What I Did:
After moving into our home, I decided I wanted a screen door for the garage to house door. I knew I could get a lot of air moving through my downstairs if I had one. After checking the hardware stores, we found that even an ugly one was more that $30 and it was, well, ugly. The slightly nicer ones were more like $60. In either case, I wasn't willing to pay that much. I kept an eye out for used ones; and about six months later I hit the yard sale jackpot, when I found the nearly new screen door of my dreams.
How I Did It:
The new homeowners were changing out all the doors that the previous homeowner had just changed when selling the home! I paid $5 for the aforementioned screen door of my dreams.
Later that evening, DH ran to the hardware store for screws to fix another yardsale find, and right there in the 'screen door of my dreams' aisle, was my $5 door for $165!
Lessons Learned:
- I don't waste my time haggling. I'll offer my top price. Either they accept it or they don't, and I move on to the next sale.
- Dig..dig..dig. At the end of a long, hot day, I once found a $100 set of pots and pans at the bottom of a box, and walked away with them for $7.
- Think ahead. I once got my son four pair of sneakers in varied sizes, but all at least three sizes too big. I paid $2 each for two Nike, one Reebok, and one Adidas. They were in AMAZING condition (seriously, I don't think one pair had ever been worn,) and he was set for sneakers for the next couple years.
