I thought I would post a small report after having finished buying all the parts for my new gaming rig. Hopefully this can offer some assistance to others on where to look or price baselines for people in the same situation as me who have been shopping to a tight budget and waiting for availability. All prices listed are inclusive of shipping costs and in AUD. I made the decision to start building this in late October so it's been a lot of research and trawling online deals to get the best prices.
Motherboard - Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX - $295 - Seemed to be the best value AM4 socket B550 board from my research. Was able to nab it slightly reduced during a 10% Ebay sale.
Case - CM NR200 - $120 - The case everyone seems to be using at the moment for their SFF builds. I had built a few PCs before and was eager to try the challenge of building in a smaller form factor. Same deal, slightly reduced during Ebay sale. Had to wait a couple of weeks for this one due to availability but seems to have cleared up now.
PSU - Corsair SF600 Platinum - $215 - By all reports the best in class for itx builds (excepting perhaps the next up model, the SF750). However I was working to a fairly tight budget and have read that 600 watts is sufficient for a 3070 Ryzen 5 machine. Bought reduced on Ebay via Scorptec, I believe Amazon has this down to almost $200 atm.
Storage - Kingston A2000 1TB - $140 - Got this from Centrecom, it was a toss up between the Crucial P1 and WD SN550 but this slightly edged it out based on my research. Pretty much retail price, these drives seem to often come on sale though if you feel like waiting.
Monitor - Xiaomi 34'' - $425 - Technically not part of the build, though I was eager to upgrade from standard 1440p 144Hz last time to an ultrawide. Very fortunate to find this on clearance at Kmart via an Ozbargain post. Called the store in Sydney and had them hold it for me. Usually retails for around $600 and has pretty good reviews for its specs and price. Hopefully I got a good panel and the 3070 can drive this resolution alright.
GPU - ASUS TUF 3070 - Ebay (used) - $870 - This was a bit of a sketchy one, the guy had some suspect reviews on his profile regarding price gouging but I was willing to take a chance with PayPal backing me up in case something went wrong. It took a while to arrive (and I had to ask him twice for a tracking number!) but seems to be in good condition. A good price for that card, which sells for approx. $1100 new, but I can understand some people not wanting to go down the used route.
RAM - Corsair LPX Vengeance 16GB 3600MHz C18 - $100 - Used again, I felt a bit better about this one because RAM is generally pretty hardy and the cost was low anyway. From my research 3600MHz is the sweet spot for Ryzen 5000. Retail is $130.
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 3600 - $265 - This was pretty much the only concession I made with the build, which I'm pretty happy about. I had my heart set on a 5600x, but with availability and scalpers I got fed up waiting and pulled the trigger on this used 3600 from Ebay. Comes with the box so I'm pretty confident I can sell it down the road if I find a well priced 5600x or beyond. This rig is mainly used for gaming, for which these two processors are apparently quite similar in performance. I probably made the correct decision from a value perspective here. The lowest I've seen this at the moment is about $310 on Amazon a week ago. It's price seems to fluctuate a bit because of its increased popularity die to 5600x shortages. You may also like to look for used 3700x as an alternative.
Fans - 4 x Arctic P12 PWM PST - $60 - Two of these were from Gumtree locally ($15 each new) and two more from Amazon (approximately the same price). Excellent reviews for noise and thermal performance, in line with Noctua's offerings for a fraction of the price.
CPU cooler - Scythe Fuma 2 - $120 - Had this posted to me via Facebook Marketplace (please remember to always pay via PayPal). It's most likely overkill for a 3600 but I was initially planning on an overclocked 5600x build so it made sense at the time. Probably one I can keep for a few builds to come. This is about retail price, you can get it on Amazon AU via US.
Total - $2610 (I also sold my previous build for $700 so that reduced the price somewhat).
Overall I was pretty happy with my purchases. I saved close to $500 compared to buying everything new at retail price, which brought me in line with my budget. I probably could have trimmed a bit more using the stock AMD cooler and going for a B450 board or lower tier PSU. My previous two builds lasted about 4 years each, so I'm expecting to get that kind of life from this one two, at which point the time I'll get out of it more than justifies that price. Even my partner wasn't cross at me!
Overall take always for fellow builders is to set alerts for Gumtree, Amazon, Facebook marketplace, everything. Staticice is a great tool for finding the lowest price from Australian retailers. Ozbargain is a good up to the minute source of deals if you're always on your phone or computer. Don't be afraid to buy used sometimes (if the person seems legit and provide you with the info/warranty you need).
Most of all, don't forget to factor in the value of your time when looking for all this stuff. I spent three months scouring online and while i'm happy with the final result, I'm also a bit sick of the process and eager to play some games.
Happy Hunting!

