Such A Deal I Have For You!

I love a bargain! Have always been a Goodwill shopper and absolutely loved going to church rummage sales when I was in college for retro fashion wear. What a blast. Anyway...we got this little project goin' on, ya know? Hadn't planned on getting new appliances, the old ones aren't old enough. But my darling spousal unit brought the subject up one day and who was I to argue? It just wouldn't be right.

So, one Sunday afternoon, a friend and I stopped by Lowe's to look at a can of paint. Not buy, mind. Just look. I ended up with two amazing bargains. Our church just completed renovating a room to serve as a cafe. Jim and I committed to donating a stove for the endeavor. Jim even did the shopping to figure out just which one he wanted down there. He found one, but hadn't gotten around to pulling the trigger on the purchase. As we walked down the center aisle, we walked past all the clearance and bargains lining our path. Lo and behold, a white gas stove sat there marked down $300. Sheesh! So, I called Jim. Come to find out, it was the exact style he picked out. Know why it got returned from the previous owner after one week? It didn't work. Come to find out, the installer forgot to move a little lever from the left to the right. Shazaam! Works for us, thank you very much. God bless that little installer's heart. Bingo-bango-bongo, it's ours!

Then the little guy asked me if I needed a dishwasher because they had a few on clearance. I said no, but asked if he had any stainless steel refrigerators. He pointed to a few. There it stood. The roof parted and a great light descended upon the silver beauty. Before me was the very refrigerator I had looked at and quickly dismissed due to cost. It was marked down from $2148 to $1148 because it was a display model and had a dent in the drawer on the bottom. Suh-weet! Again, I called Jim. "What now?" he queried. When I explained, he said, "See if he'll take $1000." Ugh! He knows how I hate to bargain for myself. I can do it for anyone else, but for me? Uh-uh. Then he lays a major guilt trip by saying, "Remember what Dave Ramsey says...!" That was just not right. He knows that I'm a Dave Ramsey-wannabe. Grr. So, I sweetly look at the guy and said my husband wanted to know if he would take less. I watched as he desperately tried not to allow his eyes to roll back in their sockets. He hemmed and hawed a few minutes then said he had to talk to his manager. They talked and debated a good five minutes, then my little man came back with a hang-dog look and said, "I can't take any less than $1000." SOLD! You know what makes it better? They scratched the side that won't be seen when they brought it into our house on the dolly, so we finally got it for $950! I repeat---Suh-weet!!

I'm still doing the happy dance three weeks later.