Bargain Deals

Now that the secret's out, I can go into more details about all this loot we've been buying! Right now, my parents' garage looks like this:

Full of mattresses, couches, and other goodies all wrapped in plastic, just waiting for their new home.  Unfortunately, they've got a while to wait.

I mentioned a few days ago about my mom's and my spontaneous trip to a furniture store that resulted in me and Doc having to spend the evening in a Uhaul hauling everything we bought.  Now I can show you more details of just what all we purchased that day and brag about show off share with you about the incredibly good deals we got.

First, let's talk mattresses.  We bought box springs and mattresses for three queen-sized beds and one king-sized.  No, they're not top of the line pillow top mattresses, but they aren't bottom of the line either.  My mom and I both laid down and tested out several and we think they'll do just fine.  For comparison purposes, I looked up mattresses on Overstock.com (where you can buy things for cheap, cheap, cheap) to see how much they'd cost there.  I didn't do any extensive searching, but it looked like a set of queen-sized Serta mattresses would cost $433.99.  That price times three would get us to $1,301.97.  Add to that Overstock's king-sized Serta price of $799.99 and that brings us to $2,101.96 for mattresses.

We bought a couch and love seat set that are kinda hard to describe.  I'm not sure exactly what the material is that they're made of.  We originally wanted to purchase at least one sleeper sofa, but when you see a good deal, you take it!  So, we compromised on that and ended up with a matching set, neither of which are a sleeper sofa.  I didn't snap a picture of them before they got wrapped in plastic, but here's a shot of a couple throw pillows we kept out.

The color is weird.  When up against green, they look grey, but up against grey, they look green.  So we're calling them "no color" and working with them like they're a neutral.  Fingers crossed they blend in with everything else we end up buying.

Now, back on Overstock.com, I pulled up couch and love seat sets and this was in the results:

First, let me say that I don't in any way, shape, or form like the couch and love seat pictured above.  In fact, I think they're pretty hideous.  But again, without spending too much time searching and for comparison's sake, these will do.  They aren't top of the line but they don't seem to be the bottom of it either.  On Overstock.com, this fine set would cost $1,297.99.

Moving on to tables.  We lucked out and were able to snag a coffee-table-plus-two-matching-end-tables set.  They're all a slightly distressed black with brown wicker basket drawers.  Here's what the end tables look like (pardon the dust on top, it's in our wood shop right now):

You'll have to use your imagination for the coffee table, but it basically looks the same as the end table, just wider and with more drawers.

I couldn't find a set of three on Overstock.com, but here's a coffee table that's at least comparable:

Today, that coffee table could be yours for $354.99.  I couldn't find an end table on Overstock.com that even closely resembled ours, but you could buy these, pictured below, for $183.99 a pop.  That brings this not-as-cute-as-ours three-piece set to a grand total of $722.97.

As if three tables weren't enough, we also fell in love with a little cute red cabinet.  It could be used as a TV stand or a console table.  It looks very similar to this cabinet from Pier One, but without the weird Chinese dress (is that what that is?) on it.  Oh, except ours is much cuter with some decorative cutouts in the cabinet doors.

This cabinet from Pier One costs $399.95.

By this time in our shopping trip, our buggy was definitely full.  But when you're buying that much, what's one more thing?  At least, that's what I told my mom when I saw this painting:

I know, normally I would just try to copy it and do my own version of something like this, but y'all, this thing is BIG.  And, not only was it already on sale, but I was also able to weasel our sales lady into knocking off a few more dollars too.  Plus, we've already bought some cute fabric to have a blue and brown room so this is just icing on the cake.

I had a hard time finding something similar on Overstock.com (well, I didn't find anything in the first 30 seconds so I gave up) but I did find this print on Etsy.

At 20" x 30", it still isn't as big as our ginormous painting, but it'll do.  This canvas sells for $299.

So that's all we bought on that trip.  Let's add up all of our comparison items, shall we?

4 Mattress Sets - $2,101.96 Couch and Love Seat Set - $1,297.99 Coffee and End Tables - $722.97 Console Table - $399.95 Painting - $299.00

Grand Total - $4,821.27 (minus tax and shipping)

Now, if you ask me, that's a lot to pay for all of our comparable items since they're all pretty U-G-L-Y.  Luckily, none of ours are.  I can't tell you exactly how much we spent on our bargain deals for fear that my investment partners might get mad at me, but I'll say we spent about 85% of that grand total (with tax).  And ours are waaaaaaay cuter and probable better quality than these items.  Don't you just love it when you luck into good deals?  I know I do.