Just last week we were walking through Babies R Us (aka the Amazon showroom) to look at child seats because Frugal Boy has almost outgrown his infant car seat. We have also been on the lookout for a cheap high chair so that Frugal Boy can get out of our lap during dinner time and better participate in mealtime without clawing at our plates. Out of curiosity I took a cursory glance at the high chairs in the store and found the cheapest one with legs to be about $80.
The next day on our nightly walk we passed by a neighbors garage sale and there just happened to be a wooden high chair for $20. We scooped it up and carried it home to get it ready for its latest occupant.
Sans Tray
I removed the swinging tray and took it out to my little workshop in the garage. The tray had a slim piece of veneer that had been crudely glued into it and this made the perfect gaps for crumbs to sink into. I removed the veneer and the copious amounts of glue so I could repaint it.
Shae on the other hand set to work making a seatbelt system to hold Frugal Boy in place.
I really appreciate having a crafty wife. On our trip to the craft store we couldn’t help overhearing the clueless boyfriend/girlfriend couple who were attempting to make patio furniture (probably something they saw on pinterest). The poor store clerk told them that the interior fabric and padding wouldn’t work outside. Then later on they had no idea how much fabric they needed. “Enough to make five pillows.” Well how big are those pillows going to be?
Anyway, back to the point, I love a woman with a plan.
Here is a test fit of the restraint system with a live and very wiggly load.
After the paint was done drying, I was able to add the tray back on.
I don’t really care if he gets any wheat circles into his mouth. Just keeping him busy and letting us eat dinner is good enough for me.
Buying a car is almost inevitable in America today. Sure some city slickers can get by with public transportation, but for the majority that isn’t the case. If you are buying a car, then that means someone is selling a car. This week, we filled the shoes of the seller as we looked to send our 15 year old sedan out to pasture (or maybe it was to the slaughterhouse).
Trade, Private Sale, Donate, or Scrap
There are four common ways folks “sell” their used cars.
Trade
The first is to trade it in to a dealership for either cash or collateral towards a new purchase. The pros of trading a car is that it is fast, dealerships are ‘safe’ in the meaning that you won’t be literally robbed, and it requires the least amount of leg work. The con of trading a car is that you as the seller pay for the convenience. You will not get as much money because the dealer wants to make a profit on the trade.
Dealerships will take that trade in and either list it on their lot or sell it at auction (especially if it is a make and model that they do not specialize in).
Donate
Another route that some people choose (one of my brothers included) is to donate their used car. Often times, donated cars are past their prime and have little value left in them. Depending on the organization that it is donated to, you may be able to write off some of the value of the car from your taxes. If you have a charity budget, you might be able to lump it into your charitable giving and ‘convert’ it into cash value that way.
Scrap
This option is for cars that are dead. They do not run or cost too much to get into running order. Junkyards may be willing to pay a few hundred bucks to be able to pick over the carcass of this once majestic beast. End of the line, if you are scrapping a car, it has hit rock bottom.
Private Sale
Finally, there is the private sale. In a private sale, you the owner act as your own 1 man or 1 woman dealership. You advertise the vehicle, find a buyer, take care of paperwork, and hopefully make a sale! The pro of a private sale is that you will likely make more money. The cons include more work, some degree of risk, and a longer time table.
We knew pretty early on that we wanted to do a private sale.
Step #1 – Do Your Homework
Before you list a car for sale, you need to know a couple of things.
Where is the title? Who is listed on the title? Are there any liens on the title?
What condition is the car in?
What is the car worth? What are similar cars going for in the area?
#1 was easy for us. The title was in our safety deposit box, and we were the sole owners of the car.
#2 we knew that the car was in rough but working condition. The whole point of deciding to sell the car was because we were tired of sinking money into repairs.
#3 The fastest way to get a starting number for this is to go to Kelly Blue Book. This also highlighted the discrepancy between trading and private sale.
A “Fair” condition trade in vs “Fair” condition private sale
and here is the “good” condition trade in vs “good” private
There is almost a $1000 difference between trading in and selling it yourself for this particular car!
Step #2 – Clean!
