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Where have you found the best bargains for home improvement items such as paving stones, wood flooring, paint, shackle, Sheetrock, concrete paint or stain etc?
If you end up going to Lowe's or Home Depot, what you can do is go to a giftcard discount website and buy a discounted giftcard. I do this regularly. You can use giftcardgranny.com and it searches available giftcard bargains. I'd ignore the ebay options, because you'll have to wade through too much junk to find the real ones. There's also giftcard.com and abcgiftcards.com.
Then, what I also do is first click through from another site that gives me cashback, like fatwallet.com or swagbucks.com. And if you have one, also use a credit card that pays you cash back.
Goes like this: buy discounted gift card with your credit card/debit card that pays you cash back, go to swagbucks.com, click through from there to the Home Depot website (they will also sometimes have coupon codes you can use, too), order online with your discounted gift card to either be delivered to your home, or for you to go pick-up at the store. Then, wait for your credit for your swagbucks (or fatwallet credit), which you can redeem into giftcards or cash into your PayPal account.
I have not done this myself, but I've heard that sometimes slightly off-color paint will be given away for free, if you know where to look. Just be sure you get enough to paint the entire room with the same paint, so you can avoid mismatching.
Habitat ReStore often has paint and other home items.
It usually takes two or three gallons for me to paint a room. Depending how picky you are on paint colors, you could buy several gallons of similar color paint at a place like ReStore and mix them together in a five gallon bucket. That will give you a uniform color for your walls at a discounted price.
I've had some excellent discounts on pavers, etc at the end of the season in stores that carry them seasonally. You have to happen upon them at the right time. Another place to find stuff like that is to watch places like Craiglist for bricks and similar things where you go pick it up and haul it off for other people.
If you have access to government places like the Forest Service or the BLM, you might be able to gather free rocks at public access sites for projects like stepping stones or flower beds.
We have a neighbor who "dumpster dives" construction sites. He asked the super what materials are considered scrap and has recently come up with a pick up load of nice flagstone.
I have not done this myself, but I've heard that sometimes slightly off-color paint will be given away for free, if you know where to look. Just be sure you get enough to paint the entire room with the same paint, so you can avoid mismatching.
I know that the stores will have gallons of paint where the tint was wrong for the original customer & these are sold at a deep discount at HD, not free in my experience, but perhaps smaller stores will give it away. I have used these for non-critical spaces like closets, etc... Just be sure you have enough for your job, usually 1 gallon is all there will be for a "bad" mix. I suppose you could buy a gallon of white paint & mix the 2 cans for a small room, or if you are brave you could mix 2 bad colors.
The mix color is dabbed on the lid & you will find a pile of them on the floor in the paint dept, probably near the mixer.
Many times we use Menards, prices are generally better then others and they do 11% sales often with rebates. They usually have decent sales also. We have a lowes, Home Depot and menards here so we check all before buying something. Menards will have sales on paint often. Around $8-10 for gallon of paint. Also, I can find 10% off coupons for lowes to.
The habitat store here is pathetic, I have been to ones in FL that were amazing, tons of good quality items at low cost. Unfortunately the one in my town is overpriced junk for the most part. Never find anything there..
We are remodeling out kitchen this month. We are painting the cabinets with rustoleum espresso paint, new hinges and hardware. Having a company we found do the countertops. Hubby and I will do flooring ourselves. Put in a new dishwasher ourselves and will install back door/screen door. All in all, should cost $1300. We were quoted $5k for contractor to do it. Good savings!
Many times we use Menards, prices are generally better then others and they do 11% sales often with rebates. They usually have decent sales also. We have a lowes, Home Depot and menards here so we check all before buying something. Menards will have sales on paint often. Around $8-10 for gallon of paint. Also, I can find 10% off coupons for lowes to.
I agree with Menards. Now that we live 800 miles from their nearest store, we are finding that Home Depot and Lowes are 20% more. Menards does have mail order BUT .. no rebates on such goods.
90% of what I have seen in the Habitat stores will NOT come into my house.
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