Garage Sale Cautions

Lots of frugalites shop second hand and garage sales are the best way to do that. Not only are prices lower at garage sales, if you can find the right one, the offerings might be more up to date than thrift stores.

Clothing and entertainment items like DVDs and games may be last years editions or not. People tire of things quickly.

What not to buy at garage sales varies with your location and your gut feeling. Don't ignore that. If there is "something" about a person you don't trust, don't buy electronics or other things that you can't fully check out. Even at ten cents on the dollar, there's no reason to waste your money.

Before you start out on a day's or morning's worth of garage sales, put together a list of things with sizes, colors, styles and any other pertinent information and take it with you!

Yeah, ask me how I know that part is important.

It's easy to get carried away at garage sales, so put on your best discipline before you leave the house. Take cash and only take as much as you can really afford to spend. That will help you slip past that beautiful vase and the throw pillows that would be gorgeous in your living room, right to the tops and shorts for the kids and the stock pot you've been needing.

As always, keeping a goal in your head makes it easier to meet!

image courtesy morguefile.com

Garage Sales: Expensive Hobby

'Tis the season... for garage sales! What frugalite in her right mind would pass up a good garage sale? Well... I know a few. Me, anyway. Ok, so the "right mind" is debatable, but let's not get technical.

To put your mind at ease, I do shop at garage sales, when I need something that could be found there, and when I have time to go without watching the clock.

Garage sale prices need to be pretty good to be worthwhile. It's easy to blow $20 or $30 or more and come home with no more than what we could have bought at the Dollar Store for $5.

Add up the cost of gas, the items bought that didn't fit, weren't the right color, didn't work. Add in the soft drink you treated yourself to because the day was hot.
Multiply that by how many helpers you had. Possibly you can add in the cost of a fast food meal, a newspaper, something you bought that you didn't know you needed until you saw it.

It can get expensive, can't it? Here are a few thoughts that could lower those costs:

Many newspapers are online now, with classified sections and all, so check yours. You can save the cost of a newspaper if you'd have to buy it otherwise.

To help keep the cost of gas under control, make a map of garage sales that seem likely to have what you're looking for and try to stick to the route.

Be prepared before you go by planning lunch or dinner ahead of time. Make it simple and quick.

Take ice water or tea from home. If you don't have an insulated mug, make a nest from newspaper and set it in there.

Making a list of exactly what you need to keep yourself from buying the wrong color or size or style in the excitement of the find.

Garage sales are for saving money, remember?