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Teaching Resourcefulness- Buying Lumber for Pennies on the Dollar
By Kathy | May 12, 2009
My husband is very resourceful. He hates to pay full price for anything, he says it is because he works hard for his money, which I have to agree!
Because he is so resourceful he knows how to get a good deal on just about anything! That combined with his carpentry skills saves, thus makes us, a good bit of money each year!
The big box stores have what is called cull, teach your kids this word. This is the stack of lumber that has a defect or two in it and is not sellable at full price. You can usually get lumber for 10 cents on a dollar, of course stores/managers vary. A 2×4 that usually cost about $5.00 you can get for 50 cents from the cull pile. The bigger the cull pile the better the deal you can get, the only thing is you have to take the whole load, so even if it is not something you can use at the moment get it anyway for future projects. Smaller piles you can pick and choose what you want.
Stores have more than lumber in their cull piles; they can also have sheetrock, bags of concrete, bricks, soil, mulch, tin, landscape timbers, etc… The key is to check often and be patient.
Lumber from the cull pile can be used for just about anything. Most projects require that the board be cut down, so you just learn to cut off the bad part. The same with sheetrock. Bags of soil, mulch and concrete that have a rip are still very usable. Look for these bags at Wal Mart too!
Teach your kids by example how to seek out these piles and ask for the best deal they can get. Stores would rather sell these at a fraction of the cost than to loose it in the dumpster.
At cull prices you can afford to let your kids learn carpentry skills.
Here are just a few things Jeff has built around our house with cull. At this point in our marriage I know if I ask for something he WILL make it for me, but I’ll have to wait on cull lumber to come available! :o)
Arbor out our front door.
Raised beds for the garden and the compost bin.
EVERYTHING in Olivia’s herb garden was built with cull, including the fencing and arbor. This mulch we actually bought at full price by the truck load when Jeff was not at home. ;o)
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Topics: Teaching Good Things |
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