My first real truck fix!

My brother-in-law contends that it’s not actually a truck repair, but rather “regular maintenance.”  Still, I am not deterred.  Over vacation, I took a drive up to Killingly to see my friend Mike and brother Andy.  Mike does mechanic work and is always willing to help out a friend.

So on Thursday after Christmas, I drove on up and we got to work on what I thought would be a huge project.  You see, a month ago, my local Goodyear guys (I love them by the way) told me that I needed my 60,000 mile tune up.  I needed the front and rear differential fluid changed, the transfer case, and the transmission fluid changed.  Now, I have to tell you that up to this point I was terrified to do this on my own, but Mike and Andy convinced me that we could do it.  The guys at Goodyear wanted $590 to do all the fluids and a filter change.  I figured on getting the oil changed while I was at it, which would have taken my total up to $620.  Seeing as I’ve never actually changed the oil in my car, let along changed out all the vital fluids in the vehicle, I was a bit intimidated.

Fast forward to Thursday and we’ve got the truck up on the lift.  Mike hands me a wrench as he gets working on the front of the truck.  He directs me to the back and shows me the drain.  An hour or two passes and we refill all the fluids, put a new oil filter and a new air filter in.  It literally takes us two hours and we’re done.  I stop out and get Mike some lunch from Taco Bell (his request) and a few beers for his time.  All said and done, I spent $121 on the gear oil, the engine oil, the oil filter and the air filter.  I spent another $30 on lunch for the three of us and few beers.  So all said and done, I got to spend a day with two great friends and it cost me $151.  I saved $469 and I have to tell you that it was pretty easy.

Sometimes you need to just jump in, fear and all to tackle these tough projects.  It just might save you a ton of money and teach you something along the way.  Pictures of proof are below.  I’m pretty happy about this.

We sure did change out a lot of oil.

Rear Differential

Sometimes the simplest solution is the easiest (and cheapest)

People who know me from all segments of my life understand that I am not the easiest person on my vehicles.  I used to be much worse.  I will not share stories of speed and recklessness here.  My mom reads, and I want to keep the illusion that I was a well-behaved, responsible teenager.

Fast forward to 2007, I purchased my first new vehicle, a Toyota Tacoma 4×4 standard with 3 miles on it.  I have a picture of the odometer when it turned 5.  It was cool.  Anyway, I like taking my truck on some fun dirt road excursions and luckily for me, there are a few miles of dirt roads in the Rocky Hill meadows just nearby to feed my off-road need.  I’m sure that this has not helped my vehicle’s stability at all, but for the most part, that darned little Tacoma is running like a top.  That is until I noticed a rattle underneath the floor when I would shift from first to second or hit about 2500 rpm.  I was understandably concerned.  This is the truck that has basically had no issue whatsoever for the first 60,000 miles I’ve driven it.

I consulted my brother-in-law who is a bit of an amateur mechanic and he agreed with my assessment that it was a loose heat shield.  I took some time and discovered it was on the catalytic converter.  Come to find out this is a common issue with vehicles.  The heat shield, heats and cools often, and thus loosens from time to time, allowing space to rattle.  I must say it was an awful sound.

So here I am, with no mechanic’s skills at all, hoping and praying that this is a simple, cheap fix.  I do a little research and find out that it’s about a $60-$70 job to tighten it up or buy a kit.  Then I came across this little webpage.  I take my three bucks, head to the local Ace Hardware and purchase a clamp for $2.67.  I fit it on the catalytic converter and bang, no rattle, and I’m $58+ the richer.  It is officially my first mechanical fix on a vehicle ever, short of replacing the air filter.  I’m pretty pumped.

Here’s my point though.  Many things like working on your car or fixing the washer/dryer combo seem really tricky and difficult, but in the age of the internet, 24 hour chat rooms, and DIY videos on YouTube, there’s a lot to be learned.  I plan on consulting the interwebs from now on every time something comes up.  Either that, or I’m buying my buddy Mike a case of beer and hoping he can fix it.  Who wants a $300 bill every time some little thing goes wrong?  Not me.

