Saturday, August 22, 2009

Searching for deals one garage at a time

I have had the bee in my bonnet to go garage saleing for a while. Especially since I missed our neighborhood garage sale a couple weeks ago because we were out of town. I like to browse my neighbor's sales to see what they are getting rid of and I love to have my own garage sale and see what people actually buy. Garage sales are cheap entertainment - with hopefully a bit of money to boot.

I read a blog where the author is an avid garage saler and every Saturday she posts her finds and how much she spent. I don't know if my purchases are interesting to anyone, but I figured I would give it a try.

$5.50 - Two pairs of footwear, shelves, ceramic turkey and a crock. I am hoping the suede boots will fit Hailey next fall. They are so darn cute and look like brand new. If not new, at least only worn once - probably for a family photo shoot or something. (Come on - we all know we have done that!) I got the crock for fifty cents for my Mom. She makes homemade cheese spread around the holidays and is always looking for receptacles. I spotted the ceramic turkey at a garage sale where nothing was priced. Seriously - how annoying is that? I commented to Trent that I wondered how much it was because I kind of liked it for my turkey collection. He looked at me completely dumbfounded and said "Turkey collection? Since when do you have a turkey collection?". I told him that I only had four turkeys so it really wasn't much of a collection YET - but this would help. I only have it on display between Halloween and Thanksgiving - the time of year that he is gone every minute with play stuff. While I was carrying around the turkey to ask how much it was, I spotted these pink crocs in a box full of soccer cleats. They were in good shape (a little dirty, but they are crocs - soap and water - good as new) and would most likely fit Hailey in a year or two. I picked them up with my turkey and walked over to the couple to ask how much the things were. Turkey - fifty cents. Sold. Crocs - fifty cents. SOLD! The man who was holding the sale with his wife had to ask the "Grama" to make sure that they were not his Granddaughter's shoes. The Grama told him that she didn't think they fit her anymore. I was hoping that I wouldn't get chased out to my car because Grama just sold her Granddaughter's shoes to me for two quarters. Shoes that you can buy in the store currently for 24.99. Not to mention she had about eight dollars worth of Jibbetz on them. You would think that the crocs were my deal of the day, but at the last house we stopped at I saw these shelves (also not priced - seriously!), I asked the seller how much she wanted and she told me a dollar. I asked her if she meant a dollar a piece. No, just one dollar for all three. SOLD! I figure I can spray paint them black and hang them in my den with my new black shelves.

We also gave the boys each a dollar to spend on whatever they wanted. Spencer got two books at a quarter each and a Batman puzzle for fifty cents. He put together the puzzle already and it is missing a piece so that pretty much stinks. I was proud of his choices though - no annoying crappy toys that he didn't need.

Evan spent his whole dollar on a recorder. He is still young and didn't quite understand the concept of why Spence got money back when he purchased his first book but when he paid for his recorder he didn't get change. They loved buying their own stuff though so we figured it is the perfect time to figure out a chore chart and start giving them some sort of allowance to spend on days like today.

And the worst deal of the day award goes to Trent. He bought this game (at Spencer's urging) for $4.00. I think it was new in the box, but still - SO not worth that. I told him that he should have told the people he would give them two bucks for it. (This was the same house that sold me their Granddaughter's crocs ;)) He will definitely have to work on his garage saleing techniques!


We had a lot of fun and got some good deals. Anyone up for garage saleing next weekend?

1 comment:

jensenbo said...

Take me with you next time ---- I love a good bargain ---- Rescued Treasures!!