December Frugal's...last one for 2015!!

[gettingthere]

Gettingthere: I used to always pick up mustard at Stonewall Kitchen in Portland, but last year I discovered Raye's at Reny's, which is just as delicious for less than half the price.

I'll have to try that mustard. We live down the street from the Stonewall flagship store and I try very hard to avoid going in there because I always want to spend big. I can usually avoid the food but I do like a good spicy mustard. What I have a hard time saying no to is all the beautiful dishes and bakeware.

NYE will be mostly frugal for us too. We're going to visit my SIL in the White Mountains. It's a bit of a drive (about an hour and a half) but my MIL is bringing pizza, I'm bringing homemade Chex mix and we'll play cards and laugh a lot. I always enjoy our cards nights so I'm looking forward to it.

[SteveinMN]

A great example of placing variable value on advice depending on the obvious bias of the source. Frugality is making people earn your money instead of just throwing it away. Nice website for an alternative to sending off perfectly good technology to the dump.

Agreed.

I will say, however, that Sidler (The Craftsman Blog) has his own obvious bias in that he makes replacement windows and window components. There are far better manufacturers -- and warranties -- out there than Jeld-Wen's and Pella's, but he's chosen those companies to set the bar his company clears. It's his blog, it's his choice. But it's a little like claiming that there is no fried chicken in the world better than mine because KFC and Popeye's chicken is what people buy the most. It may be great fried chicken but there's stiffer competition out there if one cares to look.

Our situation is different in that we don't have one of those charming beautiful drafty amateur-built old houses. There are dozens of our model of house in and around St. Paul, and many dozens more, by the same builder, built from similar floorplans. They're all "machines for living", as Corbusier put it, but without Corbusier's styling touch. There are no hardwood floors or built-ins or charming architectural details. I'm fine with that. But it makes the replacement of non-kiln-dried-wood mass-produced builder-grade windows a very different equation than the one Sidler presents. At least these were double-pane to start with (this is Minnesota).

So we'll stay the course. I'd already added a bunch of insulation to the attic and had a blower test energy audit (got good marks from that). We’ve wanted to put an egress window into the basement for some time, so some window money will be directed to that. I'm sure we can find places to spend that kind of money.

[rodeosweetheart]

We did replace all the windows in our 1830 upstate New York farmhouse. But none of them were the originals--they were horrible 1970 Pellas that had once contained gas and now leaked and contained water condensation. When we replaced them, we did realize energy savings. But they weren't the originals and had no endearing or enduring features.

We bought them one by one at the weird overstock window/door store and my husband put them all in himself, which was good because there was a lot of carpentry involved with the old jams.(sills? --basically, retrofitting the holes since nothing on an old house is standard.)

My sister-in-law in Corning DID have original window and opted to up her storm game and I think might have added some of the interior storms. Those intrigue me greatly.

I have read many articles in the past year, though, that come to the same conclusion that you did, Steve, that replacing windows is not automatically a good idea, even though all the realtors we talk to seem to think it is.

He also replaced all the windows in our South Carolina house and I think that one was a mistake, my mistake, although again, we did save on air conditioning afterwards.

[Williamsmith]

As far as the windows go ...... in the house I sold....a brick ranch custom built by the original owner in 1959..the Windows were the type that you wind out and condensation caused water damage on the sills and some of the hardware was inoperable. So it seemed to make sense.

I purchased vinyl replacement windows through a friend and had them delivered to the house. The brand was Certainteed . I had hired the friend to I install but he died unexpectedly so I installed them myself with the help of my father in law. Did at least a dozen Windows. In the basement, I had an Amish man install those because it meant cutting out the metal frames and dealing with the concrete block. I didn't have time for that.

I planned on living in the house for at least 20 more years, which I did so with some of the insulation issues plus the energy efficiency tax deductions, I think it was the right choice for the right time. Also, myself and my father in law for the first ten years or so of living there did all the work. That saved tons of money on labor.

On another frugal note, I went to a nearby Dairy Queen and walked out with an 8" circular ice cream cake for my sons birthday.....no charge. I had a punch card....buy four get the fifth one free. that's a savings of $23. Good way to finish the year out.