A picture of my accomplishment can be found below.  I can’t tell you how proud I am of this.

I know it's not much, but for me, this is a big deal.

I got happy feet Pa!

I was at a writer’s group tonight and I was sharing this story that I’m about to tell, one of my friends looks at me and says, “That’s what you should have written about, the kid with the dancing, the shoes, and the floor.  What are you doing with all this solar panel stuff?”  Under those orders, I cannot help but oblige.

My wife, being the most polite and social person I know happened to make friends with a dance instructor at her breast-feeding class.  They get to talking and it turns out that Teagan would be old enough to enroll in one of the classes.  He’s really too young, but they could make an exception.  Liz is ecstatic.  Teagan loves dancing.  Every Thursday this summer we would go to Elm Ridge Park and he would dance to the weekly concert that was playing.  His favorite movie is Happy Feet.  The kid just loves to move around.

So Liz signs him up for a month of tap lessons, and to see if he’s even into the whole taking a dance class thing, she gets him a pair of tap shoes, and takes him over to meet Ms. Patience.  Yes, that is her real name.  The kid loves it!  He’s bouncing off the walls when he comes home.  He’s so excited that he starts to dance on the kitchen floor and scratches it all up.  My wife, in a moment of brilliance finds a scrap piece of plywood and puts it on the carpet for him to tap.  The kid can’t stop.  He’s in his own little world.  Insert me.  Think Tim the Toolman: “We need more power.”

I was fortunate enough to have great exposure to the arts.  I acted in plays and musicals, was a member of an a cappella group in college, I have a working pottery studio in my garage, I want Teagan to have a chance to find his passion.

I see this poor two foot square piece of plywood and realized that I could make something really great for him.  I decided that I would build Teagan a dance floor.  I had some spare lumber lying around in the barn and luckily had some old oak flooring from my parent’s condo still bundled up, unused and waiting for the perfect project.

I took Teagan to Home Depot at 6:30 in the morning, got a few pieces of plywood and a saw blade for $30.  We spent till noon putting together a 4′ x 4′ frame and then nailed the oak flooring to it.  I then put on two coats of finish while he took a nap, and had it ready for him when he got up.

I cannot truly explain the excitement when he was able to use his new dance floor.  But I can give you an anectdote as a barometer.  The next morning, my son, the super energetic person that he is, gets me up over the monitor at 5:30 in the morning.  I come down the stairs and he’s standing at the door to his room, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with his Red Sox hat on and his dance shoes in hand.  “I do dancing on dance floor Dadda? I do dancing?”  The look on his little face was priceless.

I don’t know what a portable 16 square foot dance floor costs as I’ve never priced one out, but I was able to get it together for $30 and in reality it should have only been $15, but I used this as an excuse for a fancy new saw blade.  I don’t know how I could have better spent the $15 on my son, and the best part is that he helped build the dance floor with me so he has the pride of it being HIS dance floor.

It’s helps that I had some things lying around, but this is how you can save tons of money.  You have to listen to what your kids want and find a creative solution.  My kid happens to want a dance floor.  Problem solved, cheaply.

Pictures are below.  I’m working on getting a video of him dancing up to the post.  It’s a little trickier than you’d think.

Putting it all together.

He had to try it out even if it was unfinished.

Rough cut.

Finished!

A new solar option

I may just explore this next fall.  I could put a few in my back yard on a pedestal and get another 1000 kWhs.  I’m very excited.

The Co-Op Model

I hate buying oil almost as much as I used to hate buying cars.  Luckily for me, I found a great dealership over in Bristol that has changed my opinion of car shopping.  I’m hoping this next decision helps with my oil grudge.

Here is what I know about #2 heating oil:

1.) My father used to pay $.66 a gallon when I was a kid. I have never paid less than $2.25.

