Speaker 1: Episode four oh three, how to make the most of
Speaker 1: yard sales.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are on the
Speaker 1: cusp of yard sales season. Some of us are already
Speaker 1: in it, and so we're going to talk about what
Speaker 1: to do how to make the most of all these
Speaker 1: yard sales you're about to be seeing when you're driving home,
Speaker 1: you're driving to school Friday mornings, you're driving all over
Speaker 1: the place. You're seeing the yard sales, but you don't
Speaker 1: want to stop by because who knows if you have time? Like,
Speaker 1: is it even worth it yard sales? Who does yard
Speaker 1: sales anymore? Everybody just donates to the thrift store, right.
Speaker 3: No, no, No, yard sales exist.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I love yard sales so much. You all already know
Speaker 3: that Jill is a hunter, and I don't think I
Speaker 3: realized that there's actually tips to be had. I thought,
Speaker 3: I don't know what to say about yard sales. You
Speaker 3: just show up. And then as I'm reading through this,
Speaker 3: I'm realizing, oh yeah, there is a decent amount to
Speaker 3: know about how to do this thing as best as possible.
Speaker 3: So I'm real excited to get into it.
Speaker 1: Yes, but first, this episode is brought to you by
Speaker 1: vintage Star Wars merch. It's the stuff of yard sale
Speaker 1: glory stories. Someone's mom doesn't know how important that Star
Speaker 1: Wars lego set is and you haven't upon it at
Speaker 1: ten dollars. What a steal, What a dream? The Force
Speaker 1: was with you. The Force will also be with you
Speaker 1: if you sign up for the Friend Letter, because while
Speaker 1: it's not very often you come upon very valuable things
Speaker 1: at a yard sale, it is very possible you will
Speaker 1: come across something valuable in the Friend Letter because we
Speaker 1: send it out three times a week, full of tips,
Speaker 1: full of stories that you can get some glory out of.
Speaker 1: So head to Frugal friendspodcast dot com and sign up
Speaker 1: for the Friend Letter. And May the Fourth be with
Speaker 1: you this weekend.
Speaker 3: Wow, you really wanted to weave in May the Fourth?
Speaker 1: I did?
Speaker 3: You did it?
Speaker 1: I don't get there. I don't know if it's because
Speaker 1: it's so close to my birthday, but I love May
Speaker 1: the Fourth. I do like Pie Day. Whatever I don't
Speaker 1: care about it. All these other like made up there's
Speaker 1: March tenth is Mario day mar m a r I
Speaker 1: owe ten. Yeah, I don't care about them, but I
Speaker 1: do love May the fourth. You do love Star Wars,
Speaker 1: and so I think everybody else I have. I have
Speaker 1: a love of May the fourth, and I have I
Speaker 1: have a love with a little bit more hesitantion for
Speaker 1: yard sales. And a lot of you said the same thing.
Speaker 1: So we ask you, guys, do you shop yard sales?
Speaker 1: And most of you said yes, but I don't go
Speaker 1: out of my way for them, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: how I am. A lot of you said yes, I
Speaker 1: love them, and then there were just a few, like
Speaker 1: a few that were like I don't like the hunt
Speaker 1: or I prefer thrift stores. So we are really going
Speaker 1: to tailor this for our for people who maybe want
Speaker 1: are already interested in yard sales and want to just
Speaker 1: get better at it and want to want to know,
Speaker 1: feel more confident so that you maybe will be willing
Speaker 1: to go out of your way try it a few times.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I, on the other hand, am the person
Speaker 3: who does a full on uie see your yard sales side.
Speaker 1: Yes, I yeah, I am not. I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people have the same feelings as I don't. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not big on digging through things or trying to
Speaker 1: get a bargain. There was just like a I felt
Speaker 1: seen in a lot of these I prefer thrift stores
Speaker 1: that way, no one is offended if I don't buy anything.
Speaker 1: It's so kind, it's so polite. I don't That is
Speaker 1: sometimes awkward when you go and you look, and then
Speaker 1: you don't want them to offend when you don't want
Speaker 1: their stuff, But remember they don't want it either, so
Speaker 1: they're not offended.
Speaker 3: True.
Speaker 1: You know, That's why I think. I was like, you
Speaker 1: didn't want this either, but you do.
Speaker 3: Want money for it. I'm not going to give you money.
Speaker 1: For it, right, So yeah, this will be a fun one.
Speaker 1: And if you're interested in stuff like this, we do
Speaker 1: have episode three forty one why you shouldn't sleep on
Speaker 1: a state sales. We love a state sales. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: put in a state sale a little bit above yard sale.
Speaker 1: Yeh yeah, So we're just gonna say in the hierarchy,
Speaker 1: we're going We're going to state sale is number one.
Speaker 1: So definitely check out episode three forty one and then
Speaker 1: episode two ninety eight No cost Ways to be more
Speaker 1: eco friendly, because we do think shopping estate sales, yard sales,
Speaker 1: thrift stores is just that it's the kind way to buy.
Speaker 1: You want to be kind shop secondhand.
Speaker 3: For so many reasons. It's so great. So let's get
Speaker 3: into this first article. It comes from Apartment Therapy and
Speaker 3: it is titled nine tips for scoring deals at yard
Speaker 3: sales all Summer long from a seasoned pro. So we're
Speaker 3: going to go through it. The first one is to
Speaker 3: plan out your route ahead of time. Now this is
Speaker 3: for the people who know you want to do yard
Speaker 3: sailing this weekend. You've carved out the morning on Saturday
Speaker 3: or Sunday, and you are looking for some specific things.
Speaker 3: It's worth planning out a route. So first of all,
Speaker 3: you want to look for where are the yard sales happening.
