Frugal Landscaping

This may not look like much, but it is a beautiful sight! We had a slight drainage problem in front of our house right by the front door.  For whatever reason, the ground was mounded higher than the door, and every time it rained hard, the water would come and pool almost right up to the door.  It would have been an easy fix if we rented some equipment, but I was too cheap for that.  I felt that money could have been better spent somewhere else.  So I started to dig the dirt up little by little using a shovel, but it was going to take a LONG time to get the job done, and that didn't even include the work that would have been involved getting rid of the dirt pile that was growing.  Then, an angel showed up at our house last Saturday in the form of our neighbor, who was getting a new roof installed on his house.  He had borrowed one of those front end loaders with a big bucket to do some work around his yard, and offered to dig up the dirt and even take the dirt off our hands! Who could refuse an offer like that?

So the next morning, he showed up and leveled our yard for us.  And then he took the dirt to fill up some low spots in his own yard. In return, my husband went over to his house after it was all finished to help him move the roofing shingles up onto the roof in preparation for the roofers (the neighbor had gotten a price break by agreeing to do that part of the job himself). A win win situation, wouldn't you say? After we figure out if we fixed the problem, all we have to do is put down some sod.

So the next morning, he showed up and leveled our yard for us.  And then he took the dirt to fill up some low spots in his own yard. In return, my husband went over to his house after it was all finished to help him move the roofing shingles up onto the roof in preparation for the roofers (the neighbor had gotten a price break by agreeing to do that part of the job himself). A win win situation, wouldn't you say? After we figure out if we fixed the problem, all we have to do is put down some sod.

Long Time, No See

As my friends and I used to say. . . Have not been in the mood to blog. Frugality went out the window for a while.  It's all good. We spent some, and saved some. Here's what we have been up to:

My husband had not been sleeping well, waking up with a sore shoulder almost every morning. Then we went away on a working weekend trip to New Braunfels, Texas and stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn hotel.  They had a Sleep Number Bed in the rooms, and my husband loved the bed. He woke up the next morning without having any pains.  When we got back, he kept talking about how comfortable that bed was, but these babies retail for upwards of $4,000+! NOT paying that kind of money!

So we spent the next month or so scouring the classifieds on Craigslist, and finally found one listed for $2,000, right in the area of town we live in, no less. Then watched it for a few weeks because there were no takers, the economy being what it is and all.  Finally, my husband said, "Why don't you send them an email and ask if they will take $1,500?" And that is what we purchased it for.  We were given the original invoice for the bed, and together with taxes, the grand total for the bed when purchased was close to $5,500!  Yes, it still was not a cheap purchase, but we saved $4,000 over the full retail value.  Since we are supposed to spend 1/3 of our lives in bed sleeping, we felt it was worth the money spent. The people who had it had kept the mattress in pristine condition, so we were OK purchasing a used mattress.  My husband has been really happy with the purchase, and that alone is priceless.