Americans live in their cars. Long commutes, constant errands around town, and a deluge of pet hair, kids snacks, and shoe debris build up a strata of crud over the ownership of a car. New owners want a new car smell, not mashed cheerio paste. We started by emptying out the car of all our personal belongings and giving it a thorough cleaning. Start on the inside and wipe down all of the glass, vacuum out all of the crevices, and remove all of those old window decals. Once the inside it properly clean, take it to a car wash and get the fanciest wash possible. A super duper unicorn tear wash set us back only $12 but made the car really spiffy and shiny. Immediately after the car wash, stop and take pictures of those shiny wheels. Here is our advertisement picture showing off the tire tread of the wheel. The picture was taken 20 feet from the car wash. That leads us into step 3.
Step #3 – Lights, Camera, Action
Now that the car is at its cleanest, it is time to take pictures. Find a picturesque location (not your driveway) and take some glamour photos. Follow good photographer rules of thumb. Shoot with the sun behind you, frame the car nicely, and use plenty of natural light.
Now that’s a car that stands out!
Include lots of photos. If you aren’t sure what should be photographed, take a look at a dealership’s website and see what they take photos of. Try and mimic a dealership. Take more photos than you need so you can pick out the best ones later. I ended up posting 19 photos with my ad.
Step #4 – Craft The Ad
Once upon a time, people use to stick a “For Sale” sign in the window of a car along with a phone number and wait. Folks still do that today, but there are better ways of getting the message out. We chose to utilize Craigslist and a similar private classified that is limited to Shae’s workplace (we’ll call it XYZ). The bulk of what people look at on a listing are the pictures and if we did a good job on the previous step, then they may be interested in what the text of the actual ad says. It is here that you should list all of the great features of the car while sneaking in any of the standout issues that it may be having.
Here is our ad text:
Have a young driver heading back to school soon? This sports edition altima is the car for them!
• 142000 miles (below average) • Leather seats • Tires have good tread • Gas sipping commuter (24/31 MPG) • Aftermarket stereo, plug & play w/ phones • New front suspension • Fun to drive!
This car has been well maintained with synthetic oil changes every 6 months for the past 5 years. It has a brand new battery, front suspension, tie rods, wheel hub, and a recent alignment. The AC does not work and the rear brakes are nearing their service date. Front brakes are good and it has plenty of stopping power. Spark plugs have another 40-60k miles to go, tires have another 20k. New air filter, premium wiper blades, and all fluids have been topped off.
Other features:
• Cruise Control • Driver & passenger air bags • Alloy wheels • All around disk brakes • Power windows • Power driver seat • Power mirrors • 60/40 fold down back seat (you can fit a lot in this car!) • Full sized spare • Very little rust or fading • Car alarm • USB port in stereo • CD/MP3/AM/FM • Non smoking • Clean & ready to roll!
Title is in hand just waiting to be signed over. Cash or cashier’s check. Call, text or email to see it and take it home!
Notice how it is succinct but still gives plenty of information. Prospective buyers will appreciate that you are upfront about problem areas and will likely tunnel vision onto those instead of examining other parts of the car. Color me skeptical when I read listings for 15 year old cars that state it is in perfect running condition. Sure it is buddy, whatever you say.
In general, I find the oreo style of writing to be very easy and effective. Sandwich any negative bits in-between good ones. A prospective buyers attitude will be positive after reading the first good bit and that will help carry them through the negative bit before finally washing that away with a final good bit again.
It is important that you list contact details so prospective buyers can get a hold of you if they are interested. From the time we posted the ad on Monday to when we took it down on Thursday night, we had 11 individuals contact us.
As expected, Craigslist generated more hits than the private classifieds.
The best offer, and the one we accepted, started with an email from one of the XYZ hits. In fact, of the three offers that we ended up receiving, each one originated from an email contact.
Step #5 – Sell the Car
Answer emails, texts, and phone calls from prospective buyers. Arrange to meet them in a safe place such as a mall parking lot so they can see the car in person. Ride along for test drives and be prepared for low ball offers. If you did your homework at the beginning you should have a good idea of how much the car is worth.
After a little negotiating we ended up selling the car for $1800, $36 above KBB value. The new owner will have to put some money into repairs, but they also are saving quite a bit by buying from those “sketchy” folks in the parking lot versus going to a car lot. I looked up the same year, make, and model car at dealerships around us and found one with similar mileage listed for $3800. Sure that could probably be haggled down a bit, but the buyers saved a boatload by doing their own legwork and dealing with us. We earned money by selling instead of trading. Everyone wins! Yay capitalism.
