Tag Archives: Frugality

Frugal Puzzles, fixing small things can be fun!!!

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Hamster wheel

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! 😉

Freegan’s lifestyle isn’t for me.

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I take great personal pride in being frugal and green both at the same time.  I try to put a green spin on my frugal ways, but I will never have the courage (or health) to be green in the freegan way.

If you’ve never heard of a freegan (free + vegan) before, basically they are people that hate waste and they hate that way people waste resources.  To counter the waste of other people, they will go dumpster diving for food and other items that they believe still have value.  Now don’t confuse freegans with the homeless, most of the freegans have jobs or other sources of money.  These people just care about the environment and are doing something (extreme as it might be) about it.  I think of freegans are kind of like the ultimate modern-day hippies (minus the association with drugs aspect) kind of…

The vegans part of the freegan’s name is becoming more optional than the rule of thumb.  After all, why waste meat products?

I’m not against this, and I commend them for doing so.  But when it comes to getting food in a dumpster, I have to personally draw the line there.  Some of the freegans are very clever.  So have informal arrangements with restaurants, so that when the restaurants discard their trash, some of the better pieces of food are separated in plastic bags separated from the rest of the regular trash.

freegan

freegan.info picture – Saiya

The closest I’ve come to this kind of activity is when I sometimes get a bowl of popcorn when a co-worker goes down to our cafeteria.  He brings a big bowl of leftover popcorn from the cafeteria back to his cube and offers it to us surrounding cubicle dwellers.  He doesn’t do it because he needs the money (he’s rich compared to me, he does it because he hates to see it wasted).

On the other hand, I think I might consider using freecycle.org.  Especially if I was younger and on a limited budget. 🙂

This freegan wiki provides further descriptions of the freegan way.

Saving Gas At Lunch

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High gas prices

Fight back against gas prices!

Lately, I’ve been trying to cut back on car gas consumption cost.  Not that long ago, I would go to McDonald’s and order off of the dollar menu a few days a week, via the drive-thru line.

What I never thought about was the amount of gas I would waste waiting in that long line, not to mention the carbon emissions.  Sometimes, the wait in line would take up to 10 minutes or longer.  While it’s true that gas consumption when a car is running at idle is less than the gas consumption while driving, it’s still a waste of gas.

So after thinking about it, I decided that if I were going to a fast food restaurant for lunch, and the line was long, I’d stop and go in and order instead of wait in a long drive-thru line.  Ironically (at least where I work), the lines inside the restaurant would be very short, and I actually could get my food more quickly by going in, than waiting in the drive-thru line.

That said, I have to admit, if it is raining hard or really cold outside, I still go through the drive-thru.  I think every little bit helps though!

While this new way of buying lunch, might seem like it wouldn’t matter… it could be a huge both economically and environmentally if more people started doing the same thing.  Gas wasted in drive-thru lines are one of the small costs that adds up, that nobody takes into account or even thinks of.

-MR

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