During planning I found recaps quite useful, so here’s mine! I’m going to apologise right now for the fact that this is very long, but hopefully it’ll be useful to someone!
First - Some guest photos!

Background

My husband (34M) and I (25F) have been together for 4.5 years, engaged for 2. I’m English and he’s Scottish, so for the first ~15 months we were long distance. When I graduated I moved from London to Glasgow to be with him, and we got engaged about a year later. We live roughly an hour from our wedding venue in the adjacent city. My husband’s family mostly live in the same area as us - the furthest any of them had to travel was about 2 hours - whereas my family and friends live throughout England and Wales - some of them travelled upwards of 8 hours to join us, and we were so grateful! I had always imagined a ‘five people on the beach’ kind of wedding, but my husband has a huge immediate family and could not imagine getting married without them. We compromised on a small, relaxed wedding of ~50 people.
Our invite breakdown was: * 67 invited * 49 yes (~75%) * 18 no
100% of the people who RSVP'd 'yes' showed up, and we didn't have any unannounced guests. Definitely an advantage of a smaller guest list!
Guest comfort and enjoyment were a top priority for us; we wanted to make sure no-one was left standing around waiting for us, and that they were well fed and entertained. This clearly came through because we got a lot of compliments on touches such as the photobooth, extra evening food options, and bathroom boxes which improved our guests’ experience!

Venue

As soon as we had established that we would be getting married in Scotland, we began researching venues. I didn’t want a hotel wedding as I find that at the ones I have attended they have often shuffled guests between two rooms repeatedly (which I am personally not fond of), therefore we began looking into other options. I fell in love with several historic castles, but not so much with their price tags - typically £5k in venue fees with no kitchen access so catering needs to be in vans - or locations - often in the middle of nowhere which makes catering awkward and greatly limits guest’s accommodation options. Eventually I stumbled across Edinburgh Zoo on a list of unusual wedding venues, and joked to my fiancé about it who promptly replied, ‘Why not?’ A quick google revealed that weddings took place in the Mansion House and I instantly fell in love - here was (almost) the castle I had dreamed of, but with a more convenient location, more reasonable packages, and on site catering! We set up an appointment to tour the venue ASAP, and were delighted to discover that our guests would have access to the zoo between the ceremony and wedding breakfast - we signed the contract that day!
Worth noting here that we were originally aiming for a date at the beginning of August, but when we went to check hotel prices to get an idea of how expensive it would be for our guests, we were greeted with ~£300 price tags for a Sunday night. Edinburgh hosts a huge event called Edinburgh Fringe for the entirety of August, and moving our date forward a few weeks dropped those prices to less than £100 per night.
Check your date doesn’t coincide with any large events in the area you are getting married in before you book!

