Squirrels ate my wires, MSRPs are meaningless, and more.
Every other Thursday, I write a miscellany post, full of things just a bit too small to warrant their own post.
In this week's edition, we have pesky rodents, a brownie recipe, a great article from the NY Times, and more.
Squirrels enjoy snacking on wires.
I mentioned on Facebook* the other day that squirrels had gotten inside of my van's hood and chewed several wires.
(You don't follow me on Facebook? You're missing out on SUCH exciting things, like hearing of my van's rodent infestation! 😉 )
First, my radio stopped working and then the next week my VSC/ABS sensor warning light came on. I opened my hood, and lo and behold, a vast collection of sticks and leaves greeted me.
I brought my van in to get looked at, and sure enough, they found chewing damage.
Darn squirrels.
Luckily, I heard that car insurance does actually cover rodent damage, and I discovered that our deductible was only $250 (I could have sworn it was $1000!).
Since a claim like this doesn't increase our rates, we went ahead and filed, and that means this repair job is only costing us $250 instead of $750.
They checked ALL the other wires in my car to make sure nothing else was damaged, and thus far, all is well aside from the initial damage.
(Apparently Toyota uses soy-coated wires, which smell appetizing to rodents. So, we shall see if this happens again! Please no, dear squirrels.)
I updated the not-from-a-mix brownie recipe with a PDF.
This week, a reader let me know that my easy brownie recipe didn't have a printable PDF. Oops.
I'd posted that recipe early on in my blogging days, when I had no idea how to make a PDF. But I fixed it up now, and there's a link to a handy-dandy printable now.
These are seriously easy to make. If you can operate a spoon and you have 10 minutes, you can get a pan in the oven.
(A great recipe for beginning kid bakers!)
List Prices Mean Nothing
A reader shared a great article from The New York Times about how list prices have essentially become meaningless.
When everything is discounted all the time, then you can't rely on the discount percentage to let you know whether or not you got a bargain.
Fortunately, if you're the sort of shopper who looks at how much you're spending rather than how much you're saving, then the useless MSRP/list prices won't throw you off.
And luckily, in the internet age, it's pretty easy to do a quick look-around to see if a price is a discount or not.
Quality Pays in the End
I love the graphic American Giant sent out this week, comparing what happens when you buy one sweatshirt and wear it for five years vs. buying a new one each year.
I feel like my American Giant hoodie is going to last a lot longer than five years, of course (I believe I've had mine for 3 years already).
But the point is that one expensive item is usually cheaper than five cheap ones that need to be replaced frequently.
And that's true whether you're talking about clothes or cookware or appliances or tools or really anything that you'd like to use for a long time.
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And that wraps up this week's edition of miscellany. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these tidbits.
(especially if you have a rodent wire-chewing store. Help me feel less alone!)
Well, not rodent chewing, but rodent problems, yes! Last week my husband's car was sounding really funny going down the road. The noise was hard to pinpoint, but something was definitely not right. He looked up lots of things online, but couldn't narrow it down and was fearing the worst. (It's his commuting car, and it has lots of miles.) Saturday he had a chance to pop the hood. Everything looked just as it should, but on whim he took off the air filter. Lo and behold, the underneath was jam-packed solid with a huge mouse next. The filter looked pristine on the outside, so you would never have known. That loud, funny-sounding noise was the system trying to pull air through a blocked filter. SO THANKFUL it wasn't the transmission or something like!
Hubby noticed my headlight was out. When he looked we found 4 baby squirrels in our fender well. I did see a squirrel running away from the car but never thought that would happen. I don't know how long I drove around with them there. We had to relocate them to fix the light.
We also had a dog chew the wires under both our cars, mine once hubby twice. Thank goodness she got too big to get under there.
On things lasting I have a rain coat that I got in the 1970's. Not that I need it much but I know I'll never have to buy another.
