Good Deals & Free Finds

Now that we are living on only one income, I usually try to only buy things when they are on sale or if we really need them. In the last week, I have been able to score some pretty nice things for either really cheap or FREE! I get really excited when I can find great deals!!

My most favorite find of all is this awesome playset. It is a Little Tikes Clubhouse Swingset and it retails for $350-500! Guess how much we paid for it?! NOTHING...it was absolutely free!!

There is a family in our neighborhood who was moving and they were giving away a bunch of stuff that they didn't want to take with them to Arizona. I just happened to respond to the email that the woman sent out (I don't know them personally) and luckily, I was the first to respond about this awesome playset! The only stipulation was that we needed to move it ourselves. So, yesterday, Shaun & Keith moved it from their yard to ours in just a matter of a few hours. (Thanks for helping us Shaun!!) Jacob had a blast playing on it today!! [Note: the red swing came with the playset along with two other "regular" swings. The blue swing was a birthday present that Jacob received from Keith's aunt.]

While I was at their house on Friday to look at the playset, the husband asked me if there was anything else that I wanted that they were trying to get rid of. He offered me a little table with an umbrella and three kid-sized folding chairs. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do with them, but Jacob enjoyed climbing on one of the chairs today while we were outside.

The man also offered me a "bounce thingy" (that is what he called it). He said that once it was blown up, the kids could jump in it. I wasn't quite sure what it was going to look like, but I said "Sure" and threw it in my car with the other things. Today, I was going to try to inflate it while we were outside, but Jacob got really scared when I turned on the electric pump. So instead, I just pulled it apart a little to try and envision what it was going to look like once it was inflated. I saw that it said "One Step Ahead" on it and anyone that has kids is familiar with their products.

Later, once Jacob was down for his nap, I looked on the One Step Ahead website to see if I could find this particular "bounce thingy". When I saw that it was the Bounce-A-Round Bouncer, I got really excited. According to their website, it retails for $100! And I got it for FREE!! I am really excited to get it blown up so Jacob can play in it (even though the website says it is for 2 years & up, I think he'll still have fun in it as long as I watch him closely!)

Last Friday evening, Katie & I had a "Girls Night Out" of sorts. First, we went to an awesome local Children's Consignment Sale (a friend of Katie's gave us pre-sale tickets so we got to shop before the public!). Then, we went out to dinner and to the Sugarland concert. It was a very enjoyable night!! In addition to spending some good "quiet" (meaning: no kids!!) time with my sister, we both got some great deals at the Consignment Shop. Here are a few of my great buys:

I have been looking to get a gate for our front porch stairs for awhile now. Jacob loves to be outside, but being out on the front porch is always stressful because he wants to go up and down the stairs. I didn't want to pay a lot for a gate nor did I want anything fancy. I was able to find this Evenflo Position & Lock gate for $8.

Something else that I have been looking for are snow boots & pants for Jacob. Realizing that we live in Virginia and there is no guarantee that we are even going to get snow this winter, I certainly didn't want to pay a lot of money for them!! I was able to find these snow boots for Jacob for $8 and I got a pair of snowpants for $6 (I bought them both a size bigger than he is now so that he can hopefully use them for the next two winters!)

The boots on the left are my new snow boots (my old pair were WAY too small thanks to my feet growing a whole size bigger when I was pregnant!). I scored these not-so-stylish, but very practical boots from Shoebuy.com and I only paid $11.45 for them! I used both Groupon.com and Ebates.com to save $30!!

While we were at the Consignment Sale, I grabbed these two awesome toys for $10 each. We have put them away so that they will be Christmas presents for Jacob.

This is the Mega Bloks Firetruck:
And this is a Keyboard & Stool (The one I got is not exactly like this one, but it's pretty close). It's really cool because it plays many different instrument and drum sounds & the keyboard comes off of the legs if you want to just use it on the floor:

On Saturday night, Keith's coworker, Carla, hosted a game night at her house. Unfortunately, Keith was sick so he didn't go, but Jacob and I went for a little while. While we were there, Carla's husband got out this little toy for Jacob to play with and he loved it. When we were getting ready to leave, they put the toy in a bag for us and told me to take it home. Their kids are eight and eleven now so they are too old to play with it. It's a really fun toy and a learning tool also. As you can see, some of the pieces are missing because Jacob was playing with it and they were in his room where he was sleeping when I took the picture. Thanks Carla & Hector!!

Last, but certainly not least, is something that we have been trying to replace for some time now - the area rug in our living room - but we haven't been able to find the right rug for the right amount of money. As you can see from the picture, our loveseat has multiple colors and it has been hard to find something that would match well. Also, it's hard to find a good quality rug that isn't pricey (we were hoping to pay less than $100). Luckily, when I went to Walmart on Saturday, I found this green rug on clearance for $35. It was one of the only rugs that was marked down 70%. I am not sure why it was marked down, but I am certainly not complaining.

All in all, it was a week of "Great Deals and Free Finds" for the Weimers! I love when we can get nice things for a reduced price (or free!). It makes up for those things that are worth paying full price for!