Just E Stuff

6
Apr

FiberFloor for Basement

Trying to find an affordable, yet “appropriate,” floors for basement is very difficult; especially when the most logical materials for the basement is SO expensive.

We have concrete subfloor or concrete basement (pardon my technical terms if I misuse it) so there were very limited flooring options for us.

We do currently have carpet in the basement (it’s only year and a half years old), but between the kids and the animals (dragging in dirt and God knows what), and the nature of basement (dampness) it made our living space almost unbearable for me – dirt and smell.

Unfortunately, I have been cursed with acute sense of smell. Since I can smell everything and anything, for good or bad, the smells are amplified by ten folds for me.

According to Home Construction & Improvement website, “Whether … basement is fairly new or old … Concrete basements by nature are a very damp environment … has a moisture content of between 2% and 8% … (Todd).”

In Todd’s opinion he does prefer ceramic or porcelain tiles, but you can still use engineered wood floors and carpet (only if basement has history of being dry).

However, when I did talked with local contractors and flooring “experts,” tiles are not great solutions for the basement because if concrete floor cracks (guess, eventually most concrete subfloors will have crack lines due to moisture) it will transfer the problems to the grout and tiles on top.

If I understood it correctly, having tiles in small areas are fine (e.g. around the bar areas or entrance/exit areas by the door and etc), but trying to lay tiles on over 1500 sq. ft areas is not a great option for basement floor.

Laminate wood floors are not viable option for us because of the price and durability. Even though laminate floor are known to be durable if possible scratches were to happen by animals (we have very destructive dogs – I don’t even want to go into this topic because if I do I will give those dogs up!) or kids you cannot sand it down and fix it – basically, you will have to live with damages.

Also, even though laminate floors will be glued down for us, if dogs were to urinate or kids were to drop liquid onto the floor there are possibilities of liquid going through the joint lines. Actually, my cousin has installed laminate floor in his basement and I have noticed joint lines showing up more and more – don’t know it’s due to moisture in the basement or his puppies leaving accidents or what? Didn’t really ask.

So, with that said. I did receive numerous estimates for my basement floor (including materials, removal of carpet, fixing up holes and things, and installation) for tile and laminate wood flooring.

Remind you that I only chose these options to share with you guys because of the price. There were many other flooring options, but they wanted over $9,000 for the basement (no glue or installation or taxes included) !!! Forget that!

Lowes wanted $4485 (not the best line I remind you) for the materials plus $2385 for installation; total of $6870 without price of the glue, taxes, and etc.

My local store said they would do it for $6500 (including glue, installation, and glue).

For tiles I found a company who would lay the tiles for me for $5000 or so; but these tiles are ugly!!!

I came home very disappointed, and my husband asked me “why don’t we put vinyl? Honestly, I was shocked and applaud by his comment. Come on vinyl floors? They are so ugly!

Even with such reservation I went along with him to the store to look for vinyl floors.

Wow, vinyl floors have come along away. When you probably think about vinyl floors you are probably thinking about floor your parents had in their kitchen or entry way and etc.

However, vinyl floor come in many styles and pattern – it’s endless.

Anyhow, we were educated with FiberFfloors made by Tarkett Company. You might be asking what the heck is FiberFloor?

Well, FiberFloor is a resilient flooring with “… convenience combining the comfort of carpet with the easy maintenance of resilient flooring (Flooring Trends).”

These floors are easy to install and clean, comes in endless patterns and color (look of wood to slate), it’s cushiony and warm to underfoot, flexible and bendable, indentation resistant, reduces impact noise and sound, will not expand, contract, crack or curl, engineered to lay flat and stay slat, glueless installation, and consumers only need to measure the room, cut and lay.

If you do hire a professional to lay such flooring they “heat glue” the seams so the vinyl floor looks like a one huge piece – you will not see any seam lines.

After learning about this product I just fell in love with the bamboo look FiberFloor. The product usually cost $3.50 sq ft, but we got such great deal from the local flooring store — $1.85.

So … even with installation fee, removal of carpet and other materials to finish up the floor we are actually going to pay couple of thousand dollars less than laminate and ceramic tiles.

I just can’t wait to get the flooring next week!

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Reference:

Flooring Trends. Flooring-trends.com Retrieved on 4/4/2009 from http://www.flooring-trends.com/fiberfloor.html
Todd. Basement Flooring Options. Homeconstructionimprovement.com Retrieved on 4/4/2009 from http://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/2008/07/basement-flooring-options.html

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3
Apr

Coupons to the Rescue?

