I had been looking forward to the city-wide garage sales for a long time and ended up finding quite a few good things for Ryan. The key to garage sale shopping for me is to have a plan. When I got the paper with the map and ads, I first go through and highlight the items I'm interested in, such as listing for boys clothes that include 2T/3T and any other toys/kids items I'd been looking for. Then, I went through and circled the sales on the map that were going to be open Wed. night so I could hit them after work. Then, I circled in a different color anything that would be open Thursday over my lunch break, and yet another color for sales open after work on Thursday. This way I only had 4-6 to go to over a 1-hour time period and wouldn't waste my time stopping at sales that didn't have the sizes I wanted, or wouldn't be open when I was available. I probably spent a total of 3 hours shopping and paid way less than half of retail for everything--I would estimate I experienced 66%-90% savings on most buys.
- 2 pairs of pajamas (one never worn)
- winter coat and hat for next year ($3.00 total for both)
- 3 pairs of lined slick pants (my favorite thing for every day clothes)
- church outfit with sweater vest
- 2 button-down shirts
- 1 long-sleeve tee
- 1 long-sleeve thermal
- 1 NWC hoodie
- an ABC book, mini Magna-Doodle, and a firetruck book (Ryan proudly handed the lady a quarter)
That's totally my exact same strategy with city-wide garage sales--down to color coding the days they are open! We must be related. ;o)
ReplyDeleteGreat finds! I've kind of given up on garage-saling. I find myself buying things I wasn't looking for, therefore cluttering up my house with more unnecessary junk. Plus, I'm now getting hand-me-downs for free from Brandi and my friend Emily Schut (for Emily).