Money Saved: $1150 Bathroom Cabinet

Photo taken in the mirror!

In our bathroom renovation, we converted a closet to a built-in cabinet.

I had budgeted $1300 for this cabinet. In the end it has only cost us: $150.

How we saved money: My dad is a carpenter and originally I was going to buy a cabinet so we wouldn't bug him (we was doing all the labor for the bathroom); but he was able to snag some free maple wood and crafted the cabinet for free. The only thing we paid for were for the hardware, the frosted glass, stain, and sealer.

So in the end we saved $1150 from our budget and I have to admit, this is a fine piece of cabinetry.

Thanks Dad!

Energy credits for Taxes - 2009

A lot of people are talking about the new energy deductions you will be able to take on your 2009 taxes.

For more information, check the Energy Star website.

For the past 2 years, we were able to deduct part of the cost of some residential improvements such as windows and doors. This year, if you noticed, there was no option -- and we put a new roof on, so a credit would have been nice.

Well, this new deduction couldn't have come at a better time because Matt and I have been considering a new HVAC unit for a while. Our furnace has an uncanny resemblance to that huge metal-box of a droid that was on the Jawa's ship in the 1977 original Star Wars (I have a brother, so I've seen these movies a ka-jillion times). Energy friendly is not the first thought that comes to mind when you see the furnace.

I just hope they stick around for another year because our 2010 plan is new windows for the house.

Library charges for Movies

Editor's Note:
I realize that I over-reacted. $1 a movie is not a killer. We get Netflix for $8.99/month and at most we get 4 movies. That's over $2 a movie.

___________

I'm a little miffed.

I really wanted to write about how a great way to save money on movies is to frequent your local library.

My town has one of those "Top 100" libraries; it's huge and has a lot of resources. But then again, we pay a lot of municipal taxes that go to the school, park district, and library. The library also has a really nice collection of movies - new and old, fiction and non-fiction, foreign and english-speaking.

It's always been my Go-To place for TV shows and classic films -- saving Netflix for the more obscure, or new releases. Well, not anymore.

They are now charging $1/ per movie.

Okay, I don't want to be stingy because $1 is really not a lot of money; however, we pay taxes to this library and in a time when people are trying to save money, they will turn to libraries. Will they start charging for books now?

If I'm overreacting, please comment and tell me to chill out.

Fresh Flowers for your House

I was reading Real Simple magazine at my mom's and it seems that everyone is jumping on the "Gotta Save Money" bandwagon. So RS gave some suggestions on how to do this.

But what I loved the best is that it seems you have to have been a crazy-throw-away-money person to begin with. For instance:

Instead of spending $20 for fresh flowers for your house every week, don't and you'd save $1040 a year. Buy a plant instead.

Who buys fresh flowers for their house every week? Am I in the minority here?

But I agree that buying a potted plant instead is a much better idea anyhow. And if you garden like me (see my Garden Blog), plant a cutting garden and during the bloom seasons you'll have real fresh flowers in your house all summer -- Roses, Daisies, Tulips, Daffodils ... there's nothing better than that!

Low flow toilets

Let's talk toilets.

Our never-ending remodeling the bathroom job had me thinking about the toilet. Should we replace it? It flushed down everything it was supposed to, didn't look like it was from the stone age, and was a non-offending white hue. I try not to waste, and replacing the toilet seemed like I'd be doing that.

Then I started thinking about the water that went down with each flush. 3.5 gallons of H20 going down faster than frat boys could chug down some beers. I try not to waste, I repeated, and that water guzzling was wasteful too.

So I found out about the EPAs WaterSense designation for bathroom appliances. Through that, we located a dual flush toilet from Kohler that we liked. It flushed at either .8 gallons or 1.6 gallons and with the push button on top, reminded me of my toilet in my apartment in France when I worked there so many years ago. At .8 gallons, you'd have to flush over 4 times to get to 1 flush of a 3.5.We do a lot of water-saving measures in the house -- showers, not baths; turning off the water while brushing our teeth; hooking up a rain barrel ... so why not extend it to the toilet?

And it looks pretty cool too.

Money Saved: $75 Room rates

Another choice we made for our vacation was which room to choose. At B&B's, rooms vary and so do their costs because some are nicer than others.

At our Vermont B&B, they had some lovely rooms for higher rates, and we were going to choose one of them until Matt had a great idea ...

Why don't we choose a less expensive room and stay a night longer.

Still a beautiful room!

We were going to stay for 3 nights, but we decided to stay for 4 nights (which was better!) and we still saved $75 on the cost of the room even with the extra night. Sure we had to pay for another dinner and day of fun, but our vacation was much better at 5days/4nights.

Total savings: $75

Money Saved: $432 Airport choices

We just got back from our vacation in Vermont. As a whole it was not necessarily a "cheap" vacation; however, we did decide to adjust our traveling schedule to save money.

Instead of flying into Burlington, VT -- we flew into Manchester, NH for a savings of: $241/per person. Southwest flies out of Chicago Midway to Manchester non-stop for very reasonable rates.

We did have to drive a total of 220 miles extra (round trip), but at 20 cents a mile, that would be under $50. Plus, we took advantage of the trip to visit some new places!

So in total, I'll say our savings was (for 2 people): $432