When we bought our last house in Maryland, the day before closing we discovered that we had a bunch of squirrels living in the attic and feasting on our wires there. Arrrgh. Fast forwarding a few years, our house in Florida had woodwork trim on the exterior that was apparently quite a tasty feast for squirrels. Squirrels eat the darnest things. 😉
Interesting thought about the sweatshirt. My husband buys sweatshirts from Salvation Army when they have their $1 sales. He probably has a few more than necessary, but I will say that even though they are normal brands they are lasting just fine. He wears them all winter. I've had to fix a seam here and there but that's perfectly doable. He has had several sweatshirts that were gifts with NFL logos on them, that fell apart. Those were not inexpensive, but they were much more cheaply made than the $1 thrift store sweatshirts.
I've been reading about zero waste living, and the book, Zero Waste, talks about clothing options. One thing the author points out is that often, new clothing will last longer than thrift store clothing. I think that would be true if you were buying high-quality, but not so much if you are shopping at Old Navy or equivalent.
We had a squirrel try to set up housekeeping in our enclosed mailbox a couple Springs ago. The solution was to hang one of those solid toilet deodorizers just inside. Apparently, Mrs. Squirrel didn't like that too much and moved to the neighbor's mailbox. $1 well spent. The plastic owl I used to discourage birds from building in my front door wreath was equally successful! Also, a layer of smallish rocks on tops of potted plants will be a lot of effort for squirrels, and they will dig elsewhere.
Great tips!!
More than once, we've had squirrels build nests and chew through wires in our riding lawn mower during the winter. Those were not cheap fixes. My sister had squirrels chew through all the wires in her truck. Talk about expensive!
The list price thing is crazy. People have spent a lot of time studying buying psychology, and they know it works -- ooh, I'm getting a $90 dress for $29! But if you wouldn't have spent $29 on it in the abstract, you aren't saving anything. I think the whole J.C. Penney business model was built around this. Then Ron Johnson wanted to get rid of it, but that triggered the whole backlash and he was out. People really like their "bargains." Even if they aren't.
You would think a car company would coat their wires in something that was not appetizing to rodents.
I will admit that I do have A LOT of clothing. Probably much more than is needed by one female, but I am the type that holds on to clothing that "I might squeeze back into some day." (More about that later) I do tend to purchase cheaper clothing (only when I buy new do I buy cheaper quality, because I do buy the majority of mine at the Goodwill) and I really haven't had many issues with the cheaper brands falling apart. Maybe that is because I have so many and cycle through them all. If they do fall apart, I just fix them. I guess I'm not that "hard" on my clothing.
So back to the "I might squeeze into it some day clothing": I know many people say to get rid of clothing that doesn't fit and reward yourself if you do loose the weight by buying new clothes. Well, I've lost about 15 lbs since the beginning of the new year and I am soo grateful that I have a stockpile of smaller size clothing. I haven't needed to buy one item of smaller clothing. That makes me and my wallet smile. I do have one question for you: Do you have any experience with make women's clothing smaller? i know that you resize your children's clothing...but what about women's? I know have a plethora of dress pants that are too big.
I've been experiencing this short clothing life span issue with my tee shirts. My daily uniform is typically jeans and a basic fitted colored tee, so I have fewer pieces of clothing and wear them often. Unfortunately, I've noticed the past few years my shirts will barely last a season before they are faded and mishapen. It's very disappointing! My tees used to last years. I wouldn't mind spending a little more on a higher quality shirt in a nice color, but it can be hard to determine between better quality and simply over-priced, especially when shopping online.
I have found Gap and Banana Republic tshirts to last me several years if they are the thicker knit rather than the thin, worn-looking vintage tshirts that are popular. And I always buy them very discounted at the outlets in addition to a coupon. I never pay more than a few dollars per shirt.
Oh my goodness YES. I want to wear a single tshirt that is thick enough to not see through (why are women's shirts so thin now?) but I can't figure that out online! And I want like 8 of them, all black, because then I don't have to think when I get dressed, they match everything.
