Animal Skin Rug

ANIMAL SKIN RUG

I absolutely love the mixture of a rustic and elegant look. One of the easiest way to achieve this look is through an animal skin rug. Here are two pictures I love that are good examples of this.

Cow skin rug on the floor with more modern furniture that has clean and straight lines.

Zebra rug with more vintage and antiqued furniture.

Despite how much I love this look my wallet cannot handle the price tag.

I had always kept my eyes open hoping that one day I would find one. Then my husband and I stumbled across this.....

We were so excited! The guy selling it told us that it was an animal from Australia. He mentioned the name of the animal but I sure do not remember it! He sold us the rug for $3!

Here it is in my bedroom. Now I know the small amount of space in my master bedroom is pitiful but cut me some slack! I am trying to work with what I have!

Remember those pillows? .50 cents a piece at a garage sale. Later I saw the EXACT same ones at Tia Pan for $10 a piece! I also bought the purple throw at a garage sale for $3.

I also pick up a sheep skin rug at a garage sale for $7! I couldn't get a very good picture of it besides this one.

However, it looks exactly like this one except it didn't cost me $145! Click HERE to see the link where I found the price tag.

A beautiful looking home with beautiful things inside does not have to have a big price tag.

Re-selling For Profit

RE-SELLING FOR PROFIT

A lot of times, if you know what you are looking for, you can find stuff at garage sales and second hand stores, resale it and make a profit. Does anyone remember this stroller? It sold in less than a week on Craigslist. I listed it for pretty cheap because I wanted it to sell fast. Even with the lady asking me to go down $20 I still made an 80 dollar profit.

Here is one of my all time favorite stories about re-selling items.

My husband and I were at Savers down in Las Vegas a few months ago and found a Vitamix blender on the shelf. It was priced at $25 so my husband stuck it in the cart. At first I gave him that "We don't need that look," but then he said that if it worked he thought we could sell it on ebay and make money. We went and plugged it in to make sure it worked and then I had him check what they were selling for on ebay. The ones we saw were in auction at about $250. Needless to say by this point I was convinced. I also had a 20% off coupon for donating items. (Whenever I go to Savers I always take something with me to donate so that I can get a coupon and save even more) After using my coupon the blender was about $20. After getting home my husband took pictures of it and put it on ebay. One week later the blender sold for $315!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! We made a profit of $295!

If you have a good knowledge about what things cost (or the internet on your phone) and you keep your eyes open at garage sales and second hand stores you could put some extra money in your pocket!

Fireplace Project

WORK IN PROGRESS

I am working on finishing up my fireplace and want a large green wreath to go in the middle of it. Yes, I know it's not a real fireplace. It's purely decorative but I couldn't help myself when I saw it at a garage sale. I LOVE fireplaces! I went out to Tia Pan to look at the wreaths they had. I thought they might have something reasonably priced.... not true.

Here is the wreath I want.

and here is the price tag!!!! There is NO WAY I will ever pay this much!

A little depressed I went to D.I. to see if they had a wreath the size I wanted. I figure I can make one for much cheaper, especially if I can find my materials at D.I. or a garage sale. Sadly, I didn't find what I needed at D.I. but I am not giving up yet! I know I will eventually find what I need. I did however find somethings worth mentioning.

Naughty Monkey heels

$5 dollars! I would have bought them if they were my size!

Buckle Jeans!

Sorry this picture is blurry I was in a bit of a hurry cause my kids were crying.

$8!

D.I. is a great place to find deals on almost anything!

Well Look at That!

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT GARAGE SALEING

Here is what I love about garage saleing. Remember these pillows I bought Saturday?

Here is the EXACT SAME one!!!!! I found this at Tai Pan and the price tag says $9.95. I paid .50 cents a piece for mine! I saved $38 dollars!

Shoes

SHOES!!!!!!

I LOVE shoes but buying shoes the way I like to can make you go broke quickly! I Love this new style of flat boot and just bought me a pair in black and brown at a buy on get on half off sale.

However before this, I had not bought a pair of shoes from a store in 3 years! (Thats like a miracle for me)

Here is my collection of shoes I have found at garage sales! Among these are brand names GUESS, Naughty Monkey, Jessica Simpson, J Lo, Michael Antonio, Hale Bob, Pierre Dumas, Nike, Croc and several others.

Here is a closer look at some of them.

I love the heel on these!...$5

and these!....$3

Jessica Simpson thigh high boots....$10

Fun cowgirl boots....$5 at a Goodwill in AZ

WILD but fun....$10

Michael Antonio Mustard Yellow and snake skin.....$3

Hale Bob. I love the black lace on these....$3

J Lo, teal and cork accents....$5

And one of my favorite pair. Carlos, nude.....$2

Ok have you seen enough pictures of shoes?!?!?!?! I hope I got my point across. You can find some cute, fashionable and affordable shoes at garage sales!

1/7/2012

1/7/2012

Since garage sales are not as abundant here in the winter I have been looking on craigslist to make sure we hit some good ones. I hit a fundraiser for a baseball team. No where near the biggest garage sale I have been to but a pretty good size! At this garage sale I bought. A soccer ball, pair of shoes, little buzz lightyear costume, and some laces..... grand total: 3 dollars. I didn't take a picture of the soccer ball but it was in great condition.

I have been looking for some cute flats and I love these. They were $1!

I use lace for SO many things so I always try to have some on hand.

Jaysa LOVES Buzz lightyear. I put this on her when I got home and she kept asking me to call her Buzz.

