I feel like I should have a weekly post on this at the rate we're going. This past weekend we were back at it going to some garage sales. We went to another fantastic community (Windemere, where we got married on their golf course) to see if we could find any outdoor furniture, baby stuff and good deals. I'll show you some bargains steals we found.
This lady was AWESOME. She sold us this table for $20 and the chairs for $1 a piece... seriously $26 total. The table got chipped when her husband moved it from the basement, but David glued it back together. We are thinking of sanding and re-staining (the bench is not part of this).
The table goes smaller and I'm thinking of putting it in our breakfast nook. It actually fits really well there and makes our space look a lot bigger than our tall square table we have in there now.
I found these cute canvas wall art that I thought I could use for my t-shirt project but they were way bigger than I thought they were. I got 3 of them and the 3 beautiful picture frames for $8 total.
One of the other big steals of the day was this outdoor couch set. The cushions are a bit dirty, but other than that everything is in great condition. It came from the same lady as the table set from above. She wanted $50 for it but David talked her down to $30!
We found this water table for Max for $5 that David wants to modify and add things to.
We also found some fabulous baby gates (I think I have a baby gate garage sale addiction) and David bought a box of door knobs (completely normal right?). Included are a really nice front door one just like we have and some interior ones that will be great for our basement remodel.
Garage Sale Tips-
-Go early. This is common sense maybe, but if the sale starts at 8am make sure you are fed and out the door by 7:30. You need to arrive about 15mins early to start scoping out. Drive around to get a feel for where the sales are and the big items if that is what you are looking for. To us, we don't bother going to sales after 9:30am, it's pretty much over for us. Unless you are looking for small decorative pieces or baskets (there seems to always be baskets).
-Furniture and bigger items go FAST. I can't tell you how many times we came up to a sale and people were walking away with beautiful rod iron lawn chairs and lawn mowers.
-Don't look like a million bucks. No one will make a deal with someone in a suit, David goes to the way opposite spectrum, but just a t-shirt and jeans are cool.
-Don't be afraid to ask for a lower price. If it says $25, just ask nicely would you take $20 for that instead? Most the time they will or leave a little more wiggle room to have them negotiate up.
-Always be polite when you go to a sale, say hello, how are you and when leaving (even with nothing) make sure you say thanks. You are rummaging through peoples personal belongings and this makes them feel more open and friendly towards you (Davids tip and it works great).
I have been itching to do some decorating around the house, but that is not in the budget right now so I will watch as my sister decorates her new house. Check out her new curtains from west elm and her new navy color scheme she painted behind her bookshelf. It really transformed the room. I love it! She's getting ready to reveal her painted cabinets in the kitchen, I can't wait to see it all done.
David's parents live in a very nice neighborhood community with a ton of houses. They were having one of their semi-annual garage sales so we thought we'd take a look. We missed out a few great deals on deck lounge chairs (people were literally carrying them away as we walked up) and a few things we took too long to think about. We did end up for some really great stuff though. We purchased the adjustable classroom table and 2 chairs set for $25 from a lady who home schooled her kids. She kept saying how nice the furniture was and that it would last forever and it's from a company in NY. I really thought she was just trying to sell her stuff, but I looked it up and sure enough it's by Community Play Things and they manufacture quality furniture in the United States for a pretty penny.
The chairs alone go for $159 each and the table is around $250 new so I'd say we got a pretty good deal. Now of course I am dreaming of all the other super nice things I could put in Max's playroom eventually. If only I had an unlimited supply of money. The company mostly sells to daycare type places.
We also purchased all those safety locks and gear you see for $1, his little broom sweeper for $1 (he loves to help clean) and the baby gates for $10.
The gates are really nice quality and we're going to put the other one at the top of the stairs. It definitely beats trying to climb over the gates we had in place there originally. They are having another sale in a few weekends there (not sure why) but hopefully more people will participate and we can go back. The people who had kid items only had girls (seriously) so I wasn't able to get any clothes/toys for Max
I finished the taxes this weekend finally. We were looking forward to doing them since we were pretty sure we wouldn't owe anything (like last year). We tried the whole taking enough deductions on our paychecks to owe as close to nothing as we could, but it didn't work and we paid a lot last year. This year we went back to our old claiming 0 just to ensure we'd get some back and not owe (I know Dave Ramsey will be mad). I also didn't work half the year and had some unemployment so I was a little nervous. We got a little money back that we had been planning on using for basement finishing savings, but of course life happens and we're just not quite there. I thought I'd write it all down to hold us accountable for getting back on track.
