Kansas Living

We spent a lot of money that first few days here. We stocked up on groceries and bought all kinds of furniture. A few of the noteworthy pieces include our desk (photo to come) which we got for $40 and our coffee table (photo also to come) which was also $40. The desk is L-shaped, so we both have a work space and the corner houses one of our printers. We bought it off of Craigslist and it was in fairly decent shape, but once we started to assemble it we realized it was missing some important screws as well as a foot! We spent another $6 on parts at Home Depot, so it technically cost us about $46, but not bad for a very usable desk!

Our coffee table was an awesome fluke. We kept checking places like Goodwill and Salvation Army for used furniture, but a lot of their stuff tended to be overpriced and really worn/old. We happened upon a store nearby, called Aaron's, which sells and leases furniture. We asked the sales lady for a "cash-and-carry" coffee table, and she surprised us with something incredible. It was a glass-topped table, almost brand new (it had one previous owner who leased it I think) and she needed to get rid of it because someone had wanted the end tables that matched it but not the table! The retail on a table like this runs close to $180, so it was a huge steal at $40. I know you're excited to see the photos of our place and cool new stuff, I just have to remember to get my camera out of the car!

On the downside, sales tax down here is 8.8%! So even though things are relatively cheap, we feel it with the taxes. Our cable/internet (which we got hooked up yesterday) has a sales tax of close to 10%, which adds $8 onto our total bill.

There is a "Back-to-school Pool Party!" happening downstairs right now, which we will be going to later this afternoon. The flyer says "Join us this Friday by the pool with your new neighbors and friends! Free food, refreshments, and games! Come relax as we hand out gift cards and much more!" So we definitely need to check it out.

Travis and I are headed to Best Buy and the bowling alley now though, so I will write more later.