How to Make The Most of Yard Sales

Published May 3, 2024, 7:00 AM

May is here, and so are yard sales! We have finally entered the season of yard sales, and some may have already been hunting and lining up for these sales. Don’t worry, Jen and Jill share tips on making the most of your yard sale stop and their experiences buying from one. Know which items to add to your list on your next yard sale visit! 

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Episode four oh three, how to make the most of yard sales.

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life here your hosts Jen and Jill.

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are on the cusp of yard sales season. Some of us are already in it, and so we're going to talk about what to do how to make the most of all these yard sales you're about to be seeing when you're driving home, you're driving to school Friday mornings, you're driving all over the place. You're seeing the yard sales, but you don't want to stop by because who knows if you have time? Like, is it even worth it yard sales? Who does yard sales anymore? Everybody just donates to the thrift store, right.

No, no, No, yard sales exist.

Yeah.

I love yard sales so much. You all already know that Jill is a hunter, and I don't think I realized that there's actually tips to be had. I thought, I don't know what to say about yard sales. You just show up. And then as I'm reading through this, I'm realizing, oh yeah, there is a decent amount to know about how to do this thing as best as possible. So I'm real excited to get into it.

Yes, but first, this episode is brought to you by vintage Star Wars merch. It's the stuff of yard sale glory stories. Someone's mom doesn't know how important that Star Wars lego set is and you haven't upon it at ten dollars. What a steal, What a dream? The Force was with you. The Force will also be with you if you sign up for the Friend Letter, because while it's not very often you come upon very valuable things at a yard sale, it is very possible you will come across something valuable in the Friend Letter because we send it out three times a week, full of tips, full of stories that you can get some glory out of. So head to Frugal friendspodcast dot com and sign up for the Friend Letter. And May the Fourth be with you this weekend.

Wow, you really wanted to weave in May the Fourth?

I did?

You did it?

I don't get there. I don't know if it's because it's so close to my birthday, but I love May the Fourth. I do like Pie Day. Whatever I don't care about it. All these other like made up there's March tenth is Mario day mar m a r I owe ten. Yeah, I don't care about them, but I do love May the fourth. You do love Star Wars, and so I think everybody else I have. I have a love of May the fourth, and I have I have a love with a little bit more hesitantion for yard sales. And a lot of you said the same thing. So we ask you, guys, do you shop yard sales? And most of you said yes, but I don't go out of my way for them, and that's kind of how I am. A lot of you said yes, I love them, and then there were just a few, like a few that were like I don't like the hunt or I prefer thrift stores. So we are really going to tailor this for our for people who maybe want are already interested in yard sales and want to just get better at it and want to want to know, feel more confident so that you maybe will be willing to go out of your way try it a few times.

Yeah, because I, on the other hand, am the person who does a full on uie see your yard sales side.

Yes, I yeah, I am not. I know a lot of people have the same feelings as I don't. Like, I'm not big on digging through things or trying to get a bargain. There was just like a I felt seen in a lot of these I prefer thrift stores that way, no one is offended if I don't buy anything. It's so kind, it's so polite. I don't That is sometimes awkward when you go and you look, and then you don't want them to offend when you don't want their stuff, But remember they don't want it either, so they're not offended.

True.

You know, That's why I think. I was like, you didn't want this either, but you do.

Want money for it. I'm not going to give you money.

For it, right, So yeah, this will be a fun one. And if you're interested in stuff like this, we do have episode three forty one why you shouldn't sleep on a state sales. We love a state sales. Honestly, I put in a state sale a little bit above yard sale. Yeh yeah, So we're just gonna say in the hierarchy, we're going We're going to state sale is number one. So definitely check out episode three forty one and then episode two ninety eight No cost Ways to be more eco friendly, because we do think shopping estate sales, yard sales, thrift stores is just that it's the kind way to buy. You want to be kind shop secondhand.

