Tips for Having a Successful Garage Sale!

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Guest Post by Amber from Coupon Connections NW:

I can remember my first Garage Sale experience.  It opened up a whole new world for me.  I was 6. I think I was born with the gene to never pay full price for anything and I will admit I take that to the extreme sometimes.   There is nothing I love more than finding someone else’s treasures for a fraction of the cost.  So when I say that I like Garage Sales that is an understatement.  I love them.  I break for them.  My wheels turn and my kids are whining and I say…Please just one more.   And remember, it is only a good deal if you need it!

So what I going to write to you today is about how to have a successful one. What will get me and others to your Garage Sale.

#1 Plan the date. I personally think that Fridays are the best.  I know that is a little weird, but I have held a lot of garage sales and I seriously have way more customers on Fridays.  But if that doesn’t work for you and you can Only do it on the weekend then it will still be a great one.

#2 Get Your Community Involved. People love to see Multi-Family Sale.  Gas prices are high and people want to be sure there going to find something they want   You will bring in way more traffic this way.

#3 Get Organized! If it looks like junk they are just going to drive by!  Make it look appealing to the eye.  If you are selling a rug display it nicely.   I like to make signs for the prices. Ex: Shirts $x Pants $x.  Using stickers is great, but can be time consuming.  Setting up tables is also great so people don’t have to bend over and dig through things.  You can have different priced tables as well, which makes things easier.

# 4 How to sell clothes- Okay moms this is a tough one.  Yes, you remember your little sweetheart wearing that cute little dress, but they are coming for a bargain.  You cannot put your feelings in the price.  Remember this is a Garage Sale  If it is a name brand Item have it on hangers and display the prices.  Offer a deal if they buy more.  $0.50-$1 seems like a reasonable price for me.  Anything above that I would sell on ebay or craigslist.

#5 Signs- This is the key to every garage sale.   They MUST be consistent!  If you are using color make sure each sign is the same.  If you are using balloons and it is a 2 day sale…make sure they still have air.  A lot of times people will piggy back off your signs. If you keep it consistent then they know they need to look for the next one.   And Please do not go pick up the tiny little signs from the Dollar store.  It is way to hard to read those when you are driving.  Use a thick Black Sharpie to make the arrows.  I alway like to write TODAY on mine this way you avoid “all the good stuff is gone”.  I also like to put mine out the night before.  I will leave the one that is on my street off and put it up in the morning.

#6 Food-I love to have little extras at my sale.  A lot of times I will bring out my espresso machine and make latte’s.  While I may not make a huge profit I will be able to keep people around that might normally rush out. I also like to sell snack items.  Us mom get desperate to feed the kids when we want to look through some clothes.

# 7 Advertise- Craigslist is a great site to advertise your garage sale.  You will get a ton of people and be sure to tell the time and date on that.  You can ad a new post for each day you are doing it.  If you want to advertise ahead of time you can, but I would just put the general location.  My ad would look something like this:

HUGE Multi Family Sale TODAY! xxxx 200th st SW Lynnwood  (FYI this is not my address:)

I like to put the address in the post so it is easier and people will most likely write it down.  You can then list your items in the description and weather or not you will allow early birds.

Other ways to advertise are: Sending out emails, Twitter, and Facebook.  You can just ad the link to your craigslist post to make it easier.  As well as find blogs that post local garage sale listing. Like: www.CouponConnectionsNW.com

Day Of:

You have now just completed the most time consuming part and now you are moving on to the day of the sale:

• People will always show up early. It is unavoidable.  So be prepared….there is nothing like waking up in the morning and seeing someone looking through your stuff.
• Double check the signs- You never know if one got blown over.  So make sure send your husband off to check them (I say husband because if you do it then he will sell everything for a quarter!
• Wear a Fanny Pack! I know they are out of style, but it is the best way to keep track of your money! And you don’t have to worry about someone stealing it!
• Layout everything nicely- People want to see your treasures
• Ask them what they are looking for?  I have sold my broken VHS because that is what a guy wanted!  You never know unless you ask
• Once the sale is coming to the end offer deals! Fill a bag for $1 or whatever else you have in mind.
• Remove your signs! As a die hard Garage Sale hunter there is nothing more annoying then signs that are left up

Amber is married and a stay-at-home mom to 4 young children, living north of Seattle.   Make sure to check out Amber’s site, Coupon Connections NW. This is an informative & fun Northwest deal blog featuring  grocery store deals for NW stores, freebies, money-saving tips & much more!

Taste of Home Cookbook Sale – $5 + $1 shipping

The Taste of Home $5 Cookbook sale is back!! It was going on back in February & I know a number of you found some great cookbooks. Just  head on over to Taste of Home & check out the 12 cookbooks on sale for just $5!! You can get FREE shipping if you spend $20 or more with the coupon code: LST02.  Or you can use the coupon code:1131 to get shipping for just $1 (regardless of how many items you have-I just tried it)!

