Tiny towels.

The laundry is like the mail, it just keeps coming. Lucky for me, I only have my own clothes to worry about. I can imagine the washing machine of a small family would have to run day and night. Until someone invents an inexpensive household laundry washing robot that can hang my shirts, I'm probably going to be doing my own laundry for the foreseeable future.

When I was in Thailand on vacation a few years ago I had no idea that it would be a clean laundry paradise. For around $1.50 or 50 bhat I could drop off a bag of laundry at a local black market laundromat. It would be available for pick up the next morning. It was nicely folded and smelled great. Talk about luxury, I truly felt like a prince. If it was that cheap to have my laundry here in America I would never do it myself again. Sadly that is not the case. Did I have any guarantees that I would ever see my clothes again after dropping them off? I did not, but that is what made it exciting. 

I do my laundry every three days. It adds up quickly. I exercise every other day which produces a steady inventory of sweaty gym clothes that I do not want to leave unwashed for too long. I am constantly sweating just walking around in the growing Texas heat so I often change into a dry shirt in the afternoon. I have a mesh bag that I use to hold all the dirty clothes so I can easily see when it is time to do a load.

The problem comes in when I have more than one load to do at a time.

We have a laundry facility in our building that is inexpensive. $1 to wash and $1 to dry. Let us say I have enough laundry that it really will not fit into one load. I would have to spend another $1 to get this partial load cleaned. The dryers are bigger than the washers so I could combine the separate groups into one. On the surface this seems like no big deal but it adds up. That is $3 extra a week and $156 a year. I could just jam the excess clothing into a single load but I am not sure everything would get clean. There are also cameras in the facility so if the machine was to break from overfilling, I would become a prime suspect. Although unlikely, I could be held financially liable which would erase any gains from the overstuffed strategy. I could also just hold back a small portion of laundry for the next wash but then I might end up doing laundry more frequently which would also increase the expense and time commitment.

Then it hit like a chilled pint glass of Sailor Jerry spiced rum. Each time I work out, I need to bring my own towel. In order to keep costs low, Planet Fitness does not provide towels. I was formally bringing in these huge beach towels which I had to wash constantly. I estimated that the two towels alone were taking up about 30% of the space of each load of laundry. Initially I thought about just not bringing a towel at all and just air drying myself. I tried it once but it just took too long. I also felt odd just standing around waiting to dry.

After much brainstorming, research, consultation and consideration an idea formed. I proceeded to my local Walmart (I always buy local) and bought two crisp thin new towels for $6 + tax. These towels were at least a forth of the weight and still long enough to wrap around my waist. I can finally fit all my laundry into a single load. Crisis Averted.

Now I just need to figure out what I am going to do with that theoretical extra $150 each year. Just like the laundry, the problems keep coming. Hopefully I can retain my steady stream of innovative solutions for these pressing issues.

 Someday.

Cheap sunglasses

There is nothing like enjoying a bright sunny day. Texas is blessed with an abundance of sunshine which is nice until you misplace your sunglasses. Taking off my prescription eye glasses and dawning a pair of sunglasses is fine unless I want to drive, play Frisbee golf, look out the window, try and cross a road or basically do anything outside. This was not such a problem in the northern climate where I am from since it was not quite so bright out.

Lucky for me, top scientists have created transition lenses that tint based on the amount of light they are exposed to. This my not seem all that cutting edge to anyone who is accustomed to wearing glasses but I have only started wearing them in the last few years. Science! I decided that I needed to purchase a pair of these glasses. It seems easier then having to carry around multiple pairs of eye wear and even if I did want to do that, no one looks good sporting a fanny pack.

My original prescription glasses cost around $270. I had heard a rumor that people were shopping for things on the internet now. While most fashion conscious individuals and rational humans would never dream of buying something that would be sitting on their face for years site unseen, I found out that I can if the price is right. Who am I trying to impress anyway?

I called up the Sam's Club where I took my last eye test. The clerk told me that my prescription had expired but was happy to give me the specs of my current glasses. Armed with this information I fired up my laptop at the public library and began my quest. I searched "Cheap transition lenses recommendations" and found a review of various reputable vendors.

After reading a few reviews I decided to go with www.39dollarglasses.com. As you might imagine, on the site you can choose from a wide range of frames that are all $39. I picked a nice black rimmed frame called "the scholar". Part of my motivation for picking this style is that I find them attractive on all women who wear them. Therefore I deduced that I would attract women who would see me wearing them and feel that we have something in common. Hope springs eternal.

The frames were $39 as promised but then I had to add the transition lens feature. That cost an additional $60. I signed up for their promotional news letter and received a $10 off product code for my order. I proceeded to the digital check out clicked free shipping and put in my credit card. My order was going to be $109 after the tax. I looked all over and could not find a place to put in my product code. I went back to the beginning and found it. As I clicked through my order, the free shipping had been raised to $4.95. This had to be a glitch so I called customer support.

A pleasant woman with a New York accent picked up and listened intently to my problem. She informed me that once the price of an order falls below $100 the customer looses the free shipping benefit. I argued that the intent of the product code was to grant a new customer $10, not cancel their free shipping. I asked if she could do anything about this but she was firm about their policy. I explained that this made me unhappy and I was thinking of placing my order with another company if they could not work something out.

At the conclusion of that constructive conversation I picked the next company on my list, www.eyebuydirect.com. I'm glad I did. After searching through their offerings, I found a similar pair of frames for $9. Once I added all the other features my order came out to around $70 which included shipping. As I clicked through my order I came to the discount code section. I wondered if I could just look up a product code on the internet. Turns out you can. The site www.retailmenot.com has huge lists of product codes. I found one for eye buy direct for 20% off and free shipping. Seemed to good to be true but it worked like a charm. My total order dropped to $53 with free shipping. I was happier than a flower salesman on valentines day.

The true cost of these sweet new spectacles should also include the 5 hours I spent fooling around and the internet and the frustration that comes with dealing with customer service. With that in mind I still obtained a great deal and if I end up with a sexy new girlfriend that will be ok too. 

5 days later.