of a rental house).

The electronic control panel on our dehumidifier died years ago, so we turn it on and off with the power cord.

The dryer hasn't had a buzzer in about a decade.

Both exterior door handles on the Jeep are broken; we can open the driver's side by reading into the door and working the mechanism, then the driver lets the passenger in from the inside.

Several keys died on my personal laptop about a year ago, but I only use it at my desk anyway, so I just attached a USB keyboard.

I've been using a standing desk made of cardboard boxes and a pretty throw in my office at work for two years. Oh, and the associated keyboard stand is most of the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction. :-)

[Nate R]

My Honda Insight's hybrid battery died. Removed it, saving 70 lbs. Sold it to a guy for parts. (He rebuilds batteries for others.)
So, instead of paying $1400 to replace/refurbish the battery, I got paid $200 (and was given a board to jump the approriate leads) and the car lost 70lbs. I forget sometimes that the car used to have more power!

[kt]

the bracket for my shower head is broken, so i just wedge it between the wall and the vertical bar while washing, holding it by hand for my hair.
my dehumidifier stopped draining into its internal collector so i sat it on a box and put another box underneath so it could drain from the hole for external drainage (not near a sink or drain for using a pipe as this port is intended for).
my loo door doesn't lock (wonky floor/door jamb) which doesn't bother me as i live alone but has to be remembered when i have visitors!

[Elaine]

Haha, I'm loving all of these!

[swick]

My work around is more of a habit, I always seek to find the minimum level, the least amount of anything you can get away with and still get results that are acceptable to you, especially for things you "use up" like toothpaste or dish soap or what have you.

[ShavinItForLater]

In college I had an old 2-door Toyota Celica hatchback that I had bought for $1,000 (probably overpaid).  At one point it was broken into by someone stealing the stereo and speaker box I had in the back--they unsuccessfully tried to drill out the driver's side lock, but it did enough damage that I could not open the driver side door from the outside.  A few months later I had an accident denting the passenger side door, which then would also not open from the outside.  What to do?

I rigged a string from the inside driver's door latch to the rear of the car, tied near the hatchback opening.  Worked great!  I would just pop the hatch, pull the string, and the driver door would swing open.  Drove that way for several more months until the batter died and I discovered an oil leak on the same day--at that point I threw in the towel, but a neighbor asked about the car sitting in my driveway, and I ended up selling it to him for a couple hundred bucks--more than what I would have gotten from the scrap yard.  He came back excitedly a few weeks later and showed me how he had cleaned off the battery corrosion from the contacts, and gotten the damn thing started.

[AlmostIndependent]

and +1 for the grocery bags for dog poop

My dog poops in the woods. No bag necessary :)

[kt]

and +1 for the grocery bags for dog poop

My dog poops in the woods. No bag necessary :)

 i want a cat in future and one requirement is that it's male. my parents' male cats don't have litter tray but apparently female cats don't take to this as well.

new work around: sandwich toaster with broken catch, so pop it on the floor by my desk with one foot on it (i work from home so there's no one to frown on this!)

[Junior667]

[/quote]

 i want a cat in future and one requirement is that it's male. my parents' male cats don't have litter tray but apparently female cats don't take to this as well.

new work around: sandwich toaster with broken catch, so pop it on the floor by my desk with one foot on it (i work from home so there's no one to frown on this!)
[/quote]

Just a word of warning, male cats are prone to urinary tract infections. It may be a non-issue if they don't use the box at all, but mine is costing a small fortune to keep healthy.

[Rural]

and +1 for the grocery bags for dog poop

My dog poops in the woods. No bag necessary :)

 i want a cat in future and one requirement is that it's male. my parents' male cats don't have litter tray but apparently female cats don't take to this as well.

My female cat has no problem at all with going outside, but one of the two males does occasionally. A word of warning: when the weather is terrible, many cats will rebel and look for a place to go inside rather than brave the elements. I have a backup litter box that I fill in cases of extreme cold or extreme rain.

