Category Archives: $1- $99

Day 150- A Toilet to Dye For

February 10, 2009 – 11:18 am

I would like to pass on a bit of parenting advice that I have learned over the weekend before we begin today. If your children are playing quietly in their rooms, then you should definitely go ahead and check in on them—they are up to no good. Sure, we have had the occasional writing on the walls and furniture with permanent magic marker, the make-up incident that would make a circus clown jealous, and countless dirty diaper messes. But when toilets are involved, daddy gets a little upset.

I had to spend some quality time recently with a plunger trying to get the half ton of toilet paper unclogged from the toilet. That is not exactly the way that I envisioned to spending my evening, but oh well. After my multiple flushes and nearly getting tennis elbow, I finally got it unclogged.

While I was plunging away, I thought to do the old dye test. Most people will say that their toilets do not leak, but taking a few minutes out of your day can prove it. All you need is a little bit of food coloring and 15 minutes.

Remove the back lid of the toilet and drop in enough food coloring to turn the water to a noticeable shade. If after 15 minutes the color of the water in the bowl has changed as well, then you have a leak. Replacing the “guts” of the toilet is a good way to go. I would suggest changing all of the parts, but you can just get by with just the flapper and simple adjustments.

Many toilets also do run only at night; that’s because people use much less water during these hours and in many municipal water systems, the water pressure rises considerably during this time. It is not uncommon for system water pressure to rise by 15 to 20 pounds per square inch (psi), and by as much as 30 psi in some situations. This rise in pressure could cause “water creep” inside your gravity- fed tank by 1/2 inch or more. That is why the manufacturers of toilets normally suggest that the water level to be set at approximately one inch below the top of the overflow tube.

This does take general plumbing knowledge and experience, but is an easy start for any do it yourself kind of person.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in Cost, Home, Reduce, Water | Comments (0)

Day 147- The Pen is Mightier

January 28, 2009 – 6:32 pm

I don’t remember the last time that I actually bought a pen before yesterday. Just like your weird friends, they just seem to always be there. To tell you the truth, I really don’t know where I get them, but upon closer inspection they all seem to have hotel or company names on them.

I also have a bad habit of permanently borrowing pens—can you really steal a pen? Well, yes if you purposefully raid the work supply closet or lift them from a store, but I haven’t done that.

I have a silly thing that I do on my pen at work—yes, pen, singular. I take a little piece of paper and write the date that I start using it and tape it around the pen to the top. When it finally goes dry, I like to see how long it took me to use the whole thing. It’s a bit crazy, but fun.

I realized that even though I was reducing the amount of pens that I use, I was still throwing them away when I was done with them. I couldn’t really nail down a good reliable number of pens thrown away per year, but it is definitely a lot. That’s why I took a trip to the local business supply superstore on my lunch break yesterday to look for my next pen.

I walked in wanting a nice fountain pen, but they cost more than I was willing to pay and the guy that helped me said that some of them had refills that were a bit difficult to locate. We took one out of the glass case and he put one together for me. Apparently he didn’t know how to do it very well and got ink all over his hands. I am definitely sure that I would have made a bigger mess.

I moved from the $50.00 (US) range to the $7- $14 range. I figured that would be about the proper dollar amount that I would like to spend that I would care if it went “missing”. I found a pretty nice refillable pen that is a three in one for $14.00. When you twist it once, a black point comes out. When you twist it again, a red point comes out. And get this, when you twist it to the last setting, a refillable pencil tip comes out. Simple shiny things amuse me.

The best part is that there are refills for the pen that are made by various companies and are easy to find. I just have to figure out how I am going to calculate how long it takes for me to go through each ink.

Invest in a good refillable pen. There are a bunch of them out there for a decent price. Don’t but products that contribute to our throw away society.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in Cost, Reduce, Reuse | Comments (0)

Day 146- Oh, Baby Baby

January 25, 2009 – 9:00 am

A few years ago, Beanie Babies were all the rage. I didn’t get into collecting them myself, but I know that there were a few friends of mine that went nuts over collecting them. There were even little plastic things that protected the tag.

I can admit that I sympathize because I collect sports autographs and have plastic things that protect my autographed photos and cards.

Anyway, these Beanie Babies are all but out of style right about now and their value has dropped just as quickly as any stock on the market. There was a time that these little things were sort of a good investment at the time. Their value was going up and times were good. Well just like any collectible, their value sometimes goes in the tank. So, what does one do with these cute animals now that they are no longer a good retirement strategy?

