My First Stab at Being Mustachian - Installing a Clothesline

I have always considered myself a somewhat frugal person (hence reviewing products, the original purpose of this blog), and my husband and I paid off our home a few months ago. As thrilled as I was about this, I became nervous, unsure what my next financial goal would be and how I was going to get there. My husband and I are currently saving money to buy a rental property, but what can I do now?

I was discussing this with a dear friend, and she mentioned Mr. Money Mustache. I have now spent hours upon hours reviewing his site, and I am going to try and become more Mustachian myself.

My very first Mustachian move was convincing my husband to install a clothesline. My mother uses one to this day, and my mother-in-law has used them in the past, so it was a natural first start. I gave my husband a $30 budget to buy supplies, not wanting the return on investment to take too long. We do two loads of laundry a week, and I am figuring each one is about .50 cents. Therefore, we are saving $1 a week and will recoup our costs in 30 weeks (just under four months). AND - my doctor told me I needed more Vitamin D in my life, so this should help with that.

My husband, of course, never does anything halfway. He is building me a pulley system - I will be able to stand on the stoop of our back porch and pull the clothesline to me. Check out the stainless steel pulleys we purchased for $5.33 each - these will never rot away or rust:

We also got parachute rope: $15.48 for 150 feet. My husband insists that this rope will wear better than most and it was also available in the length he wanted. We chose navy blue, as he said, the Navy chose it for a reason (and black was not available).

I also bought 100 clothespins at Wal-Mart for the low price of $1.94 (who knew clothespins were so cheap?!?) Finally, we bought a couple of concrete screws and a turnbuckle, to make sure the line stays tight. Total cost: about $37.00. A little over budget, but this was mostly to pay for the stainless steel, which will ensure our clothesline will last a long time and only add about seven weeks to recuperating the cost.

It will be a few weeks before it is installed, as the stainless steel pulley is coming from China. I will post an update then!