life in a tiny apartment.

Tip #59: Maybe splurge just a little, sometimes.

I like to think of myself as being fairly resourceful. Once a girl scout, always a girl scout. Or something similar. When we first moved into this apartment we had something of a curtain conundrum. Where in past houses I’d had luck with an old bit of table cloth and some twine (there’s a little peek here), this window was tall and our neighbors’ buildings taller, so we needed a more privacy.

We had an old linen shower curtain from my sister that was the right length, and folded, the right width.  Perfect. A few weeks after moving in, I tripped down to the neighborhood iron works and asked them to cut me a length of a thin iron rod. The gentleman working there obliged and even offered to drill a hole in both ends so that I could secure the rod to two hooks. Five dollars later, I walked home with a curtain rod. We used these hooks and bit of wire to secure the rod safely. We rigged a rod pocket by folding the curtain and fastening it with oversized safety pins. It wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was a good fake. I promise, you couldn’t tell it was shower curtain.

The only trouble has been that for the past year and half getting the thing closed each night took more than a bit of patience and fancy footwork. It didn’t exactly slide smoothly. If my neighbors have seen more of me in my skivvies than they’d like, I blame it all on the pesky curtain.

This past weekend, James and I decided to take the plunge and buy a real curtain. I can be stubborn. I like to do things myself or not at all. But the splurge we made this weekend has made all the difference.  We even decided to replace the other shower curtain hanging on our closet with a real curtain. Fancy.

Personal finacnes are…personal. What’s a splurge for me might not be a splurge for you, or vice versa. But sometimes spending just a little bit more than $0, ends up being worth it.