Brother at Walmart is a very inexpensively made machine.

Try eBay

Where do you live?

If you make occasional trips to places that have sewing machine repairmen, call and ask them about used and refurbished machines.

Craigslist?

lazy_gardens - North central Indiana. Small town and not close to a big city. We have lost most of our large manufacturing facilities so it is mostly senior citizens. The kids go to the bigger cities after college. I have asked people to watch the estate sales for me. I like to see things before I buy. Barb

I have bought two different brother machines one is a surger, and the other sews and does other stuff. One I ordered from Amazon , the other from brother. Both are nice, and didn't cost a arm and a leg. I found the one I liked and checked for best price. ( Walmart at the time had the model I wanted, but cost a lot more then Amazon by about $30.00 ). That was the surger, and didn't pay shipping on eather.

Daughter has an old Singer (Not sure how old been sitting in storage) She got it to work. I needed to use badly and cannot get the other Singer to function. Anyway, we can't get the bobbin winder to work. It seems like the thing that you loosen on the wheel is stuck. We tried to spray some oil into the small hole. Anybody else ever had that trouble? On the other Singer, the little black bobbin holder won't stay in place. It just said you had to place against that small projection. This is just too difficult to explain for you to understand, I am afraid. Nobody works on sewing machines here., so I fear I am out of luck. I also have a Kenmore, 19000 series that stopped and says "system problem" and to go to the Sears store. We don't have one anymore. I guess I am out of luck every which way. Barb

Hoping to encourage you to keep looking at the second hand stores...

Its a 158.191. Not made in japan, but made in Taiwan. Still a terrific machine and it looks as if it has never been used! Its my main lightweight machine now.

Working sewing machines often sell for $25 -$40 at Goodwill or Salvation Army around here.

That's usually our price, too. Was really surprised to find this one for THAT price! Needless to say... I could not walk away!

My Friends found a Singer 6235 at an estate sale for me. I haven't had much time to work with it but my daughter said it seems to sew okay. The only thing is that it does have an instruction book (thank goodness) but no accessories or extra bobbins. It doesn't look anything like any of my bobbins it is bigger and narrower. If anybody can tell me how to find out about the year and if I can buy any additional accessories, I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance. You can wind the bobbin right in place. Barb

That's terrific, Barb! Good luck with it.

You can buy the bobbins in 5 and 10-packs on Amazon.

For accessories the question is: is it "short shank", "long shank" or "slant needle"

I don't really know. The book does not say anything about any of that. I have the serial number. I would think it is a short shank from the looks, but nothing indicates that except the looks Barb

Barb - most sellers of bobbins and feet will give the model numbers of the machines the foot fits.

I bought my favorite machine at walmart.. i have a SE-350 Brother... it never skips a beat and keeps on sewing.... It has been my daily sewer for over 9 years

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Feature-Rich-Stitches-Auto-Size-Buttonholes/dp/B000JQM1DE/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1464220165&sr=1-1&keywords=brother+sewing+machine  ... best low priced machine ... plus, amazon.com warrantys it ...