I also bought these pillows today for .50 cents a piece. I have been looking for pillows like this at stores for the last few months! They are a dark brown burlap fabric. Crazy I found them at a garage sale! Saved myself a lot of money!

Here they are on my bed. I only ended up using two but I am sure I will find a spot to put the others. Took this pic on my iphone so sorry it's not a great one.

I also picked up this boppy for $1. I am going to wash it, get a new cover for it and give it to a friend that is pregnant. You really have to be careful about giving garage sale presents. I ONLY give garage sale gifts to friends who I know don't mind shopping at second hand stores, who have come garage saleing with me or have asked me to pick up things for them while I garage sale. Some people don't like the idea of having something that was previously owned. I don't look at it that way. I see it as being able to have the finer things in life and saving money at the same time. Here is how much I saved. At Target a bobby pillow that comes with a cover was anywhere from $35.00 to $50.00. Click here to see their prices on Boppys. I saved at least $34 dollars. Even after buying a new cover I will still save $24 dollars.

DEAL OF THE DAY

Today my Deal of the day would be this double stroller and car seat that I bought for $20! They had $30 on it which is a great price. However, I went and asked if they would go down and she said she would take $20! This is a really nice double stroller. It's a Baby Trend Sit-n-Stand Plus and has been kept in really good condition. The women said she only used it like 4 times. I looked up stroller at Target.com and something similar runs about $160.00 The car seat sells for $98.00. Thats a $238 savings!!!! Totally worth it to me. Unfortunately I do not need a new double stroller and I for sure do not need a new car seat. I paid $55 for my car seat and stroller. So this was a better deal but I am going to list these on craigslist and see if I can make a profit on it.

When buying car seats from a garage sale you have to be VERY careful. It has to be a recent car seat. If it's too old it may not meet car seat standards these days. Make sure it's only a few years old and that it has not been buckled into a car during an accident. Someone told me that in some places policer officers are starting the cut the straps of car seats that have been in wrecks so that they cannot be used again. I also know that none of the second hand stores will take a car seat if the stickers on the side have been ripped off. To some people I would just suggest they buy a new one. If you can't afford a new one buy one from a second hand stores who have checked out the car seat already. Initially I was just interested in the stroller but the women threw in the car seat for me. It has all its stickers and is a recent model so I knew I could take it to a second hand store and have them buy it from me. In this case it made no sense to leave it behind.

OTHER AWSOME DEALS

Cute barstools. $5 dollars a piece!

Such a cool old dresser!!!! This was bought when I got there. The lady only paid $10 dollars for it and plans to redo it!

Kids toys. Toys are SOOOOOO expensive in stores!!!! which is why I prefer to buy mine at garage sales. The three little bikes in this picture are $2 dollars a piece. Thats a much more affordable price.

LESSON LEARNED

Today I decided to drive out to a neighborhood that was not on my route but that was in an affluent area. Initially I thought it wasn't going to be that far out of my way but I was WRONG. I wasted 30 mins and my gas getting out there and it was not even a garage sale! The couple had the bright idea that they would clean out their garage Saturday morning but list it as a garage sale just in case they wanted to sale anything they didn't want........WHAT?!?!?!?!? Needless to say they had nothing good and had no idea what was for sale and what they were keeping. I was not happy! I had wasted my time and money. Lesson Learned: Just because it is in a nice area doesn't mean they will be selling nice things. Sometimes driving to the nicer areas that may be a little further away doesn't pay off.

DPWF Works on Anyone!

You can use dress-per-wear-factor (DPWF) to analyze how much money you are spending on your family's clothes too! Lets take a look at my kids for example.

Here is my Miss Jaysa Sue. Again, everything she is wearing is from second hand stores and garage sales. Her jeans are teal Oshkosh jeans I found for 2.99 at Savers. I also found her silver sandals at Savers for 3.99. Her white tank and hot pink GUESS sweater are from a garage sale. The white tank was .50 cents and the sweater was $1. Her total outfit cost is 8.50 now divided that by ten and we have an .85 cent dress-per-wear-factor!

Here is one of Paisley's outfits I put on her all the time. The pants are not from a garage sale but if I remember right they were only 5 dollars at the children's place! Her boots were $1 and her vest and t-shirt were .50 cents a piece. We will go ahead and throw in the bow and headband too. The bow was a flower I bought at Roberts Arts and Crafts using a 50% off coupon so it was only 1.50 and the headband was in a little baggie of headbands I found at a garage sale. I can't remember exactly how much I paid but I know I wouldn't have paid more than a dollar for it and there were a lot of headbands in the bag. Just to be safe we will add on 10 cents for the headband. Total outfit cost is 8.60 making our DPWF .86 cents!

Here is another outfit of Jaysas. Winter jackets can get expensive even if they are just for your kids. I found this winter coat for Jaysa at a garage sale for $3 dollars.

This is a bad picture but it shows her jacket more. Her jeans were $1. She has little Nike shoes on that I bought for $1 also. Here is a closer look at them since you can't see them in the picture of her in the leaves.

I don't really remember what shirt she had on but we will say .50 (thats what I normally pay for a t-shirt) If we want to get really technical we could add on the bow again. I bought a huge bag of flowers from a lady for $3 dollars and made her bow from petals out of that bag. My guess is that there were easily a few hundred flowers in the bag but we will just say 10 cents for the bow just to be safe. It probably adds up to that once you add on the clip that I have to put on the flower anyway. So now that we are being very technical our total outfit cost is 5.60. DPWF= .56 cents! If math was always this easy it would be fun right?!?! To learn how to find your dress-per-wear-factor click here!