Vacation
Hello readers! I am back from two weeks in Europe (well, I've been back for a week, but then I had a house guest staying with me and work to catch up on.)
Also, I decided to paint my living room this weekend... I forgot how difficult and time consuming painting is. I thought I would be able to do it all in one day, but of course, it took two. And there are so many more rooms to paint before the icky brown color that currently coats the walls is all painted over.
The paint is not a "necessary" expense, since I can certainly live comfortably even if the walls are painted the wrong shade, but I am really happy I did it. I haven't bought any living room furniture yet, but I couldn't even think about what colors of furniture to get when I didn't know what color the walls were going to be. I went with a light green, which is a bit more ... luminous than I had planned (more glow-in-the-dark shade than the soothing shade I imagined), but on the other hand, the room is MUCH brighter!!
Some home expenses that were more necessary - buying a lawn mower, swing blade, and rake... the grass/weeds in the back yard were getting up to waist high in some spots, and I had to get the lawn mower sooner or later anyway. We chose a Husqvarna reel mower (no motor), hence also buying the swing blade, which will let us cut the grass down to a more manageable height before trying to push the mower through it.
The problem with trying to follow the advice of frugal bloggers like Mr. Money Mustache, is that they already have living room furniture and lawnmowers and ladders and things. I mean, I can put off buying living room furniture for awhile, but eventually it gets a bit ridiculous, and plus, then I don't want to invite anyone over to visit me at home, because where will they all sit?
Does anyone else struggle with trying to save money when you're missing things that you don't really *need* but that it's odd not to have? (Like furniture!) I've found that if I wait long enough, free things do tend to turn up...
June 13th, 2012 - 09:44
Prepping is definitely more time consuming than the actual painting itself. I usually over-estimate how long it will take just because I’ve learned that it takes a long time. If you have the opportunity to paint more than one room at a time, you can often get a lot more bang for your buck that way.
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June 18th, 2012 - 08:34
The real issue was that sure, prepping takes a long time, but painting is physically exhausting (at least for me – I’m pretty small and have been doing only running as excercise.) The day after, every muscle in my body ached from climbing up and down the ladder and using the roller.
June 13th, 2012 - 20:58
Go yard sale salvaging and check out craigslist (has pictures). Quality furniture lasts a lifetime. Fill your needs with high-quality purchases and obtain cheaply your wants. I gradually replaced my cheap crap with high-end stuff over time as my wants became needs.
June 17th, 2012 - 11:06
We had a room without furniture for several years (the “Great Room”)… then when we were staging up the house to rent we realized we could split our living room furniture from our old apartment across the two living rooms. So yes, we’ve done a whole lot of not buying things. Except bookcases… we do buy those. Heck, we had to visit the laundromat the first couple months we were living here because we didn’t get paid until October and didn’t have money for a w/d set.
It always weirds me out when people (on the internet) who have huge amounts of high interest debt go around buying new things that we didn’t buy until we had no (non-mortgage) debt and an emergency fund. Definitely different priorities. But that’s why we can go out and spend a lot of money on something that we need right away (or barely blink about potential job loss) without it hurting our financial position and they’re spending tons of blog posts complaining about their precarious financial situations. These kinds of decisions add up… or rather, they compound! And for us they compound into positive rather than negative territory.
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June 18th, 2012 - 08:33
We’re really pretty comfortable without the living room having furniture. We have a rug that we just lay down on, and then the dogs can join us, haha. It’s just that it keeps me from wanting to invite people over… I mean, we only have 3 dining room chairs, so we can only have one guest at a time come for dinner until I find another cheap one that vaguely matches these three… I did get the dining room table for free from a parent of my neighbors! And the three dining chairs for $60 total.
June 21st, 2012 - 00:14
The Wife would never let that fly! I am pretty sure I would have nothing in my house other than a big screen tv and a fish tank if I didn’t live with her.
I HATE taping when I paint. HATE IT
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