Why, yes! I do accept free stuff!

 

I’ve gone through 3 high chairs with my 3 kids. I know,  call me crazy. But the first one was just a cheapy I got on Craigslist for about $15. I sold it after our first kid because it was starting to tear and I was worried it wouldn’t sell if the cover was all torn.

 

I made my $15 back and turned around and purchased one for $25. Once again off CL.

$10 more got me a LOT. Single hand sliding tray, 2 trays actually, adjustable height, rolling wheels. I mean, this was FAAAANCY!

(And MUCH easier to clean I might add!)

But when my daughter grew out of it, the thing was nothing but bulky. I didn’t want to haul it up to the attic, and I wasn’t going to leave it sitting there. So I added some spit shine and put it on Craigslist. It sold for $30 after a warfare of phone calls. Apparently the belts in Highchair’s are really important to some people and mine had them.

We figured with kid #3 we would just use this:

Oops, I mean this:

However, where that is great on the road and extra room at the table. It isn’t good for tiny tots like ours is still.

So off to craigslist yet again.

I’ve missed you my friend.

I wanted to spend $10 maybe $15 at the most.

 

A lady had her’s posted for over a month, cost: $15. I saw a terrible photo of it, talked her down to $10 and said I’d like to see it. She happened to have it stored right near a thrift store. Lucky me. While in the thrift store I saw and UGLY highchair for $4. Cheap but…well, not as “thrifty” as I’d like.

I think the difference between “thrifty” and “cheap” is Thrifty gets you what you want for less. Cheap gets you anything that’s out there and doesn’t cost much (and will probably break).

Anyway, the car seat was all wrapped in plastic from being stored but I could tell it was in decent condition. (Which turned out to be really, really good condition!) And I wasn’t about to talk her down any more when they had just dug through their whole storage unit for it! Oh, and they GAVE ME A STROLLER.

Yes, it is rather nice, though worn, Graco stroller. I cleaned it and it is in good condition. I really don’t need it but how can I pass up free?

And the highchair?

Its a hit! With lots of growing room!

Craigslist! I’m back!

 

Well, I took a long sabbatical from Craigslist but I am back! I got in the mindset that eBay was easier because I can just walk out to my mailbox. But eBay can take 7+ days to sell and then the money goes to paypal, then you can do something with it but you never REALLY see it. I REALLY like cash in hand!

I got this bed at the thrift store’s spontaneous “all furniture is 1/2 off right now” sale.

 

And no, that is not my garage. Want to know how lazy I am? I stole this photo from Google image search! It is the same bed but I didn’t have the slates or the hardware for the one I got for $7.50. I thought about keeping it. I could paint it black and it would totally match the kid’s room furniture! But I really don’t need any more furniture anywhere in my house. So I thought about painting it white so it would resale better. But without the slates I couldn’t really set it up for a good picture. So I decided to flip it for the few bucks I could get out of it. I listed it for $25 or $39 if I painted it black or white and I got 2 calls the first day with a return call the second day and a pick up! Score! I sold it for $20 and felt great cuz it was an awesome grandparent couple who were sooo sweet!

I never took it out of my car until they met me and they met me at my church where I was at for a meeting…didn’t even spend gas. It was a $12.50 turn over which is small for furniture, but I have a happy older couple with a bed for their kids and a happy husband, who never saw the bed outside the van, and $20 in my pocket to go thrifting with! I’d say it is a win win win!

I know. It doesn’t take much to excite me.

I did get inspired and reposted a breast pump I got much earlier this summer.

The lady at the garage sale was giving it away and thinking I could use it for my sister-in-law I picked it up but now it is just collecting dust in my closet so after having little luck selling it earlier I posted it back on and had 2 questions about it within the 1st 30 minutes. One said she wasn’t interested in it but the other is still asking questions.