[JD2001svt]

I adopted a male kitten 2.5 years ago.  I was spending more on litter every week than his food (and I buy a high quality canned wet food) and I HATED dealing with litter boxes.  I ended up spending about 40 dollars on a toilet training kit that trains your cat to use the bathroom in your toilet.  After 3 months, he was using the toilet completely.  I have not had to buy litter for 2 years now.  That device has paid itself off over and over again.  My GF tried to do the same with her cat, but has not had any luck.  It's a lot of work but well worth it if you can stick to it and be diligent about keeping it super clean.

[AlmostIndependent]

I adopted a male kitten 2.5 years ago.  I was spending more on litter every week than his food (and I buy a high quality canned wet food) and I HATED dealing with litter boxes.  I ended up spending about 40 dollars on a toilet training kit that trains your cat to use the bathroom in your toilet.  After 3 months, he was using the toilet completely.  I have not had to buy litter for 2 years now.  That device has paid itself off over and over again.  My GF tried to do the same with her cat, but has not had any luck.  It's a lot of work but well worth it if you can stick to it and be diligent about keeping it super clean.

I had a friend who did this with his cat. It worked for a while but then the cat fell into the toilet in the middle of the night. The cat wasn't pleased with the arrangement after that so to show his displeasure he peed on my friend while he was asleep in bed.

[Elaine]

I adopted a male kitten 2.5 years ago.  I was spending more on litter every week than his food (and I buy a high quality canned wet food) and I HATED dealing with litter boxes.  I ended up spending about 40 dollars on a toilet training kit that trains your cat to use the bathroom in your toilet.  After 3 months, he was using the toilet completely.  I have not had to buy litter for 2 years now.  That device has paid itself off over and over again.  My GF tried to do the same with her cat, but has not had any luck.  It's a lot of work but well worth it if you can stick to it and be diligent about keeping it super clean.

I had a friend who did this with his cat. It worked for a while but then the cat fell into the toilet in the middle of the night. The cat wasn't pleased with the arrangement after that so to show his displeasure he peed on my friend while he was asleep in bed.

I just imagine walking into my bathroom and seeing my cat using the toilet, "Oh! Excuse me sir! I didn't know you were in here!" Tiny shocked cat face. Haha, makes me laugh.

[JD2001svt]

Oh it's hilarious.  I'll be walking to the bathroom and he will literally race me there and beat me to the toilet. Dead serious. lol   Cats are natural born trolls.

[Elaine]

Oh it's hilarious.  I'll be walking to the bathroom and he will literally race me there and beat me to the toilet. Dead serious. lol   Cats are natural born trolls.

Hahahaha, I love how when my cat is angry he just puts his butt right in my face.

[AlmostIndependent]

I love how when my cat is angry he just puts his butt right in my face.

Gross.

[dragoncar]

new work around: sandwich toaster with broken catch, so pop it on the floor by my desk with one foot on it (i work from home so there's no one to frown on this!)

I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon- sue me- and since I don''t have a butler, I have to do it myself. So most nights before I go to bed I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious. It''s good for me. It's the perfect way to start the day. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot. That''s it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that!

[AlmostIndependent]

new work around: sandwich toaster with broken catch, so pop it on the floor by my desk with one foot on it (i work from home so there's no one to frown on this!)

I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon- sue me- and since I don''t have a butler, I have to do it myself. So most nights before I go to bed I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious. It''s good for me. It's the perfect way to start the day. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot. That''s it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that!

LOL! Funniest thing I've read all day.

[dragoncar]

new work around: sandwich toaster with broken catch, so pop it on the floor by my desk with one foot on it (i work from home so there's no one to frown on this!)

I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon- sue me- and since I don''t have a butler, I have to do it myself. So most nights before I go to bed I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious. It''s good for me. It's the perfect way to start the day. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot. That''s it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that!

LOL! Funniest thing I've read all day.

-Dragoncar

[HayMaker]

On the other side of the coin, I remember reading in "The Tightwad Gazette" (retired in 1996 I think) about things you shouldn't bother doing because they really don't save money.  One was cautioning people not to buy two-ply bathroom tissue and then separating it into single-ply. 

[SisterX]

I used to have a hatchback that needed a long stick to hold the hatch up.  Unfortunately, it gave me a concussion one time when I was pulling my bike out of the back and...you get the rest.