Speaker 3: They reckon men Craigslist and newspapers, and at first I
Speaker 3: was like, what are you talking about? But they made
Speaker 3: a good point that it seems archaic. But some of
Speaker 3: your older folks who have maybe some vintage items, some
Speaker 3: items that were just made real well lasted a real
Speaker 3: long time. This is these are the places that they
Speaker 3: may be advertising their sale. So check Craigslist and your
Speaker 3: local newspaper, but also see if your city has a
Speaker 3: local yard sale page on Facebook. I also like to
Speaker 3: use Garage Sale Finder and yard Sale Search. Those are
Speaker 3: some really great websites to be looking at and find out,
Speaker 3: all right, what's in your area, and then plan out
Speaker 3: so that it makes sense you're not driving all over
Speaker 3: the place and you kind of know where you want
Speaker 3: to hit. But a lot of times too, they will
Speaker 3: describe what's going to be at each of these yard sales,
Speaker 3: so you also want to map out, well, this place
Speaker 3: says they've got the tools and the furniture, so let's
Speaker 3: make sure we get there first. And then so you
Speaker 3: want to take two things in mind, like not just
Speaker 3: your route and what makes sense driving wise, but what
Speaker 3: makes sense for what each sale says that they have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is really nice. Facebook. Marketplace is a really
Speaker 1: great place to find garage sales too. I think think
Speaker 1: about wherever you would post if you were going to
Speaker 1: host a yard sale, where would you post it? And
Speaker 1: those are gonna be popular places to find good ones.
Speaker 1: I will see when I'm looking on Marketplace all the time,
Speaker 1: pictures of things that people are going to be selling.
Speaker 1: They'll usually post them on Wednesday or Thursday. If they're
Speaker 1: a Friday, Saturday, Sunday sale.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can know ahead of time.
Speaker 1: So the next tip is to take small bills. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I maybe this is just me, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: push back on that because so many people are taking
Speaker 1: Zell and Venmo. I don't think you really need to
Speaker 1: worry about cash anymore. But for older people who don't
Speaker 1: want to do Zell or venmoh, taking smaller bills so
Speaker 1: that you can make change. If you want to reduce
Speaker 1: the price of a twenty dollars item to sixteen, but
Speaker 1: you don't have ones, that's gonna be really hard to convince.
Speaker 3: I will say all of the art sales I've been
Speaker 3: too recently it has been cash. I don't totally know
Speaker 3: what's going on for people, but there's quite a bit
Speaker 3: of folks who don't feel comfortable doing the electronic exchange.
Speaker 3: I don't know if they feel as though, well, I
Speaker 3: don't know, you what if it doesn't go through, what
Speaker 3: if there's a glitch. But I'd say it's a lot
Speaker 3: of sales do still do cash. And I've found myself
Speaker 3: in a lot of situations where I don't have either
Speaker 3: any bills on me or they're too large, so it
Speaker 3: can really cut into my ability to negotiate if I
Speaker 3: really talk someone down or I'm like, I've only got
Speaker 3: a five on me, like that can help, whereas like
Speaker 3: if you're pulling out twenties and fifties, I don't know,
Speaker 3: it just can look tacky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say, carry a couple small bills and
Speaker 1: then try Venmo. I mean, I've been to some yard
Speaker 1: sales where it's I can do Venmo very easily because
Speaker 1: you're right there in person. I would rather do venmo
Speaker 1: at and not everybody loves Venmo, but my bank, my
Speaker 1: credit union doesn't use Zelle, so it's hard for me
Speaker 1: to use that, but I can just scan it right
Speaker 1: in person. Versus, I know Travis will prepay for things
Speaker 1: on Venmo when he's doing Facebook marketplace transactions, and that
Speaker 1: makes me feel uncomfortable. I would like to be in
Speaker 1: person with someone with the product in my hand. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, so but no that you don't. If you
Speaker 1: stop buy yard sale and you don't have cash, it's
Speaker 1: not always a deal breaker.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so true, Okay, negotiate for a discount. You know
Speaker 3: that we love a good negotiation on everything, bills wise,
Speaker 3: and at yard sales. Now, I will say this is
Speaker 3: definitely the place to be kind with your negotiation. I
Speaker 3: have done my fair share of yard sales, putting on
Speaker 3: yard sales, and people will will you take ten cents?
Speaker 3: Will you take twenty five cents on something that's marked
Speaker 3: for like ten dollars? So be reasonable. But these are
Speaker 3: just people at their house marking the stuff that they
Speaker 3: don't want anymore at probably some version of an arbitrary price.
Speaker 3: You can absolutely negotiate. One of my favorite things is
Speaker 3: to bundle together. So make sure that you've done your
Speaker 3: round of the whole yard sale, that you found all
Speaker 3: the things that you want, and then ask for Hey,
Speaker 3: would you take x amount of money for all of
Speaker 3: these items? And have your price in mind? Don't just
Speaker 3: say what would you take for this? But would you
Speaker 3: take three dollars? Five dollars? A lot of times I
Speaker 3: can say I think I've been successful just about every time.
