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Home > Interesting Weekend: Spendy but at the same time a bargain

Interesting Weekend: Spendy but at the same time a bargain

November 14th, 2011 at 06:58 am

Friday I meet up with a friend for lunch, then afterwards I stopped by at DH work and had coffee with him. He told me to stick around the city to have afterwork drinks with his workmate. It was only another hour and a half away so I said yes. I decided to get my mum's christmas gift while I wait.

After work drinks with DH's workmate was fun. It was good to finally meet them since I've heard so much about them. Afterwards we decided to stay in the city for dinner.

Saturday was suppose to be a relaxing day, nothing was planned but to go grocery shopping. As we were driving out of our driveway we saw a garage sale poster right outside our house on the light post, it was for a house a block away. We decided to check it out, I was hoping I could get some pot plants. This is probably only the second time I've been to a garage sale. The house has a for sale sign with the sold sticker on it already. Anyway I wasn't expecting much, and as we walked towards their garage I couldn't see anything worth buying. The only thing I could see in the garage I wanted was a picnic basket, it didn't have a price sticker on it so I ask how much, she said "I don't really know, maybe $10 ummm you can have it for $5 or $2. Yeah take it for $2" It was funny how she haggled for me. I got talking to her (the daughter of the owner) some more, apparently they sold the house for $425K, the family lived there for over 30 years but now only the mother is left and all her daughters are now living to the other side of the city so she wants to be closer to them. I asked the mother if she was selling any plants, she haven't thought about selling those and unfortunately most of the plants are in the ground and she wanted to take the pot plants with her. But there was one pot plant that I could have, it is not looking too good because it got attacked with some bugs but it is gone now and it should survive with a little TLC. I asked "how much?" She said "$1, oh heck take it for 50cents". At this stage we were ready to go, so I saw the daugther again to pay for the picnic basket and plant and for some reason she only charge me 10 cents for the plant.


The picnic basket got 2 compartments, I just need to replace the material in it.


And this is the plant. It is about 1 metre tall. The outside leaves are damage but the new leaves are fine.

As I was paying for my purchases the daughter said that they have more stuff for sale in the granny flat and in the house she asked if we wanted to look around. We didn't really have much money because we were on our way to get some before grocery shopping. We reluctanly said yes. As we walked into the granny flat we saw this:



It had a $100 sticker price on it! The only thing I wanted to know at this stage is if it actually works. It works perfectly. I have been wanting to get one of those massage pad for years but they are too expensive and could not justify spending $200 plus for those. But this came with the recliner chair and foot massager. I was sold right there. And I knew DH loved it coz I knew he was thinking that he won't be the massager anymore. We told her that we wanted it but we have to go to the bank to get some cash.

Then next door in the bedroom we also saw and bought a nice white bedside table and dresser with mirror for $30 for both. This is the bedside table. I couldn't take a photo of the dresser because we haven't had time to put it back together, it was safer to take the mirror out before transporting it. This will go nicely in one of our bedroom, it's about time we dress it up now that it has been renovated. We ended up giving her $20 deposit


(The dresser is twice as wide with four drawers with the mirror on top)

Unfortunately, we had to rent a ute (pick-up truck) cause we knew that the chair wouldn't fit in our car. They are only $25 for an hour so very reasonable but we couldn't borrow it until Sunday lunch time, when we are meant to be at my mum. Things had to be change with my mum.

We went back to pay and to tell them that we can't pick up the stuff until Sunday. It was no problem.
They asked us to have a look at more stuff in the house and in the shed. I asked if the lawnmower was for sale but no. It would have been a nice one, it's still fairly new and our 15-20 year old one will need to be replace one of these days.

And then I saw a red multi-colour granite table (without its original legs)they were using it as an outside table. They were selling it for $40 and they have it sitting on this table.


(They just give this to us for free in the end)

I asked what happened to the legs, the daugther didn't know. Then the mum pointed at the two pot plants in front of us. She used them as a pedestal to put 2 of her pot plants. Apparently, they found the table to be too high.




(sorry couldn't take photo of the top properly, it's in the garage but this is what the granite look like up close)

They were willing to give me everything for $40 and of course I bought it. The only problem is that the mum can't remember where the screws are but I'm sure we can get them easy.

And lastly, I got a pedestal stand that I can use for indoor plant made from solid wood, they had $10 price sticker on it but she gave it to me for $5 (again without me asking for discount).

In the end we spent just over $205 including ute/truck rental. They had more stuff that were nice. There was an entertainment unit they were selling for $35! but it was just too heavy and it didn't go with our stuff. I don't think they really knew what they were doing, their pricing was all over the place. Selling the nice solid dresser and bedside table for $30 but then they were selling some of their used kitchen stuff for about the same price. That's why I didn't bother haggling for anything of the stuff I got, they did it for me anyway. I guess they just want to get rid off as much stuff because she has to be out of the house by next weekend.

Sunday was obviously spent getting the stuff, luckily my brother came to help us because those granite and chair was heavy. I spent about half an hour cleaning the chair, vacuuming, wiping and spraying it with disinfectant. Then in the late afternoon we went to my mum's place, she feed us and also gave me about 4 kilos worth of chicken breast and thigh for free, she got them cheap on sale in this wholesale place near her work. Score!

Note: we have decided (actually DH's idea) to use our Sunny day saving money (see side bar) for those garage purchases. He thinks this saving fund best describe these purchases and I agree.

7 Responses to “Interesting Weekend: Spendy but at the same time a bargain”

  1. Tightwad Kitty Says:
    1321262638

    You got some great bargains there.

    Lucky you got places to put them!

    May be if it's not sold then it will be the skip bin.

  2. Shiela Says:
    1321263521

    She said she will give whatever is leftover to the St Vinnies.

  3. patientsaver Says:
    1321276812

    Well, I guess you did pretty well! I bet they're glad you stopped by!

  4. CB in the City Says:
    1321278951

    WOW!!

  5. creditcardfree Says:
    1321306506

    Impressive!!

  6. Shiela Says:
    1321310200

    We were glad to stopped by too. We are enjoying the massage chair very much.

  7. Jerry Says:
    1322259771

    Wow, you really hit the jackpot on that one... congratulations that a simple look could lead to so many great purchases and the insurance of lots of savings! That massage chair looks amazing.
    Jerry

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