my new addiction

i've been a long time patron & advocate of thrift store shopping, i'll go any time the offer is put on the table and take along anyone interested in coming.  but recently (for about the last 3 weeks) i've found that i'm waking up early on saturday morning (about 45 minutes later than my normal wake up time) to go to community garage sales.

it started of course with our own neighborhood having a garage sale (i just had one in july, so i wasn't prepared for another one), so instead i walked around the neighborhood and hit about 15 garage sales.  all for under $25!  i had to come home, not because i was out of cash, but because i physically  could not carry any more! now, i could have gone back out, but it was getting later and most of the "big items" were gone.

the next weekend we went up to the ren faire, but this week, at about 6:55 i woke up without assistance from alice or an alarm so i got up, researched some nearby garage sales, got alice ready (to stay home with daddy) and headed out.

my first stop was the one furthest from our house, and it was part of a community garage sale.  i went to about 15 or so garage sales again.  the first stop i hit three sales, and found my best deals at the third stop.

i bought a $3 car rug for my nephew coyt:

i was going to buy 5 of the wooden puzzles for $1 each, they threw in the extra two (the trucks, the one with missing pieces) and the puzzle organizer (← about $30 online) for free = ):

and my favorite buy of the day, my 2 new cupcake holders for $3 each.  i was only going to purchase one of them, but i find so often that i have 'non-buyers' remorse, when i pass up a good deal because i don't think i'll ever use it, and then i think of 20 ways i could have used it when i get home (and when you're talking about garage sales, there's no going back).  so i bought them both = ):

my next stop was also fairly productive, i bought lots of cheap little things (clothes, a Christmas basket, and baby clothes) but my favorite buy was the container of craft items for 50¢ there were balloons, streamers, lots of curling ribbon, i only kept  a few items, but feel i most certainly got my 50¢ worth. = ):

the last stop was the least fruitful, i bought 2 more pieces to the baby fence sarah bought us for $3, 2 serving platters for 25¢ each, but the best buy was another Christmas dress for alice, for just $1.  it was clean, adorable, and the right size (all for $1).  so now she's up to 3, i think, i'll be sure to take her picture in all of them = ):

i also bought a card holder, with all the holidays on the horizon, i thought it would be a clean way to 'display' our holiday cards.  it was also only 25¢:

so, as long as my body gets up early, i'll find another community garage sale, and snag as many deals as i can!