Freezing in NH

  It makes a pretty pattern. You can also see some frugality in that picture.  The car is obviously missing a bit of the trim (the door “bump strip”) and the sideview mirror has some writing on it.  After a minor incident in which the left mirror was damaged, I got a new one from the junkyard at about a quarter of the cost of having one ordered.  Relatively easy to change it out, the wiring had a clip-together harness (they adjust from inside the car)  and there are three screws under a snapout panel.  Pain in the neck to do in the cold but still do-able. 

I knew it could be done, because my right sideview mirror had been neatly removed by an 18-wheeler on the Cross Bronx Expressway some years back.  So that one’s from the junkyard as well, since at the time there was no way I could afford new (plus the NYC-metro area rates for putting the new one in).  Now I can afford it but I save my cash for other things.

Update: One thing you need to balance is the amount of time it takes you to do something vs the amount you save.  In this case the first time I did it it took over an hour to figure out how to get everything apart.  At the time, the amount I saved was much more than I would have made working for two hours.  The second time it took about half an hour, which is about what it takes for me to get my car to the shop, walk home, walk back, pay, and drive home again.  So in this case the savings was “free” because the other option would take the same amount of time. 

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 3:06 pm and is filed under frugality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.