Posted by SavvyMom (0) Comment

Online coupons!!

Am I the only person in the world having problems with online coupon services?

Economy is in trouble, and like most of you our pocket books are getting squeezed as well – it seems like we are getting punched every which way.

I am now starting to look through grocery store advertisement pamphlets that come in the newspaper, and started to jot down things that are on sale – going to the stores to purchase “on-sale” items only.

Guess roaming through the store to just fill up the shopping cart days are clearly over. Don’t get me wrong I still do buy things that are not on-sale (sorry, I am not that discipline), but I need to start saving money here and there.

About a year ago or so I used to load up a cart with grocery, and would probably pay around $250 to maximum of $300 – reminds you that this included basic staple items as well as “luxury” items(not on sale) that would last us for five days or so.

However, when I went to the store to get grocery for the week I spent over $350!!! AND I didn’t really spend money on the luxury food items!

When I say luxury items I mean beef jerky, Haagen-Dazs, conveniently packaged snacks , filet mignons, leg of a lamb, imported cheese or specialty cheese, deli meats (where you pay $8.99/lb for turkey meat), and etc.

So, when I came home I searched through bags of grocery, and studied my receipt to see what I bought from the store — I couldn’t find anything overly “shocking.”

I didn’t buy the top of the line meat selections, bought generic ice cream cones for the kids, bought large bags of cookies and pretzels (so I can pack them in individual snack bags to save money), stocked up on canned sauces (tomato pastes, sauce, and etc), bought fruits that were on sale for $1.99/lb or less, and etc.

From the receipt, it was $1.99 here, $0.59 here, $1.45 there, but when I added up the receipt it was closed to $350!

I couldn’t believe it – when did food get THAT expensive?

With this shocking revelation I decided to subscribe to online coupon “stores” – coolsavings.com, Pillsbury.com, clipngocoupons.com, and coupons.com.

Unfortunately — I guess I am an idiot — I couldn’t get those coupons to print even after installing the printer software onto my computer.

I followed every step carefully, but no success!

Here are the problems I have encounter.

In the Coolsavings.com website, I couldn’t complete the printing process – menu to install printer function did not function … so, it was in idle mode.

In clipngocoupons.com, even after I sign in as a member, I kept getting the survey page – come on, I already did that!

With coupons.com and Phillsbury.com sites I did successfully pick the coupons I wanted, but even though it said “print successful” my printer didn’t print out the coupons – yes, I did check if my printer was on and there were sufficient amount of ink.

So .. to make sure my printer was working properly I did print couple of pages of documents; which was successful (but not the coupons).

Bottom line – my attempt to shop “smarter” didn’t quite work well. I guess I am going to cut out coupons that come in the newspaper.

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1
Apr

Plants vs. Mosquitoes

Posted by SavvyMom (0) Comment

My neighbor and I were talking this morning about mosquitoes; exciting conversation right?

Anyhow her house backs up to a ravine, but they had little (almost minimal) problem dealing with mosquitoes last year.

Granted they have a screen porch in the backyard I see them all the time playing with their children and dogs outside on the grass – same time we are outside enjoying the summer days.

We spray on insect repellants, burn candles, wear “protective” clothes (light long sleeved shirts) and etc., but we are still eaten ALIVE!!!
I don’t know what to do anymore!

I saw a segment, in one of those HGTV shows, about mosquito misting spray or MistAway Systems where the company strategically places each misting nozzle sprays to create a “dome” or “shield.”

Mosquito Mist Away System is an automated system to control insects like spiders, mosquitoes, gnats, fleas and flies.

These nozzles are installed around the perimeter of your house (e.g. fence lines, decks, on trees, flowerbeds and etc.) to give most efficient and effective protection of your family.

I would love to have this system installed around our fences (so we can REALLY enjoy our backyard), but unfortunately I couldn’t find local companies offering such services around us – poor me!

Also, I couldn’t find the average cost of installing such device – I am not asking for an exact number, but the general idea of what would cost me.

SO … since I didn’t win the lotto, and the money tree I have planted last year didn’t grow so well I opt for cheaper alternative ways to control mosquito infestation.

Last night I searched online to see our local nurseries carry citronella plants, and found bunch of information about natural (and effective) ways to repel mosquitoes.