As you may or may not recall back in 2011 we shouted from the roof tops that we were debt freeeeee! Back then we were on step 2 of Dave Ramsey's 7 baby steps. Fast forward to now and we are just about finished with step 5. Let's recap the steps.
1. Baby Emergency fund of $1,000
2. Debt snowball, pay all debts (minus house) off
3. 3-6 month expenses saved for emergency fund
4. 15% of income in Roth IRA's and pre-tax retirement
5. College funding for children
6. Pay off home early
7. Build wealth and give
We were able to save up money to be able to get out of our last house and into our new one. Unfortunately, we did dip into our big emergency fund to do so (still leaving a little cushion), but we have been trying to build that up since we moved. With new house upkeep and expenses it's been a slower process than we'd like. We were very glad to have had the money available to make such a great move for our family house wise, but it's time to get back on track. Last year we used money we had saved to open up Roth IRAs for both of us and set up automatic withdraws each week for both of us to fully fund ours from now on. It's a lot that comes out monthly, but it will be worth it.
When Max was born we knew we wanted to open a Coverdell ESA (Education Savings Account) but with me without a job and no extra money coming in we kept pushing it off. They let you put $2,000 a year into an account. I opened the account last month, but only put an initial small deposit in there. Fortunately, like an IRA they let you pay towards last years until April 15. First step with our refund will be to fully fund his 2012 ESA and replenish our emergency fund. After that, it's no more major purchases (ahem new washer and dryer) and full on savings mode.
If you have any questions about money, Dave Ramsey, budgets, college savings (ESA vs 529's) just comment/email me and we can do a Q & A session.
Yes, I know Cinco De Mayo is over, but I have some EXCITING news! I entered a contest on facebook through CheapCaribbean.com's page to win a free Margaritaville Margarita mixer and I WON!!! You had to submit your best salsa recipe and a picture from Mexico.
This is the photo I submitted and this is the salsa recipe I posted. The photo is from the Tulum ruins. They ended up picking 5 winners so I was pumped!
Here is another photo so you can get a better view. I am probably way more excited than I should be, but I am beyond thrilled. Besides a sum of money or a vacation this is probably one of the best things I could possibly think to win. We used CheapCaribbean.com to book our Dominican Republic trip a few years ago and my brother has used them before, too. They have GREAT deals posted on their site so be sure to check there before you book your next Caribbean vacation (I didn't have to say this, I just really do like them a lot.) Ole!
This week is teacher appreciation week. You may not be aware if you don't have any kids in school, but my sister is a teacher and she doesn't let me forget. I wanted to send her some virtual appreciation as most teachers don't get enough praise and recognition for the hard job they do every day (minus summers-yep still jealous about your well deserved days off).
Here is your bouquet of flowers since you didn't receive any by your class. They told me they wanted me to send them to you online :)
I loved these etched pencil and pen holders from HowDoesShe.com
Or this journal set by Nichole Healy. Presentation is everything ladies and gentlemen!
or lastly these apple cookies from 3 Four and Under! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, be sure to thank a teacher you know!
Here are some other random thoughts from the weekend. We went to a few garage sales in David's parents annual neighborhood garage sale (they live in a huge, nice community that we always find good stuff). We found this Ember grill for $100 and negotiated down to $80.
Our grill is about 4 years old and is rusted out beyond use. We've fixed it a few times with various parts, but it was time to get a new one and we didn't want to spend over $300 on a brand new one. This one is in great condition and we already tested it out. On the left side is a spot for a beer bucket (that is really what sold David on the grill, lets be honest) and the right side is a burner. It also has a light inside. We had more food than these sweet potatoes for dinner, just so you know.
I put together this cute basket of baby gifts for one of our friends who recently had a baby girl. The baskets were on sale from Walmart (stock up on these and Easter baskets right now at walmart). I love the decorative liner it came with and I used cellophane to wrap it all up.