Man, if somebody figured this business model out, and STUCK TO IT, I feel like they'd make a gold mine.
This might be a good example of a thicker tshirt. And if you are on their email list you can sometimes get extra 40-50% off coupon codes!
http://bananarepublicfactory.gapfactory.com/browse/product.do?cid=1050469&vid=1&pid=966328111
Good luck!
Thicker and longer would be nice! lots of times I can't dry them because they shrink so much in length.
I hate that so much. I have a long torso to begin with, and so when shirts shrink, it really is problematic for me.
Our current issue is woodpeckers. One has pecked a hole in the side of our house. We awoke early Sunday to much fluttering and cheeping in the wall only to find a hole high up on the outside of the house. When my husband pulled the insulation away from that spot in the attic he discovered a pair of birds and a pile of nest building materials. He evicted the birds and there belongings and patched up the hole.
Oh yes! We've had squirrels eat wires under my husband's Chevrolet truck. It is an extra vehicle as he has a company car so it is not driven daily. So they had plenty of time between use to do damage!
We have squirrels, but our real problem is chipmunks. They live in cars, in campers, under the shed, under the house... Ugh!
I follow you on Facebook and did not see your rodent post.
Yeah, that's a good point. I have almost 10,0000 fans on Facebook, but Facebook usually only shows my posts to about 3,000 of those people. And that's on a good day...
Love American Giant, thanks to you! After reading about it so much on your site, I spent some birthday money on a new sweatshirt last fall. And then I felt as if I did something extra frugal and awesome and bought a USED AG sweatshirt on thredUp (online consignment shop similar to your schoola) for only $25!! So now I'm good for sweatshirts for, well, 10 years according to AG infographic ; )
Oh, you are so lucky to have found one secondhand! Yay!
We have squirrels all in our yard but the only thing they've chewed on is our wooden porch furniture. Squirrels are just so odd. Our adopted cats convinced the squirrels to stay off the porch so they no longer chew there.
We have a bigger problem with fire ants, which will swarm electrical connections in a vehicle, extension cords, and well pump points, shorting them out and killing wads of ants that then have to be removed. For a while, we replaced pump points (at $15-20 each time plus my husband's free labor) at least twice a year. We poured concrete all around the well and built a pump house over it, and the ants have left it alone since then. We move our car parking area around the yard to keep ants from targeting our vehicles, and have be sure to always unplug any outdoor extension cords once we are done using them for that day. Since fire ants sting and bite, it's a REAL pain to have to deal with their swarming. We've tried all the treatments for fire ants and they don't work for us. Most of them treat the imported fire ant -- lucky us, we have the native ones.
On the sweatshirts -- I've never owned one that lasted only a year, and all of mine are at least five years old, but I admit I don't often wear them to do heavy work where they might get more stress and snags. I've been struggling with finding quality items, regardless of price, even when buying new (clearance priced) items. My knit GAP shirts all got holes in no time, my daughter's Lands' End Canvas knit shirts got holes, and some very nice sweaters and skirts from Ann Taylor and Talbots have had buttons fall off almost immediately (new, on clearance) or the seams unravel. I'm glad I didn't pay full price for any of them! I buy used almost exclusively now -- at least I can see what held up well and what didn't.
I had a Lands End polo shirt for 12+ years that I wore 2-3 times a week during high school (uniform shirt). That sucker LASTED. My mom probably got it in 1995 or something.
New ones from the same company? Not nearly as good. I find that disappointing.
...Can YOU operate a spoon? LOL. That phrase made me laugh this morning, thank you.
