How we budget for all of these projects.

We DIY everything we can and we have been pretty open about how cheap we are and how we constantly hunt for deals (as-is sections, online classifieds, thrift stores), but our real secret is we sell our old stuff to finance the new stuff.  We do this with even the smallest item, but the best example is our couches that my sister pointed out we have changed 3 times since being married 2 1/2 years.  That does seem a bit excessive, but let me break it down. Our very first, beloved sectional (which we totally regret selling and are in the market for now) cost us $750.  We purchased the floor model which is the cheapest way to go.

We sold it (it wouldn't fit in the house we thought we were moving into) for $800.  At the same time, we won an RC Willey gift card for $1500 and purchased new furniture for our apartment because we decided not to buy that house and now our living room was empty.  So, free furniture, PLUS we pocketed the $800.

We love our armchairs that we bought, but our couch (retails for $300, but it was free for us since we used our gift card) wasn't everything we imagined it would be.  We bought it online without seeing it in person first--lesson learned.  So when we moved into this house, we knew we wanted something different, so we sold that couch for $200--which we look at as a $200 profit since we paid nothing out of pocket.  In comes our newest couch from Ikea.

The Klippan Four-Seater sofa from Ikea sells for $399 and that's just what we paid.  We loved it as soon as we saw it on the showroom floor.  And we were sold when we discovered it was 100% slipcovered and 100% washable.  So, even though we paid $399 for our newest couch--we feel like we made a profit buying it.  Recap: We made a $50 profit selling our sectional, but pocketed the full $800 since we didn't use it to buy new furniture.  Then, we sold our second couch for $200 which was all profit, since again, we didn't use any money out of pocket to purchase that couch. So, we had a cool grand on couch sales and only spent a little less than $400 for this couch.  Cha-ching!!

We have definitely become avid online classified sellers.  Here in Utah, the big thing is KSL and not Craigslist, so we have become fluent in all things KSL.  You should know, we don't always make a profit on our sales and that's not always the goal either.  Our latest sale happened this weekend when we finally sold our wardrobe.  We purchased it in January for $270 and sold it for $100.  We sold the wardrobe because we didn't have use for it anymore, and in reality, we'd rather have the $100 for new projects instead of having a stack of wardrobe pieces taking up space in a room.   So not only does selling our old stuff finance our new stuff, it also keeps our place clutter free.

Speaking of clutter free, sometimes we just want something GONE and we post it online in the "free" section.  This past week we posted the huge dog kennel and dog house we inherited when we bought this house online in the free section.

We have no intention or desire to get a dog, especially one that just sits outside all day.  Since these things cost between $300-$400 dollars, it was no surprise that I had received a call and an email from a few people within the first 2 minutes of posting.  The posts were cemented in and I explained that it's up to them that it is absolutely free for their taking, they just gotta do all the work to get it and haul it.  A man and his wife arrived that day and Chris brought them to the back yard.  Within 10 minutes, I received a text from the backyard saying, "Too much work.  Give it to someone else."  Chris and I had a good laugh.  I guess not everyone is up for the work it takes to get free stuff.