How about donating them to a group called Beanies for Baghdad. Not only do you get the chance to help support a good cause and reuse a toy, you can also give a smile to a child half a world away and provide a soldier with an item of goodwill.

These toys are easier to carry than any other plastic toy, they won’t break and are relatively light as compared with other toys. So, if you have a closet full of these little toys and do not know what to do with them, check out this cause–you will be glad that you did.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Cost, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse | Comments (0)

Day 144- Seal of Approval

January 19, 2009 – 8:15 pm

Back on Day 137, I wrote about sealing up the small cracks around your windows and doors. As I look closer at the subject of sealing your gaps, I have neglected to look at the products one would use to perform this maintenance. Until now, your choices in sealants have been primarily petroleum based.

It is kind of like a double edged sword. On one hand, you need to properly seal your gaps to the outside. But on the other hand, the available products that we are using are fairly harsh on the environment. It really doesn’t quite make sense.

I typically do not endorse specific products simply because I am not trying to sell you anything except an idea and to show simple choices can have a greater impact on the planet than we once thought. If I went around hawking products and services and they do not work, then that damages my credibility and also the integrity of this project.

That being said, as you head down the aisles of your local hardware store, remember to take the time to investigate the ingredients of your sealants. I went to one of those big box home improvement stores the other day to check out the sealant aisle and found it to be a bit confusing and daunting. The paint/sealant aisle seemed bigger than my house and to tell you the truth, they all looked pretty much the same to me. All the caulk tubes were neatly lined up like soldiers ready to battle the elements.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. They won’t take your man card away for a couple of questions. If you can’t find anyone, use the little button that has the friendly pre-recorded lady saying something like, “Special assistance needed in the paint area…….paint area”.

If you know of any products that you have used and have had success, feel free to leave a comment. I would also like to know what products you have used that didn’t quite fit the bill as well.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $ Amount Varies, Cost, Home, Insulation | Comments (2)

Day 140- Is Your House on Fire, Clark?

December 24, 2008 – 7:48 am

Christmas is only a day away and it is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas–especially from my front window. My neighbor has one of the biggest single yard light displays in our area. He has an unofficial cross town battle royale each year with another guy for the biggest and best light display of the year. People line up and down the street to drive by and try spot the new items this year and take pictures. I think that there even is a trophy involved.

I am not being a Scrooge because people genuinely love coming by every year to see if they can spot the new stuff. Heck, I like it just for the fact that he is a good guy and has a true passion for this event. There was an article in the local paper a few weeks ago that said his electricity bill is an extra $400.00 per month–which is high.

Although it probably can be spotted from space, it does turn off at a reasonable hour (unlike his next door neighbor). I am not here to say that you should not have that extra singing Santa or that extra string of lights. What I am asking is that you invest in a decent timer or at least turn them off at a reasonable hour.

I get up relatively early and leave my house way before the sun comes up. Nothing quite bothers me as a full blown holiday light display at 5 am. Other than the paper man and the other few early birds in the neighborhood, everyone else is all snuggled in bed with sugarplums dancing in their head.

So get that extra holiday decoration if you want, but remember to turn it off when you go to bed–or better yet, set the timer for a reasonable hour.

Happy Holidays

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in Cost, Holidays, Lighting | Comments (0)

Day 137- Testing, Testing, 1, 2……3

December 2, 2008 – 6:58 am

It seems that we put up our Holiday decorations earlier each year. About five B.C. (before kids), I was just happy to get a small potted Norfolk Pine tree with a couple of ribbons. My wife kindly reminded me that it looked like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but what would a 22 year old have in terms of lights and decorations anyway? Definitely not all the stuff that we put out this year.

We also have a lot of those things that when you squeeze their hand, they do a little dance or song. It is pretty annoying when the girls go around and set them all off at the same time, but they genuinely love it and dance around. I can put up with it for a couple of months.

After sitting in the attic for 10 months, we often times need to change the batteries in the toy. I am still in the process of changing everything to rechargeable batteries and still have some of the non rechargeable ones that need to be used. Instead of replacing all the batteries, I use a battery tester to see how much energy is left in each one.

I am pretty shocked to see that two batteries may be dead or very low, but usually one of them is still pretty much full. When they are completely dead, I put them in a small shoe box to be brought up to the local recycling center. But, if they still have some power left, I classify my used batteries by percentage that they are full. It is not too sophisticated, I just classify them in small boxes of “full”, “about half” and “dead”. That is one less wasted battery that goes in the singing snowman.