2.) I’ve locking in a yearly delivery price of $3.80 and felt good about it.

3.) Many companies sounds like they have deals, but really just try to get as much money out of you as possible.

4.) I use very little oil, somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-330 gallons a year.

Being the cheap skate that I am, I am constantly looking to find some deal that will make me at least tolerable in regards to my oil provider.  I have found very few solutions.  I have done a fixed price, a capped price, a budgeted price.  You name it and I’ve done it.  At least that’s what I thought until my neighbor down the road told me about his oil co-op.  I had no idea these existed.

Fast forward a few weeks of research and calls, and I’ve joined the Citizen’s Oil Co-Op.  This is by no means a sure thing, but it’s a lot better than what I was being offered by local companies.  The basic numbers that I was getting were in the range of a current price of $2.69 a gallon or a capped price of $2.89 a gallon with a $200 program fee.  If I was to get the capped program on 300 gallons, that $200 would make my capped price essentially $3.56 a gallon.  This is not very good pricing.  So I set out to see if I could do better.  Their current price is $2.57, a 5% savings from the other quote that I received, and they have a history of being about $.20 – $.50 lower than the regular price in the area.  I’m game.  I figure for 300 gallons, this could be a great decision or a minor slip.  It’s $35 to join and I’m willing to give it a shot.

Some things that I found out and you should know first though.  If you are worried about the delivery company, fear not.  I’m using one of the three companies that I called previously to get quotes.  They use the same folks, just with greater buying power.  Second, you can still get a service contract through your delivery provider and still have the option to do monthly billing and the like.

It should also be noted that they do a co-op on electricity and the generation rate is $.094 a kWh.  I may take them up on that offer as well.

If you’re interested yourself, contact one of the folks on the co-op website and tell them that you heard about it from me.  I’ll get a little bump for recommending you, and you’ll get to save money.  It’s a win-win!

A new take on Summer Camp

My friend Jeff suggested this, so I’m giving him full credit for the idea.  I just wanted to share it with everyone since I love it so much.

Jeff and his wife Nhi were over the other night.  They have a young daughter who is a little older than Charlotte.  We have many friends who have small children.  If I choose the right five friends, I can count 11 children under the age of four between all of us.  Many of us are teachers and this got Jeff to thinking.

Summer camp can get quite expensive and it’s difficult to find a program where you know that the kids are in good (really good) hands.  So his suggestion was this:  When the kids get older, say between 7-10 years old, we do our own little version of summer camp.  Each couple takes a day and keeps all the kids.  They plan an activity for all of the kids in some special area of interest.  All the other couples have that day off.

If you think about it, it’s pretty cool.  Between snacks and materials for a one-day activity, you’re probably shelling out $50 (If you can find a place that will take your kid for a week and put them with two certified teachers each day, you let me know). That’s one day on and four or five days off to do whatever you want.  Best of all, your friends also have those days off.  So if you want to go play golf, you have a built-in foursome for a week.  If you want to go to get a pedicure or a massage, you have all the girls readily available to go.

I can’t explain to you how much I love this idea.  If there was a patentable part of it, I would steal this idea from Jeff and make millions off of it. I’m so excited for the kids to get a little older.  Not only will this be a great time for the adults, but it will be a great yearly gathering for the kids so that they can establish relationships as well.

It takes a village…

There are many things that I just don’t want to share, or don’t think are necessary to share.  I will not share my chainsaw with you.  I will not share my laptop with you.  But there are many things that are just silly (in my opinion) to purchase on your own outright.

To this end, I am trying to revive the notion of a community purchase.  My example focuses on the purchase of a small, inexpensive (-$3000) boat.  I live right on the Connecticut River and would love to take my son and daughter out on the water every once in a while.  It’s nice to go down to the dock and all, but I really just want to spend an afternoon on the water relaxing with them and get some time away from the hurried pace of life and just enjoy the calm water.