Step #6 – Tie up loose ends
Make sure all paperwork is filled out properly when you exchange keys and money with the buyer. We filled out a simple bill of sale, a notice of sale, and the title. After the sale is done, mail the notice of sale to your secretary of state and notify your insurance company to stop coverage on the car.
Conclusion
We cleaned the car on Sunday, listed it on Monday, and had cash in hand on Thursday night. It is fun to take on new challenges with your spouse and I find that those challenges usually help strengthen a relationship. If we can sell a car, then you can too!
A little while back, I replaced the front struts on our 15 year old car. While I was doing that work, I noticed that several other parts in the wheel well were looking past their prime. It is recommended that you have your car aligned after replacing struts so in the interest of only having to do that once, I decided to replace some other parts that would also need an alignment.
The first item on the list was new inner and outer tie rods. Tie rods push and pull the wheels in and out, or in other words make the car turn left or right. They are also one of the parts that is adjusted during an alignment.
The red arrow points to the outer tie rod. The outer tie rod is the most common and easiest part to replace of the entire steering arm. The green arrow points to a lock nut. This nut is used to adjust how far or close the outer tie rod sits from the center of the car. Mechanics will adjust this nut as part of your alignment. The blue arrow points to the inner tie rod. Sometimes it is called a steering rod and it threads onto the rack and pinion. The purple arrow shows the dust boot that keeps the inner tie rods connection with the rack and pinion clean.
First things first, we’ll need to remove the outer tie rod. In my case, it was so rusted onto the inner tie rod and I already was planning on replacing the inner that I simply cut it off with an angle grinder.
Here you can see the old outer tie rod next to a new one. One of the main reasons that you would need to replace an outer tie rod is because the rubber boot protecting the ball bearing is cracked.
Once that is cracked, grit can get into the bearing and it will quickly wear out. I was able to find the exact same tie rod end for $7/pc on RockAuto.com.
Taking off the dust boot gives you access to the inner tie rod. I had to borrow a loaner tool from the auto parts store to remove the inner tie rod.
The inner tie rod has a ball joint where it hooks up to the rack and pinion. This ball joint should be firm, but the ones I removed could easily be moved around with my pinky finger.
Assembly is the reverse and fairly easy.
Moving right along, the next part that I wanted to replace on both sides was the lower ball bearings. Unfortunately, for this car, you have to replace the entire control arm with the bearings already pressed in. Here is a picture of the whole control arm.
and this is the lower ball bearing that connects the control arm to the steering knuckle.
Like the outer tie rod, once the protective rubber boot cracks and opens up, the bearing is doomed. These parts are so close to the wheel and road that they are subjected to a constant barrage of grit and grime.
In order to remove the control arm, you must also disconnect the stabilizer bar link (sometimes referred to as a sway bar).
The sway bar runs underneath your car and connects the left and right control arms together. When you’re speeding down the road and make a hard turn, this bar will transfer some of the suspension load from one side to the other. I found new links for $15/pc.
Removing the control arm was pretty difficult for me. There are 4 connection points to the car (including the sway bar link). The connection to the steering knuckle was the hardest because there is only room for a crescent wrench and the nuts were severely corroded.
The other difficult step was removing the 3 bolts that secure the rear bushing of the control arm. Red loctite was used on at least one of the bolts. Loctite is a special kind of glue used to hold bolts in place. It comes in two common varieties, red and blue. Blue can be removed with hand tools, but red has to be heated up to 550° F. My 300 ft lb impact wrench was no match for the red thread locker so I had to use a propane torch and heat it up (I only caught the lubricating/penetrating oil on fire twice).
After all of the blood, sweat, and smoke I finally ended up getting the old control arms out.
This was the part that I really wanted to replace.
Install is the reverse. Here is one of the new sway bar links installed.
The lower ball bearing looks much happier now.
Here you can see the tie rods, control arm, and sway bar linked installed.
All of the parts set me back $174.
Labor was the biggest expense as it probably took around 8-10 hours. I also had to use some special tools including:
Impact Wrench
Propane Torch
27 mm socket
22 mm socket
Inner Tie Rod Tool (free loaner tool from car parts store)
7/8 ” Crescent wrench
PB Blaster (penetrating oil)
Would I do all of that work again? Probably not. It was a good learning experience, but we will most likely be selling this car within the next six months.
