I may not be able to save money but I am able NOT to spend money. I don’t consider not spending the same as saving since no cash gets deposited in to my savings account. Nonetheless, in these inflationary times, not spending money makes the higher costs of everything else palpable.
DH cut my hair: $25 not spent (plus he’s getting better and better at it!)
Dog nails cut for free from an offering groomer: $21 not spent at the vets
Self dog wash & trim (done by me): $70 (I’m getting better at this too!)
Airline Miles used for RT tix to Florida: $248 not spent
DH installing our new pellet stove: $900 not spent hiring a contractor to do it
11% rebate on some stove parts: $24.08
The total amount of money not spent because we did all of the above amounts to $1,288.

So, what was the point of us doing all that DIY work ourselves? Well, we’re in the middle of installing a new pellet burning stove in our living room when we realized our 18 year old sectional couch will no longer work. The stove will be taking up a good amount of space and the longer end of the sectional couch will be too near to the hot stove. We’ve been wanting to replace our couch for years because the bottom had given out in one of the sections and was unfixable. We sat around the defect whenever we were in the living room. Now, with the new pellet stove, we planned on being in the living room a lot more but buying a new couch was totally out of the question. We just didn’t have the funds for it. That was till today.
We went back to an outlet store we have been combing over for the last year. We would go and look and drool over new couches. Today, we finally had the funds to buy ourselves a new couch. We’re going to sell the old couch. That money will go into a savings account. In the interim, we purchased a brand new couch, off the outlet floor for only $839. Throw in sales tax and delivery fee (yes! we had to pay a delivery fee. the couch is 98.5 inches and will not fit into our pick up truck. bummer) and the total came to $1,060.

Needless to say, DH and I are super excited to finally fix up our twenty-year old living room and bring it up in to the 21st Century! The new couch has super strong webbing so the bottom won’t be falling out. It’s going to change the whole look of our living room. We’re in the middle of discussing what color to re-paint the living room or just keep it the same as it was.
I’ll keep you posted on our progress.
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Lara,
Your comment to my credit score was childish, so I won’t be posting it. This is NOT a competition to see who is the better of anything. This is a blog dedicated to folks, similar to me, who are retired, on a shoestring (lower income) budget and what we all have to do in order to survive this tumultuous financial upheaval we ALL find ourselves in.
Zero interest loans are very hard to qualify for. You must have impeccable credit in order to obtain one. Using other people’s money right now is a very smart financial idea while preserving one’s own savings/investment accounts. Of course it’s reported to the credit bureaus. That’s what helps give users an impeccable, high credit score!
Your holier-than-thou helps no one. No one. Not even little old me.
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Great job on the savings! And congrats on the new couch! We’ve had a few snafus lately including needing to redo our hardwoods in the kitchen because of a broken dishwasher that had a slow leak. No one will install a dishwasher while there is water damage on the hardwoods. We will take our time replacing both, BUT, I am discovering the joyful art of washing dishes by hand. 😉
We did preserve our family room couch by steam-cleaning it since it has seen its days and now it looks brand new. Yay us.
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Sharon, our existing couch is probably 18 years old. I’ve been wanting a new couch for years. At first we looked for a used couch on FaceBook Marketplace BUT we decided we wanted brand new. And so we will have it!
That’s a tough break on your dishwasher. We had a severe leak on ours once and the water piled all in the kitchen. Thankfully Nick was able to vacuum it up with a wet vac in time. No water damage to our wood floors! But each time we use our dishwasher, I shudder and look for leaks. UGH!
Once the pellet stove is installed, we’ll probably repaint the living room….to make way for our new couch!!!
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