Monday, July 9, 2012

$300 Happy Meal. Kids are Expensive!

It's true what they say, "kids are expensive!"

Diapers, wipes, clothes, shoes, food, toys, strollers... it all adds up.

These things you can predict and save up for... plan your budget accordingly...

A few weeks ago, however, we discovered an unplanned expense.

Our hallway toilet downstairs had been clogged.
We tried 2 different plungers and a snake... nothing seemed to help.
After 3 weeks of trying, Mark gave the green light to call a plumber.

The plumber... God Bless him... spent 2 hours - working up a sweat - trying to unclog the toilet.

His guess?

Some kind of toy was flushed down the toilet.

{Insert mental picture of Ethan with a glowing halo around his precious little head}

The plumbing company - God Bless them - charged us $360 for their fruitless efforts.

The toilet was still clogged and it looked like we'd need a new toilet.

Mark came home and told the guy we could have bought 3 (nice) toilets at the price...

He said his company would be happy to put the price of today's labor toward a new toilet but we'd have to pay to install it...

???

"No thanks."

As a side note, the plumber said that he's a handy man who will work for $20 an hour next time we needed any help.

"Thanks. We'll keep that in mind."

So for $360 we had come 360 back to square one.

Mark decided to take a turn, once again, before buying a new toilet.

He could see the bright yellow object lodged in there (we took guesses: rubber ducky? the yellow boat he played with during bath time...?) but didn't have the right tools to get it out.

He said he needed something as small as a dental tool but longer...

As a very last result (thinking we'd buy a new toilet anyway...) Mark picked up the sucker and dropped it on the grass several times.

Out popped a yellow submarine with Ronald McDonald on it.

And that was our $300 Happy Meal.


Problem solved.
Toilet fixed.
Mark installed the same toilet back where it belongs.

Oh the joys of home ownership... and having a 2-year-old!
:)

4 comments:

  1. Oh no!!! But a good story that you'll be telling for years :)

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  2. Loved this! We have had many plumbers come due to diapers, wipes, etc. but no yellow ubmaribe (yet)!

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  3. This was definitely an expensive memory!

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  4. This was definitely an expensive memory!

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