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Yard sale money leads to shopping — but some good buys
By Meg | May 4, 2008
There’s something about yard sale money… all that cash seems to disappear so quickly.
Yesterday we had a very successful yard sale with a friend. My husband Charles and I raked in just over $400 and still have so much stuff that it looks like we’re going to have another one next weekend — though I may let my husband and friend do most of the work next time since I hope to be entertaining some special guests and prepping for an early birthday party.
But selling all that stuff did make me want to get out and buy. It didn’t help that I got a 20% off any single item “birthday” coupon from Steinmart, a.k.a. land of the oh-so-cute-if-not-mostly-matronly hats. Hat shopping, yay!
Since I’ve been looking for more casual summer hats anyway, I decided to go. And yes, I brought home a cute straw hat (which I’ll début some other time). That was the only thing I bought there, and part of me was actually sort of disappointed that I didn’t spend my coupon on something more expensive. I was prepared $50 on the hat, but alas, it was only $16. I know the math was in my favor, but part of me is still silly that way.
And just for the record, I also survived a short stop at the mall — two stores — without buying anything. Charles was just replacing a Craftsman tool that bit the dust. (How we love their replacement policy!)
After that, we headed to one of the local health food stores. Since we’re running low on toothpaste, I decided that it would be a good time to experiment with some more natural varieties. We found.. well.. almost too many varieties. Black currant and apricot flavored toothpaste? Sounds great, but we’re sticking to spearmint for now. Unfortunately, everything else seemed rather pricey, so we then headed to another grocery store.
The other grocery store is locally-owned, rather small, but known locally for great prices and a good selection of health food, fresh produce, and meat. While my husband and I have typically shopped at Publix (which is right down the road and also has great prices), I think we’re heading to the locally-owned store more often now because #1 my husband has discovered that the meat there is better and cheaper, #2 I love their fresh produce, #3 they have a great selection of health foods and alternative products which appeals to me (though I seem to keep overlooking toothpaste), #4 they have lots of plants for sale which I’ve been buying up as we grow our garden, and #5 they have the best selection of Dagoba chocolate I know of in town.
So, despite bragging about our $15 weekly grocery bills, we’ve been cheating. This week’s might have been, had I not loaded up on stuff like:
- four bars of Dagoba chocolate (two plain milk chocolate for Charles and two chai bars for me since I’m already stocked up on the roseberry flavor)
- four different bottles of wine (honey, honey and cherry, pomegranate, and blackberry)
- a slab of precooked ribs (not as good as home-cooked but de-lish still the same and done a lot sooner)
- two kinds of grapes
- blueberries
- a bunch of bananas
- lots of sweet Vidalia onions
- a new tub of yeast for the breadmaker
- about two dozen seedlings (watermelon, pumpkin, banana pepper, lettuce, bok choy)
- some cinnamon raisin bagels
- one bite-size snickers bar at checkout for Charles
I could still swear that I’m leaving out something… but I think that was about it. But despite our splurging on the wine and chocolate and a precooked dinner (actually five meals now by the looks of it) and fresh produce and additions to the garden, the bill came out to less than $100 — and still much less than we used to spend. Meanwhile, I feel like we’re eating like royalty. We got to be careful, though, because that store is way too easy to splurge in. They have all sorts of jam flavors I didn’t even know existed and we’re still eating down the block of honey comb we bought last week there. Yummmmmy. There are still quite a few Dagoba flavors I haven’t tried. Plus, I haven’t even hit the cheese section.
Fortunately, the prices are good for the area, meaning that we can have our locally-made, locally-sold cake and eat it to, washing it down with Florida wine. And now that we’ve freed up some money elsewhere in our budget, it’s nice to spend it on something we enjoy and that meshes well with our values.
Along those lines, we’re thinking of trying more natural products. I managed to yard sale some of my unopened toiletries yesterday, but I still have a lot left, so it may be a while before I get to trying more than toothpaste. However, if you have any good brands in mind, let me know and I’ll keep an eye out for them.
Tags: Food, Green Living, Hats, Health, Home & Garden, Spending Money
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May 7th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I’m DYING to have a yard sale, but I don’t have a yard. *cries*
May 8th, 2008 at 12:25 am
LOL! That would be a problem! Maybe a community yard sale? If not, you might take a cue from Fabulously Broke in the City.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Yes :) Come, sell on a blog as well!!!
I’m dying to have a massive yard sale to get rid of all of it
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I’m having a garage sale in two weeks and started taking out clothes in preparation.
How did you price clothes and accessories? Did you do any discounts? Any tips you can share on holding a yard sale would be awesome!
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Hi Sfordinarygirl!
Most of my tips I posted at FruWiki, which you can read here:http://www.fruwiki.com/index.php?title=Yardsaling
Since you have a little time, I suggest taking your better pieces to an area consignment shop or two. In my experience, you’ll get better prices there or even maybe online. However, consignment shops are often very picky so it’s good to figure out what each is looking for; some want vintage pieces, others want the latest pieces from top designers, some want younger clothes, some want older, etc.
As far as at the yard sale, first off, don’t expect much for clothes. I’ve never had much luck selling clothes for much, just $1 or less for most pieces. Do display your best pieces in a special area so you can charge more for them (and also so they’ll attract people looking for clothes). And if possible, hang all the clothes up, organized by size or style, so people can sort through them easily.
Good luck, by the way!