I’ve got a tight budget for my farmhouse project. I bet most people who are building a new house or taking on a major home improvement project are no different.

My recent bathroom faucet purchase is a good example of how I trade some of my personal time to save significant money. In this case I used a few tools and websites to get that $170 faucet for $51 ($41 + $10 shipping).

First, I started looking at Amazon.com for a starting point on price. I also checked a few on-line plumbing supply outfits. This gave me a baseline for what I might need to pay. Next, I checked eBay.com and found multiple auctions for the faucet. This is a good sign. I also saw multiple auctions from a single eBay store. Also a good sign. I checked the feedback for the seller and they showed both a very large number of transactions and very good feedback. Yet another good sign. Finally, I looked at the series of auctions and saw that there were staggered by about 12 hours each. I came to the conclusion that at some point in the series of auctions, at least one of these would not be bid up as much as the others. I used an auction service and created a “bid group” that contained all of the available auctions for the item and set a rather low bid. (A bid group allows you to set maximum bid for each item in a group of items and the auction service will bid on each one just as that auction is about to close. Once it wins an item on your behalf, it cancels all other bidding in the group – so you don’t end up with more copies than you want.)

This process worked and I won the faucet for only a small bid over the starting price.

All of this takes time. There is research to find the item; time to find a reasonable price; time for finding the items; times for setting up the best auction process; and time for completing the transaction. This effort is not for everyone. For those who can afford it, you can get what you want quickly and with a minimum of effort. However, if you can trade time for money, you can get really good deals.

BUT WAIT! Not everything is wine and roses. You will not always get the best deal using eBay, auctions, bidding, etc. Take as an example the Milano “rainfall” Showerhead that will get installed in my wetroom. The best price was at Overstock.com. The $75 showerhead was available for $34 with free shipping.

This holiday season I have learned that on-line shopping means checked websites everyday. The same item may be on sale one day and not another. Or the price on Tuesday and Thursday is not as good as it is on Wednesday. Amazon.com has been a good example of this. I bought some of my small kitchen appliances for much better than expected deals. A mixer was listed at 38% discount but on one day that jumped to %61. I used dealnews.com as my first point of contact. Every morning I checked the list of deals to see if anything on my project list was on sale. I also used this site as the starting point for much of my Christmas shopping. I should point out that people with loose wallets should be careful as it is very easy to feel a deal is just too good to ignore and end up buying stuff you didn’t need.

I have spent a lot of time researching products and shopping for deals. It bears repeating – I am not suggesting this process is for everyone. However, it you have caviar taste on a fish egg budget, give this a try. You can start with one item and see how you like it. You might find that budget shopping is for you.