Everyone loves a good deal that also offers good quality. Therefore, it's a good thing there are salvage stores to help us shop more with less guilt. In this episode, Jen and Jill discuss salvage stores, how to find and identify them, and tips for shopping for them.
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Episode four to twenty Save money with salvage Stores.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your hosts, Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are talking about salvage stores. What they are. You probably know what they are, but don't like, don't think you know what they are, you do. And we're going to share the types of salvage stores, how to find them, how to identify them if you already know them, and then tips for shopping them.
Yeah, and some you're probably familiar with and others you may have never heard of. And that's what we hope for today is to send you on a little scavenger hunt.
Yeah, a drive buy them every day and not know what they are and be scared to go in. And we are going to overcome that stigment today.
Yes, But first, this episode is brought to you by collecting. It's different from stockpiling and hoarding because it's intentional and cute. Collecting is carefully gathering items that are valuable and you have a fondness for, like money, It's our favorite thing to collect and our favorite place to store it is in a high yield savings account because you can still access that money, but you're making money on that money. Check out c for their current four point sixty five percent apy. Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash ciit start collecting.
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It's just a good way, a way that helps the show. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash ci. So, all right, we are talking about salvage stores today. If you are looking for the deals, as always, if you don't need it, it's not a good deal. But if you are hunting for deals on things you need, check out episode three seventy nine, how to get affordable quality Versus cheap quantity, and then episode three forty one, Why you Shouldn't Sleep on estate sales. We love those two episodes.
It's a nice little curation. They're not exactly the same, but they're adjacent. They are a deal adjacent.
Deal adjacent, and salvage stores are deal adjacent as well. Some people are obsessed with them, some people hate them, and we are going to fall somewhere in the middle.
Yeah, okay, So here's what they are. They offer scratch in dent items for products that are nearing or have past their best buy dates for a major discount. Now those best buy dates. That has to do with food, because yes, there are salvage stores for food, but there's salvage stores for pretty much all other types of things you may want to purchase, furniture, appliances. We'll go through all of that, but essentially, they are these discount stores for maybe items that are slightly damaged open box people. They're just not flying off the shelves like the distributor thought that they would, and so you can get it at a steep discount.
Yeah, or there's been a rebrand and they want to get rid of all the old brand and you know, put the new brand. So salvage stores sometimes get a reputation for just housing a bunch of cheap crap. And that's not wrong. Sometimes they do earn that reputation, but it's not strictly cheap stuff. There are some cases where you can find some quality stuff. So there we're going to go over We're going to dive deep into three different types of salvage stores, and we're gonna mention some articles. But there was just not an article that aligned with the vision I had for this episode. So we're kind of going rogue on this one and just relaying information from several different articles.
We've gone rogue before and it kind of put the wind beneath our sales. To realize, it's our podcast. We can do what we want.
Wind beneath our sales, wind in And that's what happened. Guys. This is why make you outline with a with an article that was written by somebody with an editor and so I don't apologize though, I'm not gonna apologize. So there are three different types of salvage stores that we're going to cover. The first is grocery, next is architectural, and then overstock. So grocery salvage stores obviously that's food and so, like Jill said, they have a lot of things that are nearing or have just passed their best buy dates. In one of the articles I read from the Kitchen the Kitchen with no Eh, they research and found that really the only food that cannot be sold after the date on the package is baby formula, so all other foods are fair game. All the best buy, used by and sell by dates are freshness suggestions from the manufacturers, so it says they're not a ticking time bomb for when it's unsafe to consume. And all salvage grocery stores are required to take the same food storage precautions as conventional grocery stores, and health inspectors visit regularly just like they do at conventional ones, so they are required to examine perishables.
