A Frugal Secret: Recycled Paint

Now, I know I said that I wasn't going to buy any paint for my shed.  I said I was going to use up what I had even if it meant that every side was going to be painted a different color.  I have painted one side so far with only one coat and I used 3/4 of a gallon.  That means that I will need approximately 6 gallons of paint for the entire shed to get 2 coats.  I don't think I have that much paint unless I use the day-glo orange paint that my bad tenants left behind.  I think I have 3 gallons of that.  If I was going to use the orange paint then I really should have made the first coat orange and then painted the brown paint over it.  But anyway, on with my story.

I went to the dump today to bring my household hazardous waste (the miscellaneous bottles of car stuff from the garage) to the appropriate place and I saw a sign that said "Paint for sale today".  I remembered that I had read that they take all of the colored paint that people bring in and mix it together to make a nice brown color.  They also take the white, black and grey paint and mix it in to grey.  I asked about the a paint and they showed me a lovely stack of 5 gallon buckets of brown and grey paint for only $10.  Now, I didn't know how much paint costs but this seemed like a bargain so I jumped at it and bought myself a 5 gallon bucket of nice brown paint.  Now my whole shed can be one color and I can use a roller instead of a brush and not worry about running out of paint.

When I got back to work I looked up the price for 5 gallons of paint at Home Depot and the cheapest paint was $85!  I hope I remember this the next time I need brown or grey paint.  This is a fantastic deal!  Now the weather just needs to cooperate so that I can go finish painting my shed. Just one of the perks of living in Arizona, I can paint in December but I really don't like painting in the heat from June to September so it all evens out.