I know a bunch of people have been waiting for this post, so here it is! I was reading a blog a few weeks ago that talked about not paying full price for things you need for your house and she mentioned she got her front load washer and dryer from a freight auction. She said that sometimes it could be a scratch and dent situation, but other times its new items. I went to google and typed in freight auctions Atlanta, GA and this one company kept coming up for an auction listing. I went to their website and saw that they auction off electronics, appliances, household items and general merchandise. Every 2 weeks they have an auction and have over 500 pallets from overstocks, lost in transits, returns/damages and over ships.
The only down side for us was that the auctions are on Thursdays (all day). Also on their website is an image gallery of what has sold (the previous auction) and what's for sale (for the upcoming one). You can literally view everything before you even get there. They add things up until the night before so you have to keep going back, but they take great photos so its very clear what they have. So why did we decide to go? Well, they had a bunch of tile (big ones, small ones, decorative ones, you name it). Since we are renovating our house in the next few months we wanted to see what kind of a deal we could get. We went with all our dimensions of how much tile we'd need and also the prices we saw at tile stores and home depot. We set our best scenario price which we'd want to pay at the auction (it was about half of retail tile store prices). Once we got there, they told us that they tack on a 13% fee plus 7% sales tax (you can get the % down a little by paying cash/debit which we did). We then backed our numbers down to include the fees.
A Day at the Freight Auction- David called in advance and found out that it starts at 11am and you can get there at 9am to view the items before it starts. This place is almost by 6 flags so pretty far from where we live. We got up early and headed out there. We were glad it was spring break week here as the traffic wasn't as heavy. We got there right around 9am and headed in. They gave us a huge packet that had every lot number from 1-637 that had blank lines and a general description of what was on the pallet. The friendly lady at the front also took a copy of our license and gave us a registration number that we'd use to record our bids. She also told us that she'd love for us to spend the day with them and that breakfast, lunch and dinner was included for free for the day. Say what?! I had packed us a little lunch in my lunch cooler in the car because I would have never thought they'd do that. They had coffee, donuts and biscuits and gravy for breakfast.
We got right to it and started walking around to each lot. It is in a huge warehouse with aisles set up. You are allowed to touch and feel and open any boxes you'd like before the auction starts. We starred things and then came back to what we were really interested in. I decided on my favorites and the ones that would do if we had to get them. I really had no idea if we'd get anything we bid on. There were A LOT of people looking at the tile, most looked like contractors with measuring tapes and work boots on. I figured we'd have an advantage over them because their goal is to resell it and I just want to get a better deal than I would at retail tile stores, but I wasn't sure. The floor tile that I REALLY wanted (first choice) was number 8 or something on the lot list. We didn't have much time to figure out this auctioning stuff and get ready to bid. I guess I have been watching too many storage auction tv shows where you have to say YEEEEEUP or something crazy when you want to bid. They had about 4 guys in red shirts that look for people wanting to bid, all you have to do is signal with your hand, fingers, head nod, anything really and they would do all the loud yelling to indicate they had a bidder. The auctioneer did do what you'd expect at a real auction and the guys that worked there would keep asking if you wanted to go higher until you said no and they would stop the yelling. They were very helpful and half the time we had NO idea who was bidding. It was going so fast because there are so many pallets that we hardly had time to gear up for our tile. We were so glad we set our limit before hand because David was doing the signaling. The guys that worked there quickly realized that I was the one indicating to David if I was still interested or not. They started only looking towards me, it was funny. It was now our turn and we were so nervous!! We had set our price of $200 for this tile. The bidding kept going back and forth from $50 and up. Our hearts were pounding so fast and our adrenalin was kicking in! It got up to $190 and the red shirt guy indicated to us to hold on to it and that the other guy was going to back out (I guess he could see him and could tell) so we held strong and went to $200 and all the sudden the auctioneer said SOLD (to us)!!
Here is our bathroom floor tile! I love how it looks plain but then you can see all the swirly pattern in it. We were SO excited!! It was a big rush and we had to walk away to get away from the crowd so we could just talk about what happened. My hand was shaking a bit while I was trying to write down our lot number and price on our sheet. It all happened so fast! The tile was spaced out pretty good so we had a little while in between to regroup and walk around to see the other tile on our list. We still wanted the smaller 6x6 tile for our shower and smaller accent back splash tiles for kitchen and bathroom.
