When Your Friends Know You (Financially) Better Than You Know Yourself

Last year Molly Lewis and Josh A. Cagan wrote a musical called Thanksgiving Vs. Christmas, and one of the jokes was that everyone in the cast played a caricaturized version of themselves. So my character was obsessed with saving money, getting things done, and doing everything on her own. (There was a scene in which I was obsessed with Fireball whisky, but it got cut.)

I mention this because Molly asked me what I thought of the character, and I was all “yeah, it’s 99 percent accurate, except for the part where I save money by upcycling trash, LOL.”

Well. Take a look at the WallPops chandelier lamp that I hung in my apartment last night.

You might not be able to see it until you look closely. Here, I’ll help you:

That is a broken zipper pull from a Lands’ End duffel bag that I taped to the ceiling.

I feel like I should repeat this, for emphasis: I needed a second hook for the lamp cord, so instead of doing something sensible like ordering one of those 3M sticky hooks from Amazon, I opened up my box of broken things that I swear I’m going to fix when I have the time, took out a broken zipper pull, and taped it to the ceiling.

I saved $3 on a sticky hook, and I think Molly Lewis and Josh A. Cagan knew more about me than I was willing to admit to myself.

This story is part of The Billfold’s DIY Month.

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