November frugals

[Tradd]

Tybee, hope the replacement works.

Rosa, I’ve gotten a few used books lately. They were out of print so no choice, but they were very affordable.

I spent today doing a pool dive on my new rebreather in the morning, went back to goddaughter’s grandparents’ home (next city over from pool dive) for breakfast, then back home (2 hour drive). Loaded up the tanks I’d sold to WI friends and other gear for WI cave diving tomorrow. No shopping. Gave goddaughter her gift of $40 cash yesterday since I’ll be in FL at Christmas.

[Yppej]

Postponing going for groceries and will eat what I have on hand until I get to December.

[Tradd]

Got gas for $3.19 in WI yesterday.

[Tybee]

Thermostat is definitely helping, but not exactly coming up with the temperatures it is supposed to. On the other hand, it is not stuck on 70, and the house is a more comfortable 65, which is a heck of a lot better. It was 63 this morning, so that's good. Think we will try setting it at 65 day and 60 at night and see what happens.
For 22 dollars, it's a heck of an improvement.

[Yppej]

Good Tybee.

Using my tablet again - no further singe marks on it. So that is a savings vs replacing it.

[iris lilies]

Speaking of out of print books, I’ve run into a first… Books I cannot find ANY?wHERE to buy. They are about historic architecture in Hermann. The library has two sets. Yes they were self published, but usually self published books of Modern times are still around, often for an inflated price. These were published in 2008.

[Tybee]

Woodstove was installed yesterday! It was a frugal woodstove, a Quadrafire I purchased for 300 dollars when we moved in Michigan nine years ago. We did not install it there but brought it with us. I thought it was a deal then, and the chimney guy here assured me it is a very good one and easy to work on. We had to buy new firebrick and a heat blanket and baffle, otherwise everything was fine. We had the chimney guy install it and thank God he did it as it was quite complicated, took 8 hours, and he had to change the location of the flue, etc., and he lined the chimney, so anything that keeps my husband off the roof is fine by me.

Getting someone to install it took over a year of having estimates and finding someone who would not charge so much. So that was very frugal. I believe we will pay him around 40% of the highest estimate, so it paid to shop around, for sure. He is kind of a genius, as far as I can tell, and charges fairly. He was the fifth person we contacted and got estimates from. The local economy is very geared towards overcharging people from Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. It seems like there are two economies--the one for locals and the one for tourists.

Just realized this is actually the third woodstove I have purchased, and they were all bought used--a Vermont Castings for 200, a Lopi for 750 I bought at an estate sale, and this one for 300. The Lopi and the Quadrafire look pretty much identical--I love the way the Vermont Castings look but he told me I was lucky this wasn't one, because they are harder to fix and more complicated and more to break.

[rosarugosa]

Well done, Tybee, and very interesting about the two economies!

[nswef]

Our kitchen sprayer was leaking into the cabinet. I found one on Home Depot, ordered it, here in 3 days- had I gone to the store it wouldn't have been there until 5 days! It wasn't too hard to replace- not that I was the one on my back under the sink, raising my arms to try to unlatch the old one! But, DH felt it was a pretty easy replacement and now no leak!! So for $36 it is repaired.

[Tybee]

That's great! Isn't it wonderful to have a handy spouse!