With the garage sale season coming to a close in most parts of the country, we are putting a hold on the Weekend Wonders posts until later on in the spring when everyone begins to open up their garages after all those long months of colder weather.

So, when the spring arrives and the itch to get out and find the great yard sale deals comes back, Weekend Wonders will resume. Thank you for your loyalty and interest!

p.s. When Weekend Wonders does start up again, send in your favorite finds, and you just might find them posted here!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an online mapping tool to organize the yard sales you attend? Can you imagine the time savings?

Here is a website that does exactly that and also lists what the folks at each yard sale will have available! What an indespensable tool to have!

I know that I will be using this website from now on when I am planning a garage sale day… like this coming weekend! I love that most of the sales also tell what time they start and end, so I will not have to drive around and wait until someone opens their sale when I could be missing other great items at a sale not too far away because they are already open for business. Yes, this should make the most efficient use of time while looking for those items we need (or for gifts for the upcoming holiday season that is fast approaching). No more newspaper ads to find garage sales. I’ll just map it out on this site and then print out my plan of attack!

Can’t wait ’til next weekend! The last two weekends in October are big garage sale weekends in my area, so I should have some fabulous finds to share with you!

P.S. My friend took her son to a garage sale with her recently and he found a huge box of LEGOs for only $5.00! Some of the pieces were still in their original containers unopened! Many of the pieces he bought were the more expensive pieces that LEGO sells, so my friend was thrilled to have had this opportunity to teach him good stewardship and frugality. It’s a lesson I know he won’t soon forget as this is a boy who, in his words, “was born with a deep love of LEGOs!”

These are just a few of the LEGOs from his treasure box!

What great deals have you found lately? Do you know of any other online organizing tools for yard sales? Please share with us in the comments below.

Today I’d like to show you how much I saved this weekend by shopping at thrift stores for an immediate clothing need rather than giving in to retail.

I recently realized that I was in need of finding some tailored blouses like this to wear under sweaters for this fall/winter. I need these shirts quickly so I ran over to my local thrift shop and found exactly what I was looking for! I had already found one of the tops I needed at a garage sale for only 50¢, and the prices were a bit higher in the thrift shop, but since I knew I didn’t have time to waste, I didn’t look all around at garage sales. Sometimes convenience or time-saving does win out. This is when self-control has to rule in my spending and I must choose to go to a thrift shop rather than a retail shop. Ever been there?

It is so easy to just drop in at the local department store and get what’s needed. I thought how nice it would be to go into the mall and pick out something brand-new and let that be my purchase. I’d feel great in my fresh new shirt… until I had to show my husband the receipt, that is! Can you believe anyone would charge that much for a blouse? I don’t care who made it, it’s not worth that much!

What I decided to do was to go into the thrift shop and find something there that would beat even the sale prices of well known retailers like this, this or this.

I found fabulous deals! I bought four shirts, like the ones in the links above, and paid only $16.00 (including tax!). That’s less than one shirt on most of the sites I’ve shown you in this post. Only one came close, and really, it was more than twice what I paid for any of the shirts I bought.

I am thrilled with my new blouses and I have absolutely no guilt or buyer’s remorse to go along with it. Now that is a good shopping day!

Have you gotten any good thrift store finds recently? If so, please share in the comments below. If you know, please also tell how much you saved over the retail price. I enjoy the success stories of my fellow deal-seekers!

Recently a reader left a comment on a Weekend Wonder post about her special yard sale find. It sounded like such a great re-purposing idea that I wanted to see pictures. April was kind enough to share those—so here are the pictures, as well as her original comments.

April also suggests that an old suitcase like this would be nice to use in a guest room to hold rolled towels, soaps, etc. for guests. Love that idea too! I’ll be keeping my eyes open for little old suitcases now at yard sales and thrift shops.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought an old tweed-looking suitcase at a yard sale for 50 cents. I bought it because I loved the beautiful cream and red toile fabric lining.

I set it on my dresser, open. Then I placed my lamp, my baskets of hair things and toiletries and a jewelry box inside of it. The top had a large draping pocket, and I clipped my octopus hair clips onto that and then draped some old embroidered hankies out of it. The bottom section had a pocket along the back wall. I stood my lotions and body sprays up in it.

