I am obviously interested in saving money since I have a blog on this site, but a lot of my decisions these days are also driven by hating waste. So many of the things in our society now seem so unnecessarily wasteful and disposable.

Recently the cord on my vacuum cleaner got partially cut (right into the wires while I was using it- sparks everywhere!) This vacuum was a gift about 5 years ago, and when I googled replacement cords, they recommended replacing it if the cost of repair would be more than half the cost of a new vacuum. The vacuum costs about $160 new, and when I called two repair places, they wanted over $100 with parts and labor. I decided to call one more place that is small and family owned but further away, and they guessed maybe $70-80. Even though it would have been faster and easier to go 5 miles down the street to pick up a new one, I just could not bring myself to get rid of a perfectly functional machine because the electrical cord was damaged!

When I got there and they saw it, the owner told me that I didn’t really need to replace the cord, they could just cut about a foot off and attach a new plug at the end, which would mean they didn’t have to disassemble it and the labor cost would be very low, just a few minutes of work! I ended up paying $14 and it works just fine!

I am grateful there are still places out there that will repair appliances!