Speaker 3: Maybe on some bigger items people might say, nah, I'd
Speaker 3: rather hold out, and you can make up your mind
Speaker 3: from there, but I'll always negotiate. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Next is timing your arrival and so they say they
Speaker 1: have two recommendations arrive at the sale early or get
Speaker 1: sales near closing time. And the tactic you choose will
Speaker 1: be different depending on what you're looking for. If you're
Speaker 1: looking for something specific, definitely go to these websites, Facebook Marketplace,
Speaker 1: Facebook groups. Look at what these sales have. If you
Speaker 1: see something you want. Now, normally I would say these things,
Speaker 1: it's going to be the stuff that didn't sell on
Speaker 1: Facebook Marketplace, because if I have something I want to sell,
Speaker 1: I'm going to just post on Facebook Marketplace. I'm not
Speaker 1: really going to host a yard sale for it, so
Speaker 1: temper your expectations with it. But you could find a gem,
Speaker 1: and if you find a gem in a picture, then
Speaker 1: make sure you're reaching out to the seller and be like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be there at the start of your
Speaker 1: sale for this item, and they're not going to hold
Speaker 1: it for you. They are going whoever is there first
Speaker 1: with cash will get the item. But to just let
Speaker 1: them know, like, you know, I really want this, because
Speaker 1: then they might say, well, hey, if the sale starts Friday,
Speaker 1: if you can pick it up Thursday evening, I'll you know,
Speaker 1: I'll give you a discount. Well, ask for a discount
Speaker 1: and be like, hey, if I picked this up, you know,
Speaker 1: Thursday evening, then you know, would you give me like
Speaker 1: X amount of dollars? And sometimes they'll say yes. But
Speaker 1: if you see something you want, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: get there early, but not too early. If the sale
Speaker 1: starts at seven, do not show up at five point thirty.
Speaker 1: Do not do it. You had this experience with the
Speaker 1: estate sale with your mom. How early were people showing up?
Speaker 3: Oh? Two hours early. We open in the garage door
Speaker 3: and there were literally people. There was this woman whose
Speaker 3: head was down trying to poke under the garage door
Speaker 3: as it was lifting. She was lifting her head up
Speaker 3: with the garage like, this is not Black Friday at
Speaker 3: some massive store. I don't know what you think this is? Yeah,
Speaker 3: so wild?
Speaker 1: So that yeah, get early. Do not show up on time, yeah,
Speaker 1: or maybe fifteen minutes early.
Speaker 3: But you'd sit there. If they look like they'd like
Speaker 3: they don't want you, just wait until they said that
Speaker 3: the thing was gonna start.
Speaker 1: If there's something specific you want, you can say like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm just here for X thing. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: here to rush you, but I know I really want
Speaker 1: x H. And they're usually going to be chill with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, they don't want to. They just don't want
Speaker 1: people all up on their business and every table browsing
Speaker 1: while they're trying to set up exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's what we said. We're like, you can look,
Speaker 3: but we're not going to be ready to take money
Speaker 3: until the time that the sale starts. But I will
Speaker 3: say too, for the reasons to show up early or late.
Speaker 3: If you see that there are things that are going
Speaker 3: to go quickly, so things like tools, furniture, collect like antique.
Speaker 1: Stuff, picture frames, yeah, oh my gosh, like hot cakes.
Speaker 3: It was crazy. So if you see that there's things
Speaker 3: that will go fast, then that's when you want to
Speaker 3: show up early. If they're things that you want, if
Speaker 3: you're kind of just there to browse and you've got
Speaker 3: a few nick nacky items on your list of things
Speaker 3: that you're looking to buy in the future, then show
Speaker 3: up late. That's when you can kind of get the deals,
Speaker 3: pick through what's left over, and really score a deal.
Speaker 1: What else was surprising to you that went fast?
Speaker 3: Was it the exercise exercise equipment? Yeah? And as I'm
Speaker 3: looking on the internet, that is what people are saying.
Speaker 3: Exercise equipment will go fast. I knew tools would go fast,
Speaker 3: but that was true. Everybody was showing up real early
Speaker 3: to be able to end the tools. When I would
Speaker 3: say within the first three to four hours of the sale,
Speaker 3: the first people there got the best tools. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: then exercise equipment, which it's expensive, so it's yard sales
Speaker 3: are a great spot to be able to find those
Speaker 3: gardening tools. We'll get into more of that, but again,
Speaker 3: if you know the sale has the items that you want,
Speaker 3: and you also know those things are going to go fast,
Speaker 3: that's when you show up early. And then last on
Speaker 3: my list is to take time to look at and
Speaker 3: inspect items before you buy them. Obviously, there is no
Speaker 3: return policy at a yard sale. Once you leave, they
Speaker 3: close up shop and they go back to their normal
Speaker 3: lives and it's not a store anymore. So make sure
Speaker 3: that the item works. The zippers work at least to
Speaker 3: your liking. If it's broken, make sure you know that
Speaker 3: you can fix it. It's the worst thing ever to
Speaker 3: get home and realize you just paid for somebody's junk
Speaker 3: that is now your junk. Also, ask to plug in electronics.
Speaker 3: If there's something that you're purchasing and you want to
Speaker 3: make sure that it works. That's not an uncommon thing.
Speaker 3: A lot of people, even at their yard sales, will
Speaker 3: have an extension cord out to the driveway for this
Speaker 3: very reason to be able to test items.
Speaker 1: So our next article is from Millennial money dot com
Speaker 1: and it is what to look for at garage sales
Speaker 1: and I have Yeah, this is an extensive list. We're
Speaker 1: not going to go through all of it. We're just
Speaker 1: going to go through our favorites because I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: know if I agree with all of them.
Speaker 3: No, definitely not. Well, here's the thing. The article was
Speaker 3: written more so for what to look for in order
Speaker 3: to resell the items, So that's not the perspective we're taking,
Speaker 3: but more so utilizing this article in a way of
Speaker 3: here's some things that yard sales will have a lot
Speaker 3: of time that can be worth your while because there's
Speaker 3: definitely things you don't want to buy at yard sales
Speaker 3: or really used at all.
Speaker 1: But let you think about.
Speaker 3: But it's funny because I was looking at an article
Speaker 3: about what not to buy and I totally disagreed with
Speaker 3: almost everything on that list.
Speaker 1: What was something they said not to be like, don't.
Speaker 3: Buy a mattress. Don't buy electronics.
Speaker 1: You know how much flat I did guying a mattress
Speaker 1: from Facebook Mark I.
