Hurray for used things! For once I’m not talking about baby stuff. Recently we’ve saved a metric crap ton of money thanks to my people being awesome about giving us their cast offs.

First off, my parents brought down their old Rav4 to give to us when they came to visit Maggie. They knew they weren’t going to get much on a trade in for it, so they figured ‘why the heck not’ and gifted it to us. We did have to pay some taxes and fees on it (and $30 a month in insurance) but it’s well worth the price to have a second car for emergencies. Best of all, we know it’s in fabulous shape because my parents are obsessive about taking care of their vehicles.

Secondly, good ol’ Mom and Dad packed the car up with my old bedroom furniture, which they had refinished. It was chilling in their house and not getting used a whole lot. The whole set is solid oak and the current cost of a single piece of furniture of that quality was more expensive than getting the whole set (bed, two dressers, mirror, 2 nightstands) refinished. Now we have furniture for the guest room and it will be Maggie’s furniture when she eventually transitions out of the nursery. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Geek.

And finally, my mom sanded down, replaced the trim on and repainted the old dresser that our roommate gave us.  He didn’t want it because it was his ex-wife’s and she certainly wasn’t going to claim it (or any of the other crap she left behind which spent months in our basement). It came out really well, but I don’t have pictures yet because it’s still chilling in our garage until our friend comes over to get it up the stairs.

So yeah. We owe a lot to my parent and their generosity.

Have you ever gotten an awesome hand-me-down?

Popularity: 18% [?]