 

Free Dresser fix-up

I was cruising the dressers-for-sale part of Craigslist. The kids need a new dresser but I haven’t really saved for one, but it never hurts to look, right?
And there it was….FREE!
Had a garage sale this past weekend and it didn't sell, so it is free to who ever wants it. First come first serve. I won't reserve it or hold it for you. We don't have a space for it. It is sitting out front. Enjoy


Now, If you know anything about free stuff on CL you know that you are never guaranteed that it will still be there, or if you will really want it once you get there! I mean, do the drawers open? Does it have a hole in the back? Is there any real wood on it?
My hope was that the dresser looked nice and they tried to sell it in a garage sale. If they tried that then it had to be worth something…maybe…
Anyway, I emailed them to see if it was still there and looked up the address. It was in a little town 17 minutes away. But for most of the people in my city it would be a lot further away, and for my experience of getting rid of stuff on CL, you get everyone wanting to come at 4 or 5pm.
So I piled the kids in the van (hoping it would fit in the back if it was there) and headed out.
It was there! And someone pulled in to get it just as I was pulling out! Phew! Made it just in time! I got his number in case I didn’t like it I could call him and give it to him.
The dresser in the picture is not exactly what it looks like. Take that picture times about 400% ugly and you might get the idea:

…It is almost 100% fake wood, the drawers that look like they have panels on them don’t, it is all painted on there. and the top is slightly warped.

Not to mention the tons of spiders and even a live beetle that came with it…in my van… yay!!!!

So I stopped by Lowes on the way home and got some primer and a whole gallon of black paint. I wasn’t sure what color I wanted to paint it in but so far all my furniture I’ve repainted has been black and I was out of black paint, so I figured I could do black and see how I liked it. Plus we have a table and chairs that need a coat of black paint. (Even though my 3 year old wanted to paint it blue like the color of his room…)
Oh the joy! I found primer when I got home so that is $6 I get back! and I found sponge rollers I had picked up so that is $7 I get back! So the $15 for the paint is all that is going into this “free” dresser, and I will use it for more than just the dresser (a little quart of paint cost $11…I’m too practical to do that!) oh, and the spray paint for the handles was $3.95.
I sanded the wood down with 220…making sure it was 220. Don’t want to make the same mistake 2 times!

I started by spraying with a kilz primer. This I think really helped painting the fake wood though I would use something cheaper than Kilz. It is just what I had on hand.
I took all the knobs off and spray painted them silver. They looked a bit retro before, after I painted them they looked more castle-like. Anything was nicer than before!

My daughter decided to “help”.

I took two days to finish it so I didn’t do too much at a time (ready for this baby to be here so I don’t have to act like this anymore!)

Final product!
Now remember.
It went from this:

To this:

I’d say that’s a success story. And yes, I took that plastic bin out. It will now hold all the baby stuff!
So it is good to know that you can use real junk and poor quality stuff and make it work. Though I’m still keeping my eye out for a good dresser, this is a step up from the last one. And I might even resell it when I’m done with it. Get my paint cost back at least!

I just found this article over at Altar’d designs. It is fabulous! I so wish I would have had this info when I was painting my dresser!

Link to:



And: Anything Goes

Deal of the weekend!

We went out of town this last weekend so I didn’t get to catch any of the garage sales or spend any money…almost…lol!

The day we left, Friday, I got an email from a Craigslist ad I had responded to about a Chicco Travel set (car seat, Base, and stroller) I’ve been checking on these on Craigslist and they run $300 new and $150-200 used. Amazing how much one will pay for one of these.

I liked the features of the base and the stroller, but not enough to pay more than half the value of it for! I thought maybe I could get a good deal at a garage sale this summer. But then one day I checked and there it was…no picture, just a listing on Craigslist for the travel set for $95. “Needs cleaning” is what she said. Never a good sign that it was well taken care off but I responded anyway. And responded, and responded. I can be very persistent when no one writes back to me. After a long week of no responses (and me sending an email daily) I had given up until she emailed me and said she was in town and do I want to come by. I said I could on Sunday so apparently she set up 3 ladies interested in the stroller but we all thought we alone were coming to look at it. As soon as I realized someone else was there interested I decided I couldn’t talk her down (there goes hoping for the most amazing deal ever!). And started looking the stroller over and trying the handles and buttons. It was stained but I like these car seats because I’ve never seen one that looks bad…so they must come clean. Well, this one looked pretty bad but I hoped it would come clean with a good washing. The other 2 ladies just stood there and watched. One asked why the lady was selling it and then there silence while I looked the stroller over. I stood back to let them look, and when no one moved I said a quick prayer and told the owner. “I’ll give $95 for it.”

