Any of y'all got a Habitat For Humanity ReStore in your area?
There's one in our little town, and I like to stop in from time to time to see what they have.

What they mainly have there is hardware and lighting and plumbing and house fixing stuff that's either been donated by folks, or local businesses.

Today I found florescent light fixture ballasts NEW for $7.00 each. Several of them came home with me!!! I've got some "shop lights" in the basement that I was going to need to replace....because a ballast from the Home Depot or Lowes runs more than I can buy a cheapie light for. But now I can take them down and wire in these ballasts and they'll be gooder than new for seven bucks a pop. I KNOW they'll work because we were in there a week or so ago and I got ONE to try and it worked out swell.....I had to rewire the whole rig, and drill a new hole to mount the (larger) ballast....but that only took about 30 mins or so. You know what Red Green says, "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy".

Seriously, if ya have one of these places in your town stop in and see what they got. It just MIGHT surprise you.