This is basically what I learned …

Pelargonium citronellas are known as the mosquito plant and looks like lemon grass

Citronellas are also known as cymbopogon nardus

There are citronella scented geraniums in the market – works very well against those pesky insects

There are other alternative plants:
1.    Horsemint — grown in most eastern US, Mexico, and up to Minnesota to Vermont
2.    Herbs like Rosemary are natural mosquito repellants
3.    Marigolds
4.    Ageratum — contains coumarin; which mosquitoes detests, but don’t rub it against your skin
5.    Mosquito plant — lso known as agastache cana or Texas hummingbird mint or bubblegum mint, or giant hyssop or giant hummingbird mint
6.    Catnips — most powerful mosquito repellant – 10 times more effective than DEET; but short lived perennials

I have also read, from online reviews, that these plants don’t work or doesn’t work that well against mosquitoes.

Apparently, Pelargonium citronella plant(s) must be shaken by the wind to distribute the citronella fragrance, and all the other plants’ leaves must be crushed to release their aroma – that’s the trick.

You just can’t have these plants on the table or plant stands or in baskets to repel these blood thirsty insects – you have to initialize the repellant process by releasing the plants aroma.

I guess it’s really not that difficult to do. Hey, if I get five less mosquito bites a night I’ll crushed those dang thing for hours.

Reference:

Johnson, S. Mosquitoes in Your Garden? Try Planting These! thefrugallife.com
Retrieved on 4/1/2009 from http://www.thefrugallife.com/mosquitoesgarden.html

Plantfiles: citronella grass, Nardu, Capim Santo Cymbopogon nardus. Davesgarden.com Retrieved on 4/1/2009 from http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62172/

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31
Mar

Same Price, but LESS Product

Posted by SavvyMom (0) Comment

I hate mosquitoes!!!!!!!!

I can live with mosquito if and only if they bite me on soft flesh areas — my legs and arms, but they always bite me on my knees or toes or on my knuckles. It is impossible to scratch to satisfaction, and the itch electrifies through every nerves of my body.

If you haven’t been bitten on those areas I have mentioned you are truly LUCKY as heck; however, if you have than you know what I am talking about.

Last year alone we have spent over $350 on buying and stocking up on Cutter’s Citronella candles (the large bucket ones) for pest control purpose– we usually burn the candle around 4 o’clock at night and just let it burn through the night—we are constantly in and out of the house constantly (kids playing and taking the dogs out to their business).

SO .. I recently went t our local Walmart store and saw the employees stocking up spring items onto the shelves – seeds, plants, gardening equipment, and of course, citronella candles!!

I couldn’t believe it – the company drastically reduced the size of the product!

Honestly, I think it’s about the half of the size as the ones I bought last year for the same price. I know the times are tough, the economy is not that great, and many companies are using different strategies (price increase or less amount of goods in product for the same price as before or minimizing substitutes, and etc) to sustain their product sales; but come on – they didn’t even bother to “trick” us!

According to Lennon – editor in chief of The Daily Anchor, “… companies decreasing the size of their products in grocery stores while maintain the same price, effectively raising prices on the sly (Groceries: Same Prices, Less Product).”

For instance, Kellogg’s breakfast cereals from 14.5 oz to 12.1 oz, Edy’s Ice Cream from 1.75 quarts to 1.5 quarts, and Purina One dog food from 20lb to 18 lb. In another words, food is getting more expensive!

One of the main reasons why companies are choosing this creative marketing strategy is to avoid layoffs, and keep their balance book in check.

The bad thing about this is that they are deceiving their consumers – their bread and butter! American consumers might be many things, but we do not like to be deceived – it’s big no-no in my book; don’t know about you guys.

Here is another excerpt from marketplace.publicradio.org:

With the price commodities going up this year Luby says shrinking containers might be the lesser of three evils. The other two being cheaper ingredients, which would change the taste of your peanut butter, or alienating even the most loyal consumers with higher shelf prices. Now, Skippy is made by Unilever, a food conglomerate that also put a dent in the bottom of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and shrank your carton of Breyer’s ice cream. No one there would go on tape but when I raised the deception question, a spokesman said the new weight is clearly marked on the package. And Frank Luby says the per ounce and per pound labels on the grocery shelf really help.

Spending same amount of money to get les – it’s really hard to swallow, but what can you do right?

I have become more aware of “price/oz” labels, and I shop strictly with that information – it does make shopping so much easier. I would pay little bit more initially for a bigger product, but at the end it comes out cheaper – if you go by price/oz information.

Reference:

Lennon, A. The Daily Anchor. Retrieved on 4/1/2009 from http://www.thedailyanchor.com/2009/02/18/groceries-same-price-less-product/

Less product, same price. Marketplace: American Public Media. Retrieved 4/1/2009 from http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/08/pm_deceptive_packaging/#fbFormContainer