Yard Sale/Thrift Shop Savings Thread

[Suzanne]

I love to shop thrift stores; I get great quality, name brand clothes at a fraction of the new price of clothes at discount stores. My teenage DD doesn't like shopping at the thrift stores, but we stopped at one last week while on vacation. They were having a $2 "fill the bag" sale. She found 2 skirts, a top, and 3 pairs of shoes. I added a couple of other items to the bag. It worked out to $0.25 a piece. Maybe now she gets it.

[determinedtosave]

Originally Posted by Suzanne

I love to shop thrift stores; I get great quality, name brand clothes at a fraction of the new price of clothes at discount stores. My teenage DD doesn't like shopping at the thrift stores, but we stopped at one last week while on vacation. They were having a $2 "fill the bag" sale. She found 2 skirts, a top, and 3 pairs of shoes. I added a couple of other items to the bag. It worked out to $0.25 a piece. Maybe now she gets it.

I used to be that way when I was a kid. I wouldn't even step foot in a Kmart for fear of bring seen there never mind a thrift store!!

Luckily, my daughter (14) is nothing like I was! At first she rolls her eyes and doesn't want to go...but still goes ...and once she's there she is instantly in the "mom....look how cute....can you buy me that?" mode!

[julieduck]

I stop in at Goodwill every once in awhile. I'm pretty picky. Found one dress this week with the tags still on priced $128. I paid $7.99. I love garage saling and will make a list and mapquest it all to cut down on driving. I believe there's an iphone application that also does this. Very cool to pull up a street map with the "push pins" identifying where all the garage sales are at.

[mnm'z]

When I go to yard sales, I pick areas that have nice homes, but not expensive. The more expensive the home, generally, the less money they have to spend on clothes. I have found better luck going to homes in the nicer middle class area's. Their house payments are lower and they generally have more money to spend on higher quality clothes. Just my experience~

[momto2girls]

I garage sale as much as I am able to to find deals on quality name brand clothes for my dd's.

My best find BY FAR though was last summer. I found a piece of Villeroy & Boch China - virginia (apparantly quite hard to find i'm told) platter for $2.00. I really didn't even know what I had found but I thought it was pretty. Searched it on Ebay and found one listed for 89.99! I decided recently to let a co-worker try to sell it at her antique booth. I told her I would go 50/50 with her for whatever she got out of it.

[LovinMyCoupons]

I had a very succesfull yard sale Sat. and just wanted to share (I was exhausted by the heat but was very happy in the end.) My goal was to be set up by 8am and I had people driving by at 645am waiting for me lol. I was wipped out of all my clothes by 11:00am! Made over $120!!! Which half will go into my son's "college fund" & the other to my "CVS/Kmart" fund

I agree that people flock to the "Nicer Middle Income Neighborhoods." I live in a ten y.o. development and we seem to be the place to visit!

[angela2678]

I buy 100% of my kids' clothes at yard sales, thrift stores, and eBay. My kids wear nothing but high-end--Gymboree, GAP, MiniBoden. When I applied for financial aid for an after-school program this year, the guidance counselor expressed surprise and said, "I've always assumed your family was affluent because of the way Lara dresses." Ha!

A lot of the thrift stores around here (and all of the church rummage sales) do "stuff-a-bag" sales where I can easily fit 20+ pieces into one bag for $1-$5. After I've bought clothes for cents each and my kids have outgrown it, I sell it for $5-$20 per piece on eBay and at consignment stores. It's so lucrative I regularly buy stuff that won't fit my kids, just to resell it immediately on eBay. I just found a like-new Lilly Pulitzer woman's dress for $1 at Salvation Army...next spring, I'll sell it on eBay for $80-$100. The proceeds from the sales more than pay for my kids' clothes and are like a little bonus income for us. Love it!

My 8-year-old daughter has no problem shopping secondhand because she understands that she'll get 20 times as much that way. Her wardrobe is extensive, to a fault....last fall I realized she had 100+ long-sleeve shirts! That's not counting sweaters, jackets, short-sleeve shirts, etc. Ridiculous, but I had paid less for all of her things than people pay for one new smaller wardrobe. At that point we cut back on the thrift shopping! :-)

[MelissaE]

I buy a lot of things from Ebay. Love it. Got my son 24 pairs of socks (new of course) for $10.00. It is great. I also got him an Ipod touch for his birthday for under $200.00.

I told him that I need his Christmas list soon so I can do some planning and budgeting. Five things only but he always ends up with more than 5.

[nida84]

so where do you all find your garage sales? so far i can think of local newspaper and craigslist...

[Leanna]

Originally Posted by nida84

so where do you all find your garage sales? so far i can think of local newspaper and craigslist...

That's where I find the sales around here. Some are also advertised just with signs attached to stop signs and telephone poles.