My New Washing Machine

In keeping with the “make do challenge”, I thought I’d show you another example of how we’re making do at our house:

I know, it’s not exactly new (more like 25 yrs old), but it’s new to me and it’s in my
house. What a huge improvement over hauling both kiddos with me and 3
loads of laundry to the laundromat weekly in between nap times!

My new 80 series washing machine

Do I love it?  of course not

Can I live with it? yes

Does it meet our need and keep me out of the laundromat? you bet

The best part is that I can use this one until it goes kerplut
and will save a ton of money.  In 6 weeks we’ve saved $26 on laundromat
fees (I figure utilities will cancel out my saved mileage) Our purchase price of this very stylin’ “new to us washer, you ask?  Just $30.  Yes, folks we’re making do with a 25 yr old washer that will have paid for itself and will be saving us money within 7 weeks of it’s purchase.  For me that’s an easy make do situation.

Next to this washer is a brand new dryer.  Quite the odd pair.  If you’d like to read our story of how we came about needing a washer yet have a brand new dryer, you can read more below.

When we moved to TX last May we decided to leave our washer and dryer behind and sell them with our house.  They were nearing 10 years old, so we thought that financially we’d be just as well off to get new ones. (the pump went out on the washer within a few weeks- $170 to fix!)  I actually don’t mind going to a laundromat because I can get all the laundry done for the week in 2 hours.  What I didn’t count on was taking a 3 yr old and a baby with me to the laundromat or having clothes and sheets from a sick child that had to wait until the next morning to get washed.  Our 2nd bathtub ended up being a soaking tub for stained clothes much of the time. 
When we bought our current house a few months back, a washer and dryer was first on my shopping list.  Problem was they were quite a bit more expensive than what we had paid 10 years earlier.  Most machines were much fancier too.  But I’m a plain Jane kind of girl.  I eventually settled on a pair for a total of $650!  The washer was a new fangled thing with a water level detector and a new innovative agitator.  In the first load went.  When it came out the clothes on top weren’t wet, and strangely it seemed like the same clothes that were last to go in the dryer.  Did I mention they still had dirt and food on them too?  I check all the settings and we tried it again.  I took a picture before the agitator starts and checked it just before the spin cycle.  Sure enough same clothes were on top and they were barely wet.  We called GE and a technician came out.  He said nothing was wrong with the machine, it just wasn’t designed well and he was getting lots of calls for the same problems, but there was no recall.  So the washing machine went back to the store.  I began searching for a  model with a regular agitator when we got that horrible call that our renters in our house in AR were breaking their lease.  So for 3 months I’ve had a dryer but no washer.  I watched craigslist from time to time, but didn’t feel good about spending $150-$200 on a used machine when we were supporting 2 mortgages on just 1 income.  A few Saturdays ago I got a phone call from a friend that there was a pair sitting by the road near her house for sale for $50.  They were older, but she said she would feel comfortable buying the washer.  She lives several miles from me so her husband went over to see if they would sell just the washer.  Sunday afternoon hubby and Turkey went to pick up my new washer for $30!  My husband was skeptical (understandably so if you could have seen how dirty and nasty this thing was) but we got it all hooked up and it’s working fine.

It’s a bit humourous to see the very old machine sitting next to the bright and shiny new one, but I keep reminding myself that it’s going to save us a lot of money that we can use to pay down the mortgage on our first home much faster.   Who knows, I may even buy another 25 yr old model after this one calls it quits!