Jill Kamp Melton

Date Added: Monday, July 28th, 2003

It will cost you to be lazy.

Have you seen the ad for a restaurant that starts, "Don’t feel like cooking?"

It might as well read, "When you want to waste money, spend it here."

Do you know why prices are so high in the DC area for almost everything? Prices are high because people pay them. Period. End of discussion.

For five years and then some, I have been begging, pleading, and cajoling you to be careful with your money so you can "live rich without being rich."

And yet you allow yourself to get ripped off at every turn.

Here are some current examples. There is a house for sale in N. Arlington. The house is $675,000 and the adjacent lot makes the package $1.5. This is an ugly house. The lot has a tree at least 100 years old smack in the middle of it. So to really enjoy this home, you need to have an architect redo the exterior and completely update the interior. You need to cut down the tree in the middle of the lot and then spend at least 600,000 to build a new house to compare with others on the block. Are you kidding? Even if you sold the homes after doing the renovation and building, what kind of profit would you have? And you would have to have quite a stash of cash to do this because it would be at least a year or more until you could do the work and then sell. There is a rich sucker born every minute. Don’t let it be you.

I know someone who hired Dominion Floors in Arlington to repair and refinish some wood floors for $4500 last fall. Less than a year later Old N’ New Floors, Inc. in Springfield gave an estimate on comparable work in the same house for $1500. Call them when getting estimates at 703-642-5535.

I know someone who needed a fancy room cleaned and vacuumed. A painter left the windows slightly open when sanding them on the outside and some dust got inside. A cleaning crew said they would do the work for $300. Meanwhile the owners decided they were capable of doing it themselves for nothing. It took two hours with three people working together.

I know someone else who hired Croppe Metcalf to repair an air conditioner because they had always used them. Repairs plus labor cost more than $1600. Then the same people needed similar work done on a different a/c system. They polled their friends for recommendations and called Logan Air Conditioning in Alexandria (703) 751-4114 and spent only $300.

Where will it end?

Who knows? We are in a position to do something about price creep yet what do we do? We just pay outrageous sums for everything and think that’s the way it has to be.

If someone quotes you a lot of money for some work or item, don’t pay it. Discuss it, research other options and wait, if necessary until a cheaper way is found.

"Consider the ant…," says the wise man who wrote the book of Proverbs. We make our money live ants, slowly and steadily and yet we spend without restraint.

A year and half ago the Lexus dealer in our neighborhood told us that our Lexus SUV needed new brakes. We went to C.A.R.S. on Walney Road in Chantilly and were told that we had at least 8,000 miles left on those brakes. Here it is 18 months later and those brakes are still good and we’ve stalled off the expense.

Just recently Judy of Arlington asked me where to purchase fabric for 120" round tablecloths. I sent her to discountfabricsusa.com in Thurmont, MD where I sent you readers several months ago. She returned empty handed but then found a better deal online that I pass along to you. She "googled" discount fabrics and came up with www.wholesale-table-linens.com also reachable at 1-866-827-4177 and got a quote of $30 per tablecloth for fabric plus labor in lovely sea foam washable polyester. Can’t beat that!

Another reader from Oregon wants to decorate a 40 room inn and had never heard of discount blinds and wallpaper. No matter where you live in the US these things are available by tracking the ads in the back of Southern Living or other home décor magazines and paying 80-90% off the retail price. Who wouldn’t do that? I’m ashamed to say that thousands of people in the DC area love to pay more because they do.

Would you like to know how to save money? Don’t spend it.

Do you know what happens when you wait on a purchase? Nothing.