I have to admit that I’ve only recently seen the light of second-hand treasures.
For longer than I’d like to admit, I was all about the shiny and new. It seemed totally reasonable to pay a premium to have something right now and have it be just perfect.
Luckily for my poor emergency savings account balance, even though I had “new item” tastes, I didn’t have “expensive new item” taste. I was all about Ikea and the sale racks at Smart Set (weeps about Smart Set closing), not so much about artisan, hand-crafted, Martha Stewart-level furniture and designer duds.
Eventually though, I started to question things – even before I dove right into the personal finance blogosphere.
Maybe it was worth it to take a look through the shirt rack at Value Village, just to see if I liked anything?
Maybe I should check on Kijiji for that Ikea table, since someone must not want theirs anymore, and it’s not like I’m having a Table Emergency over here?
So even though I’m still learning about where to score the best second-hand deals, I wanted to share some of my current favourite second-hand treasures, and the strategies I used to find them. Spoiler alert: I’m using the word “strategy” loosely here.
Very loosely.
Strategy #1: Accept hand-me-downs and stop being so persnickety.
Item: Kitchen cabinets
Cost: $0
This is what I meant by “using the word strategy loosely.” Hand-me-downs are almost always an “outside of your control” kind of thing.
Here’s what happened.
The Boyfriend’s parents just happened to be renovating their kitchen to the custom-cabinet, granite-counter dream, and as a by-product, their perfectly nice white kitchen cabinets were up for grabs. The Boyfriend had wanted to revamp his kitchen for a while, and free cabinets sounded like good cabinets to us both.
Sure, I have a bit of a thing for reading interior design magazines, and my Pinterest “Future House” board is… shall we say… well-developed. But here’s the thing: I can lust over the perfect kitchens all day, and still realize that great free cabinets will win over $10,000 custom cabinets almost every time.
Even if I hadn’t come to that realization in time to accept the cabinets, I was protected by the fact that it’s The Boyfriend’s house and ultimately his decision – especially since he and his dad did the entire installation themselves. Lucky for me they went ahead with it too, because our new kitchen with its fantastic cabinets is one of my favourite rooms in our house.
Strategy #2: Go to garage sales – specifically, in the newly-built parts of town
Item: Mixing bowls
Cost: $5
This summer has been the summer of getting really, really into garage sales for The Boyfriend and me. Sure, we’ve gone to them in years past, but this summer we went all in. Saturday mornings saw us up early with The Dog, scouring Kijiji garage sale listings and chasing down haphazardly-placed road signs – some of which were barely legible. (Ottawa, step up your garage-sale-signage game.)
One of the best sales we found taught us a valuable garage sale lesson: new homes tend to be sold to people who like new things.
As a direct result, if you can find the community garage sale day in a neighbourhood of newly-built homes, you can score some great, like-new items. Old and shabby is *not* what comes out of newly built homes, by and large.
That’s where I got this set of ceramic serving / mixing bowls. I can understand why they might not be the best fit for everyone – they’re an arm workout and a half, let’s put it that way – but I love them and they make me feel just like Martha Stewart. Plus, they’re in absolutely perfect condition.
Newly built neighbourhoods: they make for excellent garage sale finds. Not convinced? That one sale alone is responsible for more than one item in this post.
Strategy #3: Look in multiple places for great deals, and be willing to DIY
Item: Kitchen table and chairs
Cost: $35 for two chairs, $70 for the table
Our kitchen, with its second-hand cupboards and tons of natural light, is one of my absolute favourite places in the whole house. It’s so bright and sunny in the afternoons, and it makes for the perfect place to sit and work on the blog.
Well, it does now that we have a kitchen table, anyways.
After the big DIY kitchen renovation was complete, The Boyfriend and I were a bit home-maintenance fatigued, so we left the space that used to house the eat-in kitchen table empty. Not only did we want a break, we wanted to get the table set-up we wanted eventually. What did we want?
This Ikea table and two of these Ikea chairs, for a grand total of $329.97 before taxes. Since The Boyfriend had just bankrolled a kitchen renovation, we decided holding off was our best option. Before we could get around to buying the entire set-up new, garage sales intervened in the best way possible.
At that aforementioned epic garage sale in the newly-built suburban neighbourhood, we found two of the exact Ikea chairs we wanted. Instead of $79.99 apiece, plus taxes, a very nice man sold them to us for $35 – for the pair.
Now that we had the chairs, we were committed. This was going to be a second-hand kitchen table set up.
So I took to Kijiji, since I figured our luck with the chairs was too much to expect with the table. Lightning not striking twice and all of that.
I found the exact table we were looking for, plus one lonely bar stool, listed for $70 on our side of the city this summer, and after some frantic “Can you go pick this up right now please please please” texts to The Boyfriend, the table was ours.
But wait!
It was too tall.
How does that even happen, you might ask? How is it that bar-height tables and bar-height chairs from the same place don’t even match?
