Craigs List Deals…

Speaking of provident living… Craigslist… It’s amazing.

My wife and I moved to Arizona 2 years ago with nothing… We towed a 4×8 trailer all the way from VA with nothing but clothes, some wedding presents, and bedding.

In the last 2 years, we have furnished our apartment, and now our house almost exclusively from Craigslist. The secret to snagging the GREAT deals is to act fast. Katrina constantly weeds through Craigslist ads looking for good deals, and acts on them FAST. Katrina’s laptop we got for about half of what it retails for, it was posted at 9pm on a tuesday night, and we called at 9:10 and picked it up at 9:50pm.

Here is a list of the things we’ve snagged for a bargain.

• Bar Stools – $30
  
• Free Book Shelves that created a memorable experience, see below for details.
• King size bed with Seely posterpedic mattress and box springs and beutiful antique headboard – $200
• Bike Rack – $50 (retails for $200+)
  
• Coffee Table – $7
  
• Antique Couch and chair in amazing condition – $50 (+ $115 to clean but they will look brand new.)
• Dog – $100 (included all shots and licensing)
  
• Drafting Table – $60 (retail for a LOT more)
  
• Fridge ($50 + $30 part!) – retails for $1200 – It has this awesome shelf that moves up and down as you turn a crank, and the fruit and meat drawers have indepenant temperature controls.
  
• Kitchen Chairs – $25
  
• Katrina’s Laptop – $280
  
• My First Mountain Bike in AZ – $60 – Retails at WalMart for $100 – It came with a second bike they just wanted to get rid of that I put new tubes in and sold for $30
  
• Our Projector – $80 + $350 bulb
  
• Antique Rocking Chair (Currently Disassembled) – $20
  
• Shelves – $15
  
• Tent for trip to Grand Canyon – $50 – 4 person, HUGE, excellent condition
  
• Washer and Dryer – $275 (our worst deal ever, but we needed them NOW, (it’s never good to be in a hurry to buy something)
  
• Weathered Wicker furniture – $25
  

Free Bookshelves.

We saw this ad for some free bookshelves from a bookstore that had closed, they were supposed to be great shelves in great shape. So we drove across phoenix to get a few. We arrive to find out they are home made particle board shelves that were assembled from crooked pieces cut out with a jig saw, and held together by board splitting drywall screws… We would have turned them down flat, but the lady had a few nice chairs she was giving away and wanted the bookshelves gone, so I took three intending to just throw them in the dumpster when we got home. Her grown son helped us tie down the bookshelves in our trailer with some tie downs. I didn’t think he had tied them down very well, but I used to hate correcting people and wanted him to think he had done a good job. We hopped in the car and away we went. (A Note: Our trailer doesn’t have a tailgate. I built the trailer in a hurry and didn’t have time to finish the tailgate.)

As we are traveling home on the interstate I kept watch on the shelves. I was looking at the road when I heard a sound similar to particle board sliding on the bottom of a trailer. I look back to see the middle of the three shelves slowly sliding out the back of the trailer. As I watched, the wind quickly accelerated the shelves until it had slid right out of the trailer. The shelves managed to stay upright (the base was parallel to the road) as they slid across 4 lanes towards the inside shoulder. Fortunately traffic was light and only one car had to move out of their way. The shelves came to rest on the shoulder.

After that experience I now always double triple check the tie downs, and check them again after driving a few miles.