Here is a video that I took where you can see and hear the auctioning. The guys in the red shirts are right in front, he kept looking towards me so that's why I turned the phone away for a min.
They grilled up some hot dogs for lunch and had a cafeteria style area with booths and tables set up so you could take a break at any time. They started at 11:30am and kept going strong until about 7pm. You could pay and leave at anytime, but you'd have to pick up your items at the end of the auction or come back the next day. I know this post is going really long so I'll sum up the rest pretty fast.
We ended up getting the bathroom shower tile we wanted...
And the smaller accent tiles for the kitchen back splash and bathroom shower.
I also saw this BEAUTIFUL armoire that they had from Ballard designs. It was black and had a distressed look to it. It had some dings on it, but almost looked like it was suppose to. The price tag on it was over $1,000 so I said I would bid up to $200. I didn't have to go that far because it stopped at $70 and was MINE!! I am pumped about that. It is extremely heavy though and is still in the garage so I can fix it up a bit and decide if I just want to sell it or get a bunch of guys to bring it upstairs.
We also bought some light fixtures to use in our master bathroom. We got a pallet of 6 for $100. We are going to just resell the ones we don't use and make our money back. We had some tile and other items that were mid way and 3/4 of the way into the rows so we decided to just stay the whole time and bring them home with us. They served a low country boil for dinner complete with craw fish, crab legs, shrimp, corn and potatoes. David loved it (I don't like that kind of sea food), but it really was incredible service! They really know how to run a place. You could easily do this for a living if you had up front capital and could resell items. I envision my self there one day when we are renovating houses and have ample time to stay there all day. We finally got loaded up with all of our tile and furniture and headed home. The truck was sitting so low that we weren't sure we'd make it home because the tile was so heavy. We got WAY more tile than we will ever need. We are still estimating how much money we saved, but am almost certain that we can sell everything extra we got and break even and pay nothing for our tile, lighting and armoire.
It was a crazy experience that I'm glad we were able to do. As you can see, David got confident towards the end. Thanks for doing this with me David! He says he's glad I am so frugal, its fun.We will be starting some of our tile in the next few weeks so stay tuned!
I am not sure I ever talked in detail about our home gym. We used one of our spare bedrooms upstairs for a gym for a little while now. Since starting P90X we really haven't used any of this.
We decided to list the whole gym on craigslist for $300 for all of the items above. I know it looks like a lot of stuff, but let me talk in detail about how much we paid for all of this. The ab curl bench was $6 from goodwill, the treadmill was free (a neighbor was throwing it away and David asked if he could have it and fixed it), and the golds gym work out system was $50!
This was a steal. We bought this on craigslist maybe a year ago from a guy trying to move and sell all his stuff. I guess he didn't realize what a hot commodity it was. The day I posted it we had a bunch of calls, texts and emails from interested buyers. I wanted to price it so it went fast and I think I definitely did that. A lot of people just wanted the treadmill, but we nicely explained that was just an add on and it wasn't a high tech one like they'd want. It literally has a slide button that goes from slow to fast, but it does get the job done. We had someone coming over on Sunday to look at it and then we received another call saying they were really interested and wanted to buy it. We told them we'd call them if the first lady didn't end up buying it. He then said, no thanks I'd like to offer you $400 and buy it first. This has never happened to us before! Someone asked $100 over the asking price. See what you get for pricing things right and not overpricing! David was also small talking with the guy and mentioned we were also selling a nice built in car navigation system and he called us after he left and said he wanted to come back next weekend to buy that too. Isn't that nuts? I was tempted to let him into our house to see what else he'd like to buy. We did check to make sure that his money wasn't counterfeit, it looked good to us and the bank took it so I guess we're clear! So needless to say that we were glad for the extra money, but the next day David had to go to court to pay a speeding ticket and guess how much it came to.... $386 (speeding in a work zone). The money came and went so quick. I was glad that we had the money though, I guess it was fate! I am now making the room upstairs my sewing room to encourage me to try and learn.