If you shop thru Shop at Home, you’ll receive 10% cash back on your purchase! (Wow!). Or shop thru Ebates to receive 5% cash back.

Did you order any cookbooks from the last sale? Do you have any that you’d recommend?

Thanks Thrifty & Thriving!

Locals – Spring Sale for Mega Brands – Building kits for $20 & more

Here’s a great tip for Pierce/S King County readers:

The Mega Brands toy company is having a spring sale  at their outlet store which is in Fife, WA.  You can find large building sets for around  $20 (regularly $80), as well as many other items at a significant discount.  You’ll even find  a number of a $2 items.   This sale requires cash only – but there is an ATM available.  Great chance to stock up for birthdays or even Christmas at these prices!  Here’s the link to the Craiglist ad!

The dates for this sale are:

Wednesday April 21-Friday April 23  - 10:30am to 6:30pm
Saturday April 24   –  9:00am to 5:30pm

The address is:

MEGA Brands Toy Outlet
2511   70th Ave. E
Fife, WA 98424

Thanks for this great tip, Tara!!

Home Depot – B1G1 FREE Veggie / Herb Starts Today Only

We’ve sure had a busy weekend, so I’m just now getting a chance to get on the computer! We headed to the Spring Fair yesterday, which was a bit soggy but still fun.  Today we’ve been out getting plants for our garden that we’re working on.  I’ll share some more details on that soon!

While we were out, we found out that Home Depot has Buy 1 Get 1 FREE Veggie & Herb starts TODAY, Sunday 4/18 only! (sorry for the late notice-just back from the store)  If you are a FB fan, though, reader Shannon actually posted this tip last night – so make sure you’re checking the FB fan page from time to time as many readers have been posting great tips!

The Buy 1 Get 1 Free sale on Veggie/Herb starts is on the Ecostart/Bonnie brands.  The 3″ starts are regularly $1.97 – so under $1/each & the 5″ starts were $3.47 – so around $1.75/ea with the sale (prices may vary by location/store).  This sale also included strawberry plants! Yum-the berries are my favorite thing to grow ourselves!

Also, all seeds by the Ecostart/Ferry Morse brand were Buy 1 Get 1 Free as well! They ranged from $.97 – $3.50 or so (including organic seeds).  The B1G1 free sale on seeds will be going on all week thru Saturday 4/24.

Babies R Us – Fill a Bag Sale – 25% off

Babies R Us is having a great sale starting today, Friday April 9th and running thru April 22nd! It’s their Fill-A-Bag sale where they’ll give you a FREE reusable bag and you will get 25% off everything you can fit into that bag!  The 25% off is an additional discount on regular & sale-priced merchandise!

Become a Facebook Fan of Babies R Us and then you can print out your coupon HERE to bring with you for the FREE tote & 25% off. Quantities are limited, while supplies last!

Toys R Us – Buy 1 Get 1 FREE DVD’s & more – Saturday!

Toys R Us is having quite a few deals tomorrow, Saturday March 27th.

Here are the deals of the day (in-store only):

-20% off all metal swings, trampolines & enclosures (print coupon HERE)

-50% off select Nintendo DS games (looks like Pokemon games)

-Buy 2, Get 3rd free – Select Zhu Zhu Pets

-30% off Barbie Craft Activities

-$20 Gift Card when you buy a PSP Handheld System

They are also offering a BIG Easter sale with many Buy 1 Get 1 Free Items.  One of the big discounts will be the Buy 1 Get 1 FREE DVD’s for any DVD’s in the store (excluding Blu-rays-which means this won’t work on the Toy Story DVD combo pack deal). If you pair this sale up with a DVD coupon, this can really make for some cheap movies! See all the details about the 2 day Easter sale HERE.

Here are some DVD coupons which could be used for the BOGO DVD sale:

Coupons.com:  (sort by entertainment to see them all together -more than what I’ve listed)

-$2/1 Flicka on DVD

-$2/1 Aquamarine DVD

-$2/1 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang DVD

-$2/1 Legally Blonde DVD

Red Plum:

-$5/1 Twilight: New Moon & Astroboy, Bandslam, or Twilight in Forks DVD’s

-$3/1 Twilight in Forks DVD

-More Twilight New Moon combinations

Other DVD coupons (Remember you can’t use the Blu-ray coupons):

-$5/1 Baby Einstein DVD

-$5/1 The Princess & the Frog DVD (IE) or FF HERE

Also, included in the Easter Sale tomorrow:

-BOGO (Buy 1 Get 1 FREE) Little Tikes toys

-BOGO Bakugan Playsets /Accessories

-BOGO Polly Pockets

-BOGO All Books

-50% off Character-Themed Scooters

-B1G1 50% Fisher Price Trio Playsets

-B1G1 50% Yo-Yo’s

-B1G1 30% Video Games (up to $19.99)

-B1G1 50% Littlest Pet Shop Toys

Thanks Coupon Connections & Krazy Coupon Lady!

