General

While I have written about simple auto maintenance jobs you can do yourself to save money, there have been a few times in my life where those DIY jobs have backfired on me. And when they backfire, they cost more than double what I would have paid a dealership to do them for me. 

For instance, when my son was about 12 years old, I had a Chevrolet Cavalier Station Wagon. It was a really cute, small station wagon, that got very good gas mileage. One time I needed to change a windshield wiper, but my son begged me to let him do it. Although I had never let him do anything other than wash the car, he stated his case that  he knew how to do it. So, I gave in, and let him. 

Seth got to work, and had the windshield wiper changed in no time. I was so proud of him, and praised him so much for helping me and saving me the money of paying someone to do it for me. The next time I needed to use my windshield wipers, though, they did about three swipes of the windshield and just died. Stopped working altogether. I wound up taking the car to the dealership, where they discovered the OLD windshield wiper, entangled in the windshield wiper motor. 

Another time, I needed to have the oil changed in an old car that I owned. I let a friend do it for me. It only cost me the price of the oil and filter, and a six pack of beer. On my way home from the friend’s house, the motor ran hot, and the car stopped running. I had to have a tow truck come and haul it to the dealership to find out what was wrong with it. It turns out, that to reach the oil filter in that particular car, you had to remove the hose to the radiator. (it wasn’t a Chevrolet). When my friend put the car back together after changing the oil, he put the hose on backwards, which allowed the fan to cut through the hose. This car could not be revived. Lesson learned! 

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on the link, then make a purchase, I will receive a commission for the sale. Thank you. 

Can you believe that Flirty Aprons is having a sale with up to 86% savings on their products? Yes, it’s their spring cleaning sale. Get your aprons now while they are on sale!

Spring Cleaning Sale at Flirty Aprons, Up to 86% off, Shipping $2.50, no code, exp 3/28

They are really doing some spring cleaning. Here are a couple of the items they have on sale right now through March 28:

This amazingly cute apron is on sale for an unbelievable price of only $4.00!

Women’s Marilyn Mint-a-liscious Apron – $4.00
from: Flirty Home

Be ready for your Easter Dinner with this floral apron. It would be great for all your spring cookouts, too. 

Women’s Kenzie Coral Floral Apron – $4.00
from: Flirty Home

Flirty Aprons aren’t just aprons, either. They also carry cooking utensils, baby bibs, organic kitchen and bath products. Oh! They have men’s aprongs, too. I’ve see so many things I want to get during this sale! I know I’m going to get one of these silicone baking mats. What a great price!

Silicone Baking Mat
from: Flirty Home

Get over there now, before this sale ends on 3/28!

Does eating at night make you fat? Is light food more expensive? Do I have to kill myself in the gym to lose weight? Let’s demystify popular beliefs about dieting that do not help to burn calories. Get the correct answers here!

What is the right way to diet?

Far from any myth or popular belief, the best way to lose weight or maintain the right weight is to learn to live with food and our environment. For those who have struggled against extra pounds for years, a new diet that promises to be revolutionary or a miraculous nutritional supplement may appear as a light of hope.

But not everything that shines is gold. Fasting, impossible diets, or a single food, do not favor lasting weight loss, and are only a variant of the salad which our grandmothers ate when on a diet. The secret is a true change of habits: good nutrition habits and healthy habits must be maintained throughout life and are the only safe ways to achieve and maintain the desired weight.

Myths about diets

* To lose pounds it is necessary to go hungry.

* Avoiding breakfast makes you consume fewer calories in a day.

* Skipping meals helps to lose weight.

* The best way to lose weight is to eat only one meal a day.

* Dieting is eating everything boiled, like boiled vegetables and boiled fish.

* Eating pasta is incompatible with losing weight.

* You have to eat only fruit to lose weight.

* You can eat everything you want and still lost weight if you do not mix foods.

* Eating at night makes you fat.

* A fasting grapefruit or lemon juice diet burns fats.

* Diet meals are complicated and laborious.

* Eating healthy is more expensive.

* Taking natural supplements lets you lose weight without dieting.

* To lose weight you have to kill yourself exercising.

