Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Rapunzel and the Princess Mobile

One thing about me is that I'm oddly frugal, not cheap but not wasteful either. While I appreciate nice things and I'm certainly willing to spend money, I can be oddly tight with a buck. That's why disposable items irk me. For instance, I refuse to buy paper towels. To me they seem to be a huge waste of money and environmental resources.

My frugality is one of the reasons I love my hardwood floors. Sure, they are beautiful and they do help my allergies. What I really love is that I don't need to constantly replace vacuum cleaners. My old house had carpet and between my long hair and the cat's hair, I went through a vacuum cleaner every 9 months. These were good vacuums too - Orecks, Dysons, Riccars. I knew the guy at the vacuum repair place. I was constantly bringing one back for warranty service.

As a general rule, I try to buy what I really want and take good care if it. Right now, I'm driving a 7-year old Infiniti with 96,000 miles on it. When I bought it my friends called it the Princess Mobile, but little did they know that I’ll drive it forever. I figure that even if it's more expensive initially, by owning it for a long time it'll payoff.

This week I took the car to the dealership because the motor that moves the driver's seat wouldn't budge. The seat was stuck right on top of the steering wheel and it wasn't safe to drive that way. After pulling the motor out and replacing it the service advisor called to tell me that the motor died because a tumbleweed of long blonde hair had jammed up the gears. After 7 years of brushing my hair in the car, it seems that the motor couldn't take it any longer.

Long hair is not cost efficient.

No comments:

Post a Comment