The Mother-load of Frugal Finds

I had the good fortune of stopping by an estate sale last Friday in between appointments. I love estate sales because you can find the neatest things and they are usually in pretty good shape.  I knew I'd scored on this one when I walked into the basement and saw a whole woodworking shop set up.  As you all know, Matt has been stretching his woodworking muscles lately so I was sure I could find him some necessary items to keep his creative juices flowing.  And sure enough...there it was...a Craftsman Radial Arm Saw.

New model

It wasn't the newest model, since it didn't have laser pointers, but I could tell it was well loved, based on all the hand made items around the shop.  It also had a shop vac with an attachment that sucks up the sawdust as you cut, roller table (not pictured) and a bunch of blades to go with it. Price tag- $400...bummer.  No $400 in the budget but while I was standing there, the man running the sale announced everything was half price.  Hmm...was it worth $200? I'm sure it was and a quick look on Amazon showed new ones are selling for $1,000.  But the thing was huge and we really didn't have room for it.  I texted Matt but he was wavering on price, where we would put it, etc. I offered the guy $175...he said he really couldn't take that much.  So I said, "ok, I'll take the patio table & chair set for $50 (originally marked $100).

Note my lovely assistants model our new patio set (aka Chloe & Matt)

Before I filled in the amount on the check I said to the man running the sale, "you sure you can't take $175?" And he said, "well, ok, but don't tell anybody."  SCORE!!!!  I called Matt & told him "Merry Christmas, now figure out how we are going to get this mammoth thing home and where we are going to store it."

Our neighbor had to come help us unload it because the thing is so heavy, I can't even pick it up with Matt's help. He was super impressed with my purchase and said the shopvac alone was probably worth $175.   I can't wait to see all the projects I can talk Matt into now that he has some serious tools!