The Dirty Boots Gang are pretty frugal. Indeed, before life on a mountain some may have even implied Mr DB was a little um ‘tight’. Not I of course, but you get my drift.
In September I threw caution to the wind, and cash at the checkout girl and bought Special Salt. Oh how I paid for my extravagance. Still it is delightful! And, I do not share!
But, back to the point. In our frugal living plan, we often avoid buying things. Even when really we just should. A question in point is our shower head. For the last three years it has been squirting water out in very random directions. All due to a failed attempt to clean out the limescale that went very wrong (rubber seals are not meant to be boiled in vinegar, no matter how much limescale that removes).
Anyway, we didn’t need a new shower head. After all, the old one did let some water fall onto you. So, the new shower head became one of many things it would be nice to have but not necessary enough to actually go out and buy.
Last week there was an Extravagant Explosion of Expenditure at Casa Dirty Boots. We ‘wasted’ a whole 8 euros ($10?) on a new low flow shower head. I cannot believe the difference. Our low power, low pressure, not very hot shower has been transformed into some kind of power shower arrangement where you feel actually pretty clean and invigorated after using it. It is, rather like the kind of showers normal people in normal houses with normal running water have. It is, in short, how I remember showers being in the days before the mountain.
Hardly an extravagance really, but there you are. The danger of being too frugal and too self sufficientish is that you just don’t buy anything you need. And, sometimes you need a proper shower. See you can be too frugal and too dirty!
For a more self sufficient future.
Maybe this is what we need. Ever since we moved into a new place, the low flow shower head is REALLY low flow and I feel icky after taking a shower. But, I too, am too frugal sometimes and don’t want to pay the money!
Lisa,
Our new one was low flow. So low that the boiler would not kick in. Mrs. Dirty Boots just took out the low flow washer from the shower head and now it is like a power shower (well, sort of).
We are not too frugal, so much as too mean! The best, but not the only example by any means, is choosing cheap bathroom fittings, when it really would have been worth spending more money. The cheap flush mechanisms we insist on buying have a tendency to stick, and so we waste water and therefore electricity until we notice what’s happening. Cheap taps have a very limited life too, and as for that chrome thing the soap and shampoo live on in the shower, it’s rubbish and started rusting beore the week was out!
A normal house with normal running water! When we clear the silt out of our system and get a new UV filter I shall however mention this wondrous shower head to OH. Sounds nifty to me, glad to hear it is only your boots that are dirty!