More Rain and Garage Sales

We weren't even sure there were going to be any garage sales this weekend. Rain was in the forecast and most of Friday evening that's exactly what it did. However, Saturday morning, even though the skies were cloudy, the rain held off until 9:00. Since most garage sales around here start at 7:00 we managed to hit a few before it started.

Today's finds not pictured are 4 bags of Shock N Swim for $1 each and a few little toys and a Spiderman mug for DS.



Steve Madden heels - $5



Tommy Hilfiger sandals - $1



Guess purse - $5



Coach purse - $5

This is DH's purchase of the day. . .



DH actually picks these up every time he sees one at a garage sale. During hurricane season if the power goes out he'd much rather use these coal oil lanterns than the propane ones. $3



I also had a bag of stuff to drop off at Goodwill and I just couldn't resist going in for a quick peek. I love glass canisters for storage and I found these three for .99 a piece.

Until next time. . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Garage Sale Fever Cooled

Sigh :( It's raining again. After three weeks of rain every day I was getting some serious garage sale fever. However, today the skies were pretty - well at least until after noon. As a result the newspaper was full of garage sale ads and DH and I decided to get out of the house and go see what we could find.

I always make it a priority to stop at the estate sales first. There was one advertised and it was being hosted by a company we're familiar with for having pretty good prices. Another thing I like about this company is that they always have boxes outside for you to bring inside with the hopes of you filling them up. :) There was a cabinet with a lot of Pyrex in it. However, they were $4 a piece and since I was on a tight garage sale budget this week I limited myself to only one. I love the blue Pyrex better than the autumn colors so this is the one I grabbed. I also found this muffin pan for $1 and this bag of toys for $1.



There's a reason I wanted the toy bag and if you're familiar with my earlier posts you can see why. Can you see it in there? Maybe this will help. . .



A ceramic Brainy Smurf. Happy Dance. The rest of the items in the bag weren't any good so in the trash they went while Brainy joined all my other smurfs.

Next we hit the garage sales. We managed to finish filling the box up with all our finds. I found a Kirby vacuum for my brother for $5 and DS found a BMX style bicycle for $5. Also I found the kiddos some more clothes. Our other finds are below.



I have a thing for magnets that are different. I picked these two up for .10 a piece. I love the cute little kitty laying beneath the stove.



I manage to talk the homeowner down to $2 on the Autumn wreath. The purple basket with Easter decor in it was .50. I'm going to trash the Easter decor and maybe replace it with some Spring flowers for the front door.



All this stuff came from different garage sales. I found the Sims 2 Nightlife for $1. I'm so happy because this is one of the expansion packs I had been wanting. DD found all the hair bows for .50 a piece. The homeowner originally wanted $3 for the shoe but she let me have it for $2. I picked up the ornament for .10 cents. I didn't like the bow hot glued on it but it easily peeled off.



I found these at a garage sale hosted by a teacher. The books were .50 a piece and the months of the year signs were $1. I'm going to used the signs for my Sunday School class.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to make it to DH's cousins storage building sale this past week. When she has it at her house in town I usually don't go if I have both of the kids with me. Taking an 8 year old and a 6 year old to a garage sale by myself if just asking for trouble. LOL. However, when she has her sales at her mom's house in the country it's not as bad because they normally play around the front yard with all the puppies.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Garage Sale No No's

I've spent the past couple days doing a little Spring cleaning - although I'm a few months late to actually call it Spring cleaning. While cleaning up and cleaning out I thought about a comment from a fellow blog reader asking for garage sale pointers. After loading stuff up for Goodwill I do have my list of Garage Sale no no's.

1) I know many of us read other blogs posting garage sale finds. However, one person's taste is never the same as the others. So be wary when purchasing items at garage sales. Are you buying this because it's the popular item that everyone is searching for in blog-land or are you buying it because it's something you truly want. If you're purchasing it because it's the popular thing you may just end up with something that you don't really like after all and then you're stuck with something you need to get rid of yourself. Trust me I've done this more than once.

2) Remember the size of your home when making purchases. It is possible to purchase too many big items making it impossible to walk around comfortably in your home without breaking toes. Trust me been there, done that and my toes still hurt from it.

3) If you're purchasing something that needs to be repaired or renovated please consider your schedule and how many other projects you have going. It may just sit collecting dust for years.

My last pointer isn't actually about garage sale purchases but about all the lovely free items that people love to give away. I know it's hard to say no because you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. However, sometimes it's better to take the chance of hurting their feelings than to end up with a lot of stuff that you didn't really want or like.

As I've been Spring (actually Summer) cleaning this week I've realized that I've made many of the mistakes I'm pointing out. My #1 example is the two scarecrow people purchased at Kroger this past Christmas. They're so cute - however, they've been standing in my dining room since I purchased them because they're too big to fit in my small attic and I have no where else to store them.

Then there's the free items that I've been given that I just couldn't say no to. Now I have a broken coffee table, a broken curio cabinet, a glass shelf that looks as though it belongs in a dorm room or college apartment, a rocking chair and several other smaller items that I didn't really like but couldn't bring myself to say no to. However, in my defense it is hard to say no to grandmothers sometimes. :)

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Remodeling while no sales

I realized today that I haven't posted since June 21 so I thought I would update the blog a little bit. Unfortunately, there are no garage sale finds to share. For the past two weeks rain has set in over the whole state. Fortunately, though, we are no longer in a drought. We are hoping that the rain will leave and we can get back to the garage sales this next weekend.

While we have had so much extra time on our hands being cooped up indoors and all we have started working on some renovation projects. First thing DH did was rip the indoor/outdoor carpet that was in our back bathroom up. Carpet in the bathroom is never a good idea and I'm so glad it's gone. It was in the house when I moved in and the whole time I never realized that there was linoleum underneath it.

It looked pretty good from a distance and I was so excited when I first saw it, that is until we kept uncovering it and found this . . .

Please excuse the mess. I snapped the picture right after the carpet came up and hadn't had a chance to sweep yet.




Hmmm . . . poorly installed linoleum. So we bought some new linoleum but decided not to place it down yet because now a bathroom renovation is in the works with new tub, sinks and all.

Now you see what happens when it rains, we get into trouble because we start a lot of projects. LOL :)

Rumor has it DH's cousin bought two more storage buildings full of goodies and is going to be having another one of her enormous garage sales this week so hopefully this weekend I will have a lot of newly found treasures to share.

Until next time. . .

ThriftyAnnabella