We also used to have a pizza cutter that broke and the round blade came off.  My husband discovered that an old wire hanger was the perfect size to fit through the holes, then he wrapped it around the handle a couple of times to make sure it stayed on.  One of our mothers visited about six months later, though, and was horrified by this (apparently) so she bought us a new one.  The fixed-up one we gave to a friend, who loved the frugal genius of it and didn't have a pizza cutter.

Currently, the dryer in my apartment (which belongs to the upstairs neighbors) is held shut with a tower made out of a bucket of something heavy (never bothered to see what), a cutting board, and a cooler.  For some reason if you don't have all three parts the door opens just enough to make it stop drying.  (And no facepunches for using a dryer--I mostly don't, but for the things that I do remember that it's winter in AK right now, I have limited space for line drying, and we don't pay electric for the garage, where the washer and dryer are.)

[AlmostIndependent]

(And no facepunches for using a dryer--I mostly don't, but for the things that I do remember that it's winter in AK right now, I have limited space for line drying, and we don't pay electric for the garage, where the washer and dryer are.)

Are you trying to tell me it's hard to dry clothes outside at -47?

[windawake]

My car is built of workarounds (it's a '99 Ford Escort):

1. The automatic shift-release that's supposed to happen when you step on the brake does not work anymore. Instead you have to stick a screwdriver into a little hole and manually release it in order to shift out of Park.

2. If you lock the car with the remote, the car alarm will, almost without fail, go off in the middle of the night. So I use the manual lock button.

3. The trunk and hood do not 'pop' anymore. This means I have to hold down the trunk pop button as I am pulling up the trunk. It also means I cannot pop my hood on my own, I need to release the lock at the same moment someone pulls it.

There are many other little things too, like having to run the wipers and press down on them so they make contact with the windshield, or having to shove this little piece of the drivers side door back in so it will close fully. It's quite the character; it was hit in a hit and run back in 2010 and lost 1/3 of the back bumper, not to mention the many scrapes of having had two teenage drivers (myself and my brother, back in the day). But it always starts!

[Frankies Girl]

I realized I had something to contribute!


Our gas stovetop's two front burners won't light on their own for some reason (can hear the ignition snap, but no spark) and we just got a long handled candle lighter and light them ourselves. Fun when you forget to get the flame close enough and end up with a big WHOOSH of flame when it catches...

[lcg377]

and +1 for the grocery bags for dog poop

My dog poops in the woods. No bag necessary :)

We have cloth bags we use at the store, but yes, pretty much any bag that will fit over my hand will work.  Some day, when we have our dream house, the dogs will get to poo in the woods!

Also, I'm finding the car stories to be really entertaining. :)

[Zaga]

I have a few.

Just bought a new car, we got the base model.  For some reason I assumed that even a base model would have a key fob, but it doesn't.  So when I get out of the car I leave the driver's door open, open the back door, hit the lock button, shut the front door, then retrieve my purse from the back.

Our stove is about 60 years old and electric, a super modern (for 1952) built in stovetop.  To say it's slow to heat up would be an understatement, but it works so I'm not getting rid of it!  It's also very cool and retro looking.  Anyways, I have it timed very well when to turn it on and when to turn it off.  It needs to be turned on 5 minutes before use, and off at least a minute or 2 before the food's done cooking.  I don't think anything of this anymore, but DH tends to burn things.

We also have an outdoor faucett that the handle broke off of.  It's unfortunately set to just a trickle, but that's enough to fill our little fountain right by it.  To fill the fountain we turn on the lever in the basement ceiling, then have to remember to turn it off in an hour or so.  Since we keep fish in the fountain in the summer (they live inside in the winter), this is something I do about once every week or 2.

[SisterX]

(And no facepunches for using a dryer--I mostly don't, but for the things that I do remember that it's winter in AK right now, I have limited space for line drying, and we don't pay electric for the garage, where the washer and dryer are.)

Are you trying to tell me it's hard to dry clothes outside at -47?

Hey, today it's a balmy 28!  Shorts and line-drying weather.  :)

[Jack]

My truck has a broken fuel sender. Since fixing it would require removing the bed from the frame, I haven't bothered yet. Instead I just set the trip odometer and fill up when it hits about 250 mi.

