A $13.50 Cushion?!

My latest yard sale find was a patio table and six chairs. Anyone that knows anything about outdoor furniture should agree that it is all entirely too over priced for the quality and style. When I began searching for furniture for my front porch, I search store after store. After hours of searching online I decided I would jump on the next good deal on the yard sale page. I was refusing to pay $1,000 for a set I wasn't completely happy with.

Like all good deals and high demand items, almost every patio set that was posted was sold in a matter of minutes.

FINALLY I was what seemed like the first person to see the furniture post so I immediately messaged the lady the I wanted to purchase it. Even if it wasn't the exact style I wished for at least I would save some money. Cha Ching! The lady sold the table and six chairs for $75. Not a bad deal at all for this set that would last forever with proper care.

This was the taken after I had hauled the set to my house and painted them with the same paint I had left over from my kitchen table. The seats of the chairs were made of wood, which will soon be replaced with scrap metal. I was very happy with the way it looked after a fresh coat of paint. 

There was no way I was going to let my house guests sit on the hard wooden seats at a cook out so I was on my way to Walmart to purchase cushions for my new patio furniture set with a few of my closest friends (Kala and Virginia).

I searched through a few selections of cushions and just didn't have any luck on finding 6 of the exact same pattern. There were 5 of the pattern that was my favorite. That wasn't going to cut it. Finally I settled for a black and white set that was a paisley print... 

Time to check out and take them home to my patio. 

WRONG!

THIRTEEN DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS FOR ONE CUSHION?!?!

No way I would pay $81 for cushions (before tax) when the entire metal set didn't even cost that. 

So stubborn little me decided to make my own. It may take longer but it would be worth it.

I ended up sewing 6 cushions by hand, that looked better than anything I had saw at Walmart. They ended up costing me $4.03 a piece. 

Ta-Da!

Before and After

One of my absolute favorite things to do is take pictures. Anything interesting that I notice I immediately snap a picture. Before I begin nearly any project I enjoy taking "before and after" pictures just to see my progress and remind myself how rewarding it was. I love showing others the differences.

Another favorite thing of mine is the local Yard Sale pages. I have always been interested in Craigslist so when the "County Yard Sale Page" came about on Facebook I was hooked. I enjoy stopping in at yard sales on the weekends but with my work schedule now I am never able to make it to Saturday morning yard sale. With the Facebook yard sale page I can find one mans junk virtually at any time in the week. High demand items such as Window Air Conditioning units, name brand clothing, and cell phones have been known to sale quickly. Cheap items that need a little TLC are more of my style.

This particular table was posted on the yard sale page for $35 along with a stove and refrigerator. Due to the fact that my boyfriend owns rental property, he is always interested in any stove and refrigerator for sale for a decent price because he finishers his properties with the two. When I saw the post for all three of the items for sale together I immediately began bargaining with the man selling the three items. He originally wanted $35 for the table alone, I got his price down to $15. Which was a steal in my eyes. This was the photo attached to the advertisement:

When we reached the mans house where he had the three items I began to carry the table and two chairs to the truck. This antique table seemed like a really good deal but as I was carrying the table I noticed scratches in the wood, rust on the metal, a brace missing from the chair legs, stains in the cloth seats, and crayon marks everywhere. The picture he had posted must have been from years previous. 

I took the table home and started sanding it down for its new "face-lift". I had some black gloss spray paint from a previous project. I painted all of the white/rust after sanding it down.  I sanded the top of the table and re-stained it, and washed the cushions. 

This was the end result. I had had my eye on a two-top table for quite a while at a furniture store. The store had been asking $219 which was way out of my price range. Big Lots had one near the style I liked for $100. In the end I saved around $80. 

The Mission

Today I have declared that I will create a blog to track my success in becoming more frugal and reaching periodical goals.

I hope that anyone (if anyone) reading this will find this interesting.

One of my goals is to own my own home by 26 and have absolutely no debt before I purchase/ build the home I speak of. I feel as if I manage my money correctly I will live a much less stressful life.

I have paid off a $6,000 car loan, $3,000 in credit card debt, and a $1,000 personal loan in the past year. The credit card and personal loan were the banks way of telling me to "make my own credit" which backfired extremely when I realized that was a horrible way to perfect my credit score. It was extremely stressful and I plan on never being in that situation again...

Which has led me to the reasoning behind this blog. I plan on using this as journal showing all of my methods of being smarter with my money.

This is one of my favorite quotes now, my best friend Virginia sent it to me and it has really kick started my "mission".