I don’t know either, but we could fix this. And it’s not like I was sending The Boyfriend to try to return a Kijiji purchase. So out came the handsaw and the measuring tape, and after the table lost a few inches of height, we had a kitchen table!
The perfect kitchen table, actually, and for $224.97 less than we would have paid for the exact same items new.
Strategy #4: Don’t be afraid to pick up things from the side of the road
Item: Coffee table treasure chest
Cost: $0
I wish this story was as good as my kitchen-related second hand stories, but I get the sense it won’t be. I’m also starting to realize just how much I love our kitchen, but that’s neither here nor there.
I was sitting at home one night, and The Boyfriend came home from a walk with The Dog. He came in the door and announced he had a chest.
“Um, ok?”
“No, come look!”
So I went downstairs, and he had found the coolest, totally-beat-up blue treasure chest. Now, the jury is still out on whether or not it ever held actual treasure (I maintain hope) but either way, it makes for a very cool coffee table in our living room. The Boyfriend is also a whole lot less concerned about using coasters on this coffee table, since it’s a bit more… well-loved.
Anyways, I think it’s the coolest, and it came to us totally free from the side of the road. I guess, if push came to shove, you could add a note to this strategy that you’d need to be able to walk a big black dog and carry a giant treasure chest home, but the general premise stays the same.
Free stuff is good stuff.
Strategy #5: Adopt, don’t shop, if you’re going to get a pet
Family member: The Dog
Cost: $400 (adoption fee only.)
Ok, I can’t not include The Dog on this list, because he brings me more joy than every single “thing” I own combined, and he’s proudly second-hand.
See, when The Boyfriend and I decided on getting a dog, we both knew adopting was the right fit for us. Not only does it feel better to give an animal a home who needs one, we didn’t want to spend $1000+ on a purebred puppy, plus all of the additional vet costs that are guaranteed in the first year of a dog’s life.
Plus, puppies are a hassle. Have you ever had a puppy?
They poop everywhere.
And they have so not gotten the memo that their razor sharp teeth aren’t fun for everyone and everything.
When we put all of that together, adopting an adult dog was the best-case scenario, and that’s how we added The Dog to our little family almost a year ago, at the ripe old age of 2 years old. Even when you look at only the financial implications, without considering any of the benefits, this one decision easily saved us over $1000, while adding even more joy than we could have had buying a puppy.
Plus we got to sleep through the night from day one. Priceless.
I would absolutely love to hear about your favourite second-hand find or finds, since they clearly come with some strongly-carried thoughts and emotions, and they tend to make great stories!
We love roadside finds! Some of our very favorite indoor and outdoor furniture had been saved from an early grave this way. Good call on the cabinets. As tempting as it was for me to completely gut our kitchen when we moved in, I realized that I had other priorities. And hooray for pet adoption. I don’t think we’ll ever own a dog (sigh) because we’re just not home enough, but if we did, I would definitely adopt! The Dog is quite handsome. Love that pic!
Oh well compliments for The Dog are the way to my heart every time, thank you so much! I think he’s pretty handsome too. The being-home thing was the other tipping point for a puppy – I genuinely don’t know how people can do it when they work 8 hours a day! Puppies can only “hold it” for their age in months, plus one, in hours. Until they’re 7 months old, people must come home at lunch or something I guess?
And yeah, this kitchen reno was a great lesson is “needs vs. wants” that will carry me through if we ever move and face another one! We needed a range hood, but we only wanted the stainless steel one, haha. Needless to say, we got the plain white one, and it’s still my favourite room ever, just with a $50 range hood – not a $400 one. There’s probably (definitely) a post about it sometime in the future!
This is one area where I can definitely improve when it comes to saving money. I have always bought new and have only recently begun to look for used pieces first. Admittedly, the savings can be astronomical. The one glaring exception though are books. I am an avid reader and I would be filing for bankruptcy at this point if all the books I bought were brand new. Have you seen book prices in places like Barnes and Noble (or the Canadian equivalent)? Buying books used, and combining it with better usage of the library, has definitely saved me a ton of money.
Beautiful kitchen by the way and great job on doing it all at almost no cost!
Oh man, am I ever familiar with the price of books, haha. It’s only in the past few months that I’ve re-discovered the magic of the library (the books are all FREE! So not over it.) and the “book box” at garage sales is my happy place. That said, before that I was an Amazon devotee, and two $50 orders a month was not an uncommon occurrence. Better late than never to realize that maybe there was a cheaper way to get my reading fix, eh? (We really do say eh up here, that wasn’t said in irony at all.)
Thank you so much re: the kitchen! My greatest accomplishment was convincing The Boyfriend that the subway tile backsplash was totally his idea, haha.
Holy cow! That’s a lot of money spent on books!