Speaker 3: Did, I did, I did. But I changed my tune
Speaker 3: because I understood that there could be people who resell
Speaker 3: mattresses that were like never used, you know, these mattress
Speaker 3: companies to new mattresses. Yes, I didn't realize that there's
Speaker 3: a whole system happening around. This is a sidebar note,
Speaker 3: but important probably for people to realize. When you order
Speaker 3: a mattress online and it shipped to your door, and
Speaker 3: when it's one of those like non box Spring, it's
Speaker 3: rolled up and pretty much every company gives you a
Speaker 3: thirty day money back guarantee so you can try it out.
Speaker 3: And there's plenty of people who try out these mattresses
Speaker 3: for a week or two and decide I don't want it,
Speaker 3: so they send out typically third party companies to pick
Speaker 3: up these mattresses. What they don't tell you, and they
Speaker 3: can't tell you you find out later, is that those
Speaker 3: people are allowed to resell those mattresses as long as
Speaker 3: they go through a certain set of requirements for cleaning.
Speaker 1: It, and then they give a kickback to you, and
Speaker 1: then they.
Speaker 3: Give a kick back to the company. Yes, yeap. So
Speaker 3: these people exist all over the name.
Speaker 1: And when she says company, she means a dude with
Speaker 1: a truck and a warehouse.
Speaker 3: But I mean they give a kickback to Nectar.
Speaker 1: Or the third party company, third party that picks up
Speaker 1: the mattresses.
Speaker 3: A dude with a truck and a warehouse, huh, making
Speaker 3: or even just like his garage. But they do have
Speaker 3: to because they are still connected with the mattress company.
Speaker 3: There are sets of requirements of cleaning it. So if
Speaker 3: you know what kind of mattress you want, it is
Speaker 3: definitely worthwhile too on Facebook marketplace for that and be
Speaker 3: able to tell is this person reselling these mattresses? You
Speaker 3: can even ask them if it kind of looks like
Speaker 3: this seller has fifteen mattresses for sale, what's going on? Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's what's going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you show up for one and you can
Speaker 1: try several in the warehouse, right what we did?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So, so yes, I would buy mattresses used in
Speaker 3: that regard, and yes I would buy electronics, like there
Speaker 3: were so many things. I'm like, why would you not?
Speaker 1: How our tune has changed? I remember how, Yeah, how
Speaker 1: shamed you.
Speaker 3: Made me I'm capable of change. I can change my mind.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, but yeah for somebody else's mattress. I also
Speaker 1: sold one of my mattresses once to somebody else on
Speaker 1: Facebook marketplace. As long as it's been inside and you
Speaker 1: can see the inside is clean, yeah, probably safe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like that's my thinking. I've bought a mattress
Speaker 1: off of somebody's bed and I walked into the house.
Speaker 1: The house felt clean, I felt clean.
Speaker 3: I'm less likely to do that, especially because of how
Speaker 3: inexpensive mattresses are, Like I don't need your fifteen year
Speaker 3: old mattress.
Speaker 1: Well these I've never bought a mattress that old. It's
Speaker 1: been like that, you know, of it's been like you know,
Speaker 1: they've had it for six months. They were trying to
Speaker 1: make it work. It's already past the one hundred day trial,
Speaker 1: and they're just they're done forcing themselves to live alone.
Speaker 3: I guess. Ultimately, Yeah, there hardly is anything I wouldn't
Speaker 3: buy at a yard sale that I wouldn't just normally
Speaker 3: buy second hand. Like, there are just things I won't
Speaker 3: buy second hand. But it has nothing to do with
Speaker 3: whether or not it's at a yard sale. So yeah,
Speaker 3: you decide, but I think anything is possible. You can
Speaker 3: buy electronics, test them out, you can anything anything, but
Speaker 3: some of our favorites. So I'm using this list.
Speaker 1: You have the song miracles happen, Happen service when you believe.
Speaker 3: I think, especially for the people who might be a
Speaker 3: little bit reticent, this is our reasons for going to
Speaker 3: yard sales. Here are the types of things you can
Speaker 3: be looking for and find that you most likely do
Speaker 3: already need. The types of things you are going to
Speaker 3: a store to buy brand new for It's very possible
Speaker 3: you could find used. So one of my favorites on
Speaker 3: here is kitchen items. I have gotten so many of
Speaker 3: my kitchen items at yard sales and thrift stores too,
Speaker 3: but certainly yard sales. Again, I keep a list of
Speaker 3: things that I want to just in the future, and
Speaker 3: I wait for the deal that I can find, so
Speaker 3: I've got my handy dandy list with me. One of
Speaker 3: the things I recently got was a salad spinner. It
Speaker 3: wasn't a must have, it was a nice to have,
Speaker 3: so I didn't need to get it new, but I
Speaker 3: was able to wait check out yard sales for a
Speaker 3: salad spinner. Next on my list is a slotted spoon.
Speaker 3: I believe I can find that out of the yard sale.
Speaker 3: I don't need to go pay eight dollars for it
Speaker 3: brand new.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think a lot, a lot of the stuff
Speaker 1: that you're gonna find at that's gonna be good to
Speaker 1: look for a garage shells is like, what is something
Speaker 1: that I don't want to I don't want to like,
Speaker 1: I don't not want it enough that I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: throw it in a box to take to the thrift store.
Speaker 1: But I don't want it enough that if I could
Speaker 1: get some money for it, I would keep it. And
Speaker 1: so for me, the first thing that I would think
Speaker 1: of that is also on this list is games like
Speaker 1: board games, Like what if I use it, I want
Speaker 1: to keep it. I don't want to just put it
Speaker 1: in the thrift store. But if I'm doing a yard sale,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for more things to put out at the
Speaker 1: yard sale, I'm gonna start then looking at my board games,
Speaker 1: because if I can make a little money off of
Speaker 1: it and do some decluttering, I will. Otherwise I'll just
Speaker 1: put it back. Yeah, you know, no love loss, So
Speaker 1: board games really, any kind of games could be really
Speaker 1: good to look.