Budget

My parents covered half of our estimated venue cost, my husband’s parents gave us £1000, and my grandfather gave us £2000.
We were extremely fortunate that our families gave us this money with no strings attached, and were all relaxed and undemanding for the majority of the planning process. We could have paid for the whole wedding ourselves in the end, but we would have had to postpone our honeymoon until the following year, so we were still extremely grateful for their contributions.
Venue: £4000 This included exclusive use of the Mansion House and Gardens from 8am - 1am, a package for 50 people of post ceremony drinks, wine with dinner, prosecco for toasting, a 3 course dinner, tea and coffee, and an evening buffet of bacon rolls, plus a menu tasting, all linens (chair covers and ties for both ceremony and wedding breakfast, and tablecloths), crockery and cutlery, our DJ, access for all our guests to the zoo between the ceremony and wedding breakfast, and a dedicated wedding coordinatoday of coordinator.
Venue Additions: £485.60 * £80 for two children to attend (these were not included in our package numbers). * £40 for two vendor meals. * £55.60 - £6.95pp for 8 evening-only guests. * £5 corkage for one bottle of non-alcoholic wine we provided. * £15 for clip on tails to put in the photobooth - worth it! * £40 for engraved bride/groom penguin crystal glasses we got to keep. * £150 for an evening mac’n’cheese buffet. * £100 for a doughnut wall - I’m not a huge doughnut person, but my husband and MoH got so excited about this that we had to go for it!
Wedding Photography: £395 My SIL recommended a photographer she loves who is ridiculously reasonable. For this price he was present from 9am until about 8pm, and provides a minimum of 200 fully edited photos. We were amazed by the quality of his work and actually booked him at the same time as our venue to ensure his availability. Most importantly, we both felt totally at ease with him which was pretty amazing since we’re both generally awkward potatoes where photos are concerned. We’re already incredibly pleased with our sneak peeks and can’t wait to see more!
Videographer: Free! We decided early on in the planning process that video wasn’t something which was important to us, however the more ‘the one thing I regret is not having a videographer’ posts I saw, the more I dithered on this point. In the end I lucked out and found someone on GumTree who was just starting their own videography business and needed a few couples to build up their portfolio. They were a husband and wife team who wound up costing us £40 in vendor meals, and have told us they will give us a 6-10 minute highlight video, a 20-30 minute documentary style video, and raw footage of our ceremony and speeches. We’re weren’t expecting them to be anything amazing since they’re just starting out, but figured that even the raw footage would be a bonus, however we just go through our teaser and it’s utterly incredible - we couldn’t be more pleased.
Celebrant and Civil Marriage Fees: £485. We booked through the Edinburgh Registrars Office and paid £360 for a Sunday ceremony, plus £60 to lodge our marriage notice forms, £55 in ‘civil marriage fees’, and £10 for a copy of our marriage certificate. Our registrar wasn’t great - several people said she seemed a little nervous, and she handed me our handfasting cord instead of looping it twice around our wrists like we had asked. Edinburgh Registrar’s Office offered a ‘week before meeting’ for £50 which we honestly didn’t have time to take them up on by the time they offered it to us - perhaps this would have prevented any issues, perhaps not. I guess that’s the chance you take with a randomly assigned registrar.
Florist: £406 We didn’t want a huge amount of flowers, so I searched high and low for a florist who didn’t have a £700+ minimum for weekend weddings. This covered my bouquet, 2 bridesmaids wrist corsages on pearl bracelets, 1 MoB lapel corsage, 6 boutonnieres (groom, best man, 2 groomsmen, and both fathers), a smaller version of my bouquet for our flower girl, and a greenery garland for our top table. Honestly, if I had realised they were an option before we booked our florist, I would probably have gone with sola or silk flowers for roughly the same price (if not less), however I was pleased with our florist and what she produced, and I have some of my flowers in a press in an attempt to preserve them! An unexpected bonus was that my bouquet smelt amazing for the whole day! Flowers
Hair and Makeup: £214 This included my trial (£95), day of makeup (£55), day of hair (£50), fake lashes (£10), and a travel fee (£4). My bridesmaids and MOB each paid £90 to have their hair and makeup done too. Part of what I loved about our HMUA was that she didn’t require brides to have a trial, however in the end I decided it was for the best since I have reacted to cosmetics in the past.
DJ: Included in our venue package He did a good job of reading our crowd of mostly non-dancers and played music that got people out of their seats. He also did the shoe game/Mr and Mrs for us despite never having done it before, and it was a hit!
Photobooth: £349 For this price we got an ‘open air’ photobooth for 4 hours, an attendant, 2 copies of every strip of photos (1 for our guestbook, and 1 for our guests to take home), and an online gallery of all the photos. This was without a doubt some of the best money we spent - the photos are amazing and it was so lovely to get to see all our guests having fun the day after when we got the digital gallery through! A few of our favourites
Invitations: £15 We did all online Save the Dates and Invitations, but printed 10 of each through Zazzle in a 60% off sale for a few older relatives who we knew wouldn’t understand the online RSVP through our website. The StDs and invites cost us £10, and then ~£5 in stamps.
Other Paper Items: £45 We didn’t do menus or programs, but we did print ‘Photo Scavenger Hunt’ cards to encourage our friends and family to send us guest photos of themselves, our venue, and us! I also bought £30 worth of stamps for our thank you cards, and we have £45 budgeted to print photo thank yous.
Dress: £830 I paid £500 for my dress from Wed2B (who I thoroughly recommend), as well as £70 for an underskirt, and £55 for a diamante belt. My alterations were £205. This covered hemming my dress (I’m 5’3” so there was a lot to hem off), removing the train, taking in the bust, adding cups, and making and adding off-the-shoulder sleeves. The seamstress also took in the waist and raised the hem of my underskirt. Note: jump around in your alterations! My dress fit fantastically but the waist of my underskirt was too big even after being taken in, and while it was fine to walk around in, I kept having to hoist it up when dancing later in the evening!
Accessories: £325 I paid £110 for hair accessories for my bridesmaids and myself (Most of this was store credit which needed to be spent that day), £65 on a pearl necklace, bracelet, and earrings (none of which I wound up wearing, oops!), and £25 on underwear which I also wound up not wearing because it was visible under my dress, but was outside its return window. My veil was my ‘something borrowed’. My shoes were metallic blue Converse for £40, and my bridesmaids wore metallic/glittery rose gold Converse which came to £85 for both pairs.
Groom/Groomsmen Attire: £370 We hired Highland Sky kilts with Charcoal Tweed jackets for the Groom, Best man, 2 Groomsmen and FOG. These were £95 each but they were running a 5 for the price of 4 offer.
Flowergirl Attire: £80 We spent £60 on a dress from JJsHouse which MOG altered as they come up very long, and £20 on blue sparkly trainers.
Thank you Gifts: £540 * Bridesmaids: £240 My bridesmaids insisted on paying for their own dresses and haimake up which we had budgeted to cover. We used the money we would have spent on their dresses to get them gifts we knew they would use and love for years to come, plus a few wedding touches! My MOH got Disney Vans and a Cath Kidston Disney bag. My sister got a Clogau gold necklace and a Ted Baker Makeup Bag. They both received personalised getting ready robes, a tumbler with a straw (on the advice of my makeup artist), and a clip on zoo animal tail. * Groomsmen: £60 As we paid for all the groomsmen’s attire we didn’t go quite so over-the-top with their thank you gifts. We got his Best Man, one Groomsman, and his BIL engraved glass tankards from his stag in Lisbon - the BM/GM ones said ‘Their name, role, date’ subtly on the back, and BIL’s said ‘his name, stag stag stag’ since he had contributed towards my husband’s portion of the trip. His other Groomsman couldn’t attend the stag so we got him a monogrammed hip flask. * Parents: £200 MOB received a pair of earrings, a getting ready robe, and a Portmeirion cake stand (this was specifically because she helped me make our cheesecakes in the days before the wedding), FOB received a monogrammed wallet, MOG received Afternoon Tea for Two at a local tearoom, and FOG received an engraved watch. * Other: £40 Our cake and favours were made at a steep discount by a friend who owns a bakery, we got her a Portmeirion cake stand as well. We also got our flowergirl a small silver daisy necklace.
Wedding Rings: £440 Mine was £270 from a nationwide jewellery chain, and his was £120 custom made on Etsy. We also paid £50 to have my engagement ring resized as it was too large. The only ring photo we have so far.
Day of gifts to each other: £200 I got him a book and a FitBit Blaze since he’s been dying for a new smart watch, and he got me a book of letters to the bride filled out by my friends and family, a ‘one line a day 5 year memory book’ for each of us, and a gorgeous key pendant from Pandora. My gift
Cake and Favours: £80 A friend of my husband’s runs a bakery and offered to make our cake at an extremely reduced rate; the week before the wedding she told us that she was actually giving us the cake as a wedding gift. Our favours were cupcakes shaped like highland cows, and she charged us £1.50 per cupcake including individual boxes. These went down an absolute storm and by the end of the evening there were none left! Cake and Favours

