It's the Little Things in Life

Sometimes it is the smallest things in life that can drastically alter your life. And while this is probably not going to drastically alter my life, I have no doubt it will make a sizable change.

Every year for Christmas, Nathan's mom gives us cash so we can buy what we want for our Christmas gift from her. We went back and forth this year about what to get. Practical or fun? I wanted practical, but also felt as if fun might be more fitting for Christmas. So we went with fun and bought a family gift.

The reason that I really wanted a practical gift was because I wanted a washing machine. It is one appliance I thought would make a big difference not just in our work load but also in our monthly budget. In some ways I didn't mind laundry duty because if I went once a week it meant I had a few hours alone which meant I could read and all of my laundry for the week was completely caught up. Where it was a pain is if I had to do loads in between and drag it down to the laundry room at the resort. That and we don't really have a lot of space to store a week's worth of dirty laundry.

The bigger factor again was the expense of doing laundry this way. When we first went full time we were spending over $100 a month on laundry. For the past month, Nathan and I have made some pretty big changes to help with this and to be more "green". We were still spending over $50 a month though.

Soooooo when I saw an ad in Craigslist (we love CL's) for a washer for $50, I was just about giddy. The one I had been looking at was over $200 new. We called. It was gone. Drat. The very next day I see an ad for another kind for $49. I called and it was still available. I was giddy this time. I wasn't sure it would fit in the closet that is the laundry closet meaning it is already plumbed for a laundry center. After the guy sort of measures it (it's two pieces of paper wide), we decide to take a chance.

This was our reason for our trip to Tampa yesterday:

As you can see, it fits! It is actually quite a bit bigger than the one I was looking at so double score! I can wash real loads in it. I can wash my sheets in it. I washed a full load of towels and it didn't even blink an eye at the size or weight of them.

Best of all, it will pay for itself in a month. I love it.

We were able to do the practical and the fun thanks to Mom and Craigslist. Thanks Mom!