Frugal Finds

I have always been a tight wad, but I find myself watching my bank account even more closely now that I have started to build a business at the same time as planning to buy a new home.

Buying used is a second nature to me, especially now that I have a child. Kids go through things so quickly-toys, shoes, clothes, etc. that it's really not practical (for me at least) to buy everything new. I have always loved Craigslist. We have bought and sold many items, from plants that we dug up and replanted, to motorcycles and Pampered Chef pots and pans. The deals you can find are amazing, and of course endless as people are always looking to get rid of something they no longer use. 

Baby J in her birthday dress-bought at Kid to Kid for $5.50 and I got an additional 25% off of that price! :)

As my daughter's first birthday approached, which also just happened to be my husband's and my fifth anniversary, I contemplated on what to get her. She doesn't need clothes even though it's always fund to buy them. Because her birthday is in the summer and she LOVES to be outside even when it's 115* out, I decided we needed to get her something for the backyard. I love the Little Tikes outdoor furniture so we thought about that and also considered getting a baby pool. We nixed the pool because we will have one in our new home-hopefully sooner than later. 

After checking online and in store for the perfect outdoor play set, and seeing that most are $100 or more, I decided to go to my favorite online garage sale: Craigslist. I found a ton of Little Tikes items available for super cheap! I was so excited and wanted to buy everything just because it was such a great deal, but that kind of takes away from the saving money idea...

Of course, some of the ads were already unavailable and people 'forgot' to take down their ad and other posters just never email back. Fortunately, there were two items I scored. One was a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car. I never thought about it for the first birthday, but for $15, I just couldn't pass it up. Baby J loves it and, although she can only go backwards because she hasn't mastered driving, she loves sitting in it and honking the horn or just climbing in and out and shutting the door. 

Retails new for $49.99-savings of $34.99+tax:)

I still wanted an item for outdoor play, so I emailed a handful of posters about their slides. One poster had just listed various items that she was going to sell at a garage sale without pictures and it just so happened that one was a Little Tikes slide for $10. Unfortunately she was having technical difficulties loading any pictures, but since she only lived about 15 minutes away (and everything seems to be 15 minutes away from me anyway) my husband decided to go check it out. It was a little faded, but for $10, how perfect for our little June Bug!! 

Baby J is waiting for her best friend at the bottom of the slide.

Good job friend! I need to try that now.

Not only did I save tons of money on these items, I feel great that I am passing on some previously loved toys to my daughter who would never know the difference.

Now I hope to get some cash selling items she no longer uses to other frugal families!

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