Our house is slowing coming to completion. It’s been no small task to be sure. The exterior was finally painted a couple of weeks ago. Not-so-easy when it has been in the 100s. However, I bought a high powered paint sprayer when we were painting the interior that made all the difference.
Paint can be expensive. Five gallons of exterior paint runs about $130 for decent paint. But Yun, being the crafty Mexicana that she is, found a place in Phoenix (from craigslist) that sells the leftover paint from commercial projects. We ended up buying around 50 gallons for $125. Not bad for Sherwin-Williams paint (a high-rated interior and exterior paint). 50 gallons in the store would have run about $1250. That was a savings of $1125. I love craigslist.
I think our inspiration for using it comes mostly from Jeff and Beth. They have made some killer purchases that have prompted us to attempt the same. We bought a ~$1200 stainless refrigerator for $200, a ~$500 dishwasher for $200, and our favorite purchase was the oven.
It was sitting on a pallet and didn’t turn on when we went to see it. We took a risk and negotiated to a price of $400. That may seem like a lot, but it retails for over $2000. When we got it home, I took the front electrical grid a part. Did some research online. Took a guess that it was the button console, so purchased one for $75. Received it a couple days later and the oven has worked brilliantly since. It’s a great oven and we love cooking with gas.
Those craigslist purchases listed above have saved us nearly $2000 all-together.