Vacuum Cleaner Upgrade

I have to start out this post by giving a shout out to my awesome hubby!  My frugality is slowly wearing off on him, and this vacuum cleaner upgrade is totally his doing.

While I was out thrifting on Saturday, my darling husband was trying to score some extra brownie points by doing some house cleaning.  One of the things he did was vacuum the carpets.  One of the first things he said when I returned home was, "we need a new vacuum."  He was right. We've needed a new one for quite some time.  The old Dirt Devil bagless that we got as a gift off our bridal registry 8 years ago just wasn't cutting it anymore.  That vacuum has been through 3 dogs and a cat (all at once), and now 3 kids.  It has seen better days.

My hubby knows me well, and he knew I would want a bargain.  There was no way I would agree to a brand new Dyson for $300 or more.  How could I ever justify spending that kind of money on a vacuum cleaner when my daughter's birth family and millions of kids just like her are living in mud huts and sleeping on dirt floors? That may sound drastic, but that's how my mind works now.  Our time in Ethiopia really put my life into perspective.  Deep breath...getting down from my soapbox before I get stuck up there.

So yesterday I received an email of a Craigslist listing that my husband sent to me. It was for a Dyson vacuum cleaner for $25. Honestly, I didn't even pay much attention to it.  Who would sell a Dyson for $25 unless it was beyond repair?  He called me later to ask what I thought.  I told him I didn't want to take someone else's junk, and we left it at that.  When he came home from work, he brought it up again.  He told me all about how much other broken Dyson's were selling for online, and he thought at the very least we would be able to resell it for parts and make a profit.  Alright. I could tell that he did his research, and he hasn't questioned me over the last few weeks as I've been dragging home all my treasures.  Off he went to pick it up.

When he came home, I was pleasantly surprised that it was purple, and it actually ran.  The hose attachment even worked.  The downside...it was FILTHY!!! It looked fine from the outside, but underneath where the spin brush is looked like a nightmare.  The people who sold it to him had 3 dogs. Enough said.

After the kids went to bed, my husband started tinkering with it.  He watched some YouTube videos about how to clean and repair a Dyson vacuum, and got to work on it.  About 30 minutes later it looked almost as good as new.  It picked up A LOT of dirt out of our carpets, especially considering that my husband just vacuumed with our old one on Saturday.  The Dyson even had a fresh smell to it while he was vacuuming.

Here it is! Our $25 Dyson! I'll say it again...I LOVE CRAIGSLIST!!!

Dining Room Upgrade

It has been nearly 6 months since we brought our precious little girl home from Ethiopia.  I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I realize that we're a family of five.  After multiple miscarriages and fearing that we would never be able to have any more children, it is a huge blessing to now have three kids. Becoming a family of five has meant that we've had to make a lot of adjustments in our home.  One of the most recent adjustments we realized was the need for a larger dining table.

The dining set we've had for the last 4 years was a hand-me-down from my grandmother.  It was never really our style, but it was a really nice set made of solid oak. It served us well, but only had 4 chairs.  Our youngest is still using his high chair, so it hasn't been a problem yet, but we knew we had to do something about it in the near future.  I kept looking at yard sales for an extra chair that would somewhat match, but never really found one that was cheap enough or matched quite right.  I knew that buying a new set wasn't an option for us.  I just can't imagine spending thousands of dollars on a new dining set that my kids are sure to ding up.

Then one day I saw this beautiful dining set on Craigslist.  It was only 2 years old, made of solid wood, had six chairs, totally our style, and they were only asking $200.  I knew there had to be a catch, but I contacted the seller anyway to set up a time to look at it.  After talking with the seller, I found out what the catch was.  Her dog had chewed one of the legs pretty well, and there were chew marks in other areas as well.  We almost walked away, but I decided to at least take a look at it.  I'm so glad we did!  It was not chewed beyond repair. Since it was solid wood, all it needed was some wood putty, sanding, and a new finish for the legs.  The rest of the problem areas were easily fixed with a stain pen. $200 + a little elbow grease =

Want to see what I would have paid in the store? Here is the exact same set at Art Van.  It's on sale now for $1,099.99, and the original price (probably close to what it cost 2 years ago when it was purchased) was $2,299.99!  I'm so happy with this find! I love my new dining set, and I love the fact that it's used and not perfect.  This way, I don't have to worry so much about my kids being kids at the table.

I didn't waste any time posting our old dining set, and priced it at $250.  A day later, I had a buyer pick it up and pay the full amount in cash.  I managed to upgrade to a really nice dining set that fits our family, and I actually made $50! What a blessing! I love this simple life!