Step 18 of The Financial Fitness Bootcamp Course

I am a huge believer in making your hard-earned money stretch. I almost ALWAYS buy used, yet ‘like new’, items whenever I can. You can see how I renovated, decorated, and furnished a good majority of my home on this post here. It’s hard for people to believe the furniture, decor, and other items are mostly used.

In our book Living a Rich Life as a Stay-at-Home Mom, we write about many ways you can get more for less.

Today’s challenge is part of yesterday’s challenge. So, if you haven’t completed Challenge #17 please do that along with this one.

Challenge #18- Next time you realize that you need something non-perishable, commit to checking for used ‘like new’ options before buying. Check Amazon.com (used section), eBay.com, local Facebook garage sale pages, Craigslist, local classifieds, or actual garage sales. (Here is a link to a post I wrote on how to garage-sell efficiently to save tens of thousands.) You will be surprised by the money you will save by buying ‘like new’, used items.

Practice safety tips found in Day 17 post when purchasing used items.

Just today I found a $50 pair of Sorel winter boots for my son that were $19.00 and barely used. I’m planning on getting nice quality snow pants ‘like new’ for him as well.

TIP: If I couldn’t find boots for him I would’ve gone to my local Facebook garage sale page and made a comment like this, ‘ISO 7T Snow Boots, preferably high quality’ (ISO= In Search Of). If someone had the item and hadn’t gotten around to listing it for sale yet they would most likely respond. So you can search for used items in this manner as well.

Buying used will almost always more than double your money!

…and who wouldn’t want a 100% raise? I know I would.