THE REST:

This post is already insanely long, so I'll try and quickly break down the remainder of the costs. If you'd like specifics on any of them, let me know! * Cheesecakes: My mum and I made these ourselves, she bought the ingredients and I’d estimate we spent £30-40 on them. We also bought 70 ramekins for £60 to make them in as we were concerned about the structural integrity if they were sitting out all night, but we’re hoping to sell these as a job lot for some of what we paid. * Miscellaneous decor: £450 Terrariums, succulents, and tea lights for centrepieces, guestbook, advice cards and box, several signs, crates of straws, glow sticks and MandMs for the reception, a card box, and several decals. * Log slice for the cake stand: gifted by a family friend who is a tree surgeon. We sanded and waxed this, then my mum engraved it. * Hotel rooms for night before/of: £285 * Stag Do spending money: £100. The groomsmen paid for my husband’s hotel, flights, and food for the 3 days they spent in Lisbon. This covered his spending money and the cost of his lunch in Dublin on the way back when they had run out of money! * Last minute purchases: The week of the wedding we bought a replacement ring-bound guest book to accommodate our photobooth pictures (which we didn’t wind up needing), some miscellaneous items to entertain the kids in attendance, a bubble machine for our bubble receiving line (I got paranoid that just little bubble wands wouldn’t produce the amount we wanted), a vase for my bouquet on the top table, thigh bands for me to keep my phone and inhaler in, a lipstick, a handfasting cord, and a couple of other assorted items. I would estimate that we spent maybe £100 on last minute items, but honestly by this point I had mostly given up on keeping track.

TOTAL COST: ~£10,200.

I am probably forgetting minor things, but that should be pretty close.
Now, onto my thoughts and some other details…

• Bridal party walked to: Concerning Hobbits
• My dad and I walked to: the instrumental introduction to Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird
• Our ‘signing the register’ song: You’ll Never Walk Alone
• Recessional: Walking on Sunshine
• First Dance: Kodaline - The One
• Cake flavours: Carrot cake, red velvet, lemon.
• Cheesecake flavours: Tiramisu, Raspberry and White Chocolate, Mango, and Millionaire’s (Vanilla, Caramel, and Chocolate layers).