She turned to the next lady and asked if she’d give more for it. Both other ladies said no and walked away. I’ve never seen Craigslist handled like that before! It was like she was hoping for her price to go up while we bid it out in front of a restaurant! So odd.

Well, I brought it home and cleaned it up. Should have taken some before pictures. But here it is all cleaned up!

I’m going to have to sew one small tear on the top of the stroller umbrella (You can’t see it unless you are really looking for it), but for for $235 off I think I can handle that!

The Car seat base runs $65 alone. While the car seat & the base is: $180. The whole set runs from $300-330. I see these resold for $150-200 on Craigslist all the time so I know I can get my money back out of it if I change my mind.

I’m pretty excited about this.

And I haven’t even seen how much my old Graco set will get me. It was just a little too old to use for my 3rd kid. It had been through 2 kids before mine and is rather used. Though it still works great. You know silly mom’s like me, I wanted something newer for this baby. But I was very willing to keep the old one if I couldn’t find something in my range.

Remember my bed?

I got $65 profit out of this bed and wanted that to go toward the stroller set. Then I sold this printer $60: (with a dog to boot! Read HERE)

Sooo…I was way under budget for the stroller set and didn’t pay more than I had wanted to for the whole ($100) anyway! (how my “how-much-I-want-to-pay & my budget were 2 different figures I’m not sure!)

Linking up to:

Thrift Share Monday

Craigslisting…

Remember my post here where I talked about a garage sale that I stopped by as they were closing and scored all kinds of toys and things? Well, that was last year but all winter I’ve been saving this little sand and water table to resell.

I wanted my kids to get a chance to play with it since I would never go buy something like this, but ultimately I did want to see how much I could get out of it.

Well, my kids got their chance with the gorgeous weather we’ve been having but I could tell lately that the pile of sand was getting more interesting then the cool table. Time to stick it on Craigslist.

This was a little tricky due to the fact that this table was very hard to find. Even though it is Little Tykes it is an older model. I found most tables sell between $55-100 and I’ve heard that little tykes hold their value even if they were faded, which this one isn’t. So I priced it at $35.

The 1st email was asking if I could go down to $20. I said I had just posted but would go down to $30, the next person who emailed said call her and she would buy it. She even had someone right then who could come to pick it up. Score! The table was sold and picked up with in about 2 hours of posting it. And no, I’m not going to beat myself up over whether or not I should have posted it higher! I got a great deal and my kids played with it for free and I still made $35 off it! Yes!

Last week I posted this laser printer I got at a garage sell with full ink in it for $7. I used it and replaced the ink then my husband got a new printer and I inherited his old one and poof…this became a chance to make money!

Little did I know just how important this printer would become to me!

I first put it on Ebay, silly me, then when it didn’t sell put it on Craigslist for $65, just a little more than what I tried to sell it for on Ebay, but with no shipping cost. But before I could sell it, this showed up on my doorstep.

Cute, sweet, and not mine. She was a pug that was not fixed, and though I don’t like dogs, I’m not too fond of pugs anymore, not when they need washed and teeth brushed and hate to be left along, and when you do leave them they poop on your floor. Twice! Yes, she loved me but the feeling was not mutual. When I get a dog I want a puppy so I can blame all of her behavior on my faulty training. Besides, I knew my hubby would never let me keep her this close to having a 3rd baby!

So what does a dog have to do with a printer? Well, after looking for owners and having my husband threaten with the pound, and then having thought I found the owners, who claimed she wasn’t their’s and overall a terrible experience, I decided it was time to find her a new, and possibly better home then she had before.

So after offering her to our waitress at the restaurant we were at that night, I looked at my phone to see someone wanted to buy the printer. Jokingly I said it could come with a dog if she wanted it to and behold and low! She loves pugs!! Yep. I sold that printer for $60 and threw in a pug. She was willing to pay me the whole $65 but I was so grateful to have her take the dog I said no! (I know, I’m a terrible business woman!

All in all it was a happy story, except this part. The lady who took the pug has 3 boys and a hubby and the dog loves them all…but her. Not sure what happened cuz she liked me but shied away from boys while she was here. Well, at least the printer will like her!!!