When it rains it pours

The last few months in our house have been a challenge.  Some would be depressed by the laundry list of things that have broken or gone amuck, but I choose to see it as a comedy of errors and try to chuckle at our obvious misfortune, because really, what else can you do?

In the last six months or so we have had our dryer stop heating, the wall in our tiled shower cave in, the microwave stop working, the garbage disposal die, the basement carpet drenched by a sump pump mishap, (yes, another one), the bearings and front brakes go out on the truck, and a pipe rust-out in our well, and that problem led to a whole series of water problems.

My husband's facebook status often showed his dispair and the straw that broke the camel's back came in the form of, well we thought anyway, our refrigerator loosing its ability to keep things cold, or frozen.

The beauty in all of this was the lack of extra money we have in our account right now.  Yes, you heard me correctly, and yes that was an echo you heard reverberating out of our account.  Because if we had the kind of money we used to have, or the unlimited credit we used to have we would have just went out and bought new appliances, or paid someone to rush right out and fix whatever problem we had occur.

But because our money situation has changed so much we have no choice but to compare shopping prices on new purchases, research the mechanical problems, and enlist the help of family and friends who don't mind digging a five foot hole in our front yard on New Years Day, because really who needs water anyway?

By looking for the best shopping deals and taking our time we were able to fix things ourselves (ok Cory fixed them) and let me tell you- a $15 used thermostat is much better than $300 - $400 for a whole new dryer.

So in the end, our new habits saved us a ton of money.  Oh, that refrigerator that supposedly wasn't running anymore?  Well, let's see... when you take the inside of the freezer door off to clear the line for your water dispenser and to make your ice cube maker produce ice that is less sandy (both caused by the sediment that rushes up into your plumbing when you have a pipe burst), you should probably realize that having the door open all that time may set off your defrost cycle.  But fear not!  As soon as you remove all your freezer items and put them elsewhere, your appliance will turn back on, which is what I told my darling hubby would happen, but how would I know that?

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.