When sometimes trying to be frugal turns out to be a big fat FAIL

DIY, decorating, being a homeowner,  and trying to be frugal isn’t always easy.  And sometimes it just fails…  I don’t want to give you this rosy picture that I buy Pottery Barn furniture at yard sale prices to furnish my home and it looks like a catalog and is always perfectly neat and tidy at all times.   Because that just isn’t always the case – sometimes we save up money and purchase things brand new at a store, buying and implementing  yard sale finds and thrift store finds takes a bit more effort than going and getting to pick out and buy every little decorating piece at a big store, and our house is hardly ever perfectly clean! 

But let’s talk about the being frugal part today.   Sometimes you can try and try to be frugal when you just need to bite the bullet and make a wise but more costly decision.  Like doing a home improvement that might not be a pretty or fun thing and might cost a pretty penny, but makes your house worth more or makes your house safe (like fixing a foundation problem, putting on a new roof, etc.)  And sometimes although maybe buying a couch at a yard sale for $50 might be the “frugal” option, if it is infested with bugs or smells, or is worn out, or just not your style, or not the correct size for your space… It may have been a much wiser financial decision to just save up a bit more to buy the new, right color/size/style for your home, and that is also clean and new for your family. 

So here’s a recent frugal fail and success I had in the master bathroom. 

This was my old beige shower curtain rod, and some curtain rod hooks that I actually purchased at Goodwill for $1.21 a year or so ago hoping to use them in the bathroom.  I knew I needed to do something about the rod and also possibly the hooks (although in person the hooks didn’t look as “yellowish”).

So of course spray paint came to the rescue.  I haven’t found a great chrome/silver/nickel spray paint but I had some of the Rust-Oleum Mirror Effect Specialty Spray.  So I stuck the hooks through some cardboard and sprayed the metal part with the mirror spray paint.

They turned out perfect – a nice shiny, chrome type color. 

Then I flipped over the cardboard and sprayed the design part of the hook with Rust-Oleum Spray Pain in Dark Gray.

So I thought I would spray paint the rod too.  Although I knew spray painting a smooth metal object like that can be much harder – you have to very light coats and many coats and getting the metal hooks constantly drug across it could cause a problem too.

So here it was…

And it wasn’t great – first it was a bright/stark white that looked a bit out of place.  And apparently I did a horrible job spray painting it because there was runs everywhere and after only 2-3 days it was completely scratched up and not pretty looking at all.    It’s pretty bad when your husband says what is wrong with the shower curtain, it doesn’t open and close good anymore?  FAIL.

But luckily last week Dollar General had a big 50% household sale and shower curtain rods happened to be included.  So I got a new, shiny silver rod that was $8.50 for $4.25. 

The scratched up, runny, spray painted rod will be retired to the garage to use in garage sales or to help organize things.  And the $4 silver rod will be enjoyed in our bathroom!

So I guess I could call this a half-success or half-fail since the curtain hooks turned out great and were a savings at $1.21 versus $8 or so in the store and hey, at least I got my store-bought, new rod at 1/2 off too! 

The moral of the store is don’t beat yourself up if your best attempts at being frugal don’t work – hey, at least you tried!  Save up, buy the thing you really had your heart set on or the thing that will work best for your family and find another are you can be frugal in.

Ever had a frugal fail?  I would love to hear your story too!