1/7/2012

1/7/2012

Since garage sales are not as abundant here in the winter I have been looking on craigslist to make sure we hit some good ones. I hit a fundraiser for a baseball team. No where near the biggest garage sale I have been to but a pretty good size! At this garage sale I bought. A soccer ball, pair of shoes, little buzz lightyear costume, and some laces..... grand total: 3 dollars. I didn't take a picture of the soccer ball but it was in great condition.

I have been looking for some cute flats and I love these. They were $1!

I use lace for SO many things so I always try to have some on hand.

Jaysa LOVES Buzz lightyear. I put this on her when I got home and she kept asking me to call her Buzz.

I also bought these pillows today for .50 cents a piece. I have been looking for pillows like this at stores for the last few months! They are a dark brown burlap fabric. Crazy I found them at a garage sale! Saved myself a lot of money!

Here they are on my bed. I only ended up using two but I am sure I will find a spot to put the others. Took this pic on my iphone so sorry it's not a great one.

I also picked up this boppy for $1. I am going to wash it, get a new cover for it and give it to a friend that is pregnant. You really have to be careful about giving garage sale presents. I ONLY give garage sale gifts to friends who I know don't mind shopping at second hand stores, who have come garage saleing with me or have asked me to pick up things for them while I garage sale. Some people don't like the idea of having something that was previously owned. I don't look at it that way. I see it as being able to have the finer things in life and saving money at the same time. Here is how much I saved. At Target a bobby pillow that comes with a cover was anywhere from $35.00 to $50.00. Click here to see their prices on Boppys. I saved at least $34 dollars. Even after buying a new cover I will still save $24 dollars.

DEAL OF THE DAY

Today my Deal of the day would be this double stroller and car seat that I bought for $20! They had $30 on it which is a great price. However, I went and asked if they would go down and she said she would take $20! This is a really nice double stroller. It's a Baby Trend Sit-n-Stand Plus and has been kept in really good condition. The women said she only used it like 4 times. I looked up stroller at Target.com and something similar runs about $160.00 The car seat sells for $98.00. Thats a $238 savings!!!! Totally worth it to me. Unfortunately I do not need a new double stroller and I for sure do not need a new car seat. I paid $55 for my car seat and stroller. So this was a better deal but I am going to list these on craigslist and see if I can make a profit on it.

When buying car seats from a garage sale you have to be VERY careful. It has to be a recent car seat. If it's too old it may not meet car seat standards these days. Make sure it's only a few years old and that it has not been buckled into a car during an accident. Someone told me that in some places policer officers are starting the cut the straps of car seats that have been in wrecks so that they cannot be used again. I also know that none of the second hand stores will take a car seat if the stickers on the side have been ripped off. To some people I would just suggest they buy a new one. If you can't afford a new one buy one from a second hand stores who have checked out the car seat already. Initially I was just interested in the stroller but the women threw in the car seat for me. It has all its stickers and is a recent model so I knew I could take it to a second hand store and have them buy it from me. In this case it made no sense to leave it behind.

OTHER AWSOME DEALS

Cute barstools. $5 dollars a piece!

Such a cool old dresser!!!! This was bought when I got there. The lady only paid $10 dollars for it and plans to redo it!

Kids toys. Toys are SOOOOOO expensive in stores!!!! which is why I prefer to buy mine at garage sales. The three little bikes in this picture are $2 dollars a piece. Thats a much more affordable price.

LESSON LEARNED

Today I decided to drive out to a neighborhood that was not on my route but that was in an affluent area. Initially I thought it wasn't going to be that far out of my way but I was WRONG. I wasted 30 mins and my gas getting out there and it was not even a garage sale! The couple had the bright idea that they would clean out their garage Saturday morning but list it as a garage sale just in case they wanted to sale anything they didn't want........WHAT?!?!?!?!? Needless to say they had nothing good and had no idea what was for sale and what they were keeping. I was not happy! I had wasted my time and money. Lesson Learned: Just because it is in a nice area doesn't mean they will be selling nice things. Sometimes driving to the nicer areas that may be a little further away doesn't pay off.

DPWF Works on Anyone!

You can use dress-per-wear-factor (DPWF) to analyze how much money you are spending on your family's clothes too! Lets take a look at my kids for example.

Here is my Miss Jaysa Sue. Again, everything she is wearing is from second hand stores and garage sales. Her jeans are teal Oshkosh jeans I found for 2.99 at Savers. I also found her silver sandals at Savers for 3.99. Her white tank and hot pink GUESS sweater are from a garage sale. The white tank was .50 cents and the sweater was $1. Her total outfit cost is 8.50 now divided that by ten and we have an .85 cent dress-per-wear-factor!

Here is one of Paisley's outfits I put on her all the time. The pants are not from a garage sale but if I remember right they were only 5 dollars at the children's place! Her boots were $1 and her vest and t-shirt were .50 cents a piece. We will go ahead and throw in the bow and headband too. The bow was a flower I bought at Roberts Arts and Crafts using a 50% off coupon so it was only 1.50 and the headband was in a little baggie of headbands I found at a garage sale. I can't remember exactly how much I paid but I know I wouldn't have paid more than a dollar for it and there were a lot of headbands in the bag. Just to be safe we will add on 10 cents for the headband. Total outfit cost is 8.60 making our DPWF .86 cents!

