Sometimes, knowing what to do in a situation can save you a ton of money. Case in point, last night, one of my worst fears was realized. No, nothing happened to the kids. My cell phone fell out of my pocket, and into a toilet. If it was exactly like my worst fear, it would have fallen into a porta-potty, but I wouldn't fish that out for anything, so this post wouldn't exist and you wouldn't be hearing about it. But still, a toilet of any sort is pretty gross...and dropping a cell phone into any body of water is usually fatal for the phone, regardless how clean or dirty the water is. Fortunately, I was able to save the phone in this case!
The first thing I did was pull it out of the water (we will no longer talk about the nature of the water) and popped the battery out, so it would have less of a chance to fry the circuits. Then, I towel dried the phone to the best of my ability. (At this point, my husband grabbed the phone and turned it on to see if it worked at all. This is a major no-no, since if there was any water left inside, it could kill the phone. Luckily, that didn't happen in this case and instead we just observed the phone kind of worked; it spazzed when certain buttons were pressed, at which point, I reclaimed the phone and did what I knew one is supposed to do if one's phone gets wet). Finally, I stuck the phone, with the battery out and the back of the phone left off, in a small, sealed container of rice overnight. (Then I thoroughly washed my hands, but that's more to do with the water it fell in and not an actual step to saving a wet phone) This morning, I took the phone out, turned it on, and it worked perfectly! (And then I thoroughly disinfected the phone and washed my hands again! No sense in disinfecting it if it couldn't have been saved.)
See, this isn't the first time I'd dropped a phone in water. The first time it fell in the bathtub when I was talking on it while getting a bath ready for one of the kids. That time, I didn't know what to do and the phone fried. But when I came across articles or news stories about what to do when cell phones (or other small electronic devices? Seems like it should work for other things too), I paid attention, since I knew it could happen to me again. As a result, I saved my phone and my husband is in awe of my powers, although I'm sure he'll never admit it...at least not to me.
A lot of time, saving money is just a matter of being prepared. Sometimes, like this example, it is having a key piece of knowledge at a crucial time. Sometimes, it is getting ready for an opportunity, like clipping coupons, even collecting duplicate coupons, then waiting until that product goes on sale to get a really great deal, hopefully getting enough to last until the next time such opportunity will arise. Sometimes, it is noticing key bits of information like what the prices are at different places. Or sometimes it is acknowledging an upcoming need and preparing for it when a good opportunity comes about, like knowing your kids will outgrow their current clothes and gathering up free clothes in the next sizes up before they need them. There are lots of opportunities to prepare to save, we just have to reach out and take them...even though most of the time, it isn't reaching into a toilet, thankfully!
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