She get it from her mama

You guys, I'm flying high on a thrifty shopping buzz.

I feel just like how I imagine K feels when we let him stick his head out the sunroof (at stoplights).

So, over the weekend, we had a to-do list of painting, hanging a garage door opener, yada yada, yada. Point is, we didn't do any of it. D ended up having to work and I ended up appliance hunting! Thursday night, we made a scouting trip to Lowe's to price out some appliances that met our needs and were in our price range (well... in the price range that didn't make us faint).

Washer - $824
Dryer - $824
Refrigerator - $998
Subtotal - $2646
Lowe's 10% off Appliances promo - $2381
Lowe's 5% off if you open a credit card - $2262
Price with Taxes - $2442

And these were BY FAR on the cheapest end of the spectrum and the fridge was a side by side and the smallest we thought we could manage with. We've got a spending hangover from inspections and were definitely in the mindset of Must Haves. No bells and whistles.

But after talking later that night, we agreed one place we could save some money was to buy an old Craigslist washer and dryer set for the time being since it's tucked away in the laundry room and it didn't need to be pretty.

Apparently, boom town Craiglist is kind of awesome. People were selling super decent stuff for next to nothing! This must be the silver lining balance to having to wait 1.5 hours to be seated at Chili's on a Wednesday night.

So, Friday night, we were able to take these pretty blue, high efficiency, Energy Star Samsung washer and dryer WITH the storage boxes that goes under each ($200 value) off a lovely couple's hands for a cool $700 for the pair.

They are definitely scratched up a little but they're really nice appliances from last season. If we had tried to buy these brand new, we'd be looking at $954 each. Savings = $1208 (63% off)

The dryer had a dent in the very top but D assured me he could fix that. He just unscrewed it and took a rubber mallet and block to it. And yes. I told him this would have been 1000 times easier if he did it on the kitchen tile instead of the living room floor but he didn't listen. He got it fixed right up though and the pair are beauts!

My big bad dog that barks at Pit Bulls and tries to chase trucks when we go for a walk was less than fond of the hammering in the living room Sunday night. He decided to hid under his bed the guest bed until D was all done.

We shoved them to the front of the Jeep side of the garage and it fit like a very, very tight glove.

The back spare tire is basically touching the garage door but it'll do! 

Next up, was a refrigerator. Since that appliance sits front and center in the kitchen, I wasn't as open to a used one. All the nicer ones I found on Craigslist were 3-5 years old and out in the boonies. I found a very newish one at the ReStore that had been donated by a boom town woman but it was that shiny stainless? The ones that show every fingerprint? And while the proceeds go to Habitat at the ReStore, the $900 price tag was still too high for a used fridge for me.

So my mom and I swung by Home Depot after a quick trip to Target on Saturday morning and lo and behold. I spotted a gorgeous price reduced Frigidaire Gallery fridge juuuust out of my budgeted price range. It was the brushed nickle that doesn't show finger prints, it had the french doors with the freezer drawer that were WAY out of our price range during our initial pricing trip to Lowe's and it was NEW. The clearance tag had it marked as a "Slow Mover" (not "Scratch and Dent"). The store manager said it had been priced incorrectly during inventory (Score!) and Home Depot had the same 10% off promo as Lowe's. After a heated negotiating battle with the store manager, my stubborn mama convinced him to price match Lowe's promo to give me 5% off if I opened a credit card and boom boom bang, the fridge was mine.

Doesn't he look happy to be coming home with us?

Original price of fridge: $1619 

Accidental Inventoried Price: $1398 

Clearance Reduced Price: $1100 

10% Appliance Promo: $1000

5% Credit Card Promo: $950

Price after taxes: $1026

Savings: $593 (36% off) 

So, we were expecting to spend $2500 on new, bare bones appliances and we ended up spending $1726 on higher end steals! $774 under budget and even BETTER quality appliances! The savings I got ($1208 + $593 = $1801) is what I like to call A MORTGAGE PAYMENT!! (way more than a mortgage payment, actually) Gah, I love saving money. Seriously. I'd call it a hobby. 

I get it from my mama.