The proposition of someone this cheap owning his own boat is a bit silly though.  I’m in no position to buy it myself as I don’t want to sink $3000 to buy the boat, money for taxes, repairs, registration, launch fees, and more.  I just don’t see it as positive enough to own myself.  But take all those fees and costs and split them in four.  Let’s say the boat costs me $1000 or so.  Now we’re talking.  I wouldn’t mind spending that kind of money on a boat to enjoy the time with my kids and friends.  And here’s the best way that I see making it happen:

First you need the right people.  You don’t just want friends.  You need the right kind of friends.  As I see it, you need three essential people.  You need one person who can store the boat.  Second you need someone who is willing to do the grunt work on the paperwork.  And third (and most important), you need someone who can fix the boat.   With at least those three people, you can have a good experience.

In this case, we would have four parties that would be able to split the summer time for the boat.  I figure with 4 parties involved, we could each get at least 5 weekends a year.  I would say that for that investment, I would be more than happy with having only five weekends and I wouldn’t feel obligated to spend more time on the boat due to all the money I spent on it.  I’m still looking for takers and if you’re interested, let me know.

This is just my example with the boat situation, but there are lots of different types of purchases that don’t need to be by one person.  The first that comes to mind is a lawn mower.  While I will use mine for the landscaping business, a normal homeowner will only use their mower at best, one time a week.  That means it sits around for six days a week.  You could find three people to go in on a purchase with you and either save a ton of money, or get a much better mower.

Just off the top of my head, I can think of a lot of things that you could buy as a community or a group.  Here’s my list:

• Lawn Mowers / Tractors (I have a friend who has this arrangement with a tractor)
• Boats
• Summer House
• Snowblower
• Camper
• Timeshare
• Tents / Party chairs
• Horses (this is a bit of a stretch, but it could work…somehow)
• Gardens (Many towns do this, but you could work something out if a friend has lots of extra land nearby)
• Landscape Trailer
• Hunting Gear (There are only so many deer that one hunter can shoot in a year)
• Nail guns / compressors
• Saws (table saws etc.)
• Scaffolding (I’m actually doing this one)
• Extension Ladders

Thoughts on any other things you could buy as a community?  Have you ever bought something as a community?  How successful was it?  What were the pitfalls?  Let me know.

If you want something done right…and cheaply…

UPDATE: So today I went to Hartford to submit my Articles of Organization to the Secretary of the State of Connecticut. I then went to the Department of Revenue Services to get my Sales Tax Permit #. Finally I stopped by the local Webster Bank to set up a business checking account. The woman there helped me fill out an online application for a Federal Tax ID #.  All in all, the process has been quite painless. The cost, even though it has doubled since last year ($220 instead of $110) isn’t that bad, and the paperwork is pretty straight forward. I saved a ton of money doing this myself, and I’m nearly 100% sure that everything is submitted correctly. The hardest thing today was finding the buildings.

When in doubt, do something yourself.  It’s almost always the cheapest way.  Here’s a perfect example.  I’m in the process of starting my own landscaping business (more on that later) and I need to start an LLC.  I’ve got very little invested in the company, just a mower, a trailer, and a weed wacker.  The total cost of all three is just under $1,100.  That means that if I wanted to work as a self-employed individual, I would need several million dollars in liability insurance should anyone sue me for I can’t even imagine what.  It turns out that the insurance for a landscaping company is nearly $850 a year.  With this in mind I decided to do an LLC which makes me a private company and doesn’t connect my personal assets like my house to the business.

As it turns out, setting up an LLC is a bit of an expense.  If you go through an attorney, you could be paying nearly $400-500 an hour in fees plus any filing costs.  This would put the process at nearly $1000.  I then decided to try a company called LegalZoom.com.  They seemed cheap enough.  I was able to get a quote of $600 or so to get the LLC set up.  But still I was a bit concerned.  I didn’t want to start $850 in the hole (as a small business, there is a yearly tax of $250 that you need to pay).  So I decided to see what it would be if I filed by myself.

