Tag: life

How saving a penny, nearly cost me hundreds of dollars.

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

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If you’ve been here awhile, you know I am very frugal.  You also know that I have a very difficult time throwing away things in the garbage that I don’t believe are actual garbage. Even when they are.

We recycle everything in our house that can be recycled.  We’ve also upgraded some things so that we don’t have to recycle others.  Like water bottles.  We installed an under the sink water filter and dispenser about a year and half ago and we love it.  It has saved us over $500 each year in disposable water bottles and will until it dies and needs to be replaced.

I hate throwing money away and will find a way to circumvent it when I can.  So to throw actual money away is abhorrent to my mind.

When I was cleaning our laundry room a couple of weeks ago, I found a bunch of change in a tray that I had stashed on a shelf.  Quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.  I think it added up to about two dollars and some change.  But it was all that weird green color that change money turns when it gets wet, and rough and scaly.  You know what I mean?  I wasn’t about to throw it away, it was money.  So I brought it upstairs and scrubbed it all with my kitchen scrubby.  Almost all of it came clean, except for a couple of the pennies.  So I ran some warm water into a bowl with dish soap and set it aside to soak.  I have no idea why I thought that this would work.   I mean the entire reason they were in the condition they were in in the first place was because they had been wet. 😕

A few hours went by and I started to load the dishwasher.  You know where this is going, right?  I’m scraping everything into the sink for the garbage disposal, rinsing and loading everything up and I completely forgot about those pennies.  Until I turned the garbage disposal on.  If you have a garbage disposal you know how fast your reflexes are.  It took me approximately 0.0000000001 second to turn it back off.  But that was enough time for the stupid thing to try to eat the penny.

Yes, I know that the disposal is not at fault here.  It was my ridiculousness that caused this catastrophe.  It was a penny for crying out loud.  But I just couldn’t put it in the garbage.  However, I also should not have put it somewhere that it was a given that I would do something like this.  Know thyself.  I do.  I seriously do.  I could have predicted this and I still did it.  Sigh.

Do you know how much a garbage disposal costs?  One exactly like ours was over $300.00. Yeah.  Fun times.  After discovering that little bit of information, I increased my efforts in vain trying to get that blasted penny out.  The last time I managed to feed something to my disposal (I’m giving myself a headache rolling my eyes) I discovered that you can use the key that comes with it to turn it from underneath to UNJAM things.  See!  They built these things with people like me in mind.  Well, that didn’t work this time.  It was jammed in there to stay.

When Denton came home from work I showed him my dilemma and he poked around in there for about 8 seconds and out came the penny.  Can you believe that?penny, garbage disposal

I told him that it was because I loosened it for him.  Look at the grind mark on that thing.  And soaking them did not save them from the crud that is eating into them. Imagine that.

All of that to say:  Note to self, Tracie:  do not do something this idiotic again.  No worries, next time it will be a completely new to me idiotic thing…..

How saving a penny, nearly cost me hundreds of dollars

decluttering

Decluttering my life.

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

It’s a new year!  And it’s time to resume clearing out all of the things that I do not need taking up space inside my home and life.  It can all go live with someone who wants it, needs it and loves it.  So let’s see what I’m donating to someone else:

I’ve started culling through the books.  I have decided that books that have been read and that I know are available at our local library don’t need to be taking up space that other unread books can replace.  Yes, it’s wrenching, but there is only so much space in my house….

A lovely leather folio.  It’s red y’all!  I love it.  But I DO NOT use it.  Ever.  I had it stuffed in a cabinet.  So it has to go.  I offered it to everyone I know and no one else needed a lovely red folio either….

leather folio

Sigh.

Clothes that no ones needs or wants….

More extras.  I don’t know why….Yes, I do.  I love dishes.  Also, why do you need all of the extras that come with things.  What I mean is this:  I bought Denton a smoothie maker.  He uses it everyday.  But it came with at least seven or eight of those cups.  Why?!?  I asked him if I could get rid of some of them, because they are taking.up.space.

I have too many things….Example:  This Longaberger terracotta bread warmer.  Have I ever used this thing?  No.  How long have I had it?  Uhmm, half a decade possibly.  These are also excellent Martha Stewart 18/10 stainless steel skillets.  But I have two full drawers of stainless steel skillets and that is not counting all of my cast iron.  Too.Much.Stuff.