And there are some helpful guides online for what you can imagine for different can goods that might be passed their best buy sell by use by dates. Those are, like you said, the manufacturing dates that are put on that it has nothing to do necessarily with food safety guidelines. It's more food freshness, and so there are some helpful guides to say, if it's acidic, you can go this amount of time past the sell by date. If it's meat, here's your kind of safe window past that date, So of course you're going to need to do what's comfortable for you, but just know that those are not expiration dates. It does not mean that the food is now rancid, and just kind of check where the window of safety might be. And so a lot of these things, cereals, canned goods, other kind of shelf staples, but sometimes produce too, can find themselves at these food salvage stores and they wind up there because maybe an item has been discontinued or it's not flying off the shelf, if there's been a rebrand described gen or they are nearing or at their cell by date. Again, they can still be sold past that. They are allowed legally to still sell you those items even though the date on it says sell by, because again it's it's freshness, not danger to.
You, and the fresh stuff is gonna really what's in season locally to you. That's really going to determine the fresh stuff that you get in there. So the second one architectural. They resell hardware, windows, doors, and other home details, so they're going to be more building materials versus your antique shops and thrift shops. And so this is where when we get to salvage stores. You can find really great quality if you know what to look for, and we'll go into that later. But architectural salvages are what you when you see the designers on HGTV going in to find all of these really unique pieces for those houses. They're going to architectural salvages, and sometimes they'll be going to antique shops. But I see I watch a lot of I've watched a lot of them over the past two years because they give me hope for the renovation, and I see it. I was like that they're going to architectural salvages. So if you want to be a little more HGTV, or you have time, like maybe you're not renovating a whole house, maybe you just want to replace one or two things, they can be a great way to get higher quality building materials at a lower price.
I'm going to add an addendum to the architectural category and say that there's also salvage stores for furniture and appliances. I'm going to talk about examples for that too, but also the actual third category we wanted to highlight was overstock. So some of these are exchangeable words for salvage stores, like, if salvage doesn't sound familiar to you, overstock or open box like, there's a lot of Yeah, there's a lot of these words that can kind of encompass the same thing. So overstock stores are particular type of salvage where stores like Target, Walmart, even Amazon will send their excess, their overstock, they're discontinued, or their returned items that you can then get at a discount.
Yes, so let's go into examples that you may recognize and some examples that you may not. So you can find these stores in your because they are usually small, independently owned, and local, and we love that. We love supporting local businesses, and this is one way you can do it and save money. It's not all shopping the kitchy knickknacks at farmers' markets to support small businesses, it's these these things so groceries like. So, yes, you will have your national chains, you'll have your save a lot, your price right your grocery outlet. But a lot of the times if you google, uh, just salvage grocery store, you'll find some local ones. There's a there's a website called buy salvagefood dot com. Buy Salvagefood dot Com, where you can find all of the salvage food grocers in the country, and a lot of them are gonna be aimed like X discount grocery, like Saint Pete Discount Grocery, Lakeland Discount Grocery, or maybe like a They're all independently owned, right, so even these actually even like grocery outlets, it's a national chain, but each grocery outlet is individually owned, So I'm not sure if that's with price right and save a lot, but I know grocery outlets are locally owned.
Yeah, yeah, I learned by going to that Buy Salvage Food about ones in our area. I'm thinking, yeah, I don't know. I feel like I know all the different spots around. They might be a little bit more of a drive for you, and that's where you'd have to weigh out is it worth it or are you happening to be in that area and you can kind of tack it onto your trip because sometimes the discounts you get there can be really amazing. So this also would apply to like the misfits market. I'm sure a lot of us have gotten ads for on Instagram Imperfect foods. I'm realizing this is a little bit like what I'm currently doing. It's local to Saint Pete. It's called Adduce Produce, So if you're in Saint Pete, check them out. But they supply to restaurants, produced to restaurants, but all of their leftovers they give to residences for a discount price. So every two weeks I get a different box with just an assortment. I never know what's going to be in it. It's always a huge variety and very exciting, but I get it at a discount because it's their leftovers from what the restaurants didn't take. Yes.
Yes, So that's another way support local businesses, save money and literally getting fresh produced delivered to your house. I love that. Next is architectural and so these are are these are these are very hyper local because a lot of the stuff in these uh these salvages are large doors, windows, like machinery, stuff like that. So and it's sometimes it's old. Sometimes it's from older houses or houses that renovate, like you've got habitat for humanity restore. But then you have also these places that take overstock from so it's kind of like a hybrid of architectural and overstock because they're taking overstock from like home Depot and lows, right, So I know we both there's one in our area that we've both bought so many things from. Jill has an interesting story in her last encounter with there. Oh yeah, we will talk about later.
