It Pays to be Thrifty ....

I grew up in a family that didn't have two pennies to rub together at the beginning. With tons of hard work and a measure of thriftiness, my parents managed to buy their first house in their early 20's. Sparsely furnished but filled with love and laughter, they taught me that saving was more important than spending if I wanted to reach my goals. I understood from an early age that if there was something I wanted, saving for it was worth the wait. It's something I brought to our marriage and even though my dh grew up in a family that had no financial plans or goals, he was eager to learn and we worked together to create our own thrifty life. We bought our first house at age 20 and it was many years before we could freely spend. Now we're at the other end but we still love to make frugal choices and plan out our purchases. And the thrill of finding a treasure at the charity shop or finding an amazing deal, especially when we're saving pennies for something makes it all worth the work!

We started saving to pay for the landscaping we'll be doing this year at the new house. Truckloads of dirt, sod or grass seed, flowers, bushes, veggie patch, playground, gazebo, pond, fire pit and front gates are all part of the plan that will likely take us a good 4 to 5 years to complete. Doing it all at once would, of course, be far out of reach with our budget. Spreading it out just makes so much sense. And we'll have something to look forward to each year. This year, two things we hoped to acquire included a hammock and raised garden beds. In determining, our savings budget, we found examples of the items we hoped to get with prices. The hammock above is listed at more than $180 at our local hardware store. And the vinyl boxes range from $160 to $250, depending on the manufacturer. For 1 hammock and 6 raised garden beds, we were looking at a total of $1,197 at the lower end, including taxes. Would you believe me if I told you we ended up with this exact hammock and 6 of the raised garden beds for free?? The story is below ....

To start with, I had already saved over $1,200 for these items. What took place the other day was pure luck and a bit of extra work to make it all happen. The first thing that fell in to place was an offer from my dear friend, who had spent the day with me on my day off last week, to purchase the second Kitchen Aid mixer we had. Brand new and a pro model. She offered $400 and I was very happy to accept that (value is $700 but we did get an amazing deal and paid far less). So now I had an extra $400 in my pocket to go towards these items and landscaping. Then the next thing fell in to place. The hammock that I was so excited about hanging up one day, if I could find one in stock, came across my FB feed on an ad. And guess what? It was on sale, one day only, on Monday! A certain store (no names in this post) had it for the unbelievable price of $68. But I'm not a fan of the store and when I went on to at least consider ordering it, the website was not letting me place the item in the cart. Then I remembered the hardware store that carries it has a price match that includes the amount the other store charges plus an additional 10% off. Too good to pass up, right? So I called and they agreed to match it, which meant, in the end, I got a $160 hammock (plus taxes and shipping) for $60.88 (including taxes and free shipping).

But the deals for the day get even better. I decided to check on the status of the raised garden beds at our local big box, you must have a membership store (remember, no names!) and they still had them in stock. And suddenly that day, a sale started and they were marked down. Couldn't believe my eyes. And my good luck! I quickly did some calculations and ordered 6 of them. With an original calculation of $1,008 (including taxes and free shipping), I was now blown away to see the price of just $340 (including taxes and free shipping). Prior to these 2 incredible sales, we would have paid a grand total of $1,180 but in the end, our purchases added up to a very tidy $400.88. Oops! I did say that we got all these items for free but the reality is, we paid just .88 cents as the $400 from my dear friend for our second Kitchen Aid covered everything. Now I still have over $1,200 that I was going to use that can stay in our landscaping budget for the big items on our list. Yup, it does pay to be thrifty ....

Any great deals you can share with us?

Treasures you've found or funds you've saved?