I love how it looks, and it keeps my little ones from reaching up and playing in my jewelry box. I have a low dresser and the suitcase just added a six inch wall around all my things. It looks so pretty when the lamp is turned on and it illuminates the toile lining with a soft glow.

~April

It took a long time for me to feel that it was alright to buy clothes and shoes at garage sales or thrift stores… but I’m over that now! Actually, I’ve been “over it” for quite some time since I realized the incredible savings I have received since shopping this way.

This Saturday, I went out to a few garage sales and to our local thrift shop with my entire family. The objective: clothes and shoes. I have a couple of children who are growing rapidly and they don’t stay in the same size very long any more.

My son found two nice pairs of shoes for $6.00 and $7.00. Now he has a pair for everyday use and a pair for dressy occassions.

This was his real find, though, a pair of inline skates at only $5.99! They are in like-new condition and fit great. Now he has something to do with all of that boyish energy!

Inline skates for $5.99!

For my son we also found five pairs of pants/jeans—which he desperately needed—at a garage sale for only $5.00!

While there, I also found two skirts for me and a few tops for my daughter for a total of $5.00! What a steal!

Skirts, $3 for both!

Sometimes you can meet the nicest people when at a garage sale. The owner of the home where we bought the items above began talking to us and the topic turned to her lovely yard. She mentioned to me that she doesn’t have much time to tend to it now that her work is taking up so much of her time. At this point I introduced her to my son who has started his own lawn business. My son gained a new customer, and his first job will pay back all we spent at her garage sale, plus much more!

Don’t you love it when the Lord works everything out that way?

I have one more item to share with you that I bought at this friendly woman’s garage sale, but I will wait until next week to share it with you. It requires a little project so you can see the before and after pictures. Stay tuned!

What goodies did you find this weekend?

When I came downstairs the other morning, I noticed 2 of these chairs sitting out at the end of the neighbor’s driveway across the street, waiting for the trash pickup. They looked pretty nice! I don’t know if you can tell by the picture, but they are the tall, counter-height chairs. If I had spied them curbside anywhere else while out and about, I would have pulled over immediately to check them out. But this was right across the street, and I hummed and hawed. I was embarrased to go over there, but still felt pretty awful about perfectly good chairs, that I could use (even though I didn’t really NEED them) being thrown out.

While I was still making coffee, my husband (who is even more frugal than I) was taking our own garbage out to the curb. He decided to make a quick recon mission  across the street to check them out. After all, not too many people were up and around so early in the morning. Hmmm . . . they were very heavy and sturdy. Quickly and quietly he got one in each arm and headed across the street and up our driveway. Mission accomplished . . . and then some! Suddenly, someone called his name. It was the neighbor! “Hey, I have 2 more of those in the garage if you want them. The table broke, and we have no use for the chairs.”  

LOL! The red faces have subsided,  and we still have four lovely chairs. Now we’ll be watching for a tall table! 

One of the things I love most in my life is that of learning to be a better home-economist. In this economy, it is vitally important that we are all constantly on the lookout for new ways to improve our lives with little or no money. One way I do this is to constantly be on the lookout for wisdom from ages past that can help me.

I visited with extended family this weekend for Labor Day and had the precious opportunity to talk for a while with my husband’s aunt who claims to be “nine years older than God” (say this with a thick country accent and humor, and you’ll get the picture!), but who is still incredibly young at heart. She is adorable! While in her home, I perused the bookshelves and came across a book that she said I could borrow.

This book, actually a cookbook, was originally published in 1976. It is more than just your typical, run-of-the-mill cookbook, though. It is really a frugal recipe book that also has home remedies from eras gone-by, helpful advice for the homemaker, many charts, substitutions, as well as explanations about the recipes or advice given.

The book, called, Seems Like I Done It This A-Way was written by Cleo Stiles Bryan, but it drew from recipes and advice given to her in countless interviews with women all across the country. Many of the recipes are hilarious to read because the way the interviewee spoke was full of colloquialisms and funny old sayings. People, unintentionally, can be very funny when they are quoted while in casual conversation!