Oh well that was kind of that was like a tools and that kind of a thing. Yeah, that they primarily only get things from Home Depot, but it and that's one of the side pieces. We'll get to tips in a little bit. But because their family owned and operated, a lot of times you're not going to get necessarily the warranties from the manufacturer, that kind of.
You're not getting the corporate customer service.
Yeah, but this one. Yeah, not just doors and windows and that kind of thing, but all of the tools and literally anything Home Depot sells they sell at a fifty percent discount. So that's very fun. And my addendum to that is the furniture and appliance stores as well. So many many furniture stores that you go to will have a separate section or room just right on property of their maybe returned items or not as popular or trendy items, just kind of in the back, more dimly lit. They don't really want you to know about it. Every furniture store I've ever been to and you try and find where is this discounted spot, they don't want you to know. They want you to buy the couch that's right up front. But if you ask, hey, do you have a discounted section, returned or showroom items that you know you can sell at a discount, many places will have that. There's also this one spot called American Freight that'll be a lot of open box appliances, so scratch and dent. That's another thing you can search when you're looking for these items is scratch and dent, open box. American Freight is all over the place, so if you have one near you, that's a great option. But again, these are the types of words you can be searching when you're looking for these items. All of our appliances in our kitchen are either from Facebook Marketplace or some of these scratch and dent.
Yeah, I find a lot of the furniture is being sold is being liquidated to resellers who sell it on Facebook Marketplace. So instead of having these large storefronts for resale furniture, which is very expensive, it's smaller resellers who have you know, these smaller like almost sketchy looking little warehouses. That's what our couch. We just bought a new couch. We upgraded from our thirty dollars goodwill couch to a thousand dollar Costco liquidation couche. So and it is such an upgrade. It is like a four thousand dollars couch that it was from the showrooms, just from the floor, the Costco floor, and it needs a little repainting on the legs, but the couch is Yeah.
Well, I think we had talked about this before too, but I think it's worth mentioning in this context. A lot of times, so your your mattress deliveries, your your mattresses without box springs from all of those different brands who deliver mattresses rolled up to you and offer a thirty day money back guarantee. When they send them back, they actually send them typically to a third party person who then they don't tell you this. You have to kind of figure it out yourself. We're telling you this. They are allowed to clean them, sanitize them. They haven't been used more than a couple of weeks, sometimes less than that. And resell them. So some of the sellers that you see on Facebook Marketplace selling mattresses, you don't have to be schethed out by. They are selling mattresses that were just tested, they've cleaned them, they've been certified resellers, and you can get the very mattresses that you were curious about. Now you're not going to get your thirty day money back guarantee when you buy them from a third party retailer. And some of them will also sell furniture like both are well, no, I guess just our table is from a reseller like that. There's different companies who will also provide money back guarantees on dining tables and chairs and it's just not worth it to them to bring it back to their warehouse, so these third party sellers will sell them on Facebook Marketplace. So then the final example is these overstock stores. So that's the ways that you can find them is by searching those keywords overstock, salvage, liquidation. The bin spot is an example of that. There are also other bin stores for Amazon that you can find and kind of get like dig through the bins and only pay a couple of.
Dollars called like hot bins something that they have with a Z. I think, yeah, they're all again locally owned and operated. Yeah, because you can buy like you as a normal like nobody. No, but that's a hard harsh thing to say as us as like you know people. That's what I meant to say. I can buy Amazon will sell you bulk liquidation things. I saw a lot like it has a special Amazon bulk liquidation website that they're selling like bulk children's clothing. It was like five hundred dollars for the lot, and I thought that would be a really cool place if you're trying to like do a clothing drive for like like foster homes.
Or like they just get two thousand yellow T shirt size medium.
So I didn't look into what was in the bull corners, but I just thought and I was like, oh my gosh, what a great way. Yeah, there's ways instead of giving them like the clothing that nobody wants to wear. Then you know, actually, I don't know, that's just my first thought, but you could. I could go on there and I don't need a special license or correction to buy bulk stuff. And that's where you get hot bittensze. Somebody like me have that idea and just bought a storefront and opened hot Bit.
