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Score one for the Savers...

April 20th, 2010 at 10:20 pm

What advantage do savers have?

Rock bottom prices on just about everything, while the economy is sour.

I am so ecstatic - just got a quote to paint our house.

Was discussing with a co-worker, who told me she had been quoted $5k to paint her house, in the last few years. I was expecting $5k-$6k, but saw some lowball adds for the pre-season, and was deciding if we should just bite.

I also blogged how this looked like a case where painting 2 stories cost twice as much as one. I always roll my eyes when people say a house like ours cost twice as much as a house like theirs (to maintain, to heat, to cool, etc.). In general, I have not found that to be the case, at all. This little known thing called, "economies of scale."

But, anyway, from everything I heard, I thought this assertion was correct for house painting.

So, answered an add for a $2000-$3500 paint job (2 story quote) and almost fell over when the guy quotes us $2200.

I do think he was salivating over all the "badly needing paint job" homes in our neighborhood. Good luck with that - most of them are bank owned. Wink But I wouldn't be surprised if we got a bit of a discount for the potential business.

I suppose I should have asked why we luck out on the low end. All I could figure is that our house is very square. Really, that's probably it. (Maybe I underestimate the amount of McMansions in the area, too). They do have a lot of cracks to fill and windows to tape off, so I wish them good luck with that. Glad I don't have to do it. (Oh yeah, I thought the tall height of our house would be another big issue - apparently it doesn't matter to them).

The cheapest this guy paints is for $1700. So, I am happy to say, in this case, it won't cost twice as much as if we had a smaller home.

It's raining cats and dogs today, so I am not sure where that leaves us. (I thought we were done with rain). But we may get our house painted in the next week or 2. Dh and I will discuss our final decision tonight. I couldn't find the paint color for our shutters, so may have to ask my neighbor. Since my feeling on price was so *off* we may get some other quotes. Who knows, but we liked the guy and he looked good on paper.

I am going to start talking to the neighbors about replacing our fence. Just feel them out. If they are too broke, or totally uninterested, so be it. But there has got to be bargains to be had. I kind of don't want to have to scramble while the fence is blown down or anything. Our renter neighbors just moved out and they had a TON of pets. Now would be a good time. Though I have no idea how to get ahold of the landlord. May be worth it just doing it ourselves. Small yards mean cheap fences. But I want something little better quality than the builder put in. It would be nice if the neighbors agreed and pitched in, but will see.

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This year really isn't the greatest for us financially. BUT, on the flip side, we have more means than we have had in a while, to do a lot of put off projects. Throw in the prices for the sour economy, and it means we can stretch our dollars further. Maybe it's good we didn't necessarily have the cash for this in the boom.

The irony is that this completely confuses people like my MIL. We basically live the same, financially. We really couldn't be much more alike. But, she has a REALLY hard time understanding other people's priorities. Like, if I didn't have $2k+ sitting around to drop everything and go to Florida for a week. I protested that we didn't have the money. Maybe I should have said, "We have too many other financial priorities right now."

When we got sick of hearing how cheap dh's surgery would be, and pointed out it wasn't "free" like she imagined, means we must be broke. All she knows is "free healthcare." Dh told her we had the cash to pay the bills, but she just couldn't get past why we had any medical bills.

I can just hear it now. "I thought the surgery was SO expensive. How can you afford all this stuff?"

We also have more cash than we have had in a while. This year isn't really a great year for us financially. I did take a 10% hit to compensation. We are still riding the wave of 2009 though. We lowered our house payment by $200/month and cut our preschool costs by about as much. We have cash for LONG put-off projects. Low prices in this economy just means it's a good time to jump on these things.

That is the other thing with MIL - she always was over-estimates what we pay for things. She was JUST bragging to me the other day that they paid $15k or so for THEIR car. (You should have heard this conversation!) I didn't say anything. Dh's car cost $8k, and mine, $12k. Who is she trying to impress? She has made a lot of weird comments about our van, and it was thay conversation that made me realize she thinks we paid $20k for it or something. As did a lot of people, when we bought it. I thought *she* was smarter than that. Apparently not. Is that why she always looks at our van in disgust? She's always had issues with it - I have no idea why. Maybe I should have bragged we only paid $12k for the van. With her, it's just best not to say anything though.

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Oh, in other news, I made an optometry appointment. My eyes haven't really changed and I have a spectacular pair of glasses. Which means, it feels very suddenly that I haven't had an eye exam in about 6 years. I know - egads.

I haven't had glasses all my life and just haven't got in a groove. I know I should go in more often.

SO, I decided to just make an appointment with my HMO (Easiest). I actually have VSP through my employer. Really, the only benefit I do have, at this point. BUt, we used our deductible and rather just go there where all my medical records are and stuff. (Will use VSP to pick up some new glasses, elsewhere).

I checked the prices to be sure this wasn't a stupid move financially. They must have updated everything to reflect we spent our deductible! Pretty much everything is free the rest of the year. Optomestrist? FREE. Woohoo! It even confirmed that dh's MRIs will only cost us $50 (what they charged us last time). Woot.

We have $3k to go on our out-of-pocket. I have an GYN appointment, too this year. The kids' checkups are always free (preventive). Probably the GYN ones too.

Even the emergency is pretty cheap. We will try not to end up in the hospital - that will eat out out-of-pocket in week. Was the only thing listed that actually really cost anything. Surgeries and hospital stays, I suppose. Will try to avoid. Wink

4 Responses to “Score one for the Savers...”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1271799004

    Nice paint quote! Our first one was $2075 which includes a repair. We should have the second by Friday. First one was for one coat, the second will be for two coats, so we'll see what the difference is.

  2. ThriftoRama Says:
    1271806285

    Can you access county auditor property records to see who owns the rental next door?

  3. MonkeyMama Says:
    1271806719

    No, probably not, without a lot of hassle.

    When she gets new renters I will ask to get in touch with her (through the renters). Just didn't think about it before. She lives in another city or state so I wouldn't even know where to start to track her down. Lived here for a while, married, moved, and haven't seen her since. Another neighbor may have her contact info - easier just to ask around.

    I could always call the property management to track her down, too. It just isn't that urgent at this point.

  4. whitestripe Says:
    1271811125

    i hear you on the fence front. i think both neighbours are equally happy with the way things are at the moment (chicken wire on one side, and no fence at all on the other side - DF put chicken wire around on our land for the doggies though) so i think we may just have to pay for it ourselves. no use getting into an argument over something when in the end, if we pay for it by ourselves, we get the exact fence we want and don't have to negotiate Wink

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