Holy cow, I won something!  Earlier in the week I participated in a credit card cutting contest and I got second prize!  Woohoo!  *backflips* (ok, not really…I’ll break something)

Check out the post over at The Penny Saved to see the announcement with my picture there.  Some of the other entries look pretty impressive.  Too bad there were only 17 of the 30 participants required to allow for the iPods to be given away.  I think I would have gotten the black one had there been enough participants.  I’m still happy with the results winning a few ebooks and some advertising space on the site.  I’ve jumped into dozens of online contests and just never won anything, this is NEAT-O! 

Today’s post is a rather amusing one I thought I’d share amongst all the number games.  It’s just amazing what kids will do sometimes that will end up costing you something.  Luckily, I think I can cover this one for under $10. 

The Plot Builds

Photo by Asurroca

So, my 6-yr old daughter decides she’s going to do mommy a big favor and clean the bathroom.  This is the bathroom that would normally get used by anyone visiting, but is also the one the little kids use most of the time as well since it’s the most convenient to the rest of the house.  Keep in mind that the bathroom is already pretty clean before any of this happens…because mommy JUST CLEANED IT.

Well, it just so happened that mommy left the bottle of whatever spray-bleach she’d been using on the counter.  So, my daughter just grabbed it and started spraying away…tub, sink, toilet, floor…

"Oh no, I used a lot…" thought my daughter.  "I better wipe all that up now and dry it all off."

Painful and Funny

So she grabs the nice DARK GREEN guest towels off the towel rack and uses it to "dry up" all the bleach-filled cleaning agent.  After she was done, she hung it right back up on the towel rack.

"Good as new!" she thought.  So she ran off to find mommy, but got sidetracked and ended up playing or something for awhile.  Maybe an hour later, she remembers and runs to the bathroom while mommy was in the hallway.  "Look mommy, I cleaned the bathroom for you!"

Then a look of horror struck mommy’s face as she noticed her nice not-quite green towel hanging on the wall.

Still keeping her half-smiling composure, mommy explained what happens to colors when mixed with "cleaning stuff".

Lesson Learned

Clean bathroom, 10 minutes.  Supplies used, $0.50.  Replacing a high-quality towel, $8.00.  Having to explain what bleach does to color with your children…priceless.

I’ll bet from now on, mommy and daddy make extra efforts to actually follow the "KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN" warnings on the labels. 

Enjoy this?  Have any mishaps from your children that cost you a little?  I’d like a good laugh if you have a similar story.  Share with a comment or post on your own and send me a link!

A couple of months ago I stumbled onto this salary counter that shows your salary adding up as you stare at the page.  It’s pretty neat to look at for awhile, even if you don’t make all that much.

It brings back memories of a couple buddies in college laughing about how much we were getting paid every time we had to reboot our computers.  LOL!