But then when you go to a place like that, you can buy the smaller quantities. They are the company who's paying the five hundred for a lot, and then you can go in and get what.
I buy, the five hundred yellow, so you can buy one for like a penny.
Yeah. I will also mention that Goodwill often resells Target items and Walmart and Walmart items. Yeah, Allie's is a salvage store as well, So go out there google these things. Again, only get the things that you actually need, because it's not a deal if you don't need it.
Yeah.
I had the best luck searching googling overstock stores near me because when I search for salvage, I get the architectural salvage. When I search liquidation, I get actually the wholesale sites where these resellers are buying their wholesale liquidations. But when I searched overstock stores, I started getting the hot Bins and the Allies. So that might help you if you've got these other salvage stores near you. So next we're going to talk tips for shopping salvage stores, and we're gonna start with grocery. So my first tip is to pay attention to mailers and sign up for emails if you want to see what they have in stock. And this goes This actually goes for like overstock ones too, because I'll get the for Allies. We don't have any salvage grocery stores near us, but we do have an Allie's, and I'll get ads for them all the time, so you can go in and see. You don't have to go in every week to see what they have. You can get the mailer or the email to see what the big draws are to see if you want to go in.
But most of the time the real deals are going to be in the store, not in the ads, so it is worth doing a perusal. But I would say going in knowing typical pricing of groceries, Like any store that's kind of promising a deal or you think is a good they have good prices a lot of times. That's only for certain things. There are going to be other items on the shelves that are not actually a good deal, So be sure that you have that awareness that not everything is going to be an absolute steal or discount of an item. Know what things are worth.
Yeah, But just because you see some things are not a deal versus the grocery store does not mean you there.
Are no deals, right, Yeah, So you can stock up on the staples again, as long as you're comfortable with kind of how long it's going to take you to use them, how far past a sell by date is it. Are you comfortable using those items? Is it recommended to use those items? But that's the way that I will approach grocery discount grocers like this because they're not super close. Yeah, it is just like a once a month type of thing, just to see what do they have on certain shelf staples. You can get a lot, but also you can get meats at many of these places. So whatever you can freeze, many of them do have a freezer section, So stock up on those items. That's how I've used them.
I just realized you took me to my first grocery salvage store in Pennsylvania.
WHOA, yeah, that sounds right.
First when I what is it called.
Swan's pantry, and that sounds right, And it was dimly lit, not every light bulb was on in the place it was we had a ball and everything's like stacked up on pallettes like they're not they're not trying to wow you there. This one also sold bulk items as well, like you could measure out your beans and rice and flower.
Great for zero weights. I know you're trying to make less waste. These are also great places to do that.
Yeah, what we flashback, That is a flashback. And then I think that night we went to like the Dollar Theater because that still assisted. Then we really did. We lived what we ended up speaking.
About Country place for dinner.
Which is cash only in twenty bucks will feed for people. It so did. Man.
If you ever wonder why we started a podcast together, just remember like those trips that we like, we came to visit you in Pennsylvania and that is what was in And that was before we started Frugal Friends.
Yeah, that was before we were just out there living it, just live in. And then we also went to a boat show we.
Did in city in like Manhattan or so.
We were threading that radical middle needle from the very beginning.
Yeah, we were walking through yachts in this big convention center in New York City.
Yeah, wow, what a dream we were, like we were yacht and press.
We're so young, all right, So next, so uh stock up on these beloved staples. But know that in some stores certain items, certain staples like bread, chips, tortillas, those are actually stocked by suppliers and won't ever have any deals. So this will go for anywhere where you buy food, a good eighty percent of it will be this salvage stuff. But they want to have a well rounded, like full grocery store, right, so there's gonna be some things that they can't consistently get salvage, and those have suppliers. That's gonna be for any that's even for the like my father in laws, you pick farm, you know, they bring in outside produce from other local farms that they don't grow because they want to have like a more well rounded offering, you know. So it's always the eighty twenty rule on these things. So just it's not the it's not gonna be the same staples for every grocery store. But know that when you are seeing prices that are pretty comparable to regular grocery stores, it doesn't mean that salvage stores are a scam. It means that some of them do have suppliers for some.