TAKEAWAYS:

• It's been said before, but it's likely something WILL go wrong - even before the day! - and it will be okay. 2 weeks before our wedding I realised we had never spoken to our DJ because he came as part of our wedding package, and when I emailed him he took 6 days to respond to me. To say I was a little panicked in case he, for some reason, didn’t have a record of our booking would be an understatement. 10 days out I had to call our venue to ask them to add an additional child guest (despite having passed the 3 week final numbers confirmation) because a family member was diagnosed with terminal cancer and could no longer babysit her. And 9 days out my MOH tried on her dress and found that the shoulder strap was WAY too short. We had to go to the store, beg them for extra material, and then my mum added additional panels to her and the other bridesmaid’s sleeve so that they didn’t cut off blood supply to their arms. Luckily my mum is a fairly competent seamstress because I honestly don’t know what we would have done if she hadn’t been able to fix it herself!
• Not everything will go perfectly, but you’ll barely remember: Our registrar handed me our handfasting cord instead of looping it around our wrists, my bracelet nearly fell off when we ‘tied the knot’, we got married at a zoo with a penguin parade and the penguins decided they didn’t want to parade that day(!), the cheesecake labels didn’t go out so no-one knew what flavours they were, the best man disappeared for half the night because his wife was unwell, and probably a bunch of other little details. People must have noticed. No-one cared, and they quickly forgot! At the end of the night, several people told me it was the only wedding they’d ever been to where nothing went wrong!
• Do what you want to do, even if it isn’t traditional: Neither my husband or I wanted to do a first look, but we did want a quiet moment to spend with each other before the ceremony when we would be surrounded by people. Our photographer found a quiet corner of our venue and set us up either side of it so we could hold hands without seeing each other. This was a really emotional moment for us, and helped to ground us before the madness of the day kicked in.
• Sometimes taking a chance is worth it: I’m not going to advocate for finding vendors on Craigslist/gumtree/etc. because you just don’t know what quality you’re going to get from them. That being said, if there’s something you’d quite like but absolutely can not afford, and it’s not going to make or break your wedding if it’s not perfect (or is possibly crap), it can be worth taking the chance! We knew there was a chance that our videographers would be less than fantastic, but we figured - at the very least - raw footage of our ceremony and speeches was more than we would otherwise have. Our teaser came through and it’s honestly incredible, so much better than I would ever have dared to hope. I have no doubt our videographers will be charging a lot of money in a few months time - and they will absolutely be worth it - so we got amazingly lucky to find them when we did.
• Collecting guest photos: We had a hashtag! We loved it, everyone who saw it before the wedding loved it and made a point of commenting on it! Nobody used it. Instead we used WedUploader (https://weduploader.com) to collect our guests photos by sending them a link which then uploads their photos directly to a folder in your google drive account. It works fantastically on iPhone and PC - lets you upload at least 94 photos at once - but on android it requires you to upload each photo individually, which is a little annoying if you have loads!
• Bathroom boxes: Maybe a slightly weird one, but so many people came up to me throughout the day and thanked us for the bandaids/painkillers/indigestion meds/sewing kit/deodorant etc. that we put in our bathroom boxes! They were things that guests might not necessarily think/have space to bring, so they went down a storm and really helped our guests enjoy the day that little bit more!
• Find people who get it: I joined a wedding planning discord group who advertised looking for new members on this subreddit, and it was one of the best things I could have done through the planning process. Having a group of people who understood what a stress planning could be to share worries, stressful situations, wins, questions, and laughter with was an absolute lifesaver. To the women of WeddingIsland, thank you. I honestly don’t know how I would have made it through this process without you.

