About 4-5 years ago, I made a post called The Thrift Olympics. It was about ways landlords have been thrifty or cheap or whatever you want to call it. There are a lot of new posters on here, so I thought I'd post it again and maybe we could all learn a few new tricks. Something's you've done or some things maybe your handymen have done to really save money. To put lipstick on a pig or really shine s--t!

For example:

I picked up a seemingly new toilet along the road in 2011 that came out of a flood damaged house, because the owners said it went under water during the flood. Haha ok.

I immediately installed it in a project I was working on and it still works like a charm. And hey, it came pre washed!! With flood water, but let's not split hairs!

Buying used appliances those.

New Range $400 and up. Used around $100.

NE,

I resemble that remark! :P

I'd put in the caveat that if you buy a house at a tax sale for pennies on the dollar, and don't do a thing to it, and you plunk your sign down--- fer sure! You get a house that only a deadbeat would live in.

But I think a lot of it is figuring out which corners can be cut, and which corners aren't worth cutting.

One example that DH and I have turned into a running joke--- we bought a house at tax sale that had no bathroom, but the people had a pile of 24x24 porcelain tile. It was this awful, cheap stuff straight out of the early 90's--- you piece four tiles together to give you a floor that looks like it's something out of an Italian villa, if the Italians had fuzzy, blurry, fake-and-cheap looking printers to print out the designs. :P

We've probably remodeled six or seven bathrooms since then, and DH always wants to use that stuff--because it was free!!! --and I'm like, "Your bathrooms are awesome. I'm not going to let you work so hard to put in ugly tile!"

I really need to make that stuff disappear out of storage... :)

On the other hand, we were gifted about 100 sf of blue floor tile. And we've used it in two bathrooms so far, and will continue to use it, because it's not hideous.

Back when I was first starting and broke I would buy up all the oops paint I could find at $1.00 a gallon. I would then mix anywhere from 5 to 20 gallons and that was the color I used.

NE,

I have looked at numerous houses in my town that I could have bought for $500.00 or less at a Tax Sale. I then compared those tax sale houses to ones I was paying $5,000 for. There was a huge difference,...the houses I paid $5K for had 'good bones' but the tax sale houses had major foundation problems (ie. whole house listing to one side),..another house the roof had collapsed after a large tree fell on it (tree was still there). Other tax sale houses I looked at had major fire damage.

Now, the houses I bought for $5K, had some serious problems (electrical and plumbing issues) but these problems were fixed by my master electrician and master plumber (No cheapskate DYI here either). If I had asked my plumber to install a toilet I had picked up on a street curb, he would have laughed me out the door and said 'get yourself another plumber'. I don't install 2nd hand junk that came from a street curb.

NE - we can continue this discussion at the convention but for now, I think you catch my drift.

Roy, the idea of the thrift olympics are things you can pull off as new which may totally not be.

The roadside toilet was pulled as new and I installed it myself and if my plumber was going to do it and balked, I would've got another plumber. It's not their job give me their opinion on that.

Another example of Thrift olympics is patching a bad area of linoleum with a section cut out from under the fridge or stove that works perfect with some new glue.

Do I do this all the time? No way! Will I do it to save an otherwise good floor that has a tear in it? Absolutely.

Does it attract deadbeats? Not if it's done right.

Deanna (TX)

Okay NE - I understand what you are asking now. Pardon my rant on tax sale houses.

Once toured a rental open house where the LL lined the shower walls with cheap vinyl sheets and siliconed the corner seams.

I really don't care if NE of PA, or Roy of AL, or Deanna of TX or Fred of CA, or other landlords are CHEAP. Frugal...

IF each of the landlords can make something work for you then do it.

Linoleum repair was done with a liquid weld, if the lino was torn back and the lino was plyable then I would use liquid weld on it. Don't remember the proper name of the product. Basically it melted the lino and welded the tear into place. The repair may have lasted 2 or 3 tenants then it was time to replace it. The lino was always torn at the area of the chairs in the dining room. NEVER fails...

Once you have spruced up your unit for the next tenant. AND sometimes your best chosen tenant can go bad; they do some major and/or minor damages. You make the needed repairs and move on.

Carpet was the worst thing I put in my rentals. They were like a sponge soaked up EVERYTHING. However, the click vinyl is a great way to make a unit look nice. OR Allure!!! OR VCT tile.

I just put in a new tub and wall surround. When I took the old one out I left the "ceiling" piece in. There was a gap of about an inch there and the corners were different. Got a piece of vinyl molding, stuck it in their, curved the corner and caulked it all. I got another piece and covered the gap on the floor where the old vinyl didn't reach the new tub.