Things, right, yes, exactly, And the more the merrier. If you've got a lot of these grocery outlets in your area, that just means they're going to be competing with each other. So that's a good thing for you the customer.
Locally owned and operated.
When it comes to these architectural salvage stores, some of our tips include bringing the specifications with you, detailed measurements, make sure that you have what you're looking for on hand, maybe even your own tape measurer too, to make sure that the items that you're looking at are going to fit within your spaces because a lot of times we do kind of have to modify our plans a little bit in order to get the deal. So making sure that you know what's the max amount of space that I have for this, I can't go beyond it, because they're not just going to have all options available to you. They're going to have these options, and if you want to make one of them work, it's going to be important that you really know exact measurements.
Yeah, and there are even like special salvage stores that not even stores salvage yards that that do just one thing. So like when we got our house, there was a window ac unit in one of the windows that they had just taken the glass out of. There was no glass in it, and it's a bay window, and bay windows are not cheap. And there's two bay windows, so it's not like we could just replace one and you know, we have the other one that has to match it. So we went, well, Travis, Travis went to a window salvage where all they had was windows.
Eric's been to a door one. Yeah, there's a dude who just has doors. That's yet there are dudes that just our dudes out there.
Yeah, that just have one thing and have a lot of it. So he went to a window salvage yard with his specific measurements for this jalousy bay window and got a window that had the right glass and he just took that one page of glass that we needed out of that window wasn't a bay window and put it into our bay window.
Yeah that's great.
So yeah, it's it can save you a lot of money from not having to replace two bay windows.
Yeah, but I think along with that, make sure that it is compatible, it's code compliant. Most states are gonna have requirements for your doors, for your windows. Some windows now are not up to compliance, so be sure that what you're putting in isn't going to get you in trouble and cost you more money than you will.
Thought salvage stuff. It's it's great for decorative purposes, but it may not be right for structural purposes anymore. So just make sure. And then some of them may have lead paint on them. I know these these people do a really good job of trying to make sure everything they have is safe, but sometimes they just it passes by them. They may not know. So yeah, do your due diligence on anything you bring in your home and ask staff for what you need. So these places are by nature overwhelming, and that can be a big barrier to entry for people even trying to find what they need. But know that you can go, whether it's the architectural Savage Store or it's a you know, a dude with doors, you can go to the people that work there and tell them what you need and they can kind of guide you where to go. You're not on your own, You're not dumb for needing help. It is very normal. Don't get overwhelmed. If that can like break down that barrier to entry for you trying these things, then know that you can foresure, ask for it.
Most of them are so thrilled and they know the store like the back of their hands.
And again, they are small, locally owned businesses and they are willing to help. They want and need your business, and yeah, and so let's support them.
Yeah, and the same thing applies to your appliance and furniture stores as well. Ask about it, tell them what you need, bring your measurements along with you, and use social media as a guide to help you not only find these stores, but start to understand what these stores are offering. Oftentimes they'll post their recent find their recent for sale item on Instagram or Facebook marketplace, so you can even dip your toe in the water that way from the comfort of your own home before you go in. And again, though, if you are getting specifically appliances or things that would typically come with a warranty, still feel free to ask about it. There are some that can still provide the manufacturer warranty or maybe even a third party type of warranty, and others who do not, so it's still worth an ask if it's something worthwhile to you. I know we've kind of valued getting warranties on fridge and washer washing machine because those things do typically need a lot of repair over the course of their lives. They are appliances that we don't want to be replacing every five years. So if there's a warranty that says it'll last for fifteen and they're gonna come and do the parts and that kind of thing, those are specifically on those two appliances are the warranties that we have splurged for. So just keep that in mind. At these salvage stores, you can get the discount and then maybe pay slightly more but still less than you would have full price to make sure that that thing's still gonna last you.