Speaker 3: For a garage sales, Yeah, because they are expensive and
Speaker 3: a lot of times there's there's a life to your games.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Most people, you get really into a game for a
Speaker 3: couple of months and then it's just clutter in your house.
Speaker 3: So being able to kind of switch things out and
Speaker 3: keep things fresh without paying twenty to thirty dollars for
Speaker 3: a brand new board game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and video sometimes.
Speaker 3: You're going to come across the games that are missing
Speaker 3: pieces and that's where you just get to be creative.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but what you utilize, Yeah, video games. Somebody will
Speaker 1: finish a video game and want to hold on to
Speaker 1: it for like a nostalgia, but then have any yard sale,
Speaker 1: you can make some money you put it out there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, game for sure.
Speaker 3: One of my new favorites too that is also on
Speaker 3: this list is clothing. Now, hear me out, because I
Speaker 3: get it that you really can't try on clothing unless
Speaker 3: it's a jacket or shoes or something. But if you
Speaker 3: have a pretty good sense of your sizing, or you
Speaker 3: are able to come across brands that someone is reselling
Speaker 3: that is in your size, and especially if you're only
Speaker 3: paying like a quarter to fifty cents to a dollar,
Speaker 3: it's kind of no harm, no foul. If it ends
Speaker 3: up being ah, this didn't fit just right, I'm not
Speaker 3: saying to be wasteful with it, but it's a reason
Speaker 3: to give clothing a chance. This has been my favorite recently,
Speaker 3: especially at the yard sales of older people. There are
Speaker 3: these women out there, at least in our area, who
Speaker 3: have had the money throughout their life to buy the
Speaker 3: nice clothing, the good fabrics.
Speaker 1: That people who had money growing up were able to
Speaker 1: buy affordable. Or now they're in.
Speaker 3: Their sixties and you know, they've come across money throughout
Speaker 3: their decades and they were.
Speaker 1: Nice things calimony that are still lasting.
Speaker 3: I have some beautiful pieces of clothing that came from
Speaker 3: my sixty to seventy year old friends who happen to
Speaker 3: be the same size as me, getting rid of clothing.
Speaker 3: It's my favorite. It's now my favorite. I'm going to
Speaker 3: these yard sales looking for the clothing of my older,
Speaker 3: wiser women.
Speaker 1: Jill is lucky because her taste is sixty year old woman.
Speaker 1: That's her fashion. Like, if I could describe it, it
Speaker 1: would be not old, but not young. Okay, it would
Speaker 1: be mature woman, but sure, yeah, something.
Speaker 3: Corporate, something, a little corporate.
Speaker 1: Wow. So I don't have that luxury because mine is
Speaker 1: probably I don't know what my grunge mom is, my style.
Speaker 3: I think there you go, listen, you can totally something clothes,
Speaker 3: some corporate mom. You can find grunge mom clothing too.
Speaker 3: But I think sometimes I'll go, I'll go to yard
Speaker 3: sales and it's just people's worn out old Navy T shirts.
Speaker 3: And that's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Its actually somebody's worn out.
Speaker 3: Sure, don't sleep on our older friends selling their top
Speaker 3: tier quality fabric gonna last you long time. Clothing.
Speaker 1: Yes, I would say I would add to that, like, well,
Speaker 1: just the notoriously well made garments, so skiing, puffer jackets,
Speaker 1: winter coats, stuff like that that is notoriously made well
Speaker 1: that because even if somebody's buying like maybe cheap fast
Speaker 1: fashion clothes, you, I mean, most people will invest in
Speaker 1: a good quality jacket, and most of them when they
Speaker 1: move to Florida get rid of them because so they
Speaker 1: bring them down here, not knowing to.
Speaker 3: Check out the thrift stores in Florida.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for your window clothing, they're fantastic. So my next
Speaker 1: one is going to be sports equipment, especially for kids. Now,
Speaker 1: my children are not athletic. One of them can't walk yet,
Speaker 1: you know, so like right, right.
Speaker 3: But he is climbing. He's not walking, but he's climbing.
Speaker 1: Right, And so we we got his climbing gear at
Speaker 1: the yard sale. But sports equipment for you know, like
Speaker 1: all these kids do in sports, growing out of their
Speaker 1: sports stuff so quickly, and that stuff gets put in
Speaker 1: a box in the garage until there's a yard sale,
Speaker 1: and then oh, I remember, it's those are things that
Speaker 1: you spent so much money, people have sunk cost fallacy
Speaker 1: on that we spend so much money on the soccer cleats,
Speaker 1: use them for one season. I don't want to give
Speaker 1: them to the thrift store. But it's also too much
Speaker 1: to all list out individually on Facebook Marketplace, So we
Speaker 1: put the whole box out.
Speaker 3: In the yard. Now, kids everything. Most yard sales these
Speaker 3: days are children's items. Please don't buy another toy or
Speaker 3: clothing item at full price. Just just drive through your
Speaker 3: neighborhood on Saturday. You're going to find kids clothing, kids
Speaker 3: toys at a fraction of the cost. It just is
Speaker 3: the best way to get things for your children that
Speaker 3: are going to grow out of them, lose interest in them.
Speaker 3: But I love the sports equipment idea because I was
Speaker 3: just walking through Walmart and seeing all the pads and
Speaker 3: the cleats, Like you're saying, in the special socks, and
Speaker 3: that's so expensive, especially if you have multiple children and
Speaker 3: they're going to be doing sports throughout the year. Check
Speaker 3: out your yard sales first. Be thinking ahead about the
Speaker 3: activities that the going to be engaging in this fall,
Speaker 3: and start to get those items now in the summer
Speaker 3: at yard.
