The scene: my house.
The problem: our car was buried under 16 inches of snow.
The undesirable solution: spend all day taking turns with my hubby, and likely being unable to move today, shoveling the driveway and sidewalks.
The opportunity: 2 teenagers ran our bell and asked if we wanted them to shovel our walk, and driveway for $40.
My husband and I took one look at each other, and said yes. We purchased our day yesterday, and it felt REALLY good. We made good use of our time too, by playing with the kids, getting work done, and relaxing (which is rare in our house).
Many of our neighbor’s have snowblowers, and in years past we’ve never had an issue with someone coming and helping out before we even asked, but there was SO much snow it took hours for everyone to dig out their own drives. Buying a snowblower isn’t cost effective in our area, it’s cheaper for us to pay someone, or rely on the goodwill of neighbors for the rare, big storm.
I admired the kids. They worked hard. They saw an opportunity and a need and dove in. We were the 2nd house they dug out yesterday. Maybe they did 4 or 5 houses altogether. $80-100 each for a day’s work.
Did we plan to spend that $40? No, but we had it thanks to smart spending this holiday season. In this case I saved money in other areas, so when this opportunity came along we were able to take advantage of it.
Did you get snowed in during the big snowstorm of ’09? Did you pay someone to dig you out, live in a development with an association that manages it for you, or did you do it yourself?
Kelly
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