Garage Sale Season is Here!!

Garage sale season is here! Here are some of my recent finds:

• Pair of cute, like new slippers .75

• Brand new, high quality in the box fan $5.00

•  Brand new shower curtain liner .50

•  Book on Day Trips .50

•  Cassette player (I wanted one so I could listen to some of my old cassettes) $2.00

You can't beat the prices for things at garage sales! Here are some pointers.

1. Garage sales are usually best on Fridays here, but Saturdays are good too.

2. Always keep a little cash on you for a garage sale.

3. I never look in the paper for sales, I just pull up when I see one. If you are looking for something specific like baby clothes or a dresser, it could pay to look for ads.

4. If you are going for furniture, go early.

5. Don't be scared to haggle! People will almost always take a little less if you make a respectful, decent offer.

6. If the price seems too high, if you don't really need the item yet (like the shower curtain I bought) don't buy it and hope for another. If you hit a few sales weekly, you can usually get what you are looking for at bargain prices. If someone had put $4.00 on the shower curtain, I would not have gotten it and not likely even asked for a better price.

7. I pick up jewelry I find that is silver or gold if the price is right. (If you do this, make sure you keep them in a safe place somewhere!) The ring in this photo is silver (if a piece of jewlery has 925 on it, that means it's sterling silver). I only paid .25 for this ring. I would not have paid $5.00 for it!

8. I look for items that might be good for resale on ebay. This could vary widely per person but you can really make some money doing this. When figuring profit margin, be sure to include shipping costs in your margin. You don't want to go through all that work and then make nothing because your profits were eaten up with shipping costs.

7. If an appliance, like your blender, is on it's last legs and you know you will be buying one in the next few months, start looking for a replacement now. My blender has a tiny chip in it and I know that a replacement is about $65.00. I don't like plastic for the upper piece, I like glass. I use my blender every day. I just found a replacement the other week for $2.00. I am still using the old one as of yet.

8. Have fun and buy some fun things but don't buy too much stuff or you will end up with a house stuffed to the gills.

9. Give overflow to charity.

You can save oodles and caboodles of money this way and it is great fun and feels great to save! One of the most satisfying ways to figure it is to figure out how many hours you would have had to work at your current job to pay for what you just saved. Chances are, the dollars add up very fast!

Happy Savings!