Speaker 1: Sale, or let those items inspire you on what sports
Speaker 1: to put your kids in. It's like, oh, we have
Speaker 1: the cleats, who soccer?
Speaker 3: That's how I got our bird. We bought a bird cage. Yes,
Speaker 3: we bought a bird cage first at yard sales.
Speaker 1: The bird cage was very cool true story.
Speaker 3: Then yes, the bird cage was a very cool bird cage.
Speaker 3: I wanted it. We bought it, and then we were like, well,
Speaker 3: I guess we should go get a bird to put
Speaker 3: in here. So we went to a bird farm, got.
Speaker 1: A bird and like an aightyary yeah yep.
Speaker 3: And we got a little parakeet.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And Eric taught him how to beat box and he
Speaker 3: was adorable.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's still alive. We just had to give him
Speaker 3: to a friend. That's another story. I also like to
Speaker 3: look at tools, tools, tools, tools, tools especially This is
Speaker 3: I mean only true for you d wires. People who
Speaker 3: are going to use tools. Don't buy tools if you
Speaker 3: won't use them. But if you do need them, definitely
Speaker 3: check out your yard sales for that. Again, that's what
Speaker 3: you're going to want to show up to early for.
Speaker 4: I love.
Speaker 3: Adjacent to this, pots and plants at yard sales, and
Speaker 3: that'll be advertised in the pictures or in the description
Speaker 3: of the yard sales. But if you are looking for
Speaker 3: we all know if you have plants, especially big pots
Speaker 3: are very expensive, and a lot of times you can
Speaker 3: find them at more reasonable prices at yard sales, and
Speaker 3: people will even often get rid of their plants. This
Speaker 3: one woman who I got some very lovely clothing from,
Speaker 3: had planted an entire jungle in her yard and she
Speaker 3: was selling a couple of the plants. But she saw
Speaker 3: my excitement over some of the things she was selling,
Speaker 3: and I was there at the very end of the
Speaker 3: yard sale that she just started taking clippings off of
Speaker 3: all the different plants that I was saying I loved,
Speaker 3: and I walked away with so much free stuff for
Speaker 3: my yard just because we struck up a friendship and
Speaker 3: I was there at the end of the day and
Speaker 3: I took an interest in her things. So try my trick.
Speaker 1: And she gives you all her clothes.
Speaker 3: Now, yes, I should drive by, just knock again. What
Speaker 3: else you got for me, Wendy? All Right?
Speaker 1: The last one that will cover is holiday decor. So
Speaker 1: this is gonna be in your this first yard sale
Speaker 1: of the year. Honestly, is people getting rid of their
Speaker 1: holiday decor. It's either like I don't know, people are like,
Speaker 1: oh this And for me, the tree we put up
Speaker 1: last year is on its last leg, like that was it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, we can't take this tree out again.
Speaker 1: So I got a tree, a really good quality one
Speaker 1: half off nice, you know, the day after Christmas or whatever.
Speaker 1: And so now I will be looking to I'm not
Speaker 1: going to sell mine because it's just it's a it's in.
Speaker 1: But if I were going to, it would be at
Speaker 1: my first yard sale of the year because I already
Speaker 1: know I already have my other tree, or I already
Speaker 1: know I'm going to get another tree. Still feeling the
Speaker 1: trauma from last Christmas's Charlie Brown tree, like this our
Speaker 1: tree is hilt, like it no longer stands up straight.
Speaker 1: Bless it's hard. So ornaments lights. I don't know everybody
Speaker 1: I've ever heard who gets a pre lit tree. The
Speaker 1: lights go out go quickly. So we didn't get a
Speaker 1: pre lit tree.
Speaker 3: We although I think the led are lasting longer. So
Speaker 3: if you are going to get a pre lit look
Speaker 3: for led.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean look for LED lights just yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and all of these things people's you know, first anniversary,
Speaker 1: first baby, first Christmas together, ornaments like just decorate, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So a lot of times Holiday to Cork can
Speaker 3: look tacky in the summer. It looks like the spot
Speaker 3: you want to just walk past and not give any
Speaker 3: attention to. But think of your future self. If you
Speaker 3: are the person who finds yourself in Target November fifteenth,
Speaker 3: wanting to buy all the stuff harness that, harness that
Speaker 3: now in this summer, and recognize that you can get
Speaker 3: all of those things just a little early and save
Speaker 3: yourself so much money. Now, granted, you don't have to
Speaker 3: have Holiday to Core, you don't have to store Holiday
Speaker 3: to Core, you don't have to do any of that.
Speaker 3: But if you know you are the person who does
Speaker 3: do that. Do it now, because you will not get
Speaker 3: the good deal. Calm Christmas time.
Speaker 1: Do not try to be someone you are not. If
Speaker 1: you are already done and you I don't know who
Speaker 1: else is like very Christmas y. If that is you,
Speaker 1: you do it at the art sale. Get all of
Speaker 1: your knickknacks and shotch keys at the.
Speaker 3: Yard sale, and I will add to this cards and
Speaker 3: wrapping paper. I have never, never, have I ever bought
Speaker 3: wrapping paper or cards full price at regular stores because
Speaker 3: you can find them at yard sales and sometimes the
Speaker 3: most adorable vintage wrapping paper and ribbons and cards. Get
Speaker 3: it there, beautiful. Don't spend the money, yeah, do you know?
Speaker 3: But you know what you don't have to spend money on. Also,
Speaker 3: but in UNIFL.
Speaker 1: Actually never find it at thrift store, you'll never find
Speaker 1: it in a state sale. You'll never find it at
Speaker 1: any sale because we own it.
Speaker 3: The middle of the week.
