Saving Money | Yard Selling

Recently I saw a brief clip online from the Duggers about yard selling. Their motto is “Buy used, save the difference.”  The girls were buying clothes at yard sales for $.50 or a $1 a piece. Since I can hardly get a single outfit for Daniel, even on consignment, for less than $10 I decided to see if I could possible score some similar deals. We have just about gone through all the clothes that had been given to us at baby showers and as hand-me downs.

 Many people think Florida doesn’t have seasons but we do, they are just not the same as other parts of the county. We have Dry Season, Wet Season, Snowbird Season, Hurricane Season and even Yard Sale Season. October is the very beginning of yard sale season.  I called in the expert, my aunt, the absolute best person to go yard selling with, and she, I and Daniel set out to score some deals.

I found a website that will tell you what yard sales are in your area and what will be sold at them. We set out with a few of them in mind but with my aunt as navigator/yard sale sign spotter we made a few extra stops.

 The first few stops were duds, no baby stuff. Our first great bargain came with one of the signs she spotted along the side of the road. A family that obviously had children. Looking around we mostly saw just girls toys, I would have kept going but my aunt asked if they had any clothes for boys. The lady asked what sizes we needed and then said she would bring them out. She explained later that she had not put them out because certain people were trying to get the whole lot for a dollar so they could turn around and selling them for a huge profit so she was only bringing them out because she saw that we really did have a little boy with us. She had a huge amount of boy clothes and I picked out 10 pieces, 4 polo shirts & 6 shorts/pants. She gave us the whole lot for $8! Lesson #1: always ask if you don’t see something, you never know what you might miss otherwise.

The next good stop was a nice family, Mom, Grandma & Daughter were running the sale. The grandma was quite taken with Daniel so I set his car-seat down in front of her chair & let her talk away to him while I shopped. I found a box of Mega Blocks, a children’s book  & a subtraction game for homeschooling. I figured I was probably in the $8-$10 range with all of these items, one was marked $5 but the others were not marked. The grandmother said that she had enjoyed the baby so much she would give me everything for $5! I had already made two deals because I had him with me. And my aunt had picked up a $15 item that they marked down to $5 “Because the baby is so cute.” Lesson #2: Take the kids with you, as a general rule people love kids and will give you a better deal.

Our biggest deal happened when I stopped at a friends house to feed Daniel. Her next door neighbor was having a sale and my aunt went to check it out while I fed the baby. She got several items for herself, then just as she was leaving spotted a 55 gallon tub that had some Fisher Price toys on the top & Lincoln Logs at the bottom.  I was mostly interested in the Lincoln Logs so I asked if we could take them out. He didn’t want to sort through the whole tub for those so he said I could have the whole tub for $10.  You can hardly buy a nice set of Lincoln Logs for that price & I knew he would be old enough to play with the Fisher Price toys very soon so I agreed. When I got it home I started cleaning items off and sorting them out.

So here is what all our deals looked like when I finished.

Seriously Good Haul!

I spent $15 and my aunt spent $8 and here’s what we got:

• 4 polo shirts
• 1 pair of cargo pants
• 1 pair cargo shorts
• 4 regular shorts
• 1 book
• 1 subtraction homeschooling game
• 1 box mega blocks
• 1 bag of doll house furniture (I’ve a friend w/little girls that will love those)
• 2 Fisher Price airplanes
• 1 Fisher Price boat
• 1 Fisher Price RV
• 2 little Fisher Price People
• 2 Fisher Price people chairs & 2 Fisher Price people beds
• A bag of action figures I’m going to try to resell (maybe I can make back the price of the bucket!)
• A matchbox car race track
• A tub of Tinker Toys
• A tub of miscellaneous plastic figurines
• A tub of cowboys, Indians and army men w/ horses, wagons, tee-pees etc
• A tub of miscellaneous wooden blocks
• A tub of pieces that build into a castle
• A few more miscellaneous toys, Peter’s sword from Narnia, spare Legos, a stuffed animal, etc.
• A large tub of decorative pieces for the Lincoln Logs (roofs, doors, windows, gates, sign posts, imagination maps, etc.)
• And a 55 gallon tub still more than 1/4 full of Lincoln Logs

Lesson #3: Sometimes mystery items are the best deals of all.

So, what would you like to save $$$ on? Call a friend and try yard selling; Hey, I’m available! Check out this website for yard sales in your neighborhood http://www.yardsalesearch.com.