Besides being a good read, it serves as a history book of sorts because the “way it used to be done” (along with the reasons for doing it that way) is talked about so often. Many of the recipes still have directions for cooking on the woodstove or over open fire (whether in the fireplace or not). There are also poems and short pieces written on life “back then.”

What a gem this little book turned out to be! I’ll borrow it for as long as she’ll allow me because one of the things I love the most about being blessed to be a homemeker is the ties I have with previous generations who have done so much to enrich their family’s lives all while living on very little. Their children were happy and well-adjusted, and they enjoyed warm home atmospheres for good reason: Mom and Dad had figured out that the best ways are many times the old and simple ways. This book gives ample opportunity to glean from the old ways, much to my family’s benefit.

What finds were you blessed with this weekend? Have you ever been given a copy of a similar book? What was it called and how have you used it? Please share some of the sage wisdom you have gleaned from these kinds of books with us in the comments below.

This Saturday I went to a few garage sales looking for fall/winter clothing for a couple of my children who are each growing faster than I can keep up with. I found nothing for them, but did find a top for myself for only 50¢!

But that isn’t the real wonder that I found. (Although my husband liked it enough to say that it would qualify for the real weekend wonder. Isn’t he sweet?) The real wonder—at least in my mind—is that someone had this for sale:

Wurlitzer Organ

And for only $15.00! Can you believe that? It actually works! I had been looking for a piano, but since we have been doing so many family hymn sing-alongs lately, I thought that this was appropriate for us to learn how to play! How cool is that? It also had a number of “learn how to play the organ” type instruction books in the seat, along with a few in a basket that the owner was giving away with the organ. So… guess what part of our family time will be spent doing?

Any fun finds like this one come your way recently? What kind of deals did you find?

Let me just start by saying that I love going to garage sales!

It’s actually having a garage sale that I do not enjoy to the fullest.

It is a ton of work to hold a garage sale, and as hot as it’s been this summer, I don’t think I will do it again for quite some time. But I have gotten quite a few great deals at garage sales over the course of this year.

Since it is the beginning of the school year, and fall is quickly approaching, new clothes are on most of our minds, and buying those clothing items at garage sales is a fabulous way to save money. The only problem is that I have noticed a trend of folks attempting to sell clothing items for high prices at garage sales.

If it is a garage sale, clothing should be priced accordingly. For those who are new to garage sales, keep this in mind: the buyer does not care how much you paid for the item when new. All sentimentality also needs to go out the window. If you want items to move at your garage sale, price accordingly. This link should help with pricing accurately for garage sale prices. This should help you sell items because they are priced correctly for a garage sale with a little “wiggle room” for negotiating.

New to having a garage sale? Here is another link that I found helpful for my most recent garage sale adventure: Having a Successful Yard Sale.

I recently went to a garage sale in which the homeowner had all of her items priced way too high for this type of sale. I felt bad for her because people would come and look at the many, many items she had scattered all over her front yard, but nobody was buying because she had priced everything way too high for the typical buyer. I pulled her aside and asked her if she was willing to negotiate on the prices and she was adamantly against it because she paid so much for the items. Again, objectivity is the key to good pricing. The buyer won’t pay as much as you did for the item. If you want things to sell, then you have to price them according to the market.

Another option for selling if you wish to make more for an item, is to place it for sale on Craig’s List. More can be asked for items on Craig’s List than at a garage sale, and it is marketed out to a much larger group of people which helps you make the sale.

I hope this little bit of adivice helps you in your yard sale adventures. Happy selling, and let me hear about your successes!

Today I want to show you another project my best friend has been working on with her children.

She found this beautiful shabby chic dresser for her girls’ room on Craig’s List for only $10.00! The thing that excited me so much about this is that the dresser is from the shabby chic collection at Target that normally retails for about $100.00! Even better: it was still in the box, brand new and completely unused!

She used this opportunity to teach her children about frugality as well as the blessing of working together to accomplish a goal. In the picture you can see they are all holding the tools needed to put the dresser together. Everyone helped and they learned a great lesson in the process.

I thought this was so sweet I just had to share it as my post for today. May you be blessed in your frugal adventures, and don’t forget to involve your children so they learn the lessons you are learning. It will serve them well when they leave your home to begin homes of their own someday.

What great things did you find this weekend? How did/do you involve your children in your frugality?