My other car, a VW New Beetle, stripped the 5th gear on the transmission. I drove it almost another year cruising in 4th, until it stripped that too. Now it's in my driveway up on jackstands waiting for me to finish the transmission swap.

[Kaspian]

The breaker box in my apartment is conveniently located in the hall between my bedroom and the bathroom.  When I wake up in the morning and head for a shower, I flip the water heater breaker off.  (There's plenty of hot water for one shower.)  In the evening, after supper (when the cost of electricity is half price) around 7:00 PM, I flip it back on.   There's still plenty of hot water in the tank at that point for the dishes.   This off-peak timing seems to have saved me about 20% in electric bills.  I got the idea from visiting my friends in England--where it seems they all have switches to turn on/off hot water to their flats.  I keep the small door to the breaker box open at all times to remind me to do my morning and evening switch flips.  (Which happen almost instinctively now.)

[AlmostIndependent]

The breaker box in my apartment is conveniently located in the hall between my bedroom and the bathroom.  When I wake up in the morning and head for a shower, I flip the water heater breaker off.  (There's plenty of hot water for one shower.)  In the evening, after supper (when the cost of electricity is half price) around 7:00 PM, I flip it back on.   There's still plenty of hot water in the tank at that point for the dishes.   This off-peak timing seems to have saved me about 20% in electric bills.  I got the idea from visiting my friends in England--where it seems they all have switches to turn on/off hot water to their flats.  I keep the small door to the breaker box open at all times to remind me to do my morning and evening switch flips.  (Which happen almost instinctively now.)

Awesome. I am thoroughly impressed. I wish we had peak/off-peak billing in Alaska.

[lizzzi]

In my early days as a public health nurse, I had a patient who lived way out in the country with her family in a mobile home with a big hole in the middle of the bathroom floor. The family just edged around the hole to get to the shower and toilet, but my patient had impaired mobility and used a walker to ambulate--I told the family that they needed to fix the hole in the bathroom floor because it was a hazard for the patient, and sooner or later she was going to stumble and fall through it. A month or so later as I was driving through the very rural back roads to get to their mobile home, I noticed a stop sign missing at one of the intersections. When I got to the patient's home, the bathroom floor was repaired and safe--the family had stolen the stop sign and laid it over the hole. It worked great, and I never said a word.

[iwasjustwondering]

This isn't mine, but my sister had a Dodge Coronet when she was in college in the early 90s.  It was a massive, 1970s sedan.  Anyway, there was some sort of problem with fuel intake, so she used to get out of the car, blow into some sort of opening in the engine through an empty Bic pen, to get it started.  She did this one at a gas station, and the attendants applauded.  LOL.

[happy]

Many moons ago I had a Ford Cortina with a failing solenoid. Without notice the car would refuse to start. So I would get the jack handle, open the bonnet and whack the solenoid and presto the car would start. Worked every time, and looked very impressive.

[starbuck]

I used to have a hatchback that needed a long stick to hold the hatch up.  Unfortunately, it gave me a concussion one time when I was pulling my bike out of the back and...you get the rest.

The hatch on my jeep doesn't stay up when it's cold out, and it NEVER occurred to me to keep a pole in there to prop it up. most times i just hold it open with my head with varying results. thank you for the not-100%-safe workaround!!

My jeep also has a tape deck, so I have one of those tape converters to play music from my iphone. It wasn't working right anymore until I figured out that I can jam a tube of chapstick into the opening to hold the tape down, and now it works great again!

[AlmostIndependent]

Many moons ago I had a Ford Cortina with a failing solenoid. Without notice the car would refuse to start. So I would get the jack handle, open the bonnet and whack the solenoid and presto the car would start. Worked every time, and looked very impressive.

LOL!

[AlmostIndependent]

I used to have a hatchback that needed a long stick to hold the hatch up.  Unfortunately, it gave me a concussion one time when I was pulling my bike out of the back and...you get the rest.

The hatch on my jeep doesn't stay up when it's cold out, and it NEVER occurred to me to keep a pole in there to prop it up. most times i just hold it open with my head with varying results. thank you for the not-100%-safe workaround!!

You know you can get new gas struts at Napa? It's really a very cheap and easy fix.