OK, quick little update... I sold all my free cleaners for $1 apiece in the first 30 minutes. How awesome was that?! Now I am preparing for the next one and winter to come. My next garage sale preperations are snagging more free cleaners and getting great deals on tools. Men are always nutty about tools. I will post the deals as I score them. Getting ready for winter will be a post at a time. I will be blogging about canning, soap making, herbal remedies and in Jan, starting the garden with pictures included. I am thinking of making lotion this weekend, if so i will blog it all!

Selling the Freebies

Still working on out garage sale. Some may ask what to sell. I say... what not to sell! If you are a couponer, here is your time to shine. My husband likes the Gillette antiperspirent, but is allergic to thier body wash. Usually in the fall I can fined coupons that will let me buy a body wash and get a deoderant free or vice versa. Leaving a BOGO at the store is like leaving money. I get them even though he can't use them. Since you got it for free you can sell it at half price and still turn a profit. Sometimes if you are a savey couponer you can do the same for disposable razors. anything you get for free you can sell. I happened across a great deal on household cleaners, as in free. I really only use vinegar, but I still snatched them up. I gave some of them to our church to donate to the local food bank. I saved some for care packages and the rest I'll sell. All 100% profit. sometimes you may turn your nose up at a free item, because you won't use it, but I would be willing to bet someone you know will. What about food items? I have plenty of friends that sell down thier stockpile when it gets too large and looks as if somethings may expire. I, myself don't let my stockpile get that large. that being said, YES you can sell food items. We are actually letting the girls have a "lemonade" stand. They are selling water, soda and powerade, most of which I got for free. We don't drink a lot of soda, but when it is free I snatch it up. We will then have it anytime we are asked to bring something to a potluck, or any function like that. We are also making cookies for the girls to sell. People love buying baked goods from children, from grownups...not so much. The only things I personally won't sell are used underthings and shoes with holes. Even ratty clothes can be sold. You can cut them up, bag them and sell them as a bag of rags. Also, cut them into squares and sell them a package of quilt squares. What about crayons? If you are like me you have millions of broken crayons. Here is what you do....Teach your children a little science and craftyness and melt them together and make new ones. Then package them and sell them. The main moral is, just because it is your trash, it can be turned into someone elses treasure. Next time....how do I get free stuff?

tips for garage sale

Alright Alice has now fallen down the rabbit hole of the internet. From now on I am going to make an effort. Alice has gone earth mamma!!!! school is about to start and tax free weekend is upon us. This coupon queen is having a yard sale. Why not take advantage of the deals you may ask? Well, they aren't deals! I went to Khol's last weekend with 2 coupons and bought 2 dresses, 3 pants and 4 shirts for about $20. This weekend I plan on making that back with the yard sale. LOL. Then maybe we will have school supply shopping. Tjis is how we got ready for the yard sale. Firstly, we have a designated box in an out of the way place. If we pick something up and decide to yard sale it, it goes in the box right then and there. This way there is no massive clean up to find things to sell. When the box is full, it moves to storage and we get a new box. When it looks like we have enough (the garage is full) we host the sale. Everything must go, there is nothing that can come back to the house. This need to be a rule, otherwise you'll turn into a hoarder. What do you do with things that don't sell, you may ask. There are still options. First, there are resale shops and consignment stores. I choose resale, that way I can get my $$$ and don't have to worry about forgetting about the clothes. (Some resale shops will just keep your clothes if they are left, remember we are here to profit!) Call around and find out the terms of your resale shops. I have one near me that will give me 10% more to take a store credit. Right now with two growing girls, that is a boon for me!! Then we move on to books, cds and movies. Half price books all the way, you can take the cash or use the credit for some books or workbooks for the children. The rest??? Tax right off. Take pictures, donate and write it off. Now that we are done with the stuff, how do we advertise? I usually let the hubby take that one. Here is what he does...... Lots of signs, use nice ones, you'll be doing this more than once. List your ad on facebook, on your wall or create an event. Craigslist!!!! Throw out some good pictures on craigslist. Talk to local businesses and see if they will let you put a sign up. Some newspapers will let you put in a free or low cost ad. Remember the goal is to make money, not spend it. next... saving money on laundry!