Speaker 5: That's right, it's toime for the best minute of your
Speaker 5: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 5: is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your.
Speaker 2: Car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 2: that bill anymore.
Speaker 5: Be'st bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
Speaker 5: of the week.
Speaker 4: Hello, my name is Danielle and my bill of the
Speaker 4: week is a car insurance bill. So my next installing
Speaker 4: installment was about to be pulled out, and I checked
Speaker 4: my email about it and they had upped my cover.
Speaker 4: It or not my coverage, but they upped the bill
Speaker 4: over twenty five dollars, almost thirty dollars, and so when
Speaker 4: I talked to a representative about it, they said, oh,
Speaker 4: the prices have gone up in.
Speaker 6: Your area, so we can't really avoid it. Your next
Speaker 6: six months has to be, you know, twenty five dollars
Speaker 6: more than your last six months. And so I went
Speaker 6: to a different insurance and company and chatted with a
Speaker 6: representative and they offered me twenty five to thirty dollars
Speaker 6: less than what I was already paying. And so I
Speaker 6: went back and said, hey, can you match this and
Speaker 6: they said no, So I switched. But now I'm paying
Speaker 6: less in car insurance than I was even paying before,
Speaker 6: and that starts this week. So I'm excited to I'm
Speaker 6: glad I paid attention to what was going on, and
Speaker 6: now I feel like I have a few extra dollars
Speaker 6: a month to put toward something else.
Speaker 1: Danielle.
Speaker 3: Girl, maam, it goes half and once in a.
Speaker 1: Whoa when you call Okay.
Speaker 3: That's all we can do. You're just singing it's Noel. Sorry,
Speaker 3: we're gonna get sued copyright issues.
Speaker 1: So good Danielle. You are. You're the Princess of the Day,
Speaker 1: Princess of Genovia. It's I mean, all it takes is
Speaker 1: a call, right, and you might sit on hold for
Speaker 1: a little while, but it's one day and it's going
Speaker 1: to save you so much more money than a bunch
Speaker 1: of other decisions you could make throughout your day when
Speaker 1: you're tired. Just make this one decision once a year
Speaker 1: to eliminate so many other spending decisions. So good for you, Danielle.
Speaker 7: Jill still ye, I can't we just get to a
Speaker 7: sign here, Danielle. I've been there with episodes that wow.
Speaker 7: For your big reveal of Genophia, you you did it.
Speaker 3: You shopped around and you tried to negotiate, and yeah,
Speaker 3: you you spend a little bit of time, saved some
Speaker 3: money and you're just feeling on top of the world.
Speaker 3: We're on top of the world with you. If you
Speaker 3: all listening, feel on top of the world. If you
Speaker 3: feel like a princess today and you want to share
Speaker 3: that in some version of a bill, visit Frugal friendspodcast
Speaker 3: dot com slash bill. We are ready for it, and
Speaker 3: now it's time for.
Speaker 1: All right, for today's holdability, around, for today's vulnerability around
Speaker 1: which princess diary's character are you?
Speaker 3: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: What's the most recent thing you bought at a yard salem?
Speaker 3: Okay, I was at a yard sale, not that long ago.
Speaker 3: I got one of those egg cartons for my fridge
Speaker 3: to organize my eggs in my fridge. Not worth it
Speaker 3: at the container store, Nope, Why But when it's twenty
Speaker 3: five cents, I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I just need to know why.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you why because they can hold more eggs
Speaker 3: than the egg carton thing that it comes with from
Speaker 3: the grocery store. So like you get eggs from the
Speaker 3: grocery store, there's twelve eggs in it. Then by the
Speaker 3: time I'm down to like two to four eggs, I
Speaker 3: buy another carton. Now I've got stacks of cartons, whereas
Speaker 3: with this one clear plastic carton, it holds like eighteen eggs.
Speaker 3: And I can more easily see how many I have.
Speaker 3: That's why, and it's because it was twenty five cents perfect,
Speaker 3: so that makes sense for me. I'm not gonna spend
Speaker 3: twelve dollars on it, no way, no, how, nope. But
Speaker 3: I'm like, there you go. That's nice because I did
Speaker 3: have one before that I had also gotten out of
Speaker 3: yard sale, and then it melted in my dishwasher. Yikes. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so now I just don't wash it. But also a
Speaker 3: squeegee and also a curling iron, and I'm pretty sure
Speaker 3: I got all of that for two dollars, just random stuff.
Speaker 3: We were just at the end of it and it
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, I could use a curling iron for
Speaker 3: the guest bathroom because everybody's always asking me to borrow
Speaker 3: my curling iron. So here you go. This one looked
Speaker 3: clean and a squeegee for washing the car.
Speaker 1: So great. What about you, Oh girl, I can't tell
Speaker 1: you the last time I went to a yard sol.
Speaker 3: Then let's let's add in Facebook marketplace.
Speaker 1: Oh well, okay, so is that anything that's yard sale adjacent?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean we're gonna we're getting a couch
Speaker 1: delivered tomorrow. We bought on Facebook, Marketplace I had. So
Speaker 1: we have this very unique layout now in this new
Speaker 1: house that would be better conducive to a corner couch
Speaker 1: that has the same you know, with by length versus
Speaker 1: our regular couch, so just so that we can have
Speaker 1: the right amount of seating. So we've been looking for
Speaker 1: a corner couch for probably six months, I would say
Speaker 1: six months. On marketplace I found and it's also we're
Speaker 1: we're limited by the size. It's got to be like
Speaker 1: ninety six to ninety eight inches both ways. So that's
Speaker 1: been another There's there's a lot of quarter couches, but
Speaker 1: they're all very big or very small. Yeah, so the
Speaker 1: middle right, So I finally found one that we checked
Speaker 1: out yesterday, and it is not like the Dream color
Speaker 1: or the Dream style, but it is top grain leather,
Speaker 1: It is comfortable to sit on, it is the right size,
Speaker 1: it's we've got ninety eight inches and it is ninety
Speaker 1: seven inches, So it really is like it's got everything
Speaker 1: going for it that's important. And it looks good. Nice,
Speaker 1: It's going to look good in the space, and it's
Speaker 1: going to give us the right amount of seating for
Speaker 1: the layout. Nice, and I'm very excited. Yeah, to get it.
