Fabulous Financial Solutions

I have to admit, I’m still not sure about this one.

I was going to hire a maid to do the move-out cleaning on my apartment. Then I started thinking about all the things I could do with a hundred dollars besides pay someone else to clean my mess. So I decided to clean it myself. About eight hours later, I’m almost done. It’s like making $12 an hour for yukky work. Still, since I am not making any money doing anything else right now, it has been worth it.

That’s my whole philosophy on household help. If I can make more during the time I would have otherwise spent cleaning than the $12-$15 I would pay a maid, then I should hire the maid. Otherwise, I’ll do it myself.

An even better idea? Teach my kiddo how to do a lot of it.

Curtains can be really costly. When I was living in an apartment, I was not about to shell out the money for curtains to fit those particular windows. Now that I’ve purchased my own home, I’m really glad! What I did instead was buy two twin flat sheets in a color that picked up on some accents in my room.

Making curtains out of sheets is sooo easy. All I did was cut a small hole in both ends of the top of the sheet and run the curtain rod through it. I bought one of those tension curtain rods for about three dollars, and it worked just fine.

All in all, this project cost me nine dollars and took me 10 minutes to complete.

I never, ever ask for work to be done by an electrician or any other professional until I’ve gotten the 411 on how they work. I’ve found that not only do I get better work done this way, but I also save a lot of money.

For example, my new dryer doesn’t work in my new “old” house. The first thing I did was call my mom, who has lived in this town much of her life and who helped my brother remodel his house. She referred an electrician to me. He came over to fix the problem. The house has some really funky electrical issues. He tried a few things, got the situation to improve, and told me to wait and see. I asked him how much I owed him.

“You don’t owe me anything,” he told me with a look of surprise that I’d even asked. “I’m not like those people who charge just to show up. I didn’t fix anything, and so you don’t owe me anything.”

I asked him if I should send him a check if everything worked out and he just smiled.

Photo by advgaag

I have a medium sized dog. She’s a cross between a Chow and a Labrador Retriever. A few years ago, I decided that I was going to get her a summer haircut because she was shedding all over the house. I called up the groomers in town and got quotes ranging from $80 to $100! Since I don’t pay that much for my haircuts, there was no way I was going to part with that money for the dog’s.

I went to a discount store and bought a $30 pair of clippers. I shaved the dog myself. The next day, I took the dog to work, where one of my colleagues politely inquired if she had cancer. My dog, Salsa, was so embarrassed by all of the (giggling) attention, that she hid in my office for the remainder of the day. It all turned out well, though. After two weeks, she had a cute summer cut.

I began to do this every year. Eventually, I got a better pair of clippers and no one laughed. Certainly, no one would laugh if I told them that at this point, I’ve saved (given two haircuts a year) around a $1000 dollars by DIY the dog’s hair for five years!

Another option, if you live in a large city, is to look for a DIY dog grooming facility. The one in Austin offers great clippers, a bathing area and they clean up! That service cost about $15, a substantial improvement over the $80+ I would have otherwise spent.