September was a bit of a milestone month as it marked the first time since I started to learn about home improvement that I actually got paid for something I did. A client of my mom’s asked her to ask me if I could fix her vacuum cleaner. This is the vacuum:
The client owns a Hoover Constellation Eight Sixty Nine that she received as a wedding gift that stopped working. I didn’t actually know if I could get it working again but agreed to take a look at it. It turned out that the plug of the cord had become brittle with age and had snapped.
I explained the fault to her and we came to an agreement that I would replace the plug and buy her new vacuum bags (as I discovered hers was filled to the top as well). She ended up giving me $50 for the hardware I needed.
Once I got the replacement plug I installed it and the vacuum worked again. The vacuum bags are currently stuck in limbo since Canada Post has gone on strike while they were in transit so that will have to wait a bit. I tried giving back her change but she insisted I keep the rest for my effort which was appreciated but not expected in any way. The net amount I ended up keeping was $18.26.
Besides that I surprised myself by earning a total of $29.25 from canning this month. I didn’t think that I had raised that much but I guess it adds up.
The Tools
With the unexpected boost of the vacuum repair money I purchased an automatic wire stripper and a digital multimeter from Aliexpress.
The wire stripper is extremely useful as it’s a complete pain in the ass to strip a wire properly with a knife. Equally the multimeter is just as useful in its own way for other projects.
The third thing I purchased was a bit of a luxury item. I bought 2 bags of 50 plastic food prep gloves from Dollarama. Canning is dirty and these gloves save me from having grubby hands when I’m out and about.
The fourth and fifth things I bought this month was a speculative buy. They are a Snap On ignition tune up set and 4 Snap On nail punch/chisels.
I paid $12.50 for the wrench set and $3.00 for the punches from a thrift store.
I don’t have a need for the tools right now but I’ve heard that Snap-On is a well regarded and expensive brand. I’m going to try to flip them on eBay and if I make any money I’ll put that towards other tools I do need. Worst case scenario is if I don’t sell them I’ll just clean them up and keep them.
The last thing I bought this month was a pair of G8 LED bulbs from Amazon.
I found an articulated desk lamp in the trash earlier this month. It’s one of those desk lamps with a swing arm that you can put into almost any position. It looks like one of those Pixar lamps they always have in their opening animations on movies. Anyway, it had a halogen bulb in it that had burnt out and I replaced it with an LED version since it will run at 3W vs halogen at 20W with the same or better light output. It was more expensive per unit than ordering a 10 pack of halogen bulbs but I figured I will make it up with the energy savings over time. It’s actually very convenient that I found a lamp because now that I’ve taken out the AC for the year I have my workspace back and the old lamp I had on the desk has been moved to another part of the house so I had nothing to replace it with.
Financial Summary for September 2025
Revenue
- Amount carried over from previous month: $10.09
- Cans/Bottles: $29.25
- Working Money: $18.26
Total Amount: $57.59
Expenses
- Wire Strippers: $8.84
- Digital Multimeter: $7.99
- Poly Gloves $2.88
- Snap on Ignition Wrench Set: $12.50
- Snap on Punches: $3.00
- G8 LED bulbs x 2: $8.04
Total Expenses: $44.24
Summary
September went better than expected. I have hope that every month will be as positive as this one but I’m not naive.
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