Bartering at a Thrift Store

I just found these beauties at Deseret Industries, which is a thrift store similar to Goodwill. I was wandering around waiting for something to caught my eye when I saw these. Excited, I strolled over to them and looked at the price tag.

Can you see that picture? It says $35 dollars... EACH! WHAT?!?!?! No way was I about to pay that. I couldn't believe how much they were asking! Totally bugged I grabbed a worker and asked if the price tag was correct. After he confirmed it I told him that I thought the price was way to high. He was apologetic and kindly let me know that he doesn't price things but he could grab a manager to see if they would go down on the price. 

After speaking with the manager he came back and said that they could go down to $25 dollars per nightstand. I told him Thank you and that I would have to think about it. I knew $25 was still way more than I wanted to pay. I was willing to pay $15 a piece from them but didn't think they would go down anymore. I walked around looking at other things for a little while and then decided it wouldn't hurt to ask. So I found the same guy I had talked to before and he went and found the manager for me. I explained to the manager that I still wasn't willing to pay $25 and that I thought it was still a little too high. I told him I would buy them if they were $15 dollars a piece. He explained to me that they had just come in the store that day and that he was unable to go down on them anymore than 20% until they had been in the store for 24 hours. He told me that if I would come back the next day he would go down to $15 a piece if they were still there.

The next day I was at D.I. right when the doors opened. I was thrilled to see that they were still there. I found the manager and he wrote me up a ticket. $30 dollars for the both of them!!! I was so excited! They are going to go with the white tufted headboard I found last week! Click here to see it.

If you think the price of something is too high. Don't be afraid to ask if there is any wiggle room to go down on the item. Thrift stores such as D.I., and Goodwill are usually pretty good about going down on their prices. Second hand stores like Savers and Kid to Kid are a little harder. They might budge a little bit but usually they won't go down a whole lot. It's still worth a try though! Just make sure you're polite about it. The worker is less likely to go down on the item if you're rude! My total for these two night stands would have been $70 dollars but since I bartered with them I was able to get them to go down $40 dollars! I got both of them for less then the original asking of one of them! 

4th of July Fashion on a Dime

I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! We headed out of town and drove up to North Ogden to meet up with C.J.'s sister and her family. We had so much fun and my girls LOVED getting to play with their cousins from Texas. This little vaca was actually a last minute decision. We packed up and left in a matter of about 2 hours. In a hurry and flustered I totally forgot to pack something festive for the 4th. However I did see one outfit that I really like. I wish I had a picture of it but I felt weird asking some random girl if I could take a picture of her outfit. Ha! So I recreated it. Here is my 4th of July Fashion on a Dime! I would wear this even if it wasn't 4th of July!

Financial stats for this outfit are:

Red skinny jeans- $5.99 at Savers

White t-shirt- $2.99 at Savers

Blue ruffled top- $1 at a garage sale

Navy blue sandals- $2.50 on 50% off Saturday at Goodwill

Silver and blue bracelets- .50 cents at a garage sale

Silver Chico's purse- .50 cents at a garage sale

My total outfit cost was $13.50 with a DPWF of $1.35!

Here is what my little girlies wore!

Jaysa

Financial stats for Jaysa's outfit are: 

White top- $1 dollar at a garage sale

Blue Jean Skirt- $1 dollar at a garage sale

Converse tennis shoes- $1 dollar at a garage sale

Total outfit cost is $3 dollars with a  DPWF of .30 cents!

 Paisley Mae

I Love Paisley's skirt. I bought it before I even had kids hoping that I would one day have a little girl to put in it. I bought it for $2 dollars at a garage sale. It was more than I wanted to pay and it might just be as old as I am but I LOVED it so much that I had to buy it! I love the ruffles and the oh so cute bow on the bum!

Financial Stats for Paisley outfit are:

White spaghetti strap shirt- .50 cents at a garage sale

4th of July jean skirt- $2 dollars at a garage sale

White Pediped shoes- .50 cents at a garage sale

Total outfit cost is $3 dollars! Her DPWF is .30 cents!

Show and Tell Saturday

If you would like to guest post for Show & Tell Saturday I would LOVE to have you! You don't have to have a blog just write up something in a word document, attach a few pictures and email it to me!

For this week's Show & Tell Saturday here is my friend Jess!

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About a week or two ago Robin gave me this boppy pillow that she found at a garage sale for $1 dollar.

After looking at it we realized that there was a pattern for making your own boppy cover on the back of the packaging! I was planning on making a cover for the boppy anyway and already had the fabric. I got a great deal on some minky from an online fabric store called Fabric.com The site can be a little overwhelming to navigate if you don't know exactly what you want but it has great prices and promotions to help you get the most for your dollar.

First I laid out the fabric and cut out the pattern on the back of plastic which was covering the boppy pillow.

Step 2: I folded the fabric where the pattern showed and pinned the pattern to the fabric.

Step 3: Once pinned, we cut out the fabric. We then repeated step two so we will have 2 sides for our cover.

I wanted to be able to take my boppy cover off and wash it so I looked up how to sew in a hidden zipper and found this tutorial from Sew Serendipity.

