Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Budget building (from the Bunnings bin)

I'm feeding a friend's cat at the moment, which gives me the excuse to go out every day. Yesterday I decided to pop into Bunnings while I was out, and get the back wall cut for my HBS Creatin Contest hack.

Being the frugal lass that I am, I headed to the scrap bins at the back of the timber area (via the paint mistint display) to see if I could save buying a complete piece of MDF just to get a smallish corner cut from it.

I was in luck: I pulled out not only a perfect piece to get cut down* for the back wall, but another piece that looks like a good solution for the front wall.
Cutting rea of a hardware store, with pieces of MDF and a test pot of paint in the foreground and an assistant cutting MDF in the background.
The total cost?
Several pieces of MDF (one with a large boot print on it) and a test pot of paint in front of a bin in a hardware store.
$1.01 for the test pot mistint (a lovely french blue colour).
Top of a test pot of paint, showing a dab of blue paint and the price ($1.01) written on it.
$1 for making two cuts in the MDF.
Four offcuts of MDF, in various sizes, leaning against a workbench in a house.
And nothing for the pieces of MDF, which would have been thrown out had I not wanted them.
Bunnings warehouse receipt, showing a total spend of $2.00.
(*Yes, I know I have a saw at home, but I wanted the cuts to be straight).

#HBSCreatinContest2015 

6 comments :

Norma Bennett said...

Thanks for the tip - I've been known to hang-out at the mistinted paint stack but didn't realise there's a bin of wood off-cuts to be found as well, you know what I'm searching for next time don't you ;)

Susan@minicrochetmad said...

You truly are the shopping guru, all that fun for so little outlay! Love the paint colour. All I've built this year was a guinea pig hidey cubby, cheap though, free ply board, free lino offcut for the top and four screws, not free but cheap ;)

m1k1 said...

And the winner of this year's Miss Frugal Lifestyle is...... The Shopping Sherpa.
(In the interests of frugality, your crown can be obtained by contacting "Queen Julia" from this year's Convention.)

Indy_Poppy said...

Bargain.

Pepper said...

Total respect that you're managing this build on a frugal budget. Loving the French blue. I'll have to check at B&Q to see if they sell mistint paint.

iseecerulean said...

Score! Smart shopping!