@Roy, I'll be in the D.C./Chesapeake Bay area, taking the kids to visit their great-grandparents, who aren't in the best of health. I'll be away from the rentals for almost 2 weeks. Because we have FREEDOM! :)

Had a back yard that was stacked full of junk. Put a free add on craigslist and opened the back gate while I was there and almost all the junk went away. It's amazing what people will haul off. I just hope it doesn't end up at another of my rentals.

I have cut baseboard out of 1X4 rough cut lumber from a sawmill (or scrap). With a couple of passes on my table saw I cut some nice details. Way cheaper than that particle board junk they sell at the box store and looks just as nice.

aside from all the great finds at habitat type stores and estate sales (sinks, vanities, medicine cabinets, lights, appliances, window screens, area rugs, paint, tools, etc) got a 12' roll of commercial vinyl for couple hundred and have done 5 kitchens. I have also stolen the vct from under the fridge. I use vinyl remnants from my makeovers under sinks which helps protect the cabinet base from water damage.

In my area there is a market of 2nd hand foamboard insulation. it sells for half price.

I have taken siding off of the backside to repair the front.

I will take glass from old windows and cut it to replace broken windows and keep smaller pieces for french doors (also look for plexi to replace them too).

Opps paint is an easy one. My handyman and I were joking that I'm starting to have my own line of paint colors. I have 3 or 4 that are attractive enough that I've color matched them and keep rolling. Mostly for porches and porch floors.

There is a mfg near me where they throw out palletized and crated shipping wood. I can get good lengths of 2xs and such. I save a lot of scraps from projects and make use of trimmings as window and door stops. Along those lines I sometimes rip down lumber and router it to make my own trim. Furring strips also make window casings/ baseboard where it won't matter.

My signature thrift entry would be using a frisbee or plastic lid as a ceiling medallion, or making a drywall donut when you need to hide what the fixture can't.

I just updated my own toilet and was wondering does anyone here keep such an item as a back up? It seems like a pain to store.

I donate my older appliances to the local appliance guy and he comps me w/ service calls or free parts. I recently turned around an apt and as I was doing a final walk through, realized one of the fridge door rails was missing (cleaning lady didn't point it out) sent my handyman over w/ one to match and he came back w/ 2.

Where olympic savings and cob cross the line for me is in screws. I used to just use up whatever screws I had on hand and then you need 2-3 bits to pull something apart later.

“Conduit curtain rods” Vintage Industrial chic!!

Years ago I had a new res anxious to move in and an ugly stained countertop. 30 minutes and a roll of marble-look Contact Paper. It lasted 2 years!

We keep and collect all toilet tank lids because some break.

Reading through this has brought back memories of cheaper days and some things I still do.

I will rob the cooking elements off of an oven before scrapping it. I've busted up toilets also in order to throw in the garbage can. I've done the same thing with carpet...just cut it into 3 foot strips and over a few weeks it's all gone. I've pulled up some bad 2x6 decking, flipped it over, screwed it back down and stained it.

I'm not afraid of putting in nice looking used appliances that I've found. I found a $20 water heater that I installed 7 years ago that's still going strong. I have had a half inch split in vinyl flooring in a bathroom and filled it in and painted it with a yellow marker. I've had damaged carpet inches from an edge and restretched it so that I could cut out the bad part and put it back down. I've used

I call doing things like this "making lemonade." Example: When I decided to sell my "yuppy" house, I had a hard time finding matching drawer fronts to match the kit cabinets. I had my carpenter remove the side slides and put in a nice clean plywood base (stained to match)instead of the drawers.

I went out and bought 3 nice low-sided rectangular wicker baskets to slide in there. In the basket bottoms I put dish towels coordinating with the kit colors and curtains. The new buyers thought "how convenient for the kids" because she could put kids stuff there that they could reach w/o pulling a heavy drawer out on their heads.

We have a sfh on a corner lot. Over the winter, the plows and trash trucks made a mess of the corner, cutting a full 3 feet into the planting bed/rock garden that we have there to discourage just such damage. We fixed the damage and filled in where the dirt had been removed, but needed mulch, as it all had washed away.

Our first choice, the local township's free triple-ground branches from residents, didn't pan out, due to being available only once a month for a couple of hours - this past Saturday, when it poured. Then my hubby spotted a social media post for someone in the area who'd ordered 1.5 yards too much of dark, triple-ground hardwood mulch (much nicer stuff than the township!), and wanted it gone for free.

NE,

I used to grab up every scratchNdent, left over pieces, etc.

I'm still "cautious" with spending but to grow I had to stop scrounging, get what we needed, install it and move on. We were spending $100 in labor, storage, and handling to save $20 on a piece that was good but not quite a match. It burned up tons of my time.

So many of those "too good to pass up deals" are still stacked in 3 garages.

Need a door or toilet? Go to Lowes and get the house rented.