A few weeks ago David went to Goodwill to try to find some weights for P90X workouts. He found these big plates for $30.
They range in size up to 45 lbs. They are hard to transport and use so David listed them on craigslist and made a $130 profit! We had to go far to meet him, but it was definitely worth it for us.
We should have taken a picture with all our cash, but we had a bunch of $20's burning a hole in our pocket and started spending right away.
David was so sweet and let me use the money for ski bibs. They are just like snow pants but with an overall style. It's good for me since I don't want any snow getting in. I have an issue with my clothes getting wet while I'm wearing them. We also bought groceries and have some spending money for our upcoming trip this weekend! More on that tomorrow. Oh, and you know how I said we were going to scrub the kitchen this weekend, well we didn't get to that.... at all. Instead we had our neighbors over (Hi Megan and Ben) to show them how to start P90X, we sold the stuff on craigslist, got the last of our snow gear, worked out for what seemed like the whole weekend, got my tires rotated, grocery shopped, cooked and did laundry.
David and I are proud to announce that WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (if you listen to the Dave Ramsey show, then I'm sure you are saying it in your head... freedom). Our journey to living debt free started 14 months ago when I found Dave Ramsey on an AM radio station on the way home one day. I like people talking to me on the radio and I was looking for anything that wasn't political or sports related and found Dave talking about money. I have been addicted ever since. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. David and I were both working and could make all our monthly payments, but we had nothing to show at the end of the month. We'd maybe have $200 extra to put into savings. We did what most everyone our age was doing, we both got car loans after school and we deserved all this new stuff we put on credit (or so we thought). I purchased Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover book and the rest was history. I was gazelle intense and ready to get started. David was hesitant at first and just went along with it. He calls me Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable because I tell our money where to go before the month has even started thanks to our written budget. I also passed the book on to my sister and word spread and we got my brother on board as well. I am the final member to join our sibling pact to being debt free! Congrats to everyone!
After we went to the Total Money Live event in Atlanta back in October, it finally clicked with David. He was on board before, but he was fully on board and telling all his friends and family after we got back. I couldn't have asked for a better reaction. I decided to tell all the details in hopes to inspire some of you out there.
What was our debt? We had a few credit cards, 2 car loans, and both our student loans. Yes, we consider student loans debt. Although we wouldn't be here today at our current jobs without them and I'm glad for that, they still are debt and we wanted to get rid of them. The only thing debt doesn't include is the mortgage.
How much did we pay off? Hold on to your pants, we have paid off approximately $45,000 in just 14 months! I know to some that seems impossible, and I would have never thought it was possible for us. It was obviously our income that helped that, but we also sold everything and anything we could find that we didn't need. David even sold his scuba diving gear to help towards our goal.
What was the last thing we paid off? My student loan! Payment came out yesterday. I have never saved up that much money at one time. Crazy to see it in the account for that brief moment before it was taken out.
What was the hardest part? 14 months is a long time to stay focused and keep motivated about seeing the big picture. We had some set backs during the year. Molly needed surgery and diminished our baby emergency fund so we spent time building that up. We also had car troubles where we both needed work done so we had to put things on hold a few times. Life happens and we were just so glad we didn't have to put anything back on a credit card to pay for any of that. We also did not take a big vacation this past year. We visited family in NY, FL and TX to save money, but sometimes it takes sacrifice and we really didn't miss it.
What was the easiest part? I loved the budget part. You start out with your income, then your expenses and make your ending number 0 at the end of the month. You tell your budget to spend X on groceries, X on clothes for the month and X on entertainment. I knew that I had $50 a month to buy clothes so I didn't' feel guilty about going out and buying a few things. David usually let me spend his too, what a good husband.
What's next? We will keep following the baby steps and build up our 3-6 month emergency fund, step up our retirement savings, start buying things with cash and start working towards paying off our house in full. We will also start saving for future cars so we can pay cash and never take out a loan again! We put buying really anything on hold so we have a small list of things that we need to upgrade/replace but just lived with it during this whole process. A few things on the list are a new computer for me, I've had mine for over 7 years now and its seen its better days, and we are going to be remodeling a few rooms in our house. More on that later!