And it's still safer than just buying it from a dude on Facebook marketplace. Yeah, exactly, a warranty, okay. And finally, overstock stores, go in with a list. This is the place where I mean, you're gonna you're gonna overspend the most in these places. If you've ever thought of yourself as a maximis sta, this is for you. Go in with a list, a maximalist. Yeah, don't, don't. It's not a deal if you don't need it.
And it's not a deal if it's just going to be a bunch of deals that end up becoming clutter, and none of it was exactly what you wanted at that point. It'd be better to buy something new at full price than a collection of things that are almost there.
Yes, oh my gosh, Yes, yes, yes, And there are definitely some things you should avoid at these stores. I don't think there's anything I would avoid at either of the other ones, except like maybe lead paint at an architectural resale. But avoid furniture unless it's like a good quality furniture outlet. Even some of these furniture outlets I've gone to, they're just not great quality furniture. You have to be very picky, and you're often better at going with a consignment or a thrift store for furniture. So just be really, really cautious about furniture. And then also avoid fast fashion. So we're not buying clothes at Tjmax and raw yes, because it's already in worse condition than it was when it was at Target or Walmart or wherever, and it was already a poor quality there.
I'm gonna push back on that. I will get clothes from those items, because sometimes they do sell the brands that are more long lasting like, not all of it are these some of them are, but some of them, like you can find your I don't know at athletic where that is typically very expensive. I do think if you're a digger, you could.
Find but that's rare because sometimes and it's the same with outlet stores like Gap Outlet. Gap outlet isn't getting gaps rejects. They're getting like half half quality of the regular store because they're testing product lines at gap outlet and if it sells well at the outlet, then they sell it at the retail store TJ Max Ross, those stores get a lot of those, so you can just feel the quality even if it's name brand and this have a lot with shoes. You'll see name brand good quality brands in the shoes. They're not the actual good quality of the brand. They are testers to see what sells well so that the brand can make it at good quality. So use your discernment and if it feels of poor quality, then it is regardless of the name on the tag.
Wow, do you know what is good quality? Though at a low price?
Always and there's we never have it with this one.
The bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your card died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
That's bills, but blow bills.
Bill clon, this is the bill of the week.
Hi Jen, Hi Jill. This is you're an a from the beautiful Fingerlakes area of upstate New York calling you with my bill of the week. I recently had surgery on my back and got the bill and a cost one hundred and twelve thousand dollars. Yes, you heard right, one hundred and twelve thousand dollars for my surgery. So I re listened to the episode by doctor Ellington on negotiating your medical bills, and I applied for financial aid to the hospital where I had my surgery, and lo and behold, I only had to pay slightly over two thousand dollars for my surgery.
Crug win.
Thank you so much to both of you and to doctor Ellington for all your wisdom. And that's my bill of the week. Take care, love y'all.
Bye. Oh my gosh, Renee, we have gotten so like that is one of our best episodes today. It's negotiating medical bills with doctor Virgie Ellington, episode two thirty, and it has saved so many people so much money. Medical bills are one of those vital few where else can you save one hundred and ten thousand dollars on?
This is so interesting, Renee. I'm so glad that you remembered that episode and went back to it, which is one of our hopes with that one. Like required listening, it is on my list of something I will reference back to. I literally just recommended this episode to a friend yesterday and this is I'm so sorry, Jen. Never before have I told someone you have to listen to this episode. I'm sending it to you, like I don't plug us like that. I want my friends to be my friends and my listeners to be my friends because they want to be my listeners. But I don't want to force my friends to also be a listener. But she was talking about medical debt and I was like, actually, I'm just calling it it's required listening. I'm going to send it to you. I don't know any other resource that breaks it down like this, And here you go, and you may or may not love the podcast that's fine, but I do want to be a help to you. It's so funny that it comes up again for you.
Why do you dislike our podcast?
I don't. I just don't want people to feel pressured like that they know that I have this thing, and now you have to be a podcast listener. I just don't do it. But that's how strongly I feel about this particular episode that I actually send it to her in a text message, like, here you go, here's my podcast. I'm shamelessly plugging because they do think it'll help, and Renee, it helped you one hundred and ten thousand dollars.
