Too Good to Pass Up

When shopping do you ever see something you love and then look at the price and think “Do I really need this?”.

“Do I love it enough to spend that much?”

I do this a lot, and a lot of the time I don’t buy said item because I have a tight budget and I want to be sure I’m making my money count on the things that really matter and that I really love.

A few Sundays ago Tyler and I were driving home from church and we passed an estate sale sign. Just for fun we stopped and I went in as Tyler stayed with a sleeping Marie in the car. As I walked in the guy by the door said, “It’s our last day, everything’s 50% off!”. Score! As I walked through I admired an old ornate buffet, a beautiful old dining table and chairs, a ‘way not my style’ couch and chair set that looked like it belonged in a parlor in 1890. Tons of fun stuff, but nothing I wanted to throw my money at.

It wasn’t until I got to the very end though, the garage to be exact, that I spotted this beauty!

I checked the tag on it… $225. Ouch! And then I thought, “Ok, 50% off… that’s only $112.50!”.

Still a little steep for my budget but I really loved the lines of it and it’s crazy claw feet. So I went back to the car and made Tyler come take a look at it. He wasn’t as impressed as I was. So… we left without it. The guy at the door let us know that they would be there until 4 o’clock if we decided to come back.

We went home and talked a little more about it. I really loved the dresser but I wasn’t sure if 1) we really needed the dresser, or 2) I was willing to spend over $100 for it. I mean, it wasn’t in perfect condition. There were missing knobs and scratches, which meant a bit of time and money were needed to fix it up after I laid down cash for it.

        

Tyler came up with a good solution ( I love my husband!). We would go back just before 4 o’clock and see if it was still there. If so, we would put in an offer of $50. If we could get it at that price, it would be worth it.

So, I did. I took a good friend with me to see if the beauty was still there. As we got there I noticed that many of the pretty things I had seen earlier were gone, and a moment of fear struck me. I was sure my beautiful dresser would be gone (I mean, the couch and chair from 1890 had disappeared and my dresser was much nicer than that!). We made it back to the garage and whew…. there it was!

I asked the guy if he would take $50 for it and he looked at me, thought about it and said, “I’ll do $75, and that’s my last offer.”

“Let me think about it,” I said.

Ahhh!! What do I do? Tyler wasn’t with me to approve the increased price and true to form I had forgotten to bring my cell phone. I was ready to walk away thinking I had lost. Until… my friend encouraged me to counter offer with $60. It wasn’t too much above my original offer after all.

Now, I’m not usually one to haggle but what did I have to lose? I hesitantly went back in and gave him my counter offer and he said… Yes!

So, long story short, I got my dresser and for only $60! I was pretty impressed with myself!

Now that it’s in our place, I’m trying to figure out how to fix it up a bit. I bought a new knob to see if I liked a different look, not knowing if I would be able to replace the wooden knobs. I like the wooden ones, but only having six out of eight and two that don’t even match is not the look I would want to go after.

      

I’ve also seen a lot of painted furniture lately which I love, but am not sure if I could bring myself to paint it (probably a white or cream). What do you think?