Yard Sale Bargains

I love to shop at yard sales. It’s almost like a game for me – what is the best deal I can find? Where I grew up, Thursdays and Fridays were the best days for garage sales. Where I live now, Saturdays are primo. Now, normally when hubby is home, Saturdays are our one day to sleep in (as much as one can with a one year old), have a laid back morning, then either do chores around the house or spend some quality family time together. This means that I don’t often get to go to garage sales.

Today hubby is out of town on another work trip, so when Bug-a-Boo woke up, I realized this could be a great day to enjoy my long-neglected hobby. Growing up, we would check the newspaper for the sales, then map out our course. Around here, people don’t seem to advertise in the newspaper. There is a paper that comes out on Tuesdays that is nothing but classifieds that I’ve heard people advertise in, but I rarely buy it. So when I go to garage sales around here, I normally drive to a prime location, then look for new looking yard sale signs and follow them. This morning I was struggling with myself – can I really justify driving to my favorite garage sale location (15 minutes away) at the price of gas now? I thought maybe if I also stopped by the park and took Bug-a-Boo for a nice, long walk, so that I would also be getting exercise and outdoor time, I could. I stopped at the ATM just a couple blocks from my house and got out $20. While there I saw a sign on bright pink posterboard for a sale just 2 miles down the road. I decided to follow the sign (it was too hot to walk at the park anyway), and found not only that yard sale, but a whole neighborhood of sales – all less than 2 miles from my neighborhood. I felt like God was smiling on me and helping me save gas too!

So for the $20, here are the garage sale bargains I came home with:
 A breadmaker which the little old lady assured me worked – we’ll find out soon! I used my last one so much, I wore it out!
 A booster seat with seatbelt & tray for Bug-a-Boo when we visit people or for his friends to use at our house
 9 articles of clothing in good condition for my quickly growing child to grow into
 5 pairs of shoes for the munchkin in pretty much new condition, one of which was a $44 pair of shoes from Stride Rite barely worn
 Five toys for my toddler – a soft seal with rings that you can put on and take off his neck, a set of soft bowling pins and ball with funny animal faces, a Little People dump truck, a toy lawnmower to push in the yard, and a VTech Little Learning Pal electronic computer like toy.

Not bad! I try to keep some clothes and toys for him to grow into so that I’m not so tempted to run out and buy something new when he “needs” it. Many of these things fit that category.