I learned from the best

In my family, there is the mechanic/jack of all trades guy (my dad). There is the homeschooling mom of 5 who is soon to become a grandma for the first time (my older sister). There is the layed back mom of 2 bio kids & 2 adopted babies who has a really cool background in social work (my other sister). And there is the garage sale queen--my mom!

Seriously, the woman can find ANYTHING at garage sales. If you need a 1972 avocado green blender w/ a broken pulse button, just let her know & next week, you'll have one. Need some size 10 jeans for your child? Done. Need some white dress shoes in an 8 wide? Check! We joke about her "duds" that she finds once in a while, but for the most part, you can give her an "assignment" to find something in particular & she usually can! For years now, she's brought me bags of clothes for the kids on a monthly basis, mostly bargains she found at garage sales. Sometimes they're not quite right, but hey, for 50 cents you can have a few 'not quite rights' along the way.

This morning, the girls & I got to go along with the garage sale queen for a day of treasure hunting & boy did I find some treasures! Let me show you what all I found & then I'll tell you how much I spent. :)

I found a cute striped shirt for Samuel & a swingy black skirt for Savannah.

I got Sarah a new pair of rollerblades which she wore almost non-stop for the remainder of the day!

I got a new egg poacher & a cool foot massager.

I got 2 books for Samuel & 1 for myself and a James Taylor CD.

I got 2 shirts for Larry.

I got a really cool picnic basket (I've always wanted one!). I got a BRAND NEW "I love the 80s" game for Larry & I to play and Outburst Junior for the kids to play. (although I suspect that we'll be playing it w/ them!)

So, how much do you think I spent?

Let's add up a few things. Those 2 games would cost about $10-15 a piece in the store. Nice picnic baskets go for $10-30, depending on what's in them. The 2 shirts for Larry would run $10-20 a piece in the store. The CD is an older one so I probably could've found it in the $5 bargain bin of CDs at Walmart. The 2 books for Samuel would run about $3/each and the book I bought (it's brand new) would've been $6.97 in the store (the price is on it). The egg poacher I have now was about $5 when I bought it, so I'm guessing that the new one (it's brand new!) would've been slightly more b/c it cooks 3 eggs at a time. The little massager thing would've probably been in the $5-10 range. Rollerblades are about $20-40 in the store, depending on the type/brand/size/style. The shirt & the skirt would've been $8-15 a piece in the store.

Those prices add up to quite a bit, doesn't they?

I spent $14.50 for the whole batch of stuff!!! WOO HOO!

Yes, I learned from the master. :)