Funny thing about downloading the files, filling them out, and sending them in yourself.  The main form costs $120, the sales tax form costs $100 to file, and then I’m still subject to the $250 tax.  This means that I am going to be able to set up my LLC for $470 instead of $850.  That’s less than half!  I’m a little worried that I may have filled out the paperwork wrong, but even if I have, I can send it back three times before I catch up to the other options.

As I have found out many times in life, when in doubt, do things yourself.  It’s nice to have the sense of accomplishment, and it’s way cheaper (usually).  Lucky for me, my tax guy William Viets in Southington is a great guy.  I can’t recommend him highly enough.  He’s walked me through everything I need to know and has advised me for free.  I pay him a good bit come tax time, but this free advice from a guy who has my best interests in mind is a great comfort.  And what’s best is that by making sure that I have everything done correctly according to him, it makes my tax time much easier.  He’s seen so many people come through his office doing things the right and the wrong way that he has been able to advise me on the best way to go about things.  Do it yourself.  You’ll be much happier in the end. I know, I say this now until this whole idea blows up in my face. Wish me luck, or rather the ability to not need luck.

Any advice for a budding business owner?  Share all the glorious tips and tricks of the trade that you’ve picked up along the way.  They may just help others save a ton of money, time, and frustration.

Freecycle

I’ve never tried freecycle strange as that may seem to many. Though on the advice of a friend, I’m joining up with some different communities. My goal is to acquire several canning jars for pickles and jam.

It’s a pretty neat setup. If you’ve never joined freecycle, there are many different “communities” of people by location. I’ve joined West Hartford, Middletown, and Glastonbury. I’m not sure what the proper etiquette is, but I asked for something first. I’m sure that I’m supposed to offer something, but I figure most people are pretty kind on these things. I will let you all know how it goes.

Fight the man

A friend of mine who dislikes many vegetables turned me on to a very interesting study done at Stanford University. The study in question addressed children’s perception that things branded with McDonald’s logos actually taste better than the exact same food without the branding.

It looked at 3-5 year-olds and determined that they actually perceived the same food to taste better when they knew it was from McDonald’s. There was a strong correlation between the affinity to McDonald’s and the number of TV sets in the home, how many hours of TV were watched, and how many times they had been to McDonald’s.

It would appear that young children are just so susceptible to outside influence that if they see something enough, they are going to believe it. This makes a lot of sense to me. As the father of two young children, one of whom is two and a half, I can see this happening all the time. Teagan loves the things that I love. He loves gadgets, baseball, playing in the yard, digging in the garden, and genuinely gets offended if he knows I’m mowing the lawn without him.

This brings me to the ultimate point of this post (a wordy introduction I know). If you spend time with your kids and you help them take an interest in what you’re doing, they will want to do that too. We take Teagan to Wendy’s and McDonald’s. I’m not immune. I also take him into the garden all the time. He plants seeds, digs up weeds, picks lettuce, and helps cultivate other vegetables. Today in preparation for a party that we’re going to in the afternoon, I took Teagan out into the garden to get some lettuce for a salad that we were bringing. We picked some peas, cut some lettuce, and I chopped off a small head of broccoli. We had just left the lunch table, so Teagan had his traditional post-lunch popsicle in his hand. We get the all fruit ones in an attempt to be healthy, but really it’s just a reward for eating lunch. He loves them and requests them by color. So you can imagine my surprise when he put his popsicle in his bib and pulled out a pea pod from the basket and began eating it instead of the popsicle. Needless to say I was ecstatic. You can imagine my further amazement when he asked me, “OK to eat Daddy?” when holding the broccoli that I had just cut. I was quite proud of my little guy.

So be ready for the onslaught of the McDonald’s ads, but it’s easily counteracted if you just spend a little quality time with your kids. And if that quality time is spent in a back yard garden, then you’ll be helping the planet and your kid at the same time. A picture is below just in case you don’t believe me about the broccoli. The popsicle is long gone at this point.