I am not going to sell you anything or tell you that there is a quick and easy way to upgrade your PC for free, the process I use doesn't utilise any RMA tricks or rely on damaged parts.
Disclaimer: Every part I own in my PC is second hand - if you're unwilling to have second-hand parts then this post isn't for you.
I built a computer 5 years ago from scratch: Q6600, GTX 580, 8GB DDR3, 500BG HDD. Out of pocket cost at the time was $1100.
The following year I wanted to upgrade, however being newly married, couldn't shell out the cost for another new PC, so I came up with a process of upgrading my PC for $0 overall cost.
1) You need upfront capital equal/slightly more than the cost of your current PC but don't worry, you will be getting it back.
2) Find a full PC on Craigslist (Gumtree in Australia) that has either a single part or multiple parts that you desire and offer the seller unders. If the PC you are going for has a total setup (incl. monitor, headset, mechanical keyboard) even better. I usually start with take 40%/50% off their asking price and going from there. In most cases if they are selling near new PC's then they are desperate for that cash back, so take advantage of it.
3) Goto the persons house and confirm that all the parts are working. Pay them and take the PC home.
4) Pull it apart and clean it, swap out the parts you want with your current PC. (EG: You want to upgrade your GTX 980 to a GTX 1080. You buy an entire build, something with an average CPU/RAM but the GPU you want. Pay unders. Swap your 980 for the 1080.)
5) Now you have two computers, but your one has upgraded parts. Now sell the other PC you just purchased, now with your old parts. Put it up for 10% more than the price you paid, allowing room for good faith negotiations to take place.
6) Sell the computer for the price you paid for it or slightly more and now you have just upgraded your PC for free.
7) If that computer came with peripherals, monitors etc. This needs to be taken into account when it comes to selling and price. However in most cases, the peripherals will net you a profit (I completed an upgrade and sold the PC for what I paid for it and had a 144hz AOC monitor, mechanical keyboard, RATZ mouse and Logitech Headset left over... for FREE. I kept the Monitor and sold the rest for a $150 profit).
8) Continue this process until you have upgraded every part that you desire in your machine. In some cases it may only take one BUY/SELL... in others it might take 3 or 4. However if you complete the trades in this way you will never spend money, only afternoons/evenings of travel/testing/selling.
9) An important caveat to note is that this process ONLY works if you do it once every 12/18 months. Once the new gen comes out and before the gen following. This means you can still get a good price for your old tech and not be out of pocket.
If you have 2/3 year old parts, this process WILL still work, however you might be out of pocket $100-$200. But that will be for a full upgrade of parts worth thousands brand new.
10) Finally, the MOST IMPORTANT caveat is you MUST have PATIENCE. Patience to find the right seller that accepts your low-ball offer, patience to find a buyer that will buy your old parted PC for a slightly inflated cost. Patience.
In my case, I undertake this process every 12-16 months once the next gen has had a few months to run in. Every year it takes approximately 2 weeks of BUY/CLEAN/SWAP/SELL of time (not total time, maybe 6-8 hours total over 2 weeks). But that time would normally be spent gaming or watching a movie or some shit, is spent upgrading and saving.
Note: I know that people think, "Well this just relies on people being desperate to sell and possibly not being smart enough to know the cost of parts" and the answer to that is YES. It does rely on that... there are ALOT of people like that.
You might get told to fuck off half of the time when you offer a price that is 50% off the asking price, but if you are courteous and respectful... it goes VERY, VERY far. Here is an example of one of my messages:
"Hi there Zack. I am interested in the PC that you have for sale on Gumtree. If possible I would like to offer you $XXXX. I know it is lower than your asking price, I mean no disrespect. Please let me know if it is an offer you would be willing to consider. Thank you for your time. - Hackthefortress"
My most recent upgrade I went from a i5 6600, 16GB DDR3, 980TI HOF, Corsair 650D Case to the 7700K, Corsair H100i, 16GB DDR4, 1080TI AORUS, 1TB SAMSUNG EVO and a NZXT H440 Case... for free.
It works, I have been doing it year after year for the last 5 years. I have not spent a cent. Try it.
TLDR: Flip shit on Craigslist

Hi PCMR,
Thought I would post up a little somethin' somethin' about my PC and experience in buying/building it.
So over 2 years ago I was on the hunt for a new computer. I had a little bit of cash and all my searching online for brand new gear ended up blowing my budget.
So I went onto Gumtree (Aussie Craigslist) and started searching.
Now if you search for Gaming PC or Gaming Computer usually you find full builds at prices that are on par (or close to it) of all the brand new parts combined. And yes you could talk them down to something reasonable, but usually they won't budge.
So instead I searched for parts - my first search was: i5 2500k. After a long read up between this i5 and the i7's, this was probably the best bang for buck cpu at the time (and close to it even today... with the ability to OC really well if you get a good cooler or even water).
So I found a few single CPU's for sale and more importantly came across some full built machines. One of which caught my eye:

• i5 2500K
• ASUS GeneZ Maximus ROG Motherboard
• 16GB DDR3 Gskill Ripjaws
• ASUS DUII GTX 580
• Corsair 650D Obsidian Case
• Corsair 750W Power Supply
• NO HARD DRIVE
• Cost: $700AUD

