Finding Treasures

I love the thrill of the hunt -- bargain hunting, that is! There is nothing quite like knowing exactly what you want for a room/area and then, sometimes months later, finding an item that exactly fits the bill, at an inexpensive cost.

One of my secret pleasures is looking up houses online that are for sale and have the same floor plan as our house. I like to see the pictures and look at what changes they have made. Sometimes I get great ideas on how to remodel or decorate my house. Occasionally, we'll go to open houses, just to see the decor. On one of these outings, I saw that the owners had updated the upstairs deck by replacing the ugly overhead bulbs with great looking ceiling fans. I fell in love with the look and started my hunt.

Unfortunately, indoor/outdoor fans in the style (closed light fixture) and color (oil rubbed bronze) that I wanted were running for over $150 each. I couldn't justify paying that sort of money for something that was mostly a cosmetic update in an area we did not use often. However, the other day I finally found exactly what I wanted and, with our military discount at Home Depot, each fan was only $50!

Mike put them up for me over the weekend and they look terrific. However, then I noticed that the paint and some of the texturizing on the ceiling of the deck was peeling -- and it stood out like a sore thumb now that we had pretty fixtures! So -- another project is in the works. I spent the afternoon scraping off the loose paint and texture, and putting up new tape on the seams of the drywall ceiling. I'm going to mud the seams again tonight, and then I'll be able to texturize before the weekend (and I can spend the weekend painting the ceiling). We already picked up some outdoor furniture for next to nothing (90% off at Target a few years ago), so when we are finished, that area should be a pretty, relaxing area to enjoy a drink in the afternoons and evenings while taking in the great view of the valley and mountains.

Pictures soon to come!

The New Guest Room

Since daughter Cherron has moved into her own place, her former bedroom has been empty. I wanted to turn it into a guest bedroom so we had a proper place to put family and friends when they visited -- but with the job situation being what it is, we didn't have a big budget. However, since when do you have to pay a fortune to get a really great look?

I knew I needed all of the furniture, artwork, and accessories. The only thing I already owned was a television and the window coverings that Cherron left behind. The paint was a pretty color, but there was some damage in a few places on the wall. Luckily, Cherron had purchased a quart of new paint to add to the paint we had leftover, as she had wanted to paint the bedroom in her new place the same color. She was kind enough to give me the remainder of that paint to use to touch up the walls in the new guest room.

I became a Craigslist stalker (in a good way -- looking for anything at a great price that might work for me). I was able to purchase the queen size bed and boxsprings, bedroom furniture, and some artwork in this manner. I visited garage sales and picked up a lamp and shopped thrift stores to find the shade and some accessories. I used 50% off coupons at hobby stores for some additional artwork and accessories, and I got all of the bedding on sale. I purchased some fabric (with a 50% off coupon, of course) and I used it to make the accent pillows. I bought a few forms at thrift stores and for the rest, I used old king size pillows we no longer used, cut down to size. The bedroom furniture was in rough shape, so I filled the dings with wood filler, sanded, and painted. I also had to find two finials to go on the footboard, as the originals were missing. I picked up some at the hobby store that were on sale for 66% off and painted them to match. On the nightstands, I tiled the tops to make them more durable and to give them a really great and unique look.

After I touched up the paint on the walls, I found that the new paint was just a tad darker than the old (or the old paint had faded a bit). You could see the blotches on the wall where I touched up -- so I bought some glaze, added it to some of the paint, lightened it up just a bit with some cream color paint I had, and then I did a faux finish on the walls with a sea sponge. The results were great!

Here's where the money went, the total cost, and pictures of the result.

