Image by clevercupcakes via Flickr Our car took a week-long convalescence last week, and the bill came to about what you’d expect for a stay at a swanky spa: $1,258.04. Clunk, indeed. Except that’s the sound of our wallets hitting the floor. The total is about 9 car payments; of course we finished paying off [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Repairs'
Frugal Fail: DIY Disasters
May 18th, 2009 No Comments
Laugh-out-loud funny examples from frugal’s dark side in today’s New York Times, including: A poor Minneapolis woman whose attempted DIY toilet fix cost her a ceiling, a car bumper, and some garage shelves and gardening supplies; Another woman who bleached her hair so badly that it broke off; and Several wicked cases of food poisoning.
Tags: Frugal fail · fun · New York Times
Et tu, Tivo? Curse of Broken Stuff Continues
April 22nd, 2009 3 Comments
Image by stevegarfield via Flickr Tivo is busted. It’s been giving us fair warning, acting flaky for weeks. So we scheduled a service call, set for Monday morning. Meanwhile, DirecTV sent us robo calls over the weekend cheerfully advising us that a problem in our area had been fixed — did we still need that [...]
Tags: DirectTV · lousy customer service · Tivo
Toilet’s Revenge
April 14th, 2009 5 Comments
Have you ever noticed that some gifts are all about what the giver wants when they have to be around you? This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Like the extra set of silverware my mom gave me for me at Christmas, because our 8-piece set could no longer keep up with a family of 4 [...]
Tags: gifts · slide show
The Fix: Planning Ahead for Car Maintenance
February 12th, 2009 No Comments
Image via Wikipedia Timing Belt. Once in awhile I am smarter than I think, but only, of course, in hindsight. Last month, after finally paying off the Volkswagen, we took it into the dealer for the 60,000 mile service. And were surprised by a $2,190 bill to replace the timing belt, water pump, and leaking [...]
Tags: MoneyNing · timing belt
And the Rain Came Down: Putting off Small Repairs
February 6th, 2009 1 Comment
Image by Augapfel via Flickr Scenes from the House of a Little Bit Broke: We’ve got a big birthday party coming up this weekend for my son, who’s turning five. Naturally, then, this is the week that his little sister comes down with croup, and has been up all hours the past two nights in [...]
