Addict

I am addicted. To Craigslist. I know I'm not the only one. I have seen friends post about it on Facebook. Just writing this entry, I realized I have not yet checked the Baby & Kids listings today...

OK, I'm back. When Greyson was a wee babe almost everything he had was brand new or given to me directly by a friend. There was the crib we bought from a friend, and the glider that is still on loan from another friend, and all of the lifesaving things from Emily. I guess a lot of our larger items were hand-me-downs - so maybe I didn't need Craigslist then. Then there were the baby showers, where we were graced with tons of new and fancy things.

Fast forward a year and a half. We want to keep spoiling this kid! He got a mini big-wheel for his 18 month birthday, and a few other toys around that time. Then I realized how broke our family is, and how much money the nice toys for toddlers cost. I had an itch to get him a slide, a water table, a picnic table, a play kitchen, a wagon - especially after seeing how much he loved riding in Fabiana's wagon! But wagons go for about $60 brand new. We could wait for his birthday, but that's a ways away. So I started my Craigslist stalking.

We are keeping a lot of our baby stuff, just in case we ever have another. We did sell/give away a few things a while back - and that's when I discovered Craigslist for baby stuff. After a garage sale where not much baby stuff sold, I advertised and successfully got rid of a bunch of things. I realized how much used baby stuff is out there.

So I started looking for used wagons and slides and water tables, etc. I got to know the ins and outs of the baby listings. There is stuff that people post day after day. There are people that post dozens and dozens of items. There are things that you see a lot of, and things that get snatched up as soon as they are posted. There are, as we have all learned, people that do not remove their postings once they have sold the items. But there are some real gems, if you're paying attention.

Our babies & kids stuff listings are very active. I can leave my desk for an hour, come back and reload the page to find 25 new listings. It's worth the time to look through several pages, and I do. One friend on Facebook worries that she'll miss a bargain on something she never knew she needed, and that's what I have succumbed to. Just ask my husband... Every day for a week I came home telling him how I might have to go somewhere with his truck to pick something up - if it hadn't sold yet. What was it? Maybe something from my list of must-haves, but maybe something else entirely... whatever caught my fancy that day.

I'm happy to report that the great buying spree is over. For now. Greyson is the proud new owner (at least temporarily, until I become addicted to selling things on Craigslist) of a sand & water table, a slide, a picnic table. I found a cheap wagon through the Craigslist garage sale ads - that could become "a whole nother" addiction, as they say. And the play kitchen? I got that one for free from a friend... so I'm not spending all of our money :-)