Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Borrowed and Used Deals!

I have had the fortune of not needing to buy some items for around the house because I have managed to borrow these items, or have something given by a family member who didn’t need it anymore. Our good neighbors down the road, who have lived in this rural environment for some time, have some of the things I didn’t already own, but needed out here at our new place. In our living room the ceiling is about 18-20 feet up and there is a light up there in the middle, so I borrowed our neighbors extension ladder to get up there (we were down to 1 light left of 4). I was able to borrow a roof-shovel-on-a-pole as well to clear the large loads of snow from the roof.

My Aunt Heather was very kind and generous to give us a Stihl Chainsaw when we moved up here as well. The chainsaw, obviously, has made tree removal easier. I was using the old axe method when I put in the kids play-structure, which was exhausting and overall very dreadful.

In the late fall I decided I wasn’t going to pay someone to clear the snow from our laneway this winter, like the past owner had done. He told me he paid someone $1100 per year to plow it. I decided to use the $850 we got from selling our 106” projector screen and projector that didn’t fit the feel of our new house, to buy a snow-blower. I researched usedottawa.com and kijiji for a couple of weeks looking for something with a big enough motor, not too old and a good make/name. I found a sweet Craftsman 15.5hp Briggs and Stratton machine with a 32” cut. Perfect. It was 2 years old and owned by an older couple that had gone to Florida the year before for the whole winter, so it only really had a year of use. They told me it was professionally serviced each year and they also gave me a lifetime supply of shear pins that they accidentally ordered. They gave me the manual as well and in it was the original receipt because it was still under warranty; I looked at it and saw they had paid $1950 for it on sale! What a deal. It runs like a dream, does the job and makes the past owner look like a chump for wasting all that cash on plowing. I spent less on a super-snow-blower than he did for 1 year and this machine will last 20 years, I bet.

I think this qualifies as the “Used Deal of the Year”. If you have some delusional thoughts that you might have gotten a better deal than I, then write it down and I will judge the “Used Deal of the Year” Champion. Get your not-even-close-to-mine entries in now for the chance to have a very biased judge chose a winner!

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