Many Happy Returns

Good News! If you’re like me, there’s money hidden in your garage.

As I’ve mentioned, I do home improvement and, as a rule, I buy more supplies than I think I’ll need since, if you Don’t buy them, you’ll definitely need them (this is especially true for laminate flooring - they discontinue patterns in a heartbeat, so buy at least 20% more than you think you’ll need if you’re going to take on this project). So usually, after a job is done, I’ll go to Home Depot or Lowes with my extra material and my receipts and get some money back.

Quite often however, I’m in such a hurry going from one job to the next that I literally dump everything into my garage and stock my car for the next job. Also, there are times where I’ve bought extra “just to have on hand”, which also sits in my garage until needed. Finally, there are items that I’ve purchased for use in my own home that I just never got around to doing or no longer need to do.

Well, yesterday I went through my entire garage and basement looking for any and all items that still had their bar code (or UPC code) sticker, and made myself a pile. I ended up filling two bags, which I brought back to Home Depot and Lowes. Years had passed since I had originally purchased some of this stuff, so I had no idea where the receipts were, but that’s not a problem - Home Depot and Lowes will accept almost any return at any time and give you a store credit if you don’t have the original receipt. I ended up with a store credit of $89.00.

Now, I know a store credit isn’t as good as cash for some, but you can either use that credit on your own home (if you might be thinking of selling to reduce your debt) or wait for a friend to have a home improvement project and ask if you can buy his supplies on your card in return for his cash (minus tax as an incentive, if necessary). Either way, a good cleaning out of your garage can often lead to some found money.


(PS: One more thing about laminate flooring - when your project is finished, keep one or two extra pieces of flooring and hide them somewhere dry. This type of flooring is pretty tough, but accidents do happen and sometimes you’ll have to replace a piece. If your pattern is discontinued, you will be glad to have matching pieces on hand to do the replacement.)