make do and mend

 We've had our garden shredder since 2008 (when it cost £269), and it's worked hard since.

In particular, it recently reduced a huge pile of bamboo from the garden to little pieces that have become a new path.

We got it repaired when it was 10 years old, in 2018, when it needed some electrical work.  Since that cost £100 (parts, labour, and shipping) we did wonder whether it would be better to get a new one.  But we got it mended, and it lasted fine.

Until today, when a large chunk of aluminium fell out of it.

That doesn't look good!  Surely we will have to replace it now?

My other half took the shredder apart to find the problem.

That's the internal guts that does the shredding.  It does look like it would be expensive to replace.

But wait!  A quick web search shows that you don't need to replace the whole thing, just that broken piece in the front.

And that costs only £26.  So we'll try that before shelling out more than ten times as much for a new shredder.