She even we had a while ago somebody had a medical bill that you know, it was just really difficult, and she emailed because of our podcast. She emailed doctor Virgine, and doctor Virgie helped her figure it out. That's amazing. It's I mean, she's a gem. It's required listening for a podcast.
Thanks for sharing, Renee. This is super celebratory. If any of you all are listening and you've got a celebratory bill that was reduced by six figures, or your name is Bill, or you just want to call in because you're a listener, and a friend Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash Bill, leave us here Bill, and now it's time for the liner round.
All right. Do you go to salvage stores and what's been your best buy so far? Yes? I do go to salvage stores, not grocery salvage, but I do occasionally go to Alie. Sometimes I don't really buy anything there, but will go into. Look if I get the mailer and something is, you know, piquing my interest, I'll go in and browse. Travis loves Ross I think, I mean, Ross is like the worst quality everything.
To me.
I am not a Max Ainista. I am so the opposite of a Ross, TJ. Max Marshalls.
I have found my best deals at Ross, honest to goodness. As far as shoes go, sometimes you do get just it's the one shoe in your size of a nice brand for me that have held up, like a col Han sandal and yes, I have had that for like eight years now. Eric has found Sperry's like we've We've found them. And things that are typically really expensive like pots, large pots for plants like ceramic, that are usually over one hundred dollars. I've found there for twenty bucks, so you kind of have to know what it is that you're looking for there, and it is hit or miss. But I have gotten my best deals specifically at Ross over like the adjacent ones like Over, Marshalls, TJ Max, Home Goods, Ross has.
But I trust Ross a little bit more because they're not trying to be unenjoyable experience, like they are a true salvage store. But I still like, I'm not a hunter either, Like I don't enjoy hunting for products or clothes. That's why I shop secondhand online. I just I'm not I physically don't like it, but I so Travis will go into Ross. He loves Ross, and I've actually been holding off sometimes will if I get something specifically from my mother in law for Christmas, I know it's going to be from TJ Max or Marshals, and so I will try pretty much everything I don't want. I will try to return to TJ Max and Marshalls just because they're the same thing, and some of the things they will take and some of them they won't, and then they'll give me a gift card for what they do take. And I've been holding on to several of these gift cards for years because I just don't go. But I have like returns because I don't want the products.
That's a so you're just saying all the ways you don't use salvage stores.
But I do love the architectural salvage I love those one in dun Eden. There's a great one in Sarasota. Well, so again I'm more of a browser. I just think there's like some fantastic stuff. But you know, we got the windows. Travis does most of the shopping. Anything he needs, he first tries to get it on like he'll look up on Facebook, Markplace. A lot of these places will advertise like their best stuff, and then you'll look, you know at you know this window and see that it comes from a salvage and then you can go and find what you really need. I think my couch is the best recent thing that I've gotten because I still consider that salvage because it was from Costco.
Man. I couldn't even count over the years. I mean, most of the stuff in my home is some version of a salvage store. Appliances, like I'd say that's the best deal is probably our refrigerator. I think it's it's like a six thousand dollars fridge that we got for eighteen hundred. Because it's got a few dents on the front, like it still works. Then I just cover up with a magnet. All yeah, furniture. My couch is from It used to be a floor model and it was thrown in the back of the store.
But our bed, our mattress is one of those returns. Yeah, a mattress return.
Yeah, I love them. I specifically restore too. If you are in a renovation, that's a really good spot to go to. They will sell a lot of materials. I think we've gotten flooring at a salvage store at one of the renovations we've done.
It's nice mm hmm. Sometimes you can find vintage tile in these places, yep. Because people will just have boxes of tiles, you know, that they've had for decades in their garage and then they will give them away and to the thrift store. And I think the thrift store probably sends it to restore, yeah, or maybe they just bring it to restore about it.
Yeah, that's where you can get creative, Like you may not have the exact amount that you need, and then that's where you can identify oh, what else can we fill this in with? And it then makes your project really unique to be able to get creative around how do we make this product work? Now? Sometimes it's just a round peg in a square hole, but force it. Sometimes it really works.