Speaker 1: That is that is very exciting.
Speaker 3: I love it when we can find even some of
Speaker 3: the bigger items at yard sales or Facebook marketplace, because
Speaker 3: those are some heavy hitters too, Like it's great for
Speaker 3: me to find a curling higher for a dollar, but
Speaker 3: even better when you can find the couch you need
Speaker 3: at a fraction of the cost. Thanks everyone for listening.
Speaker 3: We have this inspired you to get out there and
Speaker 3: do some yard sales, but only spend on things that
Speaker 3: you actually need. Make sure that you're bringing your list along.
Speaker 3: You're buying the things you need and use, but always
Speaker 3: considering secondhand first. If you need more tips like this,
Speaker 3: you know, we got a newsletter. It's called the Friend Letter.
Speaker 3: It goes out three times a week Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Speaker 3: We're in your inbox. We're giving you freebees, savings tips.
Speaker 3: One of the things I love that we're doing is
Speaker 3: deep dives on particular items. So well, oh recent a
Speaker 3: friend letter that we did was on lawnmowers because they're
Speaker 3: going to be on sales soon, so like, what's the
Speaker 3: best type of lawnmower you can get? We've done pots
Speaker 3: and pans, so these things that can cost us a
Speaker 3: significant amount of money but could last us a really
Speaker 3: long time kind of how do we get the best
Speaker 3: bang for our buck and then just money mindset hacks.
Speaker 3: We love to give you prompts to go into your
Speaker 3: weekend to think about your money. So it's all the things.
Speaker 3: It's a full person approach, and our friend letter is
Speaker 3: an email that you can actually respond to with kind
Speaker 3: messages like this one from Katie who wrote back to
Speaker 3: one of our friend letters and said, Ladies, I find
Speaker 3: the show very entertaining. I actually found you through the
Speaker 3: Choose Fi podcast when I was trying to learn all
Speaker 3: the ways to vacation in Italy for almost free. I'm
Speaker 3: very new to the financial independence scene, and I didn't
Speaker 3: jump into no Spend January because my husband and I
Speaker 3: were doing whole thirty in January. Yeah, that's a lot. However,
Speaker 3: we did live in the spirit of no Spend January
Speaker 3: and sold a property that we held in a rural area.
Speaker 3: Now we have a nice chunk of change savings in
Speaker 3: a cit hyld savings account.
Speaker 1: A yay, how awesome funbeh love We love brad Over
Speaker 1: at Choose Fi. Yeah, so such a fun guest episode.
Speaker 1: And we've been hearing from so many of you who
Speaker 1: found us through that episode. That was such a good one,
Speaker 1: So thank you, Katie. Yeah, thanks everyone for listening as well.
Speaker 3: If you want those freebie savings tips, values based spending hacks,
Speaker 3: h head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com. Get that
Speaker 3: in your inbox. Also, feel free to leave us a
Speaker 3: review if you're feeling it, if you're liking it, if.
Speaker 1: You want to support us in a way that doesn't
Speaker 1: cost money, we would love that. Frugal Friends is produced
Speaker 1: by Eric Sirianni. All right, Jill, if you don't have
Speaker 1: any relevant things to say, I've looked up some famous
Speaker 1: quotes from the Princess Diaries movie.
Speaker 3: Okay, perfect, let's go there.
Speaker 1: Some some that may like define what it is to
Speaker 1: be millennious from most of them come from Joe, who
Speaker 1: is butler?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Is he a butler, chauffeur, chauffeur? I mean he is
Speaker 1: everything and he swoons her at the end, So I
Speaker 1: think he's a butler. Yeah, he's the best, but he
Speaker 1: has the best things to say, like nobody can make
Speaker 1: you feel inferior without your consent. Oh right, yeah, yeah Joe. Again,
Speaker 1: I've never put on pantyhose before but it sounds dangerous.
Speaker 3: I remember that scene.
Speaker 1: Joe trying to remember Lana's friends Anna, Falana, Banana, Bandana, Montana.
Speaker 1: I love that scene.
Speaker 3: We need to watch this movie.
Speaker 1: I know, Hey, Joe, can we park a block away
Speaker 1: from school? I really don't want to cause a riot
Speaker 1: with this, hearse Joe. This is a non riot, hearse,
Speaker 1: And if it were a there would be silence in
Speaker 1: the backseat. He's the driver. He is the driver.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh he's so snappy, man, he is really uh, he
Speaker 1: is really the best, Joe. This is between a waltz
Speaker 1: and a tango. Yeah, it's a wango.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. Wow. We should move on with our lives.
Speaker 3: That's a great movie.
Speaker 1: I can't okay, last one, Mia, Joseph, can we eighty six?
Speaker 1: The flags? Please?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: The flags allowed me to park anywhere we keep the flags. Sorry, Joseph,
Speaker 1: you can call me Joe Joey, No, Joe.
Speaker 3: I remember that scene very vividly. And you just you
Speaker 3: just read the script very well. Yes, just had a
Speaker 3: very nice table reading.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm reading Jeanette mcurtiy's memoir and I feel like
Speaker 1: an actress. I feel like I could do it. Wow, basically.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, if we don't hear from Jen again, it
Speaker 3: is because she's pursued.
Speaker 1: Her in Hollywood. I have pursued my real dream, being
Speaker 1: a child actor.