Tips For Eating Well

* Dieting is compatible with the enjoyment of food. Cooking in the oven, roast or microwave are tasty and help in weight loss.

* You can lose weight without giving up basic foods such as bread, pasta and legumes. It’s better for you to consume organic foods even though they’re sometimes expensive. LOL you can get a loans to buy them. If you have bad credit history, you can still get a loan using loans for bad credit.

* For maintaining weight loss it is important to make your diet as varied as possible, so that the appetite is appeased.

* Make a weekly shopping list, and go to the supermarket with a full stomach. You will buy better food choices that way.

* Eating several times a day will help you lose weight effectively and without going hungry.

Is there any difference between bottled water and filtered water?

Are you one of those people who spends a fortune on buying bottled water because you do not trust the water that comes straight from the tap? If you are then you might be surprised to learn that you could be wasting your money, as well as causing damage to the environment.

This is because the answer to the question, “Is there any difference between bottled water and filtered water” is “Yes”. And, filtering the tap water in your home is a much better idea.

Why is buying bottled water such a bad idea?

To start with, there is little evidence to suggest that drinking water from a bottle is any safer than drinking water which comes from the tap in your home. So, why pay for bottled water? After all, you are already spending money on the water bill for your property. It’s also worth noting that three times as much water is used in creating a bottle of water than is actually contained in the bottle. Add to that the fact that there is a major issue with pollution from plastic, and you start to see why buying bottled water is not the best idea.

Why should you filter tap water?

The difference between filtered water and bottled water is that filtering water does not cause a significant amount of damage to the environment. Filtering also means that the water you drink is safe, clean and tastes good. Of course, you could simply drink water straight from the tap. But, this water has been treated with chemicals such as chlorine, and may be contaminated with dirt and other additives. It’s not the healthiest liquid to drink. This is why filtering the water makes sense.

What type of water filter should you choose?

You do have the option of installing a water filtration system for the whole property. But, many people choose a water filter that they can use for drinking water in the kitchen. If you want to invest in a water filter for this purpose, you could choose a counter top water filter. This type of filter does not require any plumbing, so it’s often a more affordable option.

Another option is to have an undersink water filter plumbed in. You do have the added expense of paying for plumbing, but this type of filter has some advantages; it does not use up much needed counter top space and you can filter more water at one time. Using any type of water filtration system means that you get access to the clean and safe supply of water that you and your family need.

You can see that there is a big difference between bottled water and filtered water. You can also see that filtering the tap water in your home is the best option. It’s more cost effective in the long term, when you take into account the amount you would spend on bottled water. It’s also less damaging to the environment.

Now is the time when seniors in high school and their parents are beginning to look at colleges. While going to visit the campus and meeting with heads of the different departments, talking to athletes from the school, and representatives from different fraternities and sororities can be exciting for your senior, you’ll need to sit down with them before you leave home and make up a list of questions to ask. Here are some of my suggestions.

Does the school offer the course of study that your child is interested in?

No matter how beautiful the campus is, or how many games the football team wins, if the school doesn’t offer the degree you are interested in it would be a waste of your time and money to go there. 

Are Freshmen allowed to have a car?

Some schools do not allow their freshmen students to bring a car to school. They simply do not have room for parking for everyone, so they limit the privilege of car ownership to upperclassmen. 

If you are allowed to have a car, where do  you recommend going for service and repairs?

You can always look for an auto dealership like Chrysler of Culpepper  in Culpepper, Virginia if you are choosing to go to Germanna Community College in Culpepper.  But also knowing the name of a mechanic who does simple repairs at a fair price can be a good thing as well. 

Are students allowed to cook in their dorm rooms? 

You’ll want to know the answer to this question in order to decide whether or not to send a microwave oven or a toaster oven with your child when they go off to school. Some schools allow this, others do not. Most dorms have a communal kitchen for all residents to use. You can also purchase a meal ticket that gives your child access to meals in the school cafeteria. 

Are there book scholarships available? 

I would have never thought to ask this question. However, my husband was in an auto accident two weeks before my daughter went off to college at the University of Alabama. We did not have the money to get the books she would need for her first semester classes. I called the school and asked if I could sign a promissory note for her to get her books. The person I was talking to explained that they had book scholarships available, but not very many people knew about them. She arranged for my daughter to get one, and she was able to get her books as needed from the school bookstore. 

