Saving big on a light fixture

We "needed" a chandelier for our dining room. When we bought our house, we knew the existing chandelier would be taken out as it was a family heirloom. We didn't immediately purchase a replacement when we moved in. Finally six weeks later, we went to Missoula to find a light fixture. We had already looked at Home Depot and Lowe's on previous trips and didn't find anything in our budget.

Doing our best to stretch our finances, we stopped by the Home Resource Center in Missoula. They are a business that recycles home building materials. We looked through all the chandeliers that they had and bought a small one for $8. I had my heart set on something big and beautiful as we have lofted ceilings. However, I was determined to be content, and was happy to have something to hang up. As we were leaving town we stopped by Lowe's to cruise through their clearance items. While I was looking through the garden center, my husband called me from the light section. He said there was a light he wanted me to see. When I got back there, there sat a big beautiful chandelier in pieces in a shopping cart. Thankfully, my husband is way more technical than I am and was able to see that there was one small part that was broken. It was marked down from $250 to $85. We looked at it, but because there was a broken part we weren't sold on it. Finally, we decided if they would take $50 for it we would buy it. My husband asked the sales clerk, who simple walked over crossed out the price on the clearance sign and wrote $50 on it and initialed it. When we got home my husband was able to salvage the piece we needed off the $8 chandelier we got at the Home Resource Center and fix the beautiful chandelier and we now have light in our dining room. I am thankful for a fixture I can really enjoy at a price that was a real bargain!