For so many reasons. It's so great. So let's get into this first article. It comes from Apartment Therapy and it is titled nine tips for scoring deals at yard sales all Summer long from a seasoned pro. So we're going to go through it. The first one is to plan out your route ahead of time. Now this is for the people who know you want to do yard sailing this weekend. You've carved out the morning on Saturday or Sunday, and you are looking for some specific things. It's worth planning out a route. So first of all, you want to look for where are the yard sales happening. They reckon men Craigslist and newspapers, and at first I was like, what are you talking about? But they made a good point that it seems archaic. But some of your older folks who have maybe some vintage items, some items that were just made real well lasted a real long time. This is these are the places that they may be advertising their sale. So check Craigslist and your local newspaper, but also see if your city has a local yard sale page on Facebook. I also like to use Garage Sale Finder and yard Sale Search. Those are some really great websites to be looking at and find out, all right, what's in your area, and then plan out so that it makes sense you're not driving all over the place and you kind of know where you want to hit. But a lot of times too, they will describe what's going to be at each of these yard sales, so you also want to map out, well, this place says they've got the tools and the furniture, so let's make sure we get there first. And then so you want to take two things in mind, like not just your route and what makes sense driving wise, but what makes sense for what each sale says that they have.

Yeah, this is really nice. Facebook. Marketplace is a really great place to find garage sales too. I think think about wherever you would post if you were going to host a yard sale, where would you post it? And those are gonna be popular places to find good ones. I will see when I'm looking on Marketplace all the time, pictures of things that people are going to be selling. They'll usually post them on Wednesday or Thursday. If they're a Friday, Saturday, Sunday sale.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can know ahead of time.

So the next tip is to take small bills. But I'm gonna I maybe this is just me, I'm gonna push back on that because so many people are taking Zell and Venmo. I don't think you really need to worry about cash anymore. But for older people who don't want to do Zell or venmoh, taking smaller bills so that you can make change. If you want to reduce the price of a twenty dollars item to sixteen, but you don't have ones, that's gonna be really hard to convince.

I will say all of the art sales I've been too recently it has been cash. I don't totally know what's going on for people, but there's quite a bit of folks who don't feel comfortable doing the electronic exchange. I don't know if they feel as though, well, I don't know, you what if it doesn't go through, what if there's a glitch. But I'd say it's a lot of sales do still do cash. And I've found myself in a lot of situations where I don't have either any bills on me or they're too large, so it can really cut into my ability to negotiate if I really talk someone down or I'm like, I've only got a five on me, like that can help, whereas like if you're pulling out twenties and fifties, I don't know, it just can look tacky.

Yeah, I would say, carry a couple small bills and then try Venmo. I mean, I've been to some yard sales where it's I can do Venmo very easily because you're right there in person. I would rather do venmo at and not everybody loves Venmo, but my bank, my credit union doesn't use Zelle, so it's hard for me to use that, but I can just scan it right in person. Versus, I know Travis will prepay for things on Venmo when he's doing Facebook marketplace transactions, and that makes me feel uncomfortable. I would like to be in person with someone with the product in my hand. And so yeah, so but no that you don't. If you stop buy yard sale and you don't have cash, it's not always a deal breaker.

Yeah, so true, Okay, negotiate for a discount. You know that we love a good negotiation on everything, bills wise, and at yard sales. Now, I will say this is definitely the place to be kind with your negotiation. I have done my fair share of yard sales, putting on yard sales, and people will will you take ten cents? Will you take twenty five cents on something that's marked for like ten dollars? So be reasonable. But these are just people at their house marking the stuff that they don't want anymore at probably some version of an arbitrary price. You can absolutely negotiate. One of my favorite things is to bundle together. So make sure that you've done your round of the whole yard sale, that you found all the things that you want, and then ask for Hey, would you take x amount of money for all of these items? And have your price in mind? Don't just say what would you take for this? But would you take three dollars? Five dollars? A lot of times I can say I think I've been successful just about every time. Maybe on some bigger items people might say, nah, I'd rather hold out, and you can make up your mind from there, but I'll always negotiate. Mm hmm.