I was driving down the alley last week to pick up Frugal Boy from the babysitter when out of no where a loud boom emitted from the front end of the car. Shocked, I hit the brake and put it into park, then quickly turned the ignition off. A couple of framing carpenters working nearby had also been startled and one of my neighbors who happened to be out came running over. Together we looked underneath the car to see what had fallen off or what was dragging.
Our cursory glance did not reveal any smoking gun, only a piece of curved metal that had sheared/snapped off, and since I still needed to pick up Frugal Boy, I decided to try and get the car back into its parking space. The car shaked and shuttered while in slow reverse but it covered the short distance.
Later that evening after letting the question simmer in the back of my mind I had an idea of what it might be. A quick check later and I had found the culprit.
The front driver’s side spring coil had blown out. The giant metal spring works along with the strut to form a critical component of a cars suspension system. That suspension system turns pot holes and speed bumps from jarring impacts to soft bumps. A common misconception is that shocks and struts are the same thing. While they perform the same function, smoothing out your ride, they work slightly differently.
Some cars have struts on the front and shocks on the back while others have struts or shocks on the front and back. Either way, you have to replace A with A and B with B.
Shocks and struts should always be replaced in pairs. Since the front drivers side broke, I also needed to replace the intact (I wouldn’t go so far as to say “functioning”) passenger strut.
Removal was surprisingly easy. Not including the wheel lug nuts, there were a total of 5 bolts to remove for each strut.
sorry for the blurry photo, it was starting to get dark outside.
One of my neighbors was impressed that I knew how to do the replacement. I let him in on my little secret. I watched the first 4 minutes of this youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEaevAxA8Gc
While the video goes on and on about coil compression and the possibility of maiming yourself, I opted for the safer and easier route and just purchased a preassembled strut+coil.
To my astonishment, the cheapest retailer that I found for the two preassembled struts wasn’t my local NAPA store, or Autozone, or Advanced Auto Parts. It was Amazon! By waiting 5-8 days for free shipping, I was able to save $120 over NAPA, the only brick and mortar in town that had the part in stock.
The grand total was $200 in parts ($100 per side) and after using an Amazon gift card and some credit card points I had knocked the out of pocket cost down to $166. Labor took me a total of 4 hours, two to disassemble and two to reassemble.
For a little comparison, back in January of 2013 I took our other car into a nationally operated chain garage to replace the struts (on the front) and shocks (on the rear). The front ended up costing us $467. $112 of that was labor and the other $355 was parts. Amazon has those same parts for $258. If I had done that job myself, I would have saved the labor and price part difference for a total of $209. For those of you saying your time is worth a lot, in my case it worked out to $28/hour and that’s because I am an amateur and have to waste time finding the tool I just put down.
Conclusion
By diagnosing and fixing the problem myself, I saved about 45% vs giving up and calling a mechanic. The difficulty level is low and the amount of tools needed is also fairly simple. I used a
jack
two jack stands
two ratchet wrenches
3 sockets sized 15mm, 17mm, and 19mm?
a cheater bar (basically a really long wrench to give you leverage)
a pair of needle nose pliers (to help with a brake line clip)
The biggest and most important tool in your toolbox is confidence. A great way to gain confidence is to start with smaller, simpler jobs such as filling the windshield wiper fluid, replacing wiper blades, and changing the oil.
Hello July! June was a rainy month, so much so that it set the record as the 3rd rainiest in area history. The last time we had more rain in June was back in ’93.
All of that rain has made the ground swollen with water and couple that with gusty winds and you have the perfect recipe for downed trees. This morning we woke up and discovered that the tree on the property line had finally succumbed to gravity and fell under its own weight.
Our neighbors rented a chainsaw and had it turned into firewood by lunch.
If you noticed the pile of dirt at the bottom of the picture, that was my doing. I wasn’t about to let this all day chainsaw rental go to waste, as I had my own lumber jacking to do. Here was the target.
This small tree was almost dead last year when we moved in and it was completely dead this summer. The squirrels liked to perch in it and that was about all it was good for. I started by transplanting a bunch of hostas that were growing around the trunk to safer homes in the yard. Then I set about digging a big hole around the trunk.
Apparently, hostas attract slugs, so I found a few behemoths.
After a couple sweaty hours of digging it was time to put my tree slaying plan in action. I was simply going to push it over.
TIMBER!
The best part was that there was no stump left in the ground. I just backfilled all of the dirt that I had dug out and now you’d never even know a tree was ever there.
By doing the work myself, I saved between $125-450. I also got a great workout in!