How A Digital Camera Helps Me Save Money And Time

This year I found a great use for a digital camera that saves money and time - providing visual records for my do-it-yourself projects.

In July, we discovered a small amount of water leaking from under the toilet. I was pretty sure the problem was a deteriorating wax seal, which I had experience with repairing in our previous house many years ago. With repair instructions in hand, I took off the toilet and the old wax seal. The flange had rusted and wasn't functional any longer, causing the seal to be insufficient. Unfortunately, I had not seen the type of flange before, since our previous house was 70 years older.

I knew I could describe the problem to the plumbing expert at the Lowe's. However, I realized that a picture would be much more effective. So I took several pictures of the problem and took my digital camera with me to Lowe's. Upon looking at the pictures, the plumbing associate immediately said, " I know exactly what you need ...." The solution worked, and we saved a minimum of $135 for a service call to fix it.

In a second situation, I used the digital camera in a different way to save time when doing a memory upgrade for our desktop computer. In order to access the memory slot, I needed to disconnect all the wires from the printer, monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers. Normally, I mark each connection since I don't want to take time to figure out where each wire attaches. This time, I took a digital picture of the back of the desktop unit, which served the same purpose as marking each wire. The memory installation went well and I saved a lot of time (and frustration:-).

In these examples, our digital camera provide an immediate accurate visual recording of some important facts and information. For each case, the result was superior to using my usual methods of memory or documenting on paper.

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Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Paul Anderson

This is not financial or repair advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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