It really depends on the farmer's market. I love my farmer's market. The vendors have to have grown the stuff themselves, and they have to be certified organic. I consider it to be the next best thing to homegrown. I use my FM as a backup for my garden. There are some things I can't grow myself, like tree fruits or eggs, and sometimes I mess up and have a lousy crop of something just due to my own error (like I set out plants too early and they froze or something). The FM is great to fill in those gaps. Home grown is probably better. It's certainly cheaper. But the FM is usually better than the grocery store, as long as it's a "real" farmer's market where you're buying directly from small farms. I think farmer's markets are very valuable for people who don't have the means to grow all their own produce but still want to eat fresh, locally grown, organic produce.

This thread might do better on the Money Saving Tips forum.

Zoe, to be completely honest, I probably wouldn't have taken your cat-scratching-post couch either, because it costs a fortune to have things reupholstered to look halfway good (and as chisue found, you may not even get halfway good out of it)! I've been watching Craigslist for furniture and thought I had come across a few decent things... until I found out what it would have cost to have them reupholstered, even with cheap fabric. Shocking! Even slipcovers are expensive too now - if you want something that actually fits and stays in place for more than a few minutes without being mostly sweaty, itchy spandex, it can cost as much as a complete reupholstering. (Let's not even talk about how many Craigslisters are completely delusional about what their worn-out, ugly furniture is worth. If you bought a couch from Billy-Joe's Discount Furniture and Bait Shop for $750 and let the kids and the dog jump all over it for 5 years, it sure ain't gonna be worth $250. It's very debatable whether it's worth $50, or really belongs out on the streetcorner for the scavengers.) BTW, with the upswing in bedbug and other infestations, some charities in my area are refusing upholstered items entirely. I also found out the hard way (and they may have gotten burned by this as well, thus rejecting all pieces with any cat damage at all) that an upholstered chair that had "a few cat scratches" had had a lot more "cat activity" on it than that! It was out of a storage unit in winter so I couldn't smell anything but as soon as I got it inside a nice warm apartment - whoooeeeee. Fragrant. As Frances points out, it's all very nice to recite the mantra that "everyone should buy only 'quality' furniture" (huge pet peeve: using the word "quality" when you mean "good quality"!) but let's be realistic. Most people of ordinary means can't come up with what "high quality" furniture costs these days. I went shopping for a sturdy, not fancy but reasonably nice-looking wooden bed frame year before last and got quite discouraged at the outrageous prices - but having something made was even more bruising to the checkbook. (Frances, I'm curious, does that $250-300 worth of supplies include the tools required to make a nice piece of furniture? If so, I'd very much love to know where you're buying your tools!) dabunch, I go to Dollar Tree every few weeks. It's a great place for consumable stuff like greeting cards, paper towels and baby wipes (for the dog), and they have some great knockoffs of pricier products. I don't see why I should pay $4 for a pint of Plax mouthwash when 1 1/2 pints of an identical product in a less-attractive bottle is $1.

Update: Thanks for the advice on seller financing. I was having trouble with my realtor and it clouded my vision. I took the house off the market. I am going to continue doing all the repairs, spending $3,000. a year. We got a fourth offer. She said it wasn't that great, and I didn't see it. (I think it was with seller financing.) You were right about the family. That night, I heard a bunch of people outside my home as I was trying to sleep. A man's voice said, "Stephenie, your house isn't selling. "125,000." It was so creepy! Thank God I didn't get into that mess! The agent was trying to control who I chose as an agent for the cabin I'd found. She also wasn't conveying my messages to the agents who had made offers. She kept trying to get all buddy buddy with me, and discussing inappropriate subjects. (Her daughter on meth and pregant with twins, her sex life, her grandchild that she has custody of because she was going into foster care...") I kept trying to get her to focus on the business of the sale and she would veer off. It's like she wanted a therapist or a friend. She said that the buyers who had made offers talked to the next door neighbors and they had nothing nice to say about me or my property. (He was intercepting them during showings.) I was worried that would happen. That's why I was moving, to get away from them. My mom said they may buy the REO cabin as an investment property. They could pay cash. They helped me buy this one, and are very happy with how it looks now. It was an eyesore when we bought it.