Found money. Sort of.

Several years ago, we bought a huge but gorgeous solid oak entertainment center at a local thrift store. I think it was ARC. It was missing one section, but I don't know that we'd have had room for it, if it had been complete, anyway! The two sections we did have measured 7 feet across and 6.5 feet tall. We used it for about 8 years, and it still looked like it did the day we bought it. It was just so solidly built that it hardly showed wear. We paid $200 for it.

It had tons of storage. It was gorgeous. It was big. The last year or so, it made the living room look smaller and smaller. It made the room seem darker, and I think it added to a darker mood for all of us. So we decided to get rid of it. I put it up on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago at a price I knew we probably wouldn't get. A week later, I lowered the price by $50. Yesterday, a couple contacted me and asked, if we'd drop it by $50. We said yes. Today, they came by with $250 and a truck! Considering that it's almost impossible to sell entertainment centers now that flat screen tvs are such a big deal, we were very happy with that! :)

While they were here, we asked, if they could use a folding cot, since they have kids. We told them they could have it. Besides, the mattress would help protect the entertainment center on the way home. She said, "But weren't you going to sell it or something?" I told her again that they could have it. That we probably would have only put $5 or $10 on it, but I just wanted it gone. She could have it. She gave me $4 for it. :)

When we moved into the house, the home warranty ended up buying us a new stove, because the old one shocked me. We paid a $35 service call fee and got a free $1300 stove. I loved it! It was a side by side 40" range, but when the refrigerator went out on us a few months ago, we realized that the new refrigerators were too wide, if we kept our stove. So we sold it and got a smaller one.

When we were getting the entertainment center out of the garage, I noticed the range hood we'd purchased to go over the stove, because the old one didn't work, and it was entirely too small. Trouble was, we never installed it. We never had the money or the know-how to make it work, so it sat unopened in our garage. I looked up the model number on the computer a bit ago. Sears still sells the exact same model. Of course my next move was to call Sears and see, if they'd take it back.

The department manager is going to talk to a store manager and call me back. She did say that the best they would likely be able to do is give us a store gift card that never expires for the price it's currently listed. It did go down $54, but you know, I can deal with that. We wouldn't have a problem spending over $200 at Sears, and it would be better than taking yet another loss, if we have to sell it on Craigslist. I'm hoping she calls soon. :)

The night I found the Applebee's gift card, I also found the receipt for a Gentle Leader dog collar thingy. The receipt showed we paid $25 for it 2.5 years ago. Then I found out I was severely allergic to dogs, and we had to get rid of the dogs. :( I'd tried selling the collar on Craigslist for $18 several months ago. It didn't sell. So I told our oldest daughter that I'd split the money with her. Whatever she could get out of it, she'd get half. The best they could do was a $20 store credit. When I told her about the Applebee's gift card, she said she'd babysit for us for my half of the store credit. I can do that!

Hubby's on his way to Sears. They did a mock return without a receipt (I didn't have the receipt! I bought it 8 years ago!!) They had to go with the lowest sales price they had, which is about $65 less than we were hoping, but it's also been 8 years. And like I said before, we can always use a gift card up that never expires. We might have been able to get a little more for it on Craigslist than by returning it, but we may not have, either. It's not like there's a great need for 42" range hoods. If there was, you could buy them in the store and not have to order them! And $162 is better than nothing! Plus when you consider that we made $50 over what we paid on the entertainment center, it's pretty much a wash.

Today's been a good day. Between the gift card I found the other night, the entertainment center, the dog collar, the babysitting and the range hood, we have 'found' over $450 in just two days! And even better, we've got a lot more space! Oh! And I almost forgot! Got the taxes filed today, too!

Yep. Today's been a good day!