Friday Frugal Tips – DIY to Save BUCKS

Hello and welcome back for another Friday Frugal Tip.  Today I’d like to share a way I saved a large amount of money on fencing project this past week. 

The Culprit

Fletcher is my Black Lab (pictured on the right).  In Dave Ramsey’s terms, he’d be the Free Spirit.  Fletcher is always getting into trouble and causing problems for me.  I love the dog, but sometimes he can be too much to handle. 

I live in an older neighborhood with small lots and houses that sit a few yards from each other.  Most homes have fences on all sides, but somehow ours is only fenced on two sides.  Usually this would be a blessing, and promote neighborly love and friendship.  It has proved to promote the love of Fletcher venturing next door and “do his business”, and my neighbor loving to throw “the business” back over in my yard.

The Money Problem

A fence needed to be installed to keep the Culprit in my yard.  This has been anything but an easy solution.  It turns out that in our city, a fence cannot be installed by a 3rd party without having a lot survey documented with City Hall.  The survey is usually passed from party to party during the sale of the house.  Unfortunately ours wasn’t passed on during our closing.  I was informed about it at the time, but assured it didn’t matter.  Lesson learned, I should have insisted on the survey before the sale could be completed.

A new survey could be completed from a local survey company at the cost of $700 to $900.  Not a good use of my limited financial resources while in debt.  The cost to have a black chain link fence installed along my property line is $1,200.  Add the $1,200 to the survey required and the grand total is $1,900 to $2,100.  Damn, that’s a lot of money just to keep the Culprit from causing a nuclear war between neighbors.

The Solution

The solution needed to keep the dog in the yard and not break the budget at the same time.  I stumbled on a nifty little concept while cruising the aisles of Lowes and Home Depot.  Turns out there is product on the market called Welded Wire Fencing.  WWF is just a fancy name for chicken wire, which in now been altered to “Poultry Fence“.  I guess the Chicken Union (CU)  lawyers clucked with the Politically Correct (PC) lawyers and renamed it.

The fencing is cheap and can be installed quickly without any expensive tools.  After purchasing two 50 foot rolls and the required amount of posts, the total monetary damage was $156.  The time required to install the fence was just over 2 hours, and required the help of my wife and 3 year old son.  My son performed the difficult task of making sure that all the tools were placed just out of my reach, I believe it was his innate sense for safety that prompted such action.  I’m also happy to report that there were no injuries or arguing during the installation process.  It was an extremely fun family task to complete.

The Result

Fletcher has changed his name to Inmate #007.  The fence stands at 4 foot high, and he is unable to scale it.  My neighbor is extremely happy.  Even though she does not talk with us, I could tell by the smile she had after noticing the new fence.  Now the fence isn’t the prettiest fence around, but it serves it’s purpose.  The lesson I’ve learned through the process is that you don’t have to follow the main stream thinking to solve a problem.  A little personal investigation can save you money.  Our savings came out to be at least $1,744.