Next is timing your arrival and so they say they have two recommendations arrive at the sale early or get sales near closing time. And the tactic you choose will be different depending on what you're looking for. If you're looking for something specific, definitely go to these websites, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook groups. Look at what these sales have. If you see something you want. Now, normally I would say these things, it's going to be the stuff that didn't sell on Facebook Marketplace, because if I have something I want to sell, I'm going to just post on Facebook Marketplace. I'm not really going to host a yard sale for it, so temper your expectations with it. But you could find a gem, and if you find a gem in a picture, then make sure you're reaching out to the seller and be like, I'm going to be there at the start of your sale for this item, and they're not going to hold it for you. They are going whoever is there first with cash will get the item. But to just let them know, like, you know, I really want this, because then they might say, well, hey, if the sale starts Friday, if you can pick it up Thursday evening, I'll you know, I'll give you a discount. Well, ask for a discount and be like, hey, if I picked this up, you know, Thursday evening, then you know, would you give me like X amount of dollars? And sometimes they'll say yes. But if you see something you want, you're gonna want to get there early, but not too early. If the sale starts at seven, do not show up at five point thirty. Do not do it. You had this experience with the estate sale with your mom. How early were people showing up?

Oh? Two hours early. We open in the garage door and there were literally people. There was this woman whose head was down trying to poke under the garage door as it was lifting. She was lifting her head up with the garage like, this is not Black Friday at some massive store. I don't know what you think this is? Yeah, so wild?

So that yeah, get early. Do not show up on time, yeah, or maybe fifteen minutes early.

But you'd sit there. If they look like they'd like they don't want you, just wait until they said that the thing was gonna start.

If there's something specific you want, you can say like, hey, I'm just here for X thing. You know, I'm not here to rush you, but I know I really want x H. And they're usually going to be chill with that. Yeah, you know, they don't want to. They just don't want people all up on their business and every table browsing while they're trying to set up exactly.

Yeah, and that's what we said. We're like, you can look, but we're not going to be ready to take money until the time that the sale starts. But I will say too, for the reasons to show up early or late. If you see that there are things that are going to go quickly, so things like tools, furniture, collect like antique.

Stuff, picture frames, yeah, oh my gosh, like hot cakes.

It was crazy. So if you see that there's things that will go fast, then that's when you want to show up early. If they're things that you want, if you're kind of just there to browse and you've got a few nick nacky items on your list of things that you're looking to buy in the future, then show up late. That's when you can kind of get the deals, pick through what's left over, and really score a deal.

What else was surprising to you that went fast?

Was it the exercise exercise equipment? Yeah? And as I'm looking on the internet, that is what people are saying. Exercise equipment will go fast. I knew tools would go fast, but that was true. Everybody was showing up real early to be able to end the tools. When I would say within the first three to four hours of the sale, the first people there got the best tools. Yeah, and then exercise equipment, which it's expensive, so it's yard sales are a great spot to be able to find those gardening tools. We'll get into more of that, but again, if you know the sale has the items that you want, and you also know those things are going to go fast, that's when you show up early. And then last on my list is to take time to look at and inspect items before you buy them. Obviously, there is no return policy at a yard sale. Once you leave, they close up shop and they go back to their normal lives and it's not a store anymore. So make sure that the item works. The zippers work at least to your liking. If it's broken, make sure you know that you can fix it. It's the worst thing ever to get home and realize you just paid for somebody's junk that is now your junk. Also, ask to plug in electronics. If there's something that you're purchasing and you want to make sure that it works. That's not an uncommon thing. A lot of people, even at their yard sales, will have an extension cord out to the driveway for this very reason to be able to test items.

So our next article is from Millennial money dot com and it is what to look for at garage sales and I have Yeah, this is an extensive list. We're not going to go through all of it. We're just going to go through our favorites because I don't necessarily know if I agree with all of them.

