Over the past week Daniel and I have been collecting free and cheap stuff. All of it we either wanted or have been needing.

For example, our dishwasher broke about 9 months ago. Instead of spending money on new one we bought a $12 drying rack at Ikea. However, our dishes usually look like this:

Late one night I was looking at the free stuff section on Craigslist and I saw that someone put out a working dishwasher in front of their house about three minutes away. Daniel hopped into his car and found that it was still there. Unfortunately, he couldn’t lift it by himself nor fit it into the trunk of his Mustang convertible. So Daniel called his Dad at 11:30 p.m. to drive out with his truck and pick up our new-to-us dishwasher.

Hopefully with a little cleaning the dishwasher will work and Daniel can get a break from the dishes. I help dry and put away, but he does most of the dishes. I am totally spoiled.

Earlier in the day our neighbors across the street put out a fan. Daniel went and got it and knocked on the door to find out if it worked. Apparently, they just upgraded but nothing is wrong with the fan. It will go well in our guest bedroom, where in the past we have had to bring in a box fan for guests. This one will be nice when it is up.

You may notice the wood in the background of the photo above. Daniel has plans to build a box to keep under the deck in the back to store the lawnmower. He got a lot of free scrap wood from a lady on Craigslist that was moving. His parents brought him more wood from a dumpster at a house being constructed in their neighborhood. Hopefully, all this wood will turn into something useful. Daniel organized it all after I took this photo.

Last week I also got this toy shelf on Craigslist for $12. With all the bins this shelf retails at $60. We want to transform our “library” in the front room into a toy room for Annabelle.

On Friday I came across this jogging stroller at a garage sale in my neighborhood. I have really been wanting one, but just couldn’t justify the cost. The sticker on it said $30, but I only had $20 in my purse and Daniel encouraged me to haggle. So I went up to the lady and asked if she would take $20 and her response was “Sold!” The inner tubes needed to be replaced and that cost us $12 for all three tires and Daniel fixed the brake for me. We tested it out tonight and it worked great!

Finally, my most favorite find on Craigslist. I would like for you to meet “Jane.” She is an older iBook G4 and she is beautiful. We found her for $450 from a guy about 30 minutes away. She wasn’t being loved and needed a good home. Now I can work downstairs while Annabelle runs around and plays. Also, I am not bugging Daniel in the office while he works. It is very difficult for Daniel to work while Annabelle is pulling on wires and being really dang cute. (According to the guy in the TED video women have more connectors in their brain that enable them to multi-task and men are missing those extra connectors and can’t multi-task.) He says this is the best $450 bucks he has ever spent.

For $494 dollars we got a used Apple laptop, dishwasher, ceiling fan, shelf with toy bins, jogging stroller, and bunch of wood. Not too shabby.