Good morning, good morning! I am so excited! After a cold, breezy April and May, winter is over and it’s finally garage sale season time!
Since I’m still trying to be frugal and get out of debt, I am also trying to be careful and follow my 3 Garage Sale Habits. They can help me save money and my time when garage sale-ing, though I still think going to every single garage sale is more fun.
Along with limiting the number of garage sales, I try to limit snacks and watch my Buy/Don’t Buy list.
I love searching and looking for a deal, even if I really don’t need much.
Thankfully, my frugal garage sale habits include having a list of stuff to buy with clothing sizes and craft supply ideas.
Cheap candles are always on my Buy list for making firestarters and crafts, but sometimes there are sooo many craft supplies, that I can’t think of specific projects so I frugally don’t buy anything. Later, I think of a perfect project.
I also like looking for fun, frugal vintage items, old cookbooks, dishes and of course fabric.
So, this summer, I’m going to try Frugal Finds Friday.
Each Friday, I’m going to post just a few pictures of things I find at auctions, garage sales or thrift stores. It is fun seeing what other people find. You might find different things or the same thing cheaper than I do, so I’m not bragging, just sharing what I frugally find.
Last week, I went to just a few garage sales. Actually, I went to three of the four garage sales.
The one I skipped was 2 towns over, about 30 minutes away. It was an estate tag sale, so there were pictures online. Estate tag sales in our area usually have a few days of full price and then a half price day. Friday was not the half price day. The pictures were beautiful and everything was very clean, but I like frugal, even cheap, prices and they kept saying ‘antique ____’ or ‘vintage____’ in the descriptions. Probably not frugal or cheap.
I thought about going- they had beautiful, pink pyrex dishes. Very beautiful ‘Rare, pink pyrex’ dishes. Unfortunately, I like really cheap, garage sale prices if it’s something I really don’t need and (I suppose) pink pyrex is not a need.
A different garage sale had great prices but nothing on the Buy list, just tools and office stuff.
At a church garage sale, I found a $1 bag of clear, plastic craft ornaments. It was full of future Christmas ornaments, I can’t wait to use them! Actually, they were potpourri ornaments, one tag said so, it also said 99 cents each! I love that they come apart and the little holes will not be noticeable. I was excited that there were 4 bell shapes, 1 big globe, 4 medium globes, 6 wreath shapes and 2 small Easter eggs. How fun!
They also had 2 thin wood serving trays painted with flowers, they looked old- but I couldn’t think of a way to use them, so I left them.
I almost didn’t go to the last garage sale, it was not near the church sale, but I’m glad I went. The people were super nice. They had a rocker recliner on sale for $10 and washcloths/dishtowels for 10-25 cents each! A friend who’s moving will appreciate them. The sellers were also happy. She wanted new recliners, but he wanted to get rid of the old ones first and I bought the last old one!
They also had a few 50 cent and $1 shirts and a really cute, red tablecloth. The tablecloth tag said ‘60 years + old’, it was so pretty and only $1. At least the other stuff was on my Buy List.
I stopped quickly at a thrift store while I was in town, but their prices have been climbing lately so I didn’t buy anything. They had a clothes dryer rack, similar to the one I got for a quarter/50 cents a few years ago, but it was $25!
I’m glad it is garage sale season again. Hopefully I can share some fun, frugal garage sale finds this summer-maybe I can even share finished projects using the garage sale items!
Happy Camping (or garage sale-ing!)
Frugal Campasaurus