No, definitely not. Well, here's the thing. The article was written more so for what to look for in order to resell the items, So that's not the perspective we're taking, but more so utilizing this article in a way of here's some things that yard sales will have a lot of time that can be worth your while because there's definitely things you don't want to buy at yard sales or really used at all.

But let you think about.

But it's funny because I was looking at an article about what not to buy and I totally disagreed with almost everything on that list.

What was something they said not to be like, don't.

Buy a mattress. Don't buy electronics.

You know how much flat I did guying a mattress from Facebook Mark I.

Did, I did, I did. But I changed my tune because I understood that there could be people who resell mattresses that were like never used, you know, these mattress companies to new mattresses. Yes, I didn't realize that there's a whole system happening around. This is a sidebar note, but important probably for people to realize. When you order a mattress online and it shipped to your door, and when it's one of those like non box Spring, it's rolled up and pretty much every company gives you a thirty day money back guarantee so you can try it out. And there's plenty of people who try out these mattresses for a week or two and decide I don't want it, so they send out typically third party companies to pick up these mattresses. What they don't tell you, and they can't tell you you find out later, is that those people are allowed to resell those mattresses as long as they go through a certain set of requirements for cleaning.

It, and then they give a kickback to you, and then they.

Give a kick back to the company. Yes, yeap. So these people exist all over the name.

And when she says company, she means a dude with a truck and a warehouse.

But I mean they give a kickback to Nectar.

Or the third party company, third party that picks up the mattresses.

A dude with a truck and a warehouse, huh, making or even just like his garage. But they do have to because they are still connected with the mattress company. There are sets of requirements of cleaning it. So if you know what kind of mattress you want, it is definitely worthwhile too on Facebook marketplace for that and be able to tell is this person reselling these mattresses? You can even ask them if it kind of looks like this seller has fifteen mattresses for sale, what's going on? Yeah, that's what's going on.

Yeah, and you show up for one and you can try several in the warehouse, right what we did?

Yeah? So, so yes, I would buy mattresses used in that regard, and yes I would buy electronics, like there were so many things. I'm like, why would you not?

How our tune has changed? I remember how, Yeah, how shamed you.

Made me I'm capable of change. I can change my mind.

Okay, yeah, but yeah for somebody else's mattress. I also sold one of my mattresses once to somebody else on Facebook marketplace. As long as it's been inside and you can see the inside is clean, yeah, probably safe. Yeah, you know, like that's my thinking. I've bought a mattress off of somebody's bed and I walked into the house. The house felt clean, I felt clean.

I'm less likely to do that, especially because of how inexpensive mattresses are, Like I don't need your fifteen year old mattress.

Well these I've never bought a mattress that old. It's been like that, you know, of it's been like you know, they've had it for six months. They were trying to make it work. It's already past the one hundred day trial, and they're just they're done forcing themselves to live alone.

I guess. Ultimately, Yeah, there hardly is anything I wouldn't buy at a yard sale that I wouldn't just normally buy second hand. Like, there are just things I won't buy second hand. But it has nothing to do with whether or not it's at a yard sale. So yeah, you decide, but I think anything is possible. You can buy electronics, test them out, you can anything anything, but some of our favorites. So I'm using this list.

You have the song miracles happen, Happen service when you believe.

I think, especially for the people who might be a little bit reticent, this is our reasons for going to yard sales. Here are the types of things you can be looking for and find that you most likely do already need. The types of things you are going to a store to buy brand new for It's very possible you could find used. So one of my favorites on here is kitchen items. I have gotten so many of my kitchen items at yard sales and thrift stores too, but certainly yard sales. Again, I keep a list of things that I want to just in the future, and I wait for the deal that I can find, so I've got my handy dandy list with me. One of the things I recently got was a salad spinner. It wasn't a must have, it was a nice to have, so I didn't need to get it new, but I was able to wait check out yard sales for a salad spinner. Next on my list is a slotted spoon. I believe I can find that out of the yard sale. I don't need to go pay eight dollars for it brand new.

