Saving centsably: Save some money and fix it yourself
Last weekend, my husband and I found ourselves looking at two items in our home that were suddenly inoperable. By the end of the weekend, both items were working just fine -- and our expenses for the repairs totaled only $4.12.
Had you asked me at the onset of the problems if we would get out that cheaply, I would certainly have said no.
How often do you experience a broken item in your house -- and how often do you fix it yourself? Here is the story of our weekend adventure.
Each year, I make a back-to-school dress for our daughter. I began this tradition when she was in 3-year-old Pre-Kindergarten. Despite our decision to homeschool our children, I believe the beginning of a new school year is a reason for celebration -- which, for our daughter, includes a new dress.
I sat down at the sewing machine to sew the dress and the machine would not work properly. I changed the bobbin and the thread repeatedly. I threaded and re-threaded the needle -- wondering if in my time away from the sewing machine I had forgotten how to sew!
I tried this “re-working” several times before I decided to remove the cover that protects the part of the machine that would collect dust and lint from the fabric and the thread. I could not believe the amount of dust and debris inside there!
With the small sewing machine “paintbrush,” as my children call it, I worked to brush out all those tiny pieces of fabric remnants. Then I used a partial can of compressed air to blow out the unseen pieces. I snapped the cover back onto the machine and proceeded to replace the presser foot, bobbin and thread.
With no problems, the sewing machine worked again! I finished her dress just a few days later. While the machine probably needs a thorough professional cleaning, I just did not have the money right then to pay for that service. Fixing it myself allowed me to complete my project without great expense.
The day before the sewing machine stopped working, my son Owen brought his lamp to the kitchen. This lamp has a black and white shade with pictures of Corvettes, and the base of the lamp is a model Corvette. Suddenly, neither the light bulb nor the sound effects worked.
I gave him a “sorry” face as I shrugged my shoulders. I sighed as I said, “Oh well, I guess that’s trash now. You can ask Daddy about it later.” At dinner that night, Owen mentioned the lamp to my husband.
Owen already had tried to change the light bulb to fix the problem, but the lamp still did not work. He told my husband that the sound effects of the cranking car had stopped working, too. It seemed really strange that it all quit working at the same time.
My smart husband said, “I bet it has a fuse that died.” That evening, while watching television, he removed the base of the lamp, found the faulty fuse and replaced it. He put the lamp back together and it has returned to the boys’ room -- working just fine.
In both cases, our family could have looked at these items and said, “Oh well, they’re finished. Let’s toss them.”
However, both items were easily fixed after thinking through the problem and then investing a few minutes of our time. Are there items like these in your house waiting to be fixed?
Be sure not to toss something in the trash just because it seems to be broken. The fix may be easier than you think!
Contact writer Rachael Mercer at savingcentsably@gmail.com.
This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Saving centsably: Save some money and fix it yourself ."