Tupperware.  It breeds while I sleep.  And this baking pan has lovely handles, but it doesn’t fit with my other baking pans because of the said lovely handles.  So it needs to go.  Who doesn’t have an extra shower head hanging around?  Actually this one was in Hayden and Olivia’s bathroom until I started gutting it.  I bought a new one with a rainhead shower for their new bathroom.  Which I was VERY excited about.  Denton thinks it’s ridiculous.  Anywho, I’m pretty sure I have another one of these downstairs in Denton’s bathroom……You’ll probably see it soon, I haven’t made it to that room yet.

More Christmas stuff.  A digital photo holder that I never use, a lovely clock and a diffuser that I don’t like.

Lamps.  I have a thing about lamps.

See? 

Another dry erase board – this one is a calendar.  But I already have a giant one that I use every day, so why do I have this one that was collecting dust behind my desk?  More pampered chef tupperware.  Pampered chef makes quality stuff.  Here is my issue with this  thing:  It Is HUGE.  It takes up so much space that I cringe every time I see it, which makes me not want to put it in my fridge.  So it sits in my dining room, lurking there.  Just pining to be used.  And I’m never going to use it again, because it takes up too much space.

Suitcase!  I bought everyone a new suitcase at the beginning of the year.  This one has served me well, so now it can go and serve someone else well too.Candle holders and candles for the candle making lady.  I am going to finally learn to only buy the couple of candles that I love and stop “trying out” new scents.  At my house we love Paris Cafe from Bath and Body Works and maybe a couple of others.  That’s it.  delcutteringAnd finally my beloved magazines.  They do bring me great joy and now I will send them off to be enjoyed by someone else.

Are you decluttering?  Does it make you happy every time you drop things off?  It makes me VERY HAPPY!

Catching up….

Published on by Tracie2 Comments

Hello my friends!  It’s been a little while, hasn’t it?  Let’s do some catching up.

We were away last week on a much awaited vacation and it’s hard – HARD – to get back into the groove of everyday life.

Sunrise and moonset at the same time.  Life is such a dichotomy isn’t it?  The photos above and below were taken at the same time, just in different directions.  I LOVE it.

We did a lot of sitting in the surf in our beach chairs, one of my favorite activities.

We spent an entire day at Brookgreen Gardens, which will have to be an entire post itself.  If you haven’t heard of this place ( I hadn’t ), you need to spend a day here.  Make sure to bring sunscreen.  This is a note to myself.  I burned myself to a crisp.

We ate, and ate and ate yummy food.

We played games and laughed like lunatics, swam in the pool, walked on the beach at daybreak and at sunset, looked at jellyfish close up, and learned that if one stings you to sit in the wet sand and cover the sting with said wet sand…..Thanks surfer dude lifeguard.

I didn’t post about our grocery budget last week because all the money I spent was vacation related and I don’t count that in my grocery budget.  I also didn’t post what we ate last week either.  It was a mishmash of cooking in our rental house and eating out.  Heavy on the eating at our rental.  Number one:  it cuts down on cost.  But number two and most important to my people:  we are almost all of us homebodies who don’t like other people.  Hahaha.  That’s not true.  Maybe.

The reality is this:  we have 11 people to feed.  Taking 11 people out to eat is a very intricate and delicately done thing.

  1. You have to allow time for all ELEVEN people to primp and get themselves together.
  2. You have to allow time for all ELEVEN people to be transported to the restaurant.
  3. You have to allow time for all ELEVEN people to be seated at said restaurant.
  4. You have to allow time for all ELEVEN people to order food, wait for the food, eat the food and journey back home again.

As you can see, all of this takes TIME.  Time is finite and precious in my world.  It’s better spent sitting around doing nothing more than looking at my most precious people’s faces and talking; swimming, walking the beach, sitting in the surf, digging in the sand, playing card games, and laughing like lunatics.  Which is very, very difficult in a restaurant with eleven people.

In other news, Denton has been scheduled for an MRI next week.  Say a prayer for him if you would.  He is in a LOT of pain.  The long and short of it is that they believe he has a blown (herniated) disc in his back.  It could stem from the motorcycle and bear incident, extreme fatigue combined with 100 hour workweeks and everyday life or countless other things that could be inserted here.  Life has a tendency to interrupt even the best laid plans.

I hope to get my groove back and start getting things done again.  But we shall see!  I hope you have a lovely and pain free weekend!