The funny thing is that I did my community hours (mandatory community work you have to do in high school) at the local library, so I should have known better than anyone what the benefits were. But somehow I lost track of it and only started thinking about renewing my card after reading an article from MMM; it is such a wonderful place and we’re already paying for it with our tax money, so we might as well take advantage of it. Now I only buy classics and when I can find them for an unbelievable price.
And thank you for dispelling the mystery behind the usage of ‘eh’…I always thought it was a myth. LOL
Happy Wednesday!
The best thing about garage sales in newly built communities is all the newlyweds who got extra things or had perfectly good things of the things they received so they sell those. That’s the best ever! I’m very keen to try to find some second hand patio furniture in the spring when people are thinking of upgrading.
Cute kitchen! Great post!
I didn’t even consider the newlywed thing, that’s probably a huge part of it! And oh my goodness yes to the patio furniture thing. We have this epic community garage sale in downtown Ottawa every year and I swear the people in this neighbourhood upgrade their patio set every year – there are always so many amazing ones available. Keep me posted in the spring if you find one, I’ll want pictures for sure!
And thank you re: the kitchen!!
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME strategies! I’m alllll about some hand-me-down second hand stuff.
Me too! I didn’t even include the awesome dark wood retro radio I got from a relative who wasn’t using it any more – but I figured kitchen cupboards were a more oddball hand-me-down, haha.
Great post!
I’m a huge fan of Craigslist. I buy and sell everything on there.
I am also not too proud to accept hand me downs. My one year old grows out of her clothes so quick! I’m thankful that many family and friends have given us clothes to help us get by.
I once scored a $5 TV from a garage sale. Sure it’s an old school big bulky one, but it works as a TV in our garage!
I honestly get disappointed when people have a dog bred. There are so many dogs and cats that need good homes.
My jaw dropped when you said you got those kitchen cabinets for free. We are in desperate (not an exageration) need of a kitchen renovation and I would kill for those cabinets….can’t believe you go them for free!
ME TOO! Oh man. It is such a struggle to be super-excited for someone when they announce that they bought a dog from a breeder.
We really, really lucked out on them, especially with the timing – I think we probably had the same desperate cabinet situation! They were from the original build… in the 80s. I called them the sad cabinets, haha. I hope you find some equally awesome cabinets soon!
I’ve found tons of great appliance finds at the Salvation Army. I’ve purchased a cast iron skillet that was in great shape for $5, a food processor/blender combo for $15 and different dish and glass sets. I love cheap or free finds!
That’s so awesome that you found a cast iron skillet for so cheap! Especially since the used ones are by far the best ones. I always, always make sure to swing by the kitchen section of second hand stores to see if I can find good stuff. I’m glad you’ve had good luck with it too!
Wonderful! Love the article. One of my fav things to do that I haven’t made time to do is garage sales in West university and Montrose part of Houston. Usually lots of great clothing and artistic finds.
Smart lady! Wish I had lived on half at your age. Keep it up!
suzewannabe.com
Thank you so much Suze! To be totally transparent, this month I’ve gone a bit over, haha – I’ll be posting a full recap at the end of the month! But I am glad to be at least trying to live on half, since it’s already taken me on so many adventures. That said, I’m impressed that you can find clothing at garage sales – maybe I’m not hitting the right neighbourhoods, but I’ve never had a huge amount of success getting clothes that way! Maybe it’s a culture thing, and people in Ottawa aren’t that into selling their clothes that way. Hmmm. Intriguing!
These are all great tips! We have gone through an evolution on second-hand stuff. First, we only ever wanted new, and second-hand didn’t even occur to us. Then, some friends who were into flea marketing started urging me to go, and I was super intimidated at first. (I’m bad at shopping where I have to rifle through things — so I’m still bad at thrift store shopping to this day.) But gradually, I came to love flea markets, and we have mostly furnished our home through flea market finds, which was much cheaper than buying all new, and I think we often got better quality that way. BUT, I got to into acquiring second-hand things that I would often just pop into antiques stores, and I definitely picked up more tchotckes than we possibly need that way. So now we’re in the purging-the-second-hand-stuff mode, and I’m learning that shopping is not a thing. 🙂 It’s just so easy to slide down that slippery slope of thinking, “Wow, used stuff is so much cheaper. Therefore, I can get as much as I want!” Not that that is at all what you’re talking about in this post — just exorcising some demons over here. 🙂
Hahaha no I totally get it, those are such valid issues that come up with second-hand stuff! As it is, I’m glad I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up when I did, because I had just discovered that the long-sleeved shirt category of thrift stores had surprisingly consistent great stuff (think denim button downs and really nice work tops.) I’m also so not a fan of the rifling through giant racks of stuff, but I found that category was worth the rifle – unlike the knitted sweaters which, I mean, I can’t even talk about. If I hadn’t gotten rid of a huge percentage of my wardrobe after reading that book, I might be drowning in extra clothes by this point, especially since each top was only about $5. As it is, three of those tops made it through the Great Closet Purge of 2015, so I feel ok standing by them as great purchases.