Reader’s Weekend Trips to Albertson’s!!

Well, the big Albertson’s Post cereal deal is now over ….how did you all do? Do you have cereal boxes everywhere? We sure do – definitely going to have to work on our pantry organization this week to get things better organized  for all these boxes of cereal we now have!  :)

Tara, a Thrifty NW Mom reader, was very successful with her weekend trips to Albertson’s – stocking up on cereal as well as finding some other great deals with the C.H.I.L.L promotion & clearance finds!

Check out all the details of her trip below:

34 boxes of cereal (looking forward to giving some of it away!)
10 cans of 100% juice (on rain check so I got the old price!)
6 bananas
4 Stash Teas (on clearance!)
1 Pizza
1 tub of butter
1 bag of bendy straws
Value of groceries (if I paid full price):  $216.01
Total Cash Spent: $7.46
Total Saved: $208.55 (avg. 96.5% off!!)
with $11 credit for my next shopping trip!  And that was only 2 trips to the store, and 6 transactions. I’m getting this down!   It’s addicting only paying 5% for your groceries! But that just frees up that much more money to get things that we need like meats, fruits & veggies.

Tara actually made $3.54 profit when you factor in the catalina!! (I think she did go in with a catalina from one of this month’s Chill promotions), but this is still incredible!  Tara was at a couponing presentation that 2 friends and I gave at her local MOPS group back in January and she has taken the strategies we shared & really taken off in her couponing skills! Way to go, Tara!!

Results of Albertson’s Post cereal deal

We had a super busy day today…so my husband decided to head to Albertson’s himself  to get stocked up on some Post cereal (I think he was just happy to buy his sugar cereals that I don’t normally buy ).  Here’s his account with pictures and scenarios, too! If he can do it, you guys can too!!

I hit Albertson’s today, armed with the knowledge that my wife knows what she’s doing when she sends me out couponing. Because, well, I don’t. I may think I have it all figured out, but when I get to the store, my memory goes blank, I start to think that I am missing some important part to make the deal work, etc.  So, when she gave me some coupons, and told me to hit Albertson’s, I was nervous. But then I realized the genius she is. Because when I got there I scored a total of 22 boxes of cereal and 4 bananas for $3.14, AND a $4.00 catalina (although it did take four transactions)! So, we made $.86! We did have to spend $2.25 to buy coupons, so our net cost was $1.39. Here is what I did:

Buy 4 boxes @ $1.59 each= $6.36

I used two $1/2 coupons (purchased from internet)

I used two doublers

I paid $2.36, and received a $3 catalina

————————–

Buy 6 boxes @ $1.59 each= $9.54

I used three $1/2 coupons and three doublers

I used the catalina from the previous transaction

I paid $.54, and received a $4 catalina

————————–

Buy 6 boxes @ $1.59 each= $9.54

Buy 2 bananas (about .75 lb) @ .69/lb = $.55 (this is needed as a filler to get you over $4)

I used three $1/2 coupons and three doublers

I used the catalina from the previous transaction

I paid $.09, and received a $4 catalina

————————–

Buy 6 boxes @ $1.59 each= $9.54

Buy 2 bananas (about .85 lb) @ .69/lb =$ .61

I used three $1/2 coupons and three doublers

I used the catalina from the previous transaction

I paid $.15, and received a $4 catalina

You can check out all the details HERE how you can also get FREE cereal!

Disney Outlet – Extra 20% off Today Only

The Disney Store is offering an extra 20% off thru today, Sunday March 14th, on their outlet items.  Just head on over to the Disney Outlet.com use the code: OUTLET20 to take an additional 20% off the already low sale prices! There are some shirts starting at $2.99 & $3.99, so you’re sure to find some great deals!

Ariel Shirt – $3.99 = $3.19 with extra 20% 0ff

If you go thru Shop At Home or Ebates, you can earn an extra 5% cashback on your purchases.

Thanks Steals & Deals!

Sansa Fuze mp3 Player ~ $35 shipped!

Do you want an MP3 player, but can’t really afford to get a $200 iPod? Well, the Sansa Fuze is currently on sale (today only!) at Woot.com for only $29.99 plus $5 shipping, for a total of $34.99. It retails for almost $60 over at Amazon, and is usually over $40 on eBay.

The Fuze is a great little MP3 and video player that I just love. It has easy to use menus, has the ability to leave an audiobook and return to where you left off, and, probably most importantly, has a microSD card slot.

Amazon currently has a SanDisk 8GB microSD Card on sale for under $18.  So for $30 (player) +$5 (shipping) + $18(8GB card) = $53 for a 12 GB music player! You’d be hard pressed to find a better deal for a quality MP3 player.

Thanks to my hubby for this post!

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