Daily total spent:  $ 89.13

Today was all about food.  There was no deck contractor payment to make — too windy to stain and finish.  An inevitable expense put off until another day.

Tuesday Morning — $12.90
One of the “treasures” I came away with from my mom’s move across the country was a lamp.  It’s a pretty cool lamp but the lampshade… well, it’s not my thing.

It never occured to me to check Tuesday Morning for a new lampshade — Tuesday Morning’s across the street from my bank so I just dropped in after making a deposit.  My mom asked me to keep an eye out for a garment steamer like the one I bought there a couple of years ago; I’ve seen them since they just don’t have any in stock right now.

Anyway, I wander in, look for a steamer — which, of course, they don’t have – and instead of walking right back out — which, of course, is what I should have done — I start wandering the aisles looking for things I simply can’t live without.  Then, lo and behold, I come across a large array of lampshades.

The lampshade isn’t exactly what I pictured for that lamp but the price was right and it looks good — both with the lamp and with the decor in our bedroom.  But all is not golden in this city of Oz.  No, nothing could ever be as simple as finding just the right lampshade at just the right price.  Turns out, this lamp doesn’t have a harp (that’s that metal thing that curves up around the lightbulb and holds the lampshade).  The current, unacceptable lampshade is the type with the deep metal braces that come down under the bulb.  Ugh.

You know the very worst part of this predicament?  I’ve had a lamp harp, still in it’s package, never opened, sitting around my house gathering dust for at least 5 years, maybe more.  But guess what I did.  I finally got rid of it.  Where, you ask?  I took it down to my mom’s and included it in her massive moving/garage sale.  Why is it that the one thing you get rid of, out of a whole pile of junk, is the one thing you end up needing right after it’s gone?  Double Ugh.

Subway — $2.99
This expense will be entered into my “Food - Dining” budget category but it really should be classified as a “stupid tax.”

Here I was, waiting for the deck guy to show, sorting and washing laundry, avoiding data entry I need to do, and catching up with the blogs in my Google Reader.  Then I read about Kyle’s giveaway contest over at Rather Be Shopping and I decided to write about some of my home improvement experiences.  So I was busy tip-tap-typing away when my eye fell on the clock.  2:50!?!!!  No way!  I was supposed to pick up The Son from class at 2:45 and it’s no less than a 20-minute drive.  Triple Ugh.

Now I did not have to buy to buy the boy three chocolate chip cookies and a medium soda.  I did it because I wanted to.  I did it because instead of being all pissy and mad and in-my-face he was really rather sweet to me when I finally showed up.  I did it because I felt terribly guilty.

I knew he’d be worried.  Kids shouldn’t have to worry about their parents when they’re late; they have every right to be annoyed.  But The Husband and I have continually put these poor kids through the parental-medical-emergency wringer.  It’s just not natural.

So I offered him a 1,000 mea culpas and offered to buy him a treat of his choice.  He picked Subway 

Vitamin Cottage — $20.86
I picked up an extra big bottle of fiber capsules — 100 caps.  The unit price on the bigger bottle represents a significant savings over the smaller bottle I’ve been finding at Whole Foods and the Co-op.

Kroger — $52.38

• Oxiclean — $8.79
• Horizon 2% milk — $4,88 (saved $0.41)
• 2 cartons Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19/ea (saved $0.50/ea.)
• Hillshire Farm sliced ham — $3.50 (saved $0.49)
• Hillshire Farm sliced turkey — $3.50 (saved $0.49)
• Dole orange/peach/mango juice — $2.99  (saved $0.70)
• 2 jars Cascadian Farm grape spread — $2.00/ea. (saved $1.19/ea.)
• 2 jars Cascadian Farm raspberry spread — $2.00/ea. (saved $1.19 ea.)
• Simply Organic garlic salt — $4.79
• Rudi’s organic honey whole wheat bread — $3.99
• Rudi’s organic country white bread — $3.99
• bag credits ($0.15)

Kyle over at Rather Be Shopping is running his first contest.  The prize is a brand new Craftsman cordless drill.

I’ve always wanted a cordless drill (though, to be honest, I do have a very nice Black & Decker corded drill) and I love talking about my remodeling projects so I thought I’d throw my hat into the contest ring.

~ o o o O o o o ~

We’ve owned our home for 5 years now and, like most houses — especially aging ones – we’ve had to put quite a bit of time and money into improvements and upgrades.  I had a whole slew of projects to choose from for this post and each project comes with its own stories whether it’s the 6-week kitchen remodel that took 13 months or the installation of a simple window lock in which I probably broke a finger.

Because I simply couldn’t choose, I’ve decided to include two projects.

The first project qualifies as my most frugal home improvement project though, technically, maybe it’s more of a home decorating project.  That line can get a little blurry.

My Most Frugal Project: Family Command Center

All parents know that family life with pre-teens/teens can become a scheduling nightmare.  Our family is no exception.  To complicate an already complicated family life, three years ago I suffered a series of TIAs (mini strokes).  As a result, my short-term memory, never all that great to begin with, became, at best, a family joke and, at worst, an annoying liability.  There were months where the best I could hope for was to remember what month and year it was.  Remembering an event or appointment was completely out of the question.

I’d always loved the idea of a family information center.  I’ve been known to drool over catalogs from The Container Store and Pottery Barn.  But the idea of spending that kind of money on organization equipment makes me queasy.  Besides, that kind of stuff always looks much better in the catalog than it does in my house.  Still, a solution had to be found.

