Fixing small thinks is oftentimes fun and can save a few dollars the frugal way.

My son’s hamster wheel was very noise. The spinning grinding sound of the hamster running in it started waking my son at night. I thought about pitching it, but I know that the hamster is healthier since he uses it. So, I thought about buying a new wheel. So I fired up my good friend Mr. Google.com, and typed in the following search words “Cheap hamster wheel”. Mr. Google.com answered by displaying that depending on the type of model, they run anywhere from $7 to $20.  So I thought it was time to put on my thinking cap and figure out this frugal puzzle.

I thought, hmm, it’s effectively broke, so I’ll tinker with it… after all, I’m going to throw it away anyway. So that’s what I did, I took it apart. I then started thinking about the reason it was so noisy. Then it dawned on me… using oil or some other kind of lubricant might make the noise stop.

I didn’t want to use real oil, that seemed like a bad idea! So I took a small dab of Vaseline (any type of petroleum jelly will do), and coated the stem that the wheel rode on. I then slid the wheel back on the stem and gave it a spin. Viola! No noise, the problem was solved!

Not much of a puzzle other than figuring out how to get it apart. Still, I was proud of myself for saving the money, not to mention the green aspect of not throwing the wheel away.

Beaming with confidence from fixing the hamster wheel, I started thinking of other ways I could use petroleum jelly. Then I remembered my old “lamp light warped” alarm clock. The buttons on the time setting piece was not longer popping back up after pressing it. So, a few day later, during a football game (Arizona Cardinalsand some other team), I started taking it apart. I unscrewed the cover, and surprise, the plastic pieces fell out (I should know better, but I was distracted by the game). After I figured out how the pieces went back in, I gave each button a small lining of Vaseline on the inside edge of the buttons, and the hole they went through. Yes! This worked perfectly!

Overall the alarm clock was more like a puzzle than the hamster wheel. I probably saved $20 on it. I do know that super cheap ones go for about $10. It was kind of fun figuring it out! I even took the opportunity to make it educational too! I called in both my son and daughter and explained the electronics. This mini puzzle took me about 30 minutes to do (although the football game really took it’s toll on my time efficiency with this one).

Even though my savings was only $30, I had fun doing it and actually proud that I didn’t just toss it in the garbage (Go GREEN!!!)!

Before throwing something away… see if you can figure out a way to fix it or somehow manage to get a few more years out of it somehow.

The environment thanks you in advance! 😉