You may think of other questions you would like to ask. Just keep adding to your list, and be prepared when you get there. Going off to college can be scary for both parent and child. 

 

 

Yes, I know I have not posted for over a month. It has been a very frustrating and trying month for me. It all started back on November 14, the date of my last post. Actually, it started before that, but the events started rolling on November 14.

I went to the eye doctor in October to get a new prescription for my glasses. The eye doctor I went to examined my eyes, and told me I had cataracts. I did not know I had them, I only knew I was having trouble driving at night because there was a lot of glare from other cars. So, when Dr. Y told me I had those cataracts, I was really surprised by that. She told me my insurance would pay 100% of the cost of the cataract surgery, so we set it up for the left eye, which was the worst one, to be done on November 1. She prescribed two teensy weensy bottles of eye drops to use in my eye after the surgery, Durezol and Vigamox. Those two tiny bottles of eye medication cost $182 at the preferred pharmacy!!! Dang, they must have gold in them. I started putting the one eye drop in my eye three days before the scheduled date. The day before the 1st of November, the doctor’s office called and rescheduled my surgery. The doctor’s mother was sick and in the hospital, and so she would not be available to do the surgery. It was rescheduled for November 14. 

The surgery on the left eye went great. As soon as I could open my eye after surgery, I was seeing out of it better than I ever have in my life. The only problem was that my right eye was still the old eye that was half blind to start with and had a cataract on it. My eyes were fighting to be the one to do the seeing, and the result was that I could not see to read or write at all. It made my head hurt to try to do either one.  It was awful. 

The surgery for the right eye was finally scheduled for December 6. Just like with the left eye, as soon as I could open my right eye after surgery, I could see. I could see great, with both eyes. It was like a miracle for me, as I have bad eyesight my whole life. So, I went home and tried to get online. 

My computer would not get online. Well, it WOULD connect to the internet, but it would ONLY go to Facebook. Well, that was NOT helpful to me to get back to writing. I ran a scan with Windows Defender, which I thought was an anti-virus program. Turns out, if it IS an anti-virus program, it doesn’t work. In the meantime, before I could get my computer fixed and get back online, it snowed. In Georgia. It snowed more than 8 inches of snow in my yard. And on my Hughesnet satellite dish. Then the electricity went out. It was only off at my house for about 19 hours, but in some places it was off for more than 48 hours. 

When the electricity came back on, the internet didn’t work. We had to call Hughesnet to come out and reset the satellite dish. The snow that piled up on the dish got it out of whack. The signal was only at 48 percent, when it should be at 100 percent. At any rate, for a fee of $125 Hughesnet got our internet back to working. But when I tried to get online, my computer would still only go to Facebook. I was going to call my son to come over and look at my computer, but his daughter was in an auto accident.

I got a call from Seth, my son, around 3 in the morning last Tuesday, telling me that he was on his way to Grady Hospital. A deputy sheriff came to his door around 2 am to tell him that there had been an accident. She was x-rayed, and checked over, and sent home sometime in the late morning of Tuesday. She had a broken nose and that was about all. Then after they got home, her doctor called to say that they found something else on the x-rays and he needed to bring her back up to the hospital for an MRI. 

The MRI showed a fracture in her left shoulder blade, and compression fractures in 4 vertebrae in her back. She was admitted to the hospital and given morphine for pain while they decided what to do about the breaks in her spine.  I went to sit with her Wednesday night for six hours, until I just had to go home and rest my own back. She was released to go home on Thursday. She has to wear a back brace (I don’t know for how long) and use a walker until she can walk comfortably without it. 

My son finally came over yesterday for dinner, and had a chance to look at my computer. It had a virus on it, which was preventing me from getting anywhere online except for Facebook. He had to download AVG to a thumb drive from Fabgrandpa’s computer and run the virus scan to get things fixed. He told me a couple more things to do once I got online to make sure the virus was blocked from getting back on my laptop. 

So, here I am, back online, with internet working, and family still intact, after over a month of unfortunate events. How have you been while I have been offline?