I've been pretty exicted to post about our after Christmas decorations that we found! On Christmas night I made our game plan that had the stores numbered in order of visiting, addressess, and hours. We started out with JC Pennys at 7am. We bribed the boys to come with breakfast out. We didn't find much there so we hurried over to Target where we found a lot of stuff!
Here is our cart. Keep in mind this is both my sister and my stuff. She went with a champagne color theme and I wanted lime green and red.
This is my favorite picture. Michelle was pretending to run through the store, we are actually on our way to check out.
Here is our car loaded up. We had no luck at all at Home Depot/Lowes (everything was gone). Garden ridge was a last minute addition and it was a great choice (good call Shell). I found some stockings and Michelle got light up trees for her door and stockings. Sams club was good for gifts and a few decor things. They didn't have the ornaments I wanted (they had absolutely no ornaments left) so I was and still am bummed. It was like a mad rush of people in there, crazy.
Here we are with our items. We stopped for starbucks at target and went from 6:30am-11:30am. We had such a fun time, the boys thought we were nuts. James did find some things he needed along the way so he got into it too. Big shout out to David for standing in line for 45 mins at Garden Ridge because there was ONE cashier working for 50 people in line and to James for transporting us to Sams so we could get there when it opened and going back for David.
Here are some highlights: We got a set of 6 fun notepads (for gifts) for a toal of $4.91 (originally $15-20).
I have the hardest time finding a tree skirt that I liked so I decided I was going to try to make my own. I got this fabric on sale for $2 a yard at JoAnn's. It is going to go with my new color scheme. I love it.
Here are my new stockings! They were originally only $8 so they were half off for $4 each!
I got this fun tree decor from Sams for around $10.
These are med/large ornaments from target on sale for $2.50.
These are all the fun things my sister got for half off. I'd say it was a big success! What did you guys pick up?
I recently found out about this website where you can swap books for a very small price. You can join for free and all you need is 10 books to really get started. Once you post 10 books you are willing to swap you get 2 free credits. 1 credit = 1 book. So right off the bat you have 2 books that you can buy. The only cost to you is when someone requests one of your books. You can print out their label, book wrapper and mail them via media mail at the USPS. The cost is about $2.50 to send your book out. The trade is that when you have a credit that you can request a book and the other member has to mail it out to you at their cost.
These are the books that I posted as my first 10. When I was finished it let me know that 2 of my books were on someones wish list and they'd get back with me within 2 days if they still had enough credits to purchase. Today I am heading to the post office to mail off my first book! I have already ordered 2 and they are on their way to me. A tip that I learned is if you have a list of books you want and they are popular you need to add them to your wish list now so that when they do become available you can get them. There is an option to buy credits for a good price if you don't have any left. I tried to get my mom to sign up because she has a MILLION books, but she just recently got the kindle so I need to steal all of her books to swap. If you sign up, please list me as a referral, my nickname is jens871. Click here to get started.
We've been researching and looking around for Roomba's for a while now. David looks on craigslist every day for good deals. We finally found one for a good price. It is a 400 series Roomba, which are the older models, but still work great. We went and picked it up this weekend. The lady said it needed a new battery, which are $30. David cleaned it out really good since there was a lot of dirt and lint stuff stuck in there. And guess what! It didn't need a battery at all! So we got a great deal. We spent $40 on this little guy. I have to say, I was a little skeptical. We have a lot of dog hair and grass that gets tracked into the house. You can run it while you are not home, but we really wanted to watch it in action. We just starred at him as he was working. I call it a him, because I already named him Rudy the Roomba. Check out this video of him in action. We put a treat on top of it so that you could see Molly with Rudy. She just backs away and tries to get out of his way.
We were very impressed on how he worked. It even came with these virtual walls you can set up if you want him to concentrate on a certain room. We focused on the front of the house one day and the back the next day. I would rate him a 9 out of 10. I wish he would be more intelligent on where he was vacuuming. The new models that are $300 plus actually scan the room and know how big it is and vacuum in a pattern. Yesterday before work I started a couple loads of laundry and turned on the Roomba. I felt like my house was cleaning itself while I was gone! I would highly recommend it! We feel like the Jetsons! I'll leave you with another video of Rudy in action.
