Friday, June 20, 2008

Bargain Hunting Basics, Part One: Shopping with a plan in mind.

I love a good bargain...but just because something is at a thrift store doesn't make it a bargain. There is definitely an art and science to bargain hunting wisely, which will be the topic of my blog for the next however long.

I haven't been online for the last couple of days due to trouble with
our internet service (those pesky storms we had a few weeks ago
necessitated repairs to the local server), and some general family
busy-ness, including a trip to our favorite Salvation Army store down
in Romeo, MI, where I never fail to find good quality clothing for a
very good price, especially men's and boy's dress clothes, and some
very nice skirts and blouses. We did pretty good at our trip this past
week....but, we went with a plan.

When you are out garage saling, or thrift store hopping (or dumpster diving LOL), you can sometimes wind up spending more than you need to spend, and waste valuable time and money, not to mention bring home junk you really don't need by not starting with a plan.

This past week, we had a few things in mind: Judah needed some dress slacks (the boy just keeps on growing!), my husband needed some jeans, my daughter Ruth needed some skirts, Isobel and Esther both needed some jeans/play clothes, and Anastasia was low on dress tops that fit right. As for me, I was hoping to find a blouse or two that matched a skirt that was given to me, for which I have nothing matching (But love the skirt! :-)).

So, part one of the plan was deciding what we were looking for.
I got pretty specific for some things (for example, I needed blue or ochre blouses), and for others I left it general (Martin needed jeans but wasn't fussy about what kind).

I also have a running list of things I look for at garage sales and thrift shops, which I have personally found to be of good resale value on Ebay. If I've sold one just like it before and did well with it, I usually snatch it up at a yard sale. If I have an upcoming project (whether a repair around the house, a class I'm teaching at our co-op, or anything of that sort), I also keep a list of supplies I am looking for if I happen to catch an exceptionally good deal. Everything else stays at the garage sale :-)

Part two of our battle plan was deciding where to search for what we were looking for. As we live somewhat rurally, and have only a few thrift stores in the immediate area, and a few more further away, we need to plan a bit more seriously than if we were living in an urban area with many choices. Normally when we are looking for nice men's/boy's clothing or jean skirts, the place to go is Romeo, as the stores up near us are usually pretty thin on those items, but I planned to stop at each of those stores on the way, in the hopes that I might find what I was looking for before driving several more miles, with gas prices as they are. If I didn't have time for that, I probably would have just hit the highway and went directly to Romeo, but since we planned to make a day of it, we took our time looking.

Along the way, we saw quite a few garage sales, and we stopped at the ones that looked promising. We were able to get some jeans at one of them in the right size, which was a blessing, and we found something that I know does well on Ebay (Saxon Math books for a dollar each), so we did doubly well. At another garage sale, another item on my list was found. The person doing the garage sale was helping her aunt declutter, and among the finds were a great set of paint brushes, and several large tear-off pads of water color paper for an absolute steal. I will be teaching drawing later in our co-op, and I love to paint for personal enjoyment anyway, as well as paint with my children, so this was a blessing to find water color paper (an expensive item) at such a great price....but that is just another example of where the running list comes in.

With gas prices hovering over $4.00 a gallon, driving all over Timbuktu for garage sales is perhaps no the best use of our resources (if you are able to walk within a neighborhood to garage sales, that would be ideal!), so I usually limit my garage saling, especially this year, to garage sales that are en route to somewhere I am going anyway (unless I hear of a really good one and can swing by), and again, I never shop without a plan or I run the risk of filling my van with someone else's stuff that I don't really need. Anyone else ever do that, besides me? ~smile~ "But it was such a good deal!" It's only a good deal when it is something you truely need, remember that!








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