Yeah, I think a lot, a lot of the stuff that you're gonna find at that's gonna be good to look for a garage shells is like, what is something that I don't want to I don't want to like, I don't not want it enough that I'm just gonna throw it in a box to take to the thrift store. But I don't want it enough that if I could get some money for it, I would keep it. And so for me, the first thing that I would think of that is also on this list is games like board games, Like what if I use it, I want to keep it. I don't want to just put it in the thrift store. But if I'm doing a yard sale, I'm looking for more things to put out at the yard sale, I'm gonna start then looking at my board games, because if I can make a little money off of it and do some decluttering, I will. Otherwise I'll just put it back. Yeah, you know, no love loss, So board games really, any kind of games could be really good to look.

For a garage sales, Yeah, because they are expensive and a lot of times there's there's a life to your games.

Yeah.

Most people, you get really into a game for a couple of months and then it's just clutter in your house. So being able to kind of switch things out and keep things fresh without paying twenty to thirty dollars for a brand new board game.

Yeah, and video sometimes.

You're going to come across the games that are missing pieces and that's where you just get to be creative.

Yeah, but what you utilize, Yeah, video games. Somebody will finish a video game and want to hold on to it for like a nostalgia, but then have any yard sale, you can make some money you put it out there. So yeah, game for sure.

One of my new favorites too that is also on this list is clothing. Now, hear me out, because I get it that you really can't try on clothing unless it's a jacket or shoes or something. But if you have a pretty good sense of your sizing, or you are able to come across brands that someone is reselling that is in your size, and especially if you're only paying like a quarter to fifty cents to a dollar, it's kind of no harm, no foul. If it ends up being ah, this didn't fit just right, I'm not saying to be wasteful with it, but it's a reason to give clothing a chance. This has been my favorite recently, especially at the yard sales of older people. There are these women out there, at least in our area, who have had the money throughout their life to buy the nice clothing, the good fabrics.

That people who had money growing up were able to buy affordable. Or now they're in.

Their sixties and you know, they've come across money throughout their decades and they were.

Nice things calimony that are still lasting.

I have some beautiful pieces of clothing that came from my sixty to seventy year old friends who happen to be the same size as me, getting rid of clothing. It's my favorite. It's now my favorite. I'm going to these yard sales looking for the clothing of my older, wiser women.

Jill is lucky because her taste is sixty year old woman. That's her fashion. Like, if I could describe it, it would be not old, but not young. Okay, it would be mature woman, but sure, yeah, something.

Corporate, something, a little corporate.

Wow. So I don't have that luxury because mine is probably I don't know what my grunge mom is, my style.

I think there you go, listen, you can totally something clothes, some corporate mom. You can find grunge mom clothing too. But I think sometimes I'll go, I'll go to yard sales and it's just people's worn out old Navy T shirts. And that's not what I'm talking about.

Its actually somebody's worn out.

Sure, don't sleep on our older friends selling their top tier quality fabric gonna last you long time. Clothing.

Yes, I would say I would add to that, like, well, just the notoriously well made garments, so skiing, puffer jackets, winter coats, stuff like that that is notoriously made well that because even if somebody's buying like maybe cheap fast fashion clothes, you, I mean, most people will invest in a good quality jacket, and most of them when they move to Florida get rid of them because so they bring them down here, not knowing to.

Check out the thrift stores in Florida.

Yeah, for your window clothing, they're fantastic. So my next one is going to be sports equipment, especially for kids. Now, my children are not athletic. One of them can't walk yet, you know, so like right, right.

But he is climbing. He's not walking, but he's climbing.

Right, And so we we got his climbing gear at the yard sale. But sports equipment for you know, like all these kids do in sports, growing out of their sports stuff so quickly, and that stuff gets put in a box in the garage until there's a yard sale, and then oh, I remember