Step 4: After measureing where I wanted my zipper I followed the tutorial step by step to make my cover removable.  

It was pretty simple. It was only a matter of pinning

and then sewing.

You can hardly tell its there and now I will be able to keep my boppy clean!

Step 5: Once the zipper is sewn in, then you pin the two pieces together and sew starting on one side of the zipper finishing at the other, make sure you leave it a little unzipped so you can flip it right side out when you are finished.

Step 6: When your finished sewing, flip your boppy inside out and stuff your pillow in!

Step 7: Admire your amazing work! Ha Ha

 

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Jess! This is so cute. I love the giraffe print you chose and you did an awesome job at putting it together! Thank you so much for posting about it today! 

Red, White & YOU

I will be linkning up to this follow-fest today! Come join in and meet some new and amazing bloggers!

If your visiting from there here is what Garage Sales R Us is about. I love to show you how to save money by garage saleing. Each week I take you with me. You get to see what I buy and some of the other amazing deals I see. You also get to see what I do with the things I buy. 

Here are some of my favorite projects 

 For my white and burlap reapholstered chair click HERE

For my DIY Farmhouse Table Click HERE

For my DIY chandelier click HERE

For the mod podge and yellow tufted headboard dresser set click HERE

For the Mint and Gold stenciled bed set click HERE

I also love to show readers how dressing your family can be inexpensive in my Fashion on a Dime series. I have created a simple formula to help you analyze how much your spending on each outfit called Dress Per Wear Factor. Read about it and find out how to calculate it HERE. Since I buy all my families clothes from second hand stores and garage sales I am able to keep my Dress Per Wear Factor to a few dollars per outfit! 

The total cost of the outfit with the teal pants is $19 with a DPWF of $1.90! Click HERE to see where I bought it!

The total cost of the outfit with the red skinnies is $17.50 with a $1.75 DPWF! Click HERE to see where I bought it!

I hope you all will stick around and check out some of the other things we post about here on Garage Sales R Us. Be sure to check out what my kids wear under my Kids Corner tab, updates to our home under Renovation Station and have your hubbies check out our This is a Man's World tab so they can see that garage saleing is not just for the women!

June 30th 2012

For some reason there weren't that many garage sales out there this week. This happens sometimes. Don't give up. It's just not your week. If your religious about going every Saturday I promise you will find some great things! If you feel like getting out there just is not worth your time examine the area your garage saleing in. Is it an area that is filled with established families or is it an area with young families who are still in school and probably don't have a great quality of things to sell? If it is head to a different area. I actually don't even garage sale in the town I live in! I head out to the surrounding areas to some of the more established homes. 

Here is what I found this week.

I bought two pair of Nike tennis shoes and one pair of Pediped shoes for $2.50! two pairs of shoes on the outside will need some cleaning but the one in the middle is practically brand new!

I bought this spool of lace for $1 dollar. 

 I bought with cute black winter coat for Jaysa for $1.

I will make a cover for this pillow that I bought for .50 cents. 

Ok this vest spoke to me as I walked by. I am not sure what I can do with it now but I hope I can make it look cute in a Fashion on a Dime! If not, oh well, I only paid .50 cents for it!

I also hit a garage sale that had so many silk flower I felt like I was shopping in the floral department of Michaels except with WAY better prices.

I was only charged .10 cents a stem! I filled up a box of all the flowers I thought I would be able to use at my brother's reception and as bows. I got a total of 76 stems and paid them $8 dollars for the box.

I know it doesnt look like 76 stems but believe me I packed that box as full as I could.

These gerber daisy's are $2 dollars a piece at Michaels! I got them for .10 cents a piece! GREAT DEAL

I also bought an old swing for $3 dollars. Now don't laugh I know it's probably as old as I am but...

This smile made it all worth it!

Here is my favorite thing I bought Saturday. 

 I LOVE this white tufted double headboard! The guy I bought it from was a Parade of Homes contractor and had this in one of this homes. It didn't sell when the house sold so he was left to try to get rid of it on his own. He paid $450 for it. I bought it from him for $75!!! I can not wait to find some other furniture piece to go with it and redo it! I am thinking white and gray.

DEAL OF THE DAY

Deal of the Day is something I have been slacking on. It's just so hard to pick sometimes! This weeks Deal of the Day would be these Nike shoes I bought for Paisley for $1 dollar!!!

 She looks so cute in them too!

OTHER AWESOME DEALS

This is a queen bedroom set that had two matching night stands and a table that goes at the end of the bed.

The seller only wanted $100 for the whole set!

These little girl's shoes were so cute! They were only $1

 Here are lots and lots for Barbies and Brats dolls for $1a piece.

Here is a cute corderio jacket with gold buttons for $1

This red formal kids dress was only $3! I would have snatched that up if it was Jaysa's size!

This pack N Play had all the accesories needed for a newborn. It came with the raised bed the changing station and the holders on the side for diapers wipes and creams. They only wanted $50 for this!

I am so sad about this one. I have been wanting a trampoline for our back yard. This one sold for $175

 These baby beanies were only $2 dollars a piece and looked like they had never been worn.

This Stainless Steel fridge was $200

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