Now at the time (and still today) - this was a really beefy computer. The CPU, Motherboard and RAM specs were pushing high end. So I went for it... Texted the guy "Hi Mate. Would you accept $500 if I came around and picked it up tonight". He replied with $550. After work I drove out to his place and picked it up.
Turns out it was his girlfriends ex's computer and neither of them had any idea about computer or specs so I paid the man and got the hell out.
The following day I put the GTX 580 on Gumtree and sold it for $240 AUD. The day after that I picked up a ASUS DCUII 7970 GHZ Edition for $300 off Gumtree. Went out to a computer shop and snapped up a CoolerMaster Hyper 212X for $50.
I used the 1TB HDD I had in my old PC and my brand new computer was alive.
Total Amount Spent: $660AUD
So I overclocked the 2500K to 4.5ghz and its been running well for the last 2 years. The 7970GHZ has been overclocked (but i cant remember the figures). I have since put a 256GB SSD (free from a busted out of warranty Dell XPS, dropped the mSATA in a SATA enclosure) for OS and Updates and the 1TB is running as D:\ for Steam, Game Installs.
Second hand machines are a risk, I really should have tested before I put the money in their hand, but I went to their apartment, inside their home. So I felt confident that if they fucked me around, they would pay the money back. But you want to see the machine running preferably.
I managed to get a machine that holds up to all the "next-gen" games. Just ran Farcry 4 and GTA V completely maxed out with over 120 frames.
If you are looking to upgrade a part - sell the old and buy a second hand one - you will save so much cash. And if you want to buy a new machine, don't forget to take a look around at the second hand market. There are people buying brand new and selling soon after for numerous reasons.
Happy Gaming.

I used to work as a welder for a few years after highschool, but I've been out of that field for about 10 years now. I want to get a small MIG welder to tinker around at home, but I've been out of the game for so long that I don't really know what's a good brand anymore, or where to buy them from. WIA and CIGWELD machines are hard to beat, but they are also the most expensive.
I've been considering getting a gas/gasless 120 amp Bossweld machine, running it gasless, to do some steel work, but I would like to, with appropriate liners and tips, to do some stainless steel and aluminum welding. I have decent experience doing all three metals with a WIA 375 MIG welder, but I'm not sure if the small, cheaper MIGs would be as capable.
I am hesitant to get an ozito welder from bunnings or one of those car part stores, since after sales support would be negligible and I don't know how reliable the brand would be.
Any recommendations for stores that are reasonable and reliable when it comes to support, and/or brands of machines to buy?
I'd also be willing to buy a second hand machine for the right price if it were working, but those are fairly scarce on Gumtree and ebay.

Hello to all musos, performers, singer songwriters, poets out there.
Thanks so much for the interest. We would love all the help we can get to get the word out. We will do our best to give you a full run down but at the moment what we really need is musicians keen to be involved. So if you know anyone looking for an audience a little out of the ordinary then pass our details along.
Now we are pretty passionate about the program so please bear with us. This entire program was born out of three ideas, a musician in distress, the disgust at a shitty $20 rider for an established Sydney music staple after playing the area for 10 years, and the wonder and amazement of a 2 year old seeing an icon Australian rock group with the Sydney Symphony from 15 feet away.
Anyway, enough sappy stuff.
Ok so here goes. We will try to give you a rough run down on what we are trying to get going. At the moment some is just ideas, some are works in progress and some is set in stone, with a couple of shows already locked in, just waiting until we get a couple more so we can promote them all together. We are trying to do this initially because we don't want to scare off a singer songwriter because they see us so do a classical music night and think its not for them. And visa versa. Don't want to scare off a potential jazz musician because we do an acoustic rock show.
The concept is to be small intimate shows (30-60 people) all with the stage lit buy candlelight. Perhaps not exclusively but as much as can be for the effect. Each show will run for around 2 hours (including intermission breaks). We are looking for all kinds of performers, musicians, poets, you name it. The concept was not for a specific kind of music or event but rather a specific intimacy to the music/performance that would lead to both a greater connection between audience and stage, and also a more raw power to the performance. We don't care if its a 12 piece rock band scaled down to their raw acoustic best or a sole, female jazz saxophonist with a live improvisation.
Our only restriction is that all instruments must be acoustic. We will still be planning on providing PA and amplification as we collect equipment and set up the venue but for reasons noted later in this post. The Acoustic concept is part of the actual intimacy theme.
We also intend on trying some singesongwriter competitions down the line and also poetry events, leading up to a competition and perhaps a Blue Mountains Champ. (all only concepts currently. But the Poetry cup in Nimbin each year is one of the most fantastic, passionate events to behold and even a glimpse of that energy would be astounding for the mountains.)
Our end game is to have every show recorded. Hopefully both film and sound. We hope to use these recordings to promote the program, promote the involved performers, and if they wish to be involved that far to be given to the musicians free of charge to use as they wish. Their own live music, recorded and filmed free to use as they want. We also hope in the very long run to potentially release candlelight sessions "compilations" of music recorded at the shows. If we get to this point then we would also pay royalties from each sale to each involved group. This is all a long way off but the concept is of a free venue, with equipment included, promotion, support, a helpful community, free recordings, and hopefully some money in the musicians pockets. We will also be trying to provide a strong online promotional network, so performers that are interested in allowing their material to be included will all be promoted across many platforms, facebook, youtube, other social media and the hopefully large network of entertainment professionals we are trying to get involved. We would leave this open to all of them, free of charge for as long as they wish to be involved, as long as it does not come as an extra expense or detriment to the program or to the other performers.
We also hope to have non-record company represented musicians join a group to allow their music to be played in cafes, restaurants, hotels etc royalty free to have a free way for small business owners that can not afford licensing fees to play music again in their establishments in exchange for promotion of the groups and hopefully sales of their music, either direct or through these businesses.
We also hope to be able to provide other support if needed. That may be in the form of free accommodation if they are traveling to the events. Or meals and drinks. All they need to do is tell us what they need, want, or are trying to do and we hope to be able to help them where we can. We also want bands to not have costs involved to get in-front of an audience. To long have performers spent all day traveling, to play to an unappreciative audience, to try and sell a couple of CDs and be heard by people, only to cost them so much in travel, accommodation, equipment hire, meals etc that they all return to their day jobs disheartened.
To the more experienced performers that prefer it we will be offering the ability to actually sell tickets, at the price that we would discuss with each of them, that they think would be attractive to their own fans (or even better to attract new ones). We are already in discussion with ticket-master to oversee this part and the venue can sell tickets directly as well.
The more experienced or established performers we will attempt to have shown on Friday and Saturday nights, and would try to hold all shows for these times but if we have some particularly new, shy or beginner musicians we are also planning to hold "house shows" that are mid week, less pressure and more for an experience platform. All of this really falls back to the performers. We will be basically be asking every one of them what they want to do, what their show is, how long they can/want to perform and what they want to get out of the experience.
Our current venue has no poker machines, is supportive and open to all our ideas so we hope to build something special with them, but there could also be the opportunity to work with other venues if the program grows to warrant it.
For every event we will be charging $10-$15 dependent on whether we decide to get the venue provide some form of light snacks etc during the shows. This money is also to cover all the performances licensing fees, royalty fees, Apra Ppca etc so that there really is nothing left for the performers to have as a cost. They should also be able to fill out the APRA forms to obtain royalty fees from them directly as well. Any group that charges tickets will have their amount added to this and the tickets will be sold and managed by the Candlelight Sessions, the venue and Ticket-Master.
As an example of some of the shows we already have in the works.

