Something for Nothing

Throughout these budget-conscious months, extra curricular spending has been cut back. A lot.

The list of things not getting repaired or replaced around here was growing. One day I decided to write down that-which-is-undone.

Thankfully, the list was not as long as it had grown to in my mind. It was a finite number on a small piece of paper.

The Number One Annoying thing-left-undone was the dripping kitchen tap. I knew in the past (because our kitchen tap came with a lifetime guarantee), that I had been able to replace the broken part with a new one at no cost. It took longer to think about doing it, than it did to drive there (twice ... because I had forgotten that we had replaced our lifetime-guaranteed-tap with a different one, so I picked up the wrong part) and fix the tap.

Total cost (even though it was no longer our tap with the lifetime guarantee)?? $00.00 Zilch. Nada. It cost me my time (and a little gas). The satisfaction that was derived by fixing that dripping tap?? Priceless!!

The second and third items I decided to tackle were the broken computer downstairs and the broken speakers on the computer upstairs. Granted, this was not my idea or inspiration. I just followed through on suggestions made within the family.

We decided that the cost of fixing a slow-moving, out-dated computer was probably not worth it. Besides, we have been doing very well without it for the past eight months or so. I think that it can officially be donated to someone for parts. But ... we did salvage the speakers for use upstairs. Only one of those speakers work, but half is better than none. Total cost? $00.00 Zero. Nothing.

The items left on the list will require actual money to fix or replace that which needs replacing. A car windshield (thankfully it cracked along the bottom); rotors for the front brakes (at least the brakes work); a kitchen phone (if you don't jiggle the offending cord, you probably won't get cut off ... besides, we have two other phones in the house); (eye) glasses (it was a luxury item anyway ... I can see good enough with my existing prescription); and a door frame for our garage door (even I can hip check the door open ... that is, if it managed to latch in the first place).

In the mean time, I am enjoying the challenge of fixing (or doing) something for nothing.

Organizing my son's tax papers took a day to accomplish; didn't cost a penny; and possibly saved him hundreds of dollars in bookkeeping charges.

I have closets full of unused items that I could amass for a garage sale in the spring or advertise for free on Kijiji.

I have a book to write and all that I need to do is make the time to do so.

I have notes and cards to send. I accomplished that yesterday and was just giving them some 'breathing room' (I printed off what I had done and was planning to have a second look at it this morning ... but then our cat threw up my work!?!!) ... once again, the only tangible cost was my time.

I have not sacrificed everything. I make room in the budget for that-which-is-important to me. But some of my greatest pleasures come from making something out of nothing.