It is a good idea to use batteries that have approximately the same power left. You don’t want to mix a new battery in with old ones. It is not dangerous, but it can impact the performance of your electronic equipment.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in Cost, Electronics, Reduce, Reuse, Technology | Comments (0)

Day 129- Lose Your Accent

November 11, 2008 – 9:44 am

No, I’m not talking about how you say things, but about how you light your home. Accent lights are pretty when there are guests, but not very practical on a daily basis. The lights that I am talking about are the ones in your china cabinet, curio cabinet, the niche above the fireplace, the one spotlighting wall art, and other non-essential lighting.

Your porch lights and other outside house lights may be excluded because they also provide security as well as add aesthetic beauty to your home. Just make sure that you use energy efficient bulbs, timers, dusk to dawn sensors, solar lights and/or other energy saving methods in conjunction with your outdoor lights.

I used to have the niche, curio and china cabinet lights on timers, but I found that I was going to the specialty lighting store every couple of months just to get new bulbs. I will turn them back on when we have people over for dinner around the holidays, but I just assume to leave them off on a regular day to day basis. It not only saves on electricity, it also saves in the amount of light bulbs that we go through since there are typically fixtures that do not accept energy efficient bulbs.

Since switching to energy efficient bulbs and watching what we leave on, I have seen a drop in our energy bills.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Lighting, Reduce | Comments (5)

Day 127- Sweep Your Yard

November 4, 2008 – 3:10 pm

I have been mowing my lawn with a reel lawnmower for two years now and I absolutely love it. I can mow the lawn without going deaf, using any gas or worrying about a random projectile shooting across the yard and hitting one of the kids.

Depending on where you live, fall is just peaking or you are now spending hours in your yard raking leaves instead of mowing the lawn. For years, there have been three popular methods for raking leaves: the leaf blower, the rake and the lawnmower.

I truly dislike raking leaves. It drives me crazy to spend a lot of time raking and collecting them just to turn around and see a fresh layer of leaves on the ground. I like doing something, getting it done and then moving on.

I have been looking for something in between a rake and my push reel mower and I think that I may have found my next present to myself. It is called a rolling leaf sweeper. I just hope that it actually works. I have not seen it in any stores or have seen it in action, but from the comments on various web pages I think that it could work out.

I will try to get my hands on one this fall and review it soon. In the meantime, have any of you used one of these or have you seen one in action? I have seen some that hook up to the back of a riding lawnmower, but that defeats the purpose of trying to do things without using any gasoline.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $100 - $499, Cost, Garden | Comments (1)

Day 121- Only 62 More Shopping Days Until Christmas

October 23, 2008 – 6:03 am

It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is just around the corner. Well, 63 more days to Christmas to be exact. It seems as though retail stores start decorating earlier and earlier. Pretty soon, stores will have holiday stuff for sale all year. They might as well because they are already out there for a quarter of the year already.

Why am I bringing up the holidays this early? This is one that you kind of sort of need to prepare for. I don’t know about your house, but Santa Claus and his elves do not wrap the presents that he brings. Only presents from mommy, daddy and family get wrapped. This is more of a family tradition, but it also saves on wrapping paper.

Speaking of wrapping gifts, I am absolutely horrible at wrapping. I give a few presents the old college try, but I just can’t get my corners nice and clean. I usually give up and use bags that we have accumulated over the past holidays with a little tissue paper sticking out of it (and one of those pre-made bows that have the adhesive on the back).

I also kind of “cheap out” and use the boxes that look like they are wrapped. What my parents usually do (we have picked up on it as well) is go to the local big box department store and each pick a child to shop for. I kind of like going closer to Christmas and try to pick an older child. It’s kind of sad to see the last few remaining on the tree just a few days until Christmas. I am sure that with the way things are going this year, that there will be even more kids on the tree. I have all girls, so I think it is pretty neat to be able to shop for a boy every now and then.

Anyway, when wrapping try to use wrapping paper made from recycled paper, remember to avoid the paper that is kind of shiny and know that most–if not all wrapping paper can be recycled. Better yet, save the Sunday newspaper and use the comics section as your wrapping paper. Save those shirt boxes, ribbons and bags for next year as well.

I read that you can wrap a gift in a scarf, but honestly who wears a scarf anymore? Maybe my grandmother. Well, OK, I wore them way back in the early 90’s with an extra long braided belt and rolled up acid washed torn jeans. Those pictures are locked away in a special place for now.

Do you have a creative idea that you use when giving gifts? If so, please share it by leaving a comment.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Gifts, Paper, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Shopping | Comments (3)