I am always mystified by the frequent contention of bloggers that cheap clothing falls apart and has to be replaced frequently. Last year, I only had one garment - a Chaps sweater bought for $4 when it was on a final clearance at Kohl's - that had a small area in the side seam that needed to be mended. Mending took less than 10 minutes. I have no idea how you can wear out a tee shirt or a sweatshirt in less than a year. You must have to drag it back and forth over concrete for an extended period of time. I have several sweatshirts that are more than 20 years old that are still fine - and they weren't premium brands - just Champion or Hanes or no-name brand. So maybe I don't buy the really cheaply made clothing, but I have my share of $1 Hanes tee shirts from a Wal-Mart clearance and I find they always last me 10 years or so. I even have tights that are 10 years old and still going strong. (So when my son was little and now my grandson can wear out the knees of sweatpants - and I get that. I just don't get how adults can wear out their clothes - even their exercise clothes.)
I have wondered that too, but I think it has to do with washing! Americans have become conditioned to the idea that any item of clothing once worn, must be washed! And washing is really hard on the fibers! I am slowly retraining my family to wear jeans, outerwear, even shirts, multiple time or until they spill something before it goes in the laundry. Underwear, socks and undershirts are the only items that get washed after every wearing!
Good point with frequent washing. I try to wear my clothing several times before washing as well, as long as there are no stains or sweating and they seem to last a long time. I also probably have a little more than average amount of clothes so I rotate my items for equal wear/use and they each last longer.
I'm the same way with things like jeans. But boy, the shirts can't really seem to go two days. Maybe people who are less....sweaty can manage that?
I don't have big issues with pants wearing out, but shirts are another story. Fabric can pill, the shirt can twist, the shirt can become short and wide, the fabric can sprout holes, etc.
Back in the early seventies, a dear old aunt told me "Only the rich can afford to buy cheap"! It didn't make sense at first, but as time went on and my family grew, I realized she was right. Always buy the best quality you can afford and it will be cheaper in the end. Especially with kids hand me down clothing!
Regarding the brownie recipe: What is instant espresso powder and where do you find it? Can it be omitted or substituted with something more common? Thanks!
You can just use instant coffee! That works fine.
Squirrels = tree rats! Squirrels have eaten into the eaves on my house FIVE times over the last ten years, causing water leaks, chewed wiring, and things that go "scritch" in the night. My neighbor "fixed" his squirrel problem by cutting down all of his trees, but I enjoy my trees too much to do that. Instead, I undertook an abatement plan that both solved my problem and provided the local feral cats with some munchies -- win for me, win for the kitties. >^..^<
Oh my goodness. Five times???
Yep, twice on the front of the house, three times on the back of the house. It's been at least two years now since the last time, thankfully.
I had a mouse chew through one of my spark plug wires. Cars don't run very well on 3 cylinders...
My issue with spending a lot of money on sweatshirts is that clothes go out of style or they no longer fit because of weight gain or losses. I recently gave away some beautiful jackets that were suede & leather (nobody wears those anymore.) Why do you need a sweatshirt that lasts so long? Buy a cheaper one & when I gain weight, just get a new one. I would spend more $$$ on a sweatshirt for my super athletic son because I know he won't gain any weight. I'm tired of giving away clothes that no longer fit or are no longer in style. At least if I spend less money, I don't feel so bad giving them away.
I guess I am fortunate that what is in style never, ever enters my mind. Style is the way companies and fashion designers line their pockets and empty mine.
I really want an American Giant hoodie, but I have 4 year old Old Navy hoodie that I've worn pretty much every day and aside from two small holes that I mended it's held up exceptionally well. I paid $7 for it on clearance and until the darn thing wears out, I don't feel justified buying a new one.
I think that makes sense! No reason to replace something that's wearing really well.
I get my hoodies via Sams Club (Eddie Bauer) or Old Navy, and so far they seem to be holding up pretty well (7+ years???).
Between your lice post and the squirrel problem, you've given me a lot to be thankful for this week!
I belive that using the dryer short ens the life of any garment as well. I HATE dryer. I hang on a clothesline in good weather and hang on drying racks inside if it isnt. I know some of you aren't line dryers - I can't imagine not being one. If you have spilled something and miss pre-spotting it the dryer very often will set that stain - never to be removed. It will shorten the life of elastic in your under garments as well. My grandma was a line dryer, she taught me, and I think I may have the only sophomore college daughter who doesn't use a dryer. Except for her underwear and socks. If you can do a load a day it isn't overwhelming and for me it is very therapeutic - a lot like weeding the garden.