A Ticketed solo show event with a Gypsy music duo as a romantic event. A "Storynight by Candlelight" show which currently consists of 2 parts. Both a spoken monologue story told between and throughout a dramatic musical performance. One group greek, alternative folk rock and the other solo jazz performance. One powerful concept, two drastically different styles. A "Made by hand" event where we have multiple performances by different artists that have made their own instruments. Be they guitar, or something much more unique. This will be both a highlight of music and art. With some artists there to sell their music and others their instruments. a "casual couch" show of individual singesongwriters lounging around, chatting with each other and the audience and bringing a family homecoming feel to the event. So as you can see. Very big plans. Grand even. Some only sparkles in the mind. At the moment we have been collecting, and now we are starting to actually buy, equipment, cables, camera, mics, instruments etc. Anything that we can get our hands on moving forward that might help the program. We have had massive support from musicians, groups and random strangers already and feel blessed that so many see what we are trying to do as an important thing for the Australian music scene and the Blue Mountains as well. We look no gift horse in the mouth and have been doing pretty well so far. We have managed to even scrounge up some money from our current people involved and are looking to purchase a new mixer, multicore and pa hopefully soon to have as we are ready to start. The one thing that we desperately need is to get the word out to local musicians. Currently through facebook, gumtree, word of mouth and current connections we have some Sydney bands and local Blue Mountains acts emailing and contacting us we really want a lot more to have a really great showcase to put together different concept shows. As the concept is so large and broad we need to get as much info as we can from a wide range of groups so we can put together the show concepts fairly far ahead. To give us enough time to organise the performers, the promotion, the venues, the ticketing, licensing, the equipment, everything. Although we only have one venue on board we hope in the future the program will grow strong enough to allow others to get on board and become part of the "community" in support of the initiative. Any help to get the word out, get our website (still being built currently but placeholder live now), email or facebook into the hands and minds of keen performers would be fantastic. Hopefully we will be able to find a show and place for everyone over time and the program will provide something long needed for the industry and the people. 

www.candlelightsessions.com.au
facebook.com/candlelightsessions
We truly appreciate you taking the time to read through this. It is a bit long winded and a bit of speculation but we are trying to get everyone to know exactly what we are trying to achieve so we can to something fantastic.
Thanks again.
D Program Coordinator Candlelight Sessions www.candlelightsessions.com.au