The Best Ways to Buy Furniture and Other Big Items -- No Money Down

I went shopping on the weekend --Got myself a suede leather jacket and an almost new glass book case. All for free. Believe it or not, you can find great items in your area, literally in your neighborhood. Here are some quick tips.

1. Moving day is usually near the end of the month. Many people who are unable to move large items, such as furniture, will often leave them in the lane, near their garbage pickup area. Since garbage companies don't do pickups on the weekend, you just might find a great item or so.
This is what happened to me and a friend. We literally pulled an almost new bookcase from the garbage dumpster. When cleaned, it was almost as good as new and could have easily cost $200 or more at a regular furniture store.

Driving around another neighborhood, I picked up a winter, hooded suede leather jacket, which may have cost $500 or more at a boutique. I am anticipating its arrival from the dry cleaner any day now.

2. You may want to consider the barter section on Craigslist. I saw some great deals involving people looking to trade a computer for a car, etc. And bartering without money is the way to go.

3. Attend garage sales to look for great deals. I bought a stereo for $20 at a garage sale and picked up some funky records, too. The seller was a nice guy and he gave me a tray full of tupper ware for the cost of $1 or so.

My tip is that you don't need a whole lot of money to fill your room with cozy furniture. Just be aware that there is sometimes a lot of more shopping fun outside the local shopping mall.

Catching Cannes Part 2

On a rainy Saturday morning, I watched the self-proclaimed Greatest Film instructor in the world dazzle  a packed meeting room of wanna-be film-makers with an almost endless stream of film tips and information. This guy rocks.
His name is Dov Simens and the class I took from him seemed more like a film bootcamp. He doesn't take excuses and his no-nonsense approach is gruff, rough but with a sense of loving kindness. You want to be a screen-writer? Just write! he barks. "Nothing gets written, it gets rewritten," he espouses.
The man is no slouch. He talks incessantly about film-making and he does it all with a few overhead slides and no powerpoint presentation.
To have the priviledge of hearing him talk takes no less than $400 US. But that doesn't count the scores of books he pushes at  a recent Sept 11-12 presentation in Vancouver. And for those too busy to attend his two lectures, all you had to do is purchase it from his website, or even buy his book on film-making which I walked away with for under $30 Cdn and another expensive CD. And attendees could even purchase his DVD classes for a much better price than on his web site  www.webfilmschool.com/affiliates/jrox.php?uid=happy33.
Could I have better spent $400 US in Las Vegas or a quick weekend jaunt in New York? Maybe. But knowledge is valuable and there is a greater chance that I would have spent more money vacationing than learning for profit.
Making a movie is like climbing Mount Everest and there is no guarantee that one will ever get there. That was my initial assumption and many others probaby think this way. But after talking Dov's class, I believe I got my Mojo back. And if knowledge is power, then that's how I feel -powerful and committed.
And those short films I committed myself to making?. A thing of the past. Ok, maybe not quite yet. I do have to use them somehow, now that they are done.  Cannes just got more closer. God Bless Mr.Film BootCamp Instructor. And God Bless Dov Simens.