Here is another outfit of Jaysas. Winter jackets can get expensive even if they are just for your kids. I found this winter coat for Jaysa at a garage sale for $3 dollars.

This is a bad picture but it shows her jacket more. Her jeans were $1. She has little Nike shoes on that I bought for $1 also. Here is a closer look at them since you can't see them in the picture of her in the leaves.

I don't really remember what shirt she had on but we will say .50 (thats what I normally pay for a t-shirt) If we want to get really technical we could add on the bow again. I bought a huge bag of flowers from a lady for $3 dollars and made her bow from petals out of that bag. My guess is that there were easily a few hundred flowers in the bag but we will just say 10 cents for the bow just to be safe. It probably adds up to that once you add on the clip that I have to put on the flower anyway. So now that we are being very technical our total outfit cost is 5.60. DPWF= .56 cents! If math was always this easy it would be fun right?!?! To learn how to find your dress-per-wear-factor click here!

DRESS PER WEAR FACTOR

A year ago I was sitting on a plane next to a couple who were on their way to Las Vegas. Being on a cramped plane, I couldn't help but overhear to their conversation... okay I admit, I was eavesdropping. It was apparent that they didn't know each other very well because they were still making small talk, but I had to laugh at what they were talking about. The man was a bit of a cowboy and the women seemed to be a rich valley-girl that loved to spend her daddy's money. She was telling him about a girlfriend that had called her asking for her advice on whether she should buy a $400 dollar dress that her husband already told her not to buy. Here's what I heard:

Valley Girl Who Likes to Spend Daddy's Money: "I told her to totally but it! Because if you really think about it, if she wears the dress 40 times her dress-per-wear-factor is like only $10 dollars!"

My mouth dropped open. Dress-per-wear- factor??? Is that a thing!? And wearing the same dress 40 times.... that would take a long time. There are 52 weeks in a year. You would have to wear that same dress almost once a week for an entire year to wear it 40 times! That's like living in an episode of Charlie Brown, every kid is wearing the same thing every day.

At first I was so annoyed at this ladies materialism but then I got to thinking. Dress-per-wear-factor isn't a bad concept. I took a look at some of the outfits that I would have worn last year. MEK Jeans: $85, Dressy T-shirt: $20, Cute heels:$20. Now lets say I was going to wear that outfit 10 times (much more realistic than 40!). My dress-per-wear-factor would be $12.50. Still a little high in my opinion but better than $40, which is what the dress-per-wear-factor of that black dress would be if you wore it 10 times. Today I spend much less on my clothes. Here's an outfit I wore today. Everything I have on is from garage sales.

My shirt was $1 dollar. My jeans were $3 and my shoes were $5. Even my white spaghetti strap under shirt was a dollar from a garage sale.

Here's a close up of my shoes. Anyone notice the brand? Naughty Monkeys. You can't find these for less than $50 in stores! But name-brand doesn't mean that your dress-per-wear-factor (dpwf) has to go up. The total cost of my outfit is an even $10 dollars. If I wear it 10 times my dress-per-wear-factor is only $1! So much cheaper than a $12.50 dpwf! Take a look in your closet and add up your dress-per-wear factor. Is it a reasonable price? Looking fashionable doesn't have to be expensive. If you're smart you can look cute and still have money in your pocket. I will be posting some other outfits I have found at garage sales and second hand stores with their dress-per-wear-factor later so check back in!

It's Been A While

This Christmas Season has been a busy one for our family! Due to my computer crashing (and loosing pictures I had taken while garage saleing), family pictures and heading to Texas to see the in-laws for almost 3 weeks I have not been able to get out and garage sale. However I am so excited to get out this coming Saturday and post about what I find! In the mean time here are some of our family pictures. There are several things I used in our photoshoot that are from garage sales!

I have always loved the idea of a couch in a field with the mountains in the background when taking family pictures. Knowing that I would be taking family pictures soon I kept my eye out while garage saleing and found something that I loved! The couch we are sitting on is a teal antique love seat that I bought for $40 at a garage sale. My plans were to use it in our pictures and then recover it with a fabric I liked better. However, after seeing how our pictures turned out I think I am going to leave it be and maybe use it again if I ever get the chance to do someone else's family pictures.

Now on to our outfits... My cardigan is from a second hand store. I paid 3 dollars for it. I paid $1 dollar for Paisley's boots at garage sale and paid $10 for my boots at a garage sale, which are actually Jessica Simpson boots!

Most of the materials that I made my girls bows with are also from garage sales. Here is a closer look at them. The only thing that is not from a garage sale is the fabric. I have picked up all kinds of fabric at garage sales but didn't have anything that matched perfectly so I went and bought 1/8th of a yard in a matching brown and coral. My total for the fabric was less than a dollar. The Cameo in the middle of Jaysa's bow I bought for $1 dollar.

I don't exactly remember how much I paid for the center piece on Paisley's bow but I can't imagine that it was more than a dollar. The feathers on the bows are also from a garage sale. My mom picked up these boa strands for about .50 cents a piece!

My guess is that the cost of each bow was about 1.50. After going on esty to compare prices I would say thats a steal since the bows that were similar were between $15 and $30!

The mirror I used in these pictures of Paisley is also from a garage sale. I paid way more than I wanted for it but I fell in love with it when I saw it and had to have it. It was $20.

Here's a better picture of it.

I currently have it on my collage wall as an open frame with a cow skull in the middle of it..... I will be posting about that a little later!!!