Outdoor swing sets


Outdoor swing sets like this one can be extremely expensive. To those that may not know, we just bought a house about 7 months ago. It has been really fun, but at times it has been stressful. We moved in, and after we made our down payment, our cash flow was extremely low. So, getting things done around here have to be done the THRIFTY way. Needless to say, our backyard is on the never-ending “list” of things to do around here.

Well, the other day, my husband Dan came home from work and mentioned that Home Depot had put their play set kits on CLEARANCE. These kits include the hardware and instructions on how to built your own play set. So, we decided to buy a kit to put away for when we could afford the lumber. The kits were normally $250.00 and we got ours for $30.00 on clearance. Side-note: even though we knew we could not afford to get all the lumber, it was worth the $30.00 up front to save for the lumber in the future. (Some of you would talk yourself out of this purchase with dialogue such as “I can’t build it now, so I’ll just wait to get it all at once” or “What if I can’t built the play set for 2 years, am I really going to store this kit for that long?”

Here is my philosophy: BUY IT WHEN IT IS DIRT CHEAP. When the store gets the new ones back in they will be $250.00 again. They probably clearanced them out to get another brand, or to switch the packaging. That doesn’t mean that the kit isn’t great.

Well, it all goes back to the “be in the right place at the right time” like I explained in my post earlier about thrift store shopping. My husband is a handy-man (the best one I know might I add) so he is at Home Depot a lot. He called me about a week after we bought the kit…GUESS WHAT WENT ON CLEARANCE? All the outdoor, pressure treated wood. YEP… JACKPOT.

The lumber is estimated to be around $900 for this play set (now can you see why we couldn’t afford to do it when we bought the kit?). We spent $200.00 on lumber. Come to find out, the lumber went on clearance to switch to another brand.

Here is the hubsters building away. He was like a little kid on Christmas…GIDDY. He was so excited to build the kids this set. His brother Mike came to help with the construction.

What a hunk!
As it went up I about died at how big it was. A friend came by and asked if our swing set had a drive through window. 🙂
For a grand total of $230.00, I can say now THAT’S THRIFTY!

Published on February 16, 2010

13 thoughts on “Outdoor swing sets”

  1. Love it, but oh my, where is your grass~? My husband built our playhouse also a couple years ago. The kids love it. The best part was that we purchased all of the accessories at the end of the season: the slide, disc swing, rope ladder….a great way to be frugal!

  2. Holy smokes that is THRIFTY! I have been scoping out these play sets for 3 years and haven't found anything that cheap ever. WAY TO GO!

  3. That is an AWESOME deal! We got our kids a swing set for Christmas. Same deal, buy a kit, buy the wood. It took us a bit longer to put it together and I must say, we spent quite a bit more than you did! Good job!

  4. Freakin' awesome! I can't believe what great deals you scored!! And you are very lucky to have married someone like Dan, might I add. I'll bet your kids are in heaven!

  5. My husband, Alex, had a company selling rubber mulch & rubber playground chips. He currently has his remaining inventory on clearance! If you are looking to put rubber chips under your new playground, now may be the right time. His prices are the lowest in Utah right now. If your interested you can email him @ alex@liutah.com or call him @ 801-709-8284. BTW, I love your website! I look at it all the time for inspiration.

  6. Love the play set we are planning on buying or building one for our boys. Question do you remember which play set kit it was? I also noticed this post differs from another one where it looks like you all picked up a yellow slide and moved the rock wall. Any thrifty ideas on the yellow side purchased?

    1. The slide was purchased after a year or so of saving and searching for a deal. I think we got it on CSN stores online. I know it was pretty expensive.

  7. Hi! Do you by chance still have the plans for this? We are looking to build one just like this. Thank you.

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