One reason I don't line dry is that part of my family has spring allergies and part has fall allergies. And when it's freezing outside, you can't really line-dry, so that leaves only a few short months in the summer!
I do line-dry some items indoors all year long, though, especially if they are items I don't want to risk shrinking.
I would do some line-drying, but the rules of my HOA forbid it.
I would love to line dry, but where I live, the humidity never drops below 90 percent, and the sun seldom shines, so it can take days to get things even mostly dry 🙁
Ugh. We discovered this week we have rats. RATS! It's all I can do to not want to move! It's going to be $$$$ to seal up our house and get rid of them, but with all of the construction that is going on in our neighborhood, I hope it will be worth it. And fortunately, we have the savings to do it and not completely deplete us.
Our phone company has to install long black plastic tubes around our telephone wires so the squirrels don't chew on them! Every so often, I find one of these 10' tubes in my backyard that has been blown down by the wind, and have to call the phone company to come out and reinstall it!
We learned the quality issue with cookware. We have had to replace our non-stick pans every few years. I've been growing more and more concerned about ingesting the coating on non-stick cookware, but I thought that it would be impossible to cook things like omelets on anything else.
Boy was I wrong! I bought a heavy stainless frying pan from Ikea. It's rated as good as the All Clad pans and cost only $45. I learned how to season it and how to cook with it so things don't stick and don't burn. I am in love--wish I'd known this 30 years ago. This is BETTER than non-stick and I fully expect to leave this pan to my kids in my will.
I also dug up old cast iron pans my husband had before we married. I didn't grow up with my mom cooking in cast iron, so I had to learn how to season and use those, too. I like them very much, although the stainless steel pan is more versatile. Now that I have the new stainless and the cast iron pans well-seasoned, I feel like I have all brand new set of cookware for a total outlay of $45!
I can't tell you the number of times I've thought, "Why didn't I realize this in my 20s? All the money I've wasted between then and now!"
Thanks for the brownie post. I have it pinned on Pinterest, and use it often 😉 So good and quick, and I like that it only makes 8x8 pan. I buy the small boxes of instant coffee bc the recipe uses so little, but the taste is worth it. A long sleeved shirt from Old Navy, bought in October as needed for a vacation outing (airboat ride in South Louisiana--a must do)...the shirt already has a hole! It will be kept for many years as a layering shirt, but still!
I do believe that washing clothing has everything to do with the breakdown of the fibers. I try to buy quality clothing and I've had my levi jeans for 20 years now. The fraying on the pocket and the leg openings are normal I would think. There are certain brands that last us a long time.
I think that MSRP is useless as well. With haggling in this day and age (even in major stores), I don't think that ANY price tag matters. It's gotten to be that something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.
On the same subject, I've heard that a high FICO score gets you low rates on loans, mortgages, etc. I disagree. I've never noticed some incredible low rate for ANY loan and we're over 800. Besides, when we meet Peter at the pearly gates, is he going to CARE what our FICO score is? Does the highest score win?
I bought an American Giant sweatshirt a year ago because of your blog and I love it. Its made so well and I'm sure I'll have it for a long, long time. However, I'm still wearing a sweatshirt that I bought in 1998 from Target. My puppy at the time chewed a hole in the pocket and I never wanted to get rid of it because of that( he passed in 2012). I only wear it around the house when I'm cold, but I still have it. I still have a lot of sweatshirts that were made abroad. Furthermore, when I do get rid of clothes, I freecyle them or donate them to goodwill. I hope that other people are buying them and using them. I think AG's ad is somewhat misleading.
Still the BEST brownie recipe Ive made!!! They are my go to whenever I need to make a quick snack for the kids activities or a party!!!