Queen size bed and boxsprings: $80 (from Craigslist)
Four post bed and two nightstands: $40 (from Craigslist)
Finials for bed footboard: $15 (66% off at craft store)
Molding and tile for nightstands: Free (leftover from other jobs)
Paint for bedroom furniture: $30
Paint for bedroom walls: Free (from Cherron)
Glaze & supplies for painting bedroom walls: $30
Candle holders on nightstand: $8 (50% off at craft store and one from thrift store)
Lamp: $4 at garage sale
Lampshade: $4 at thrift store
Bedding (comforter & sheet set, mattress cover and mattress pad): $65 (on sale at various stores)
Bed skirt: $2 at thrift store
Pillow forms: $6 at thrift store and the rest free from old pillows
Accent pillow fabric/thread: $15 (using 40% off coupon at fabric store)
Large flower artwork: $20 (50% off at craft store)
Small flower pictures: $20 (from Craigslist)
Small mirror and hooks: $12 (thrift store and Target)
Floral arrangement: $15 (using coupons and sales at craft store)
Magazine basket: $7 (70% off at craft store)

The grand total: $373

I am still checking Craigslist often, as I would like a small chest or armoir to put inside the closet. That way, there will be storage, as well as a place to put a television (and guests can just open one closet door to watch television from the bed). I don't want to pay more than $25 for this -- so with paint (if needed), I may need to spend another $35 or so. However, I'm so pleased to get this beautiful, comfortable room for around $400! I think it would be easy to spend 10 times that much to get the same look!

Grocery Savings

While I was at work the other day, a customer came up to my desk requesting a pen and piece of paper. She was holding a magazine, so I asked her if she needed something larger than a Post-it, as I thought she was going to copy a recipe. She told me that she was just writing down a website where you could print out coupons. That led to a discussion about how both of us are bargain hunters and the ways we are trying to save money in these uncertain economic times.

One way I save big on groceries is to purchase 4 Sunday newspapers. Sometimes, if I time it right, I can get these for free -- as on Sunday evening the grocery store cuts off the front page header on all remaining copies to give back to the publisher -- and then cannot sell the newspaper. So, at that point, they give them away free! The reason I purchase 4 newspapers is that I like multiple coupons when I go shopping. That way, if there is a great deal (made even better with the coupon), I can buy one item for each coupon I possess. I also do not cut out my coupons before shopping. Instead, I go through the inserts, logging each coupon into a spreadsheet I created, which lists the item, the amount off (and how many you need to buy (i.e.: $1.00/2 would mean you save $1.00 off a purchase of two of that particular item). It also shows the date of insert, type of insert (i.e.: Smartsource, P&G, etc), expiration date, and the number of coupons I have on hand. The inserts themselves are put into a manila folder with the date of the insert printed on the outside.

When I go shopping, I print out my spreadsheet and refer to it as I make my ways up and down the aisles. I don't limit myself to a strict shopping list, as sometimes I find things that are nearly free -- so I stock up whether I currently need that particular item or not. Then, these items go into my freezer or pantry and eventually they are used. If its a great deal on something I already have WAY too much of, such as salad dressing -- but I can get a bottle for 25 cents after coupon, then I go ahead and purchase it and donate it to a local food bank. It doesn't cost me but a few dollars to get a bag full of groceries to help out someone else. While this way of shopping takes longer than just throwing things into the cart and paying full price, it also saves me some big bucks. For example, on one recent shopping trip, my total would have been around $300 without coupons. With my coupons, I saved over $75!

Another way I save money (and time) is to do once a month freezer cooking (or OAMC, as it's called on the net). Basically, this means that you stock up on meat when it's at a great price, and then do a cooking session, turning that meat into many different meals that can be frozen, and then thawed and cooked later on. This is wonderful when you are working full time, as you can do all of your cooking on the weekend.

For example, the other day boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale for $1.59 per pound. I purchased about 25-30 pounds or so. I usually have the other ingredients I would need for my cooking sessions on hand (purchased earlier using coupons to maximize my savings). Out of that chicken, I made two pans of chicken enchiladas, 3 pans of "Chicken Supreme" (a great recipe the whole family loves), four containers of my chicken soup base (which can be used for chicken noodle soup, chicken and dumplings, etc), 3 meals worth of stuffed chicken breasts, 2 containers of Alice Springs Chicken (an Outback Steakhouse copycat recipe), and several meals worth of chicken breasts in various marinades, that just need to be thawed and then grilled. I have a spreadsheet on my freezer that lists the various items currently inside and, when we pull something out for dinner, we just make a tick mark, so we know how many of that particular item are left. I do the same sort of cooking sessions for pork, beef, and ground beef. There is a great Yahoo Groups email list that deals exclusively with OAMC -- do a search for "Frozen Assets" to find it and sign up.