First, The Background
The waffle's have a microwave. Â It's a glorious little device that sits in our kitchen day in and day out.
There's really nothing fancy about our microwave. It's white, typical size, has a bunch of buttons, but when it comes to heating up food, it gets the job done.
It's also been in our family for some time now. Honestly, I can't even remember when we got it, it's been that long.
And it still works. It works like a champ.
Except For One Thing
There is one little thing that I should mention. The start button has gone caput.
All the other buttons, the numbers, defrost, popcorn, baked potatoes, they all work. Just not the start button.
On the day we realized this terrible occasion, we were heart-broken. Â We tried and tried and tried to the get the start button to work.
And by tried and tried and tried, I mean we kept pressing it, harder and harder, crossing our fingers that it would magically start working again.
But to no avail.
It's been many months now, maybe even a year, and the start button is still "out for lunch".
But that hasn't stopped us from using our microwave.
Of course, we originally thought that we should just go pick up a new one that has a start button that works, but then our frugal, some might call it cheap, mind took over.
Why go get a new one, when we can improvise and still use the one that we have.
And so we did.
Who Needs a Start Button?
By now, Mr. Wow and I are used to it.
Just as quickly as it becomes habit to punch in the desired time and hit start, we learned to  hit "popcorn" or "potatoes" and it just starts automatically.
Now the only tricky part is that those have set times that you can't adjust, so you have to pay attention a little more.
If you only need 30 or 45 seconds, then you have to stop it at that time.
Of course, there have been
But a little overheated food or drink, never hurt anybody. Ok, ok, maybe a little burn, but just gotta let it sit and cool for a second.
Others Think It is Weird
Like I said before, Mr. Wow and I are totally used to it.
But when friends come over, they don't get it.
Over the summer, we had the 1500 Days family come visit and Mrs.1500 took special notice of our little microwave.
I could see the disbelief in her eyes. She could not get over how we were still using it.
Cheap Vs Frugal: The 5 Principles
I was listening to the Pour Not Pour podcast the other day, and as Matt and Joel discussed the difference between having a frugal mindset and having a cheap mindset, I couldn't refrain from thinking about our microwave.
Are we being frugal by not buying a new microwave?
Or are we being just down right cheap?
Here are their 5 principles they mentioned to consider whether you are being frugal or cheap.
- Short term cost vs long term benefits
- Cheap people only consider the short term cost, rather than the long term benefit. Frugal people might spend more money up front if it means greater benefit in the long run.
- Black Friday Mindset
- Here they talk about being mindful of the things you spend money on. For example, cheap people either never spend money, even when necessary, or load up on crap because its on sale. Where as frugal people will spend money on something that brings them joy.
- Take YOUR time and energy into account when making a purchase.
- They mention that cheap people will drive all across town to save money on gas or DIY projects that they could easily hire someone to do, not taking into consideration their time and energy. Frugal people will consider the time and effort it will take and make decisions accordingly, even if it means spending a little more money.
- Research purchases
- Cheap people will buy the cheapest item, while frugal people will research their purchases and buy the best one for their needs. They still might be able to get a good deal, but they also might be spending more for a killer warranty or a product that will last longer.
- Your money saving impact on others
- Cheap people will skimp out whenever possible, not attending to others that it might be impacting, i.e. not tipping at a restaurant to save money. Frugal people will spend a little extra money if it makes a difference to other people.
Applying Their Principles to Our Microwave
Ain't she a beaut?
So what about us and our microwave? Using these principles, what is the bottom line?
Principle 1: On the one hand, we are using a device that has already been made and still works, minus the start button. I am also actually considering completely doing away with having a microwave, but am still weighing out the long term benefits.
Principle 2: We are being mindful about our purchases and not just rushing out to buy a new one immediately because it was on sale.
Principle 3 & 4: If we decide to get a new microwave, I'd want to do a little research on  which one to spend money on, while also taking into account the time and effort in doing the research, as well as where we would buy it.
Principle 5: And it doesn't impact other people, because even when we have company, we are the ones doing the cooking.
The Ruling...
After a little back-of-the-napkin math, I'd like to think that we lean more to the frugal side, with everything considered.
But I'm curious what you all think.
Are we crazy cheap for continuing to use a microwave where the start button is broken? Or are we being frugally economical? Weigh in below in the comments.
💬 44 comments
We had a microwave where the plate stopped spinning so I ordered a new motor on Ebay, opened it up on the bottom, and replaced it. It was super easy, just unplug one motor and replace it.
Was it "worth it?" If you did the value of your time and yadda yadda yadda, no. But I liked the idea of just throwing out the burned out motor rather than the whole thing just because it failed.
Just pressing a few other buttons, light work. :)
For yours, it looks like you can take off the panel and clean the contact strip between the control panel and control board. It might have gotten dirty. If you google it (I searched for "sharp carousel start button stopped working") there's a fixya page with an explanation. Hope that helps!
Refusing to spend the money to repair it again (it cost way too much to repair), we’ve been debating a new fridge, but I can’t bring myself to discard a perfectly functional fridge just for the convenience of a water dispenser.
i'll compare your nuker to our 2004 mazda that doesn't start in "park" like it's supposed to. this started a couple of years ago and is likely a bad switch but if you put in the key and put the car in neutral it starts just fine. we're gonna roll with it like your microwave.
I don't think it's cheap, though! To me, it's only cheaping out when you're sacrificing quality or safety in the name of saving a buck.
Depends a lot of what total value you place on convenience, cost, environmental, etc... I'm sure that there are some things you in your life you would deem important/critical that you wouldn't hesitate to repair or replace...other things, not so much.
Wow, that was hard. I mean, the struggle is real.
Of course I can't leave the house for long while its running for fear of forgetting, but my mummy always told me to never run the dryer and no be home anyway for fear of lint fires. So I wouldn't do that anyway.
Good stuff, and kinda Stoic :)
The landfill doesn't want your microwave, :)
I think Mrs. Picky Pincher hit it on the head. It's resourceful if it's your are just working around an small annoyance, it's cheap if it affects other things (like the few times the food ended up burning, which isn't an issue if it's rare).
The only thing I'll say about your workaround is that you usually can't control the microwave's output power on preset settings. I don't know if that's an issue for you, but that limits the use of a microwave altogether (other than like TV dinners and popcorn, most things tend not to do well on max). I mostly use my microwave to thaw things, not cook them, so that workaround wouldn't work for me (I can only imagine frozen raw chicken after 8 rounds of popcorn mode...)
If you called him "cheap" he'd probably smile and say, "How kind of you to notice!" Myself, I'd reply, "You're mistaken. 'Cheap' means someone is hurting from the behavior. What I am is frugal. Big difference."
I say go for it and see how long you can make this appliance last. Five years from now, write an update to the column and say, "Still using it!"
Bookmarking your site.