Vacation Accommodations

I've been busy lately planning our Spring Break trip, arranging airfare, rental cars, and accommodations. We'll be visiting my family in one state, then heading to another state for a college reunion, so it has taken some pretty clever feats of scheduling. I also had to consider the fact that even though there are only four of us, my 13- and 16-year-old sons won't sleep together in the same bed, and I wanted to try to save some money on food by having a kitchen.

So, with those parameters in mind, I checked out a website called VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals By Owner) and on Craigslist, under vacation rentals in the city where we would be staying, and ended up renting a luxury apartment in a totally remodeled 1908 mansion with a king bed, twin bed, and two full sleeper sofas for $86/night. We plan to cook breakfast every day and several dinners during our stay.

Because there are only 4 of us, most of the properties were a bit out of our price range because they were meant for larger numbers of people. For larger families, though, this is the way to go. Most of the listings I found during my search were for homes or condos that would sleep upwards of 6 people. For example, a two-bedroom condo in Green Valley Ranch, Nevada (10 min. from Las Vegas) that sleeps 4-6 people rents for $175/night (VRBO). Or, a three-bedroom ski condo in Eden, Utah, that sleeps 6-8 people rents at $150/night (Craigslist). Try putting your family of 6 or 8 in a standard motel or hotel for only $150/night! Add in the fact that the condos/homes almost always have a kitchen stocked with pots, pans, dishes, and utensils, and you save even more by cooking meals instead of eating out.

We're really looking forward to our trip, and I am very excited to see what the apartment is really like. (It looks gorgeous on the website.) Stay tuned for a report after we get back in April!

Adventures on Craigslist

Bought or sold anything good on Craigslist lately? If not, you are missing out! A friend of mine recently blogged about the beautiful dining room table and chairs set that she got for $75. They were in perfect condition, and the chairs were the exact style she had been looking for. She spent a great deal of time watching the postings on Craiglist for just the perfect set to come up, and was getting discouraged because so many sets were out of her price range, but the moral of her story (and the moral of the Craigslist story in general) is that patience pays off.

In my own experience, I have found that the truly good stuff gets snatched up pretty quickly, so if you really want something, hit that refresh button every time you walk past the computer. A few years ago, we needed a better dresser for my son's room. After about a dozen years, his WalMart particleboard special was falling to pieces (imagine that). My budget was not very much; if I bought something new I would have had to settle for another particleboard one, and I wanted something better. So, I camped out on Craigslist and finally found a large oak dresser that I wanted. I was the first person to call, and 30 minutes later, we had driven out to take a look. It was perfect, large with lots of storage, and very sturdy. $50 later, we loaded it into our Scion xB (still not sure how it fit in there) and took it home. A couple of years later, we needed to get rid of the dresser, as our son had inherited a waterbed with drawers in the pedestal and he no longer had need or room for the dresser. I posted it on Craigslist and it was gone within a day, for $25 more than I had paid for it in the first place!

I also sold our 1992 Mazda Protege on Craigslist when we bought a new car 3 years ago and the dealer wouldn't even give us the token $500 trade-in. Sure, it wasn't much to look at (the paint was peeling in several places) and the seatbelt sensor had a short and often beeped even when your seatbelt was on, but it ran great and was relatively low miles for a 14-year-old car and we included a set of studded snow tires on separate rims. I had at least 15 interested buyers lined up. The first person who saw it handed me $750 cash and drove it home!

It's also worth mentioning that you do need to be careful. As a buyer, be sure you know where you are going to meet the seller. There are some deals I've passed up because I didn't know the area the seller was in. As a seller, you need to list as little identifying information in your ad as possible. Give out your phone number or address only to those persons that seem to be seriously interested. There is risk involved, but for the savvy Craigslister, the bargains abound!

What are your favorite Craigslist finds? Got any great stores about an item you've sold?

Craigslist, anyone?

I love craigslist and have used it in the past for a variety of transactions. I sold my 92 Mazda Protege along with its 4 studded snow tires for $750 (which was $750 more than the Toyota dealer was going to give me in trade), among other things. I've bought furniture, most notably dressers for the boys' rooms, and other things. The last thing we tried to sell, a very LARGE rear projection TV, did not sell, despite being listed for 2 weeks (not that I am surprised by that).

Anyone got any good craigslist success stories to tell--either of buying or selling? I'm really in need of some interesting things to post. Ironic, as in this economic climate, we all could use to be more frugal. I'll try to do better--just that things are really busy right now, keeping up with all the kids' activities.