Money saving tip: The oops bucket

Money saving tip: The oops bucket

I had no idea these existed, and now I can’t imagine living without them!

Recently a friend gave us an awesome idea for saving money, and I still cannot believe that I’d never heard of it before. Have you heard of the Oops Bucket? It’s basically just a bucket of paint that someone asked a store to mix for them, then they left it at the store when they decided it wasn’t exactly the color they had wanted.

I think the idea never occurred to me because I would never do this. If I asked for a paint color, then I would buy it—end of story. I’d feel way too guilty to not buy it after having them waste the paint. Of course, there could be other explanations; perhaps someone mixed the wrong color entirely and the bucket is a result of an honest mistake. Either way, it’s an unwanted bucket—and it’s super cheap. How cheap, you might ask?

Try five bucks. Seriously. I got a gallon bucket of $35 paint for five stinkin’ dollars. And it was much-needed paint, too! We had a roommate move out without much notice recently, and we decided to make her old room my new office. It has a view of the yard and two workable windows—something that was blocked in my old office—so that was my silver lining. That said, her room was a very dark shade of pink, and I wanted something neutral. I had already picked out free swatches at Lowe’s of sandy colors that I liked when my friend told me about the Oops Buckets.

And guess what color was available? Sandcastle.

How perfect is that! The only problem is, now that I’ve painted, I am out of paint and could really use a second coat. My best friend reminds me that my walls are going to be covered with artwork and posters and postcards anyway—she’s right, of course—so why worry? The good thing is that the walls are no longer so dark and the room is really light and open—the perfect office.

Now I only have to get used to the birds flying around outside and distracting me, something I hadn’t thought of until this morning… Perhaps the use of blinds are in order.

There were a wide variety of paints available, too—from darker shades of red to vivid lime green—so I’m sure that if you head to the store and check out the Oops Buckets, you’ll find something that might just work for you and your decorating needs.