In my quest to become debt free I have found many ways to save, some of these ways are no brainers and others require great patience on my part. When our kitchen faucet went from a full force stream of water to a trickle with barely enough water pressure to consider more than a drip I knew it was time to take action. I called a local plumber to find out that they charge $21 per hour. That was $21 per hour I didn't have, plus parts which had been estimated at $75 and an additional $25 fee for the distance they would have to travel.
I waited patiently to find a good deal on a faucet. After 6 months I was rewarded with a sale at our local hardware store. After some online research I entered the store armed with as much knowledge as a non plumber could have. I faced a wide selection of faucets all showing classy pictures of full running water and options that I knew I really didn't need.
Opting for the best financial option I chose a model that was in the mid price range. I certainly didn't need the $250 model to have running water at my sink. No, I would be satisfied with the model that was $45 and on sale for $25. I added a $10 savings discount for being a loyal shopper to my purchase and paid only $15 for my new kitchen faucet. So far, I'd saved at least $60 on my kitchen faucet.
Now to get the faucet installed. My oldest son, a former church janitor, assured me he could do the work and would do it for free. Since he lives with us he felt he was contributing to the betterment of our living conditions and I couldn't agree with him more.
It took 2 hours for him to completely remove the old faucet system and install the new faucet system (including sprayer hose, plumbers tape and caulking). Now, we had saved $42 additional to our $60. For a total of $15 we had saved over $125 on our new kitchen faucet. My patience had paid off (we waited 6 months to find the faucet sale) and my budget wasn't dented too badly in the process. The only thing that was irritating was the wait time as we had to either be patient filling the sink or haul the water from the bathroom (the dishwasher still did fine so we only had to rinse the dishes). Was it worth the wait? Yes, Saving money is always worth the wait.
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