We have a little alcove/nook/corner off the kitchen next to the dining area.  It’s actually the landing for the stairs leading into the basement.  This is the area I chose for our Family Command Center because it was dead space anyway and because it’s right off the kitchen and we all know that the kitchen is the heart of a home, right?

On the right side is the refrigerator — every square inch of which is covered with fun magnets, notes, and lists.  Here I placed a simple large, generic desk calendar from the local office supply store (~$10).  The calendar attaches to the fridge through the use of two magnetic bulldog clips (free — I already owned them).

It took a few weeks of training but eventually everyone got the hang of using the calendar.  Every scheduled event, from school pickups to Dr. appointments, goes onto the calendar and if it isn’t on the calendar, it doesn’t happen.

We keep a set of colored felt-tip pens handy for recording events as they come up and we developed a basic color coding system of red for special one-time events, green for weekly or periodically recurring events, and blue for very regular events that any normal person would remember without help – but maybe not Mom.

The opposing (left) wall is the source of my frugal homemaker’s pride, though.  The series of three wooden bins is one of a set I purchased about 10 years ago from Costco (~$30.).  In earlier years, we used the bins to store the children’s music books, etc. Now they’re perfect for storing local rec center class catalogs, community center performance catalogs, school papers, etc.

To the left of the bins is my magnetic board — my frugal masterpiece.  One day as I was perusing the aisles in Home Depot (a favorite, but often expensive pastime activity), I wandered into the sheet metal aisle.  And there they were – glorious and inexpensive 2′ x 3′ pieces of sheet metal.

At first I worried about piercing the corners so I could attach the sheet to my wall but quickly discovered that any regular drill bit will do the job.  One side happened to align with a wall stud.  For the other side, I simply used plastic sheetrock anchors.  Like the refrigerator, I accessorized the magnetic board with fun magnets from places like Michael’s and Old Navy.  I can’t remember where I picked up the five clear-topped tins but I do remember that I found them on sale for a fabulous price.  They’re so handy!  We keep stashes of paper clips, rubber bands, small alligator clips, and small yellow sticky pads in them.  On the board we keep the trash recycling schedule, business cards, and other odds ‘n ends stuff.

My Smartest, Dumbest, and Hardest Project:  The Master Bath remodel

First, let’s be clear here.  The Husband doesn’t know one end of the hammer from another.  And I was a handy person — in my pre-Fibro, pre-Stroke days.  In other words, we’ve come to the point in our lives where a home-remodeling projects always involves someone else doing the remodeling.

What experience has taught me, however, is that just because someone else is doing the labor doesn’t mean there’s no work left for the homeowner.

Our master bath remodel qualifies as my smartest, dumbest, and hardest project so far.

It was smartest because it’s a huge improvement over what we had before and because the quality-of-life return we’ve seen on this project far exceeds anything else we’ve done to the house.  The dumbest because I did make a few dumb mistakes and because, when it’s all said and done, I might have spent more than we’d ever see returned on the project were we to sell the house.  The hardest because, well, it was the hardest in terms of time, stress, labor, and inconvenience.

There were several smart steps I took that ended up making both of our bathroom remodels ultimately successful.  First, I spent an incredible amount of time doing research before even talking to contractors.  I looked at materials; I inspected every bathroom I could find — private and public; I read do-it-yourself books; I poured over magazines; and I talked to home improvement and bathroom remodeling employees.  Second, I took my time interviewing prospective contractors.  Third, I played the role of general contractor which means I took responsibility for designing the bathrooms and procuring the materials.  I hired the contractor simply for labor and and expertise.  And, fourth, I worked hard to find high-quality materials at bargain prices.

Because I’d done my research, I was able to eliminate many of the bidding contractors simply on the way they talked about the project.  One contractor, for instance, planned to use plywood as a subfloor under the tile (that’s a no-no).  Another contractor balked when I said I wanted cement board behind the shower area instead of green board.  An added benefit of taking bids from so many contractors was that I was able to get my first-choice contractor to come down on his bid to be more competitive with my second-choice contractor.

The biggest mistake I made with the master bathroom was in not realizing the extra expense that my non-standard sink/cabinet would incur.  The physical size of the room made it impossible to spec a standard-sized cabinet — I had to stick with the same size as the original cabinet.  But a smaller cabinet requires a smaller countertop.  It wasn’t until I was in too deep to change directions that I realized that I couldn’t purchase a pre-fab granite countertop and sink in this smaller non-standard size.  So I had to have a custom countertop made which ended up costing me over twice the price of a larger pre-fab unit.

Only time will tell, but my contractor and his employee both questioned the decisions I made in designing the master bath.  Their position was that it was too fancy for the type and location of the house — and for the size of the bathroom.  Ultimately, I designed the bathroom I wanted and spec’ed the materials I wanted (marble shower walls; porcelain tile floors; wood, not particle board cabinet; hand-hammered copper sink; Cherry wood trim; 3/8″ solid glass shower enclosure) and didn’t worry about the resale value of the bathroom.  I could have had a nice bathroom for less.  On the other hand, I paid a lot less for a first-class bathroom than you’d think.

Although playing the role of general contractor is a ton of work, responsibility, and stress, I’ll never embark on another home remodeling project in any other capacity.  Naturally, my experience with DIY home improvement projects helps as does my aptitude for mechanical and technical matters.  Being able to imagine the project step-by-step, foresee complications, and troubleshoot solutions proved an invaluable asset.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love the experience but it’s not something I’d want to do again real soon.