Sometimes very fun inspire creativity, yeah, which is lovely. Yeah, And I hope we've inspired some creativity in you to get creative and how you purchase groceries, home building supplies, your nicknacks, your kitchen knickknacks, and that you will try some of these salvage stores that maybe you haven't before. So thank you so much for listening. If this episode help you, we'd love if you could leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and or Spotify like this one from NBH twenty one twenty four. Love this pod grounded and practice yet inspiring. Thanks frugal friends.
Wow NBH twenty four And see that's an example, short and sweet love it. You did not have to take much time, but you have encouraged us and you've helped others find a podcast that might be some of these things that they may be looking for. So thanks for listening. Thanks for leaving us reviews. If you haven't, please do so. Again, it can only take a minute. It only has to take a minute.
Bye Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
Is there anything on your list that you would like to find at a salvage store?
We do need backslash tile, but that has to be textured. White tile can be subway or square. I think I know what I want. But I did once find this beautiful pink tile at restore and I was like, oh, how can I use this? Yeah, and there was no place to use its paint. Yeah, but I loved it and I wanted it so bad.
Oh my story. I had gotten a steam cleaner at this salvage store. I guess. Yeah, it's a discount for Home Depot items. So again, anything home Depot cells, they sell it fifty percent off. But they now own all of the products. They are no longer associated with home Depots, so none of Home Depot's warranties.
Locally family owned. Yeah. I don't know why I have to keep repeating that. It's an important distinction to make.
Okay, So i'd been there before, I had bought items, I'd been pleased, and I had been wanting a steam cleaner because I've been imagining that that's going to be the answer to all my clean problems, like my floor, my high gloss tile floor. So I get this steam cleaner, and not only does it not clean the way that I had hoped that and I was promised that it would, but it also was shooting out this black smoke hours into cleaning. And yes, the water was still full on it because I did check all of the things like why is gray smoke coming out of here? And it was coming off onto the cleaning pad that was attached to it. So I'm thinking, all right, for multiple reasons, I'm taking this thing back. They have a very strict return policy because, as they told me when they tried to guilt trip me into not returning it, we are a family owned business, SPAMP. This hurts us. I'm not laughing. I mean I am laughing. It's not funny that they're a family owned business.
Not all customer service is the same across all these salvage stores. Some is better than right. Yeah, and.
I do want to continue shopping them because they're family owned and I want to support that. But also they do say that if the product doesn't work, they will give you a refund, So I did push for that and they did end up but I did have to talk to like three different people and they kept talking about how their family owned and I just kind of felt like my eighty dollars return on a steam cleaner that was smoking was allowed given their policy.
Absolutely, So when you do go read the return policies and abide by they only accept things that don't work, then you better tell it don't work. But they will and they fired it up. They did, they tested it. This ain't home deepot. Yeah, they're gonna you can't lie.
And so know that if they're not a big box that's one of the benefits of a big box store is that you their return policy is very loosey goosey, and at a mom and pop store it's not going to be. So also make sure that you know what you're buying, You've read the reviews, you're pleased with it. To balance that out with a good story. There was a time where I was looking on the hunt for an immersion blender. It wasn't something that I wanted to spend one hundred dollars on, It's just something that I was keeping my eye out for that was on my list of things I'm looking for at a discount, and sure enough they had an immersion blender that was typically eighty bucks for like thirty five dollars, and I've been very pleased with that immersion blender.
I have made my fair.
Share of pestos and Caesar salad dressing.
Yeah, we thought it to things from that place as well, and we almost bought our vanity. If you're doing a kitchen or specifically a bathroom renovation, I would say, if you're doing a bathroom renovation that that type of resale is so great because they will take the vanity top will break, and so home Depot or Lows will send it over there and they will put on a brand new courts countertop, probably of better quality than the one that they sold at Home Depot, and then sell it at a lower price.
Yeah, they're not everywhere, and it's not as if every town is going to have these options, but it is worth looking and educating yourself because I didn't learn about some of these places until years into living here. Certainly, I was always discovering more about what's available in Pennsylvania, and sometimes these stores pop up. They weren't there before and now they are
So there you go there's your spicy salvage store story.