Queen of Thrift

The house selling and buying process is well underway. We have made it past all major hurdles on the Brookside end, and all that is left on the Pullman (our new house) end is getting our loan information processed and the appraisal.  Brookside's appraisal was today and I am assuming that either the appraiser did not get paperwork turned in today or that everything was just fine because I haven't heard anything yet.  Both inspections went really well (praise!) and neither contract had to have any repair amendments added (which our realtor said is her first transaction in years like that.) I can only thank God for taking care of everything for us so far. I was preparing for the worst throughout this whole process and it has been pretty great so far.

I have become a bit addicted to the local swap and sell groups on Facebook. People are constantly selling some great stuff on there, so since I needed a few things for the new house I have been watching them like crazy. I've also been making more frequent stops at Goodwill to run through the furniture area really quickly just to see what I happen across. The other day I found a super cute little wicker couch for Kate's bedroom for $6! That same day I drove out to Justin to pick up a headboard I bought on a swap group for $50 - solid wood, very good shape. I was pumped. We haven't had a headboard for our bed in about 7 years.

My thrifting finds from last week.

Last weekend I hit some garage sales.  There were a couple of HOAs having big neighborhood-wide sales on Saturday so I planned a couple I would head to, although time and money only allowed me to hit one neighborhood but I struck gold! I was looking for a few things for the new place: a table for the breakfast nook, some night stands for our bedroom, a dresser for Kate's room, and whatever else struck my fancy.

I should stop here for a second to explain that Friday night after visiting the new house during the inspection, I came up with a shelving solution for the new office. I really wanted to do some sort of built-in shelving unit but needed measurements. I've seen several IKEA hacks where they've made shelving from there look like built-ins with some added molding and trim so I decided that would be my plan of attack. Wouldn't you know the IKEA Expedit 20 hole storage shelf was going to be exactly the right size for the wall I wanted to put it on? Perfect, except that I was having to resign myself to spending $199 on it. But it was necessary (we have a ridiculous amount of books we can't seem to part with) so I was just figuring it into the budget.

Back to Saturday morning. I headed out to the first neighborhood and started doing my thing.  Several people had furniture to look at and other knick-knack items, which I wasn't really interested in. I picked up a small round table at one house for $10 which would be a great little coffee table without being too long and bulky like some coffee tables. I added it to my list of stuff to paint immediately. It was sort of a spur of the moment purchase too. I was buying a $2 11x20 ornate wooden frame from someone when I spotted the table and since it was covered in stuff I asked if it was for sale. Of course!

I browsed at a couple of dining tables but nothing struck my fancy. I had found one on Craigslist the night before and had sent a text message asking if it was still available, and while I was shopping the garage sales I got a text back that it was so I went ahead and made arrangements to go pick it up when I was finished with my shopping. I spent $40 on the table, no chairs. Now I needed to look for chairs.

I picked up a few DVDs for Kate and scored a $5 Barbie dollhouse for her. Spent $1 on a router just like ours that Nick is going to turn into an access point for our wifi at the new house, which probably doesn't mean anything to you but he was excited and said it saved us $60 on a hot spot. I was eyeballing another coffee table in a driveway at one point, looking down and not paying attention to what was standing right in front of me when I finally looked up a saw it.

An IKEA 20 hole Expedit bookshelf. $75.

It's like fate had distracted me with this pretty little coffee table I didn't need in order to put me in the exact driveway in order to find the exact shelf I had literally 12 hours before decided I needed. And fate had saved me $124 plus tax.

I walked right up, paid the lady and called Bill, because I would need him and Nick to come get it in the truck later. We made arrangements, I made sure both husband and wife knew it was sold and not to sell my shelf to someone else, and left. I had almost crossed off everything on my list.

At this point I drove by a few more houses until I had literally been through every one in the neighborhood. I knew I needed to go pick up my table because the guy was waiting on me to finish shopping, so I headed back to Keller for that. On the way there I passed a couple of garage sale signs in a nearby neighborhood, and it was only 11, so since I had told Nick to expect me at noon I made a mental note to go back by those just in case.

We loaded the table and I headed back to shop some more. The first garage sale I drove by barely had anything left out so I didn't even stop, but the last one had furniture, lots of it, sitting in the driveway. As I walk up I spotted two cute little black matching nightstands. Yes, you remembered correctly that I was in need of nightstands. I offered the lady $25 less than the price tag and she accepted.  I was literally down to $9 in my pocket so I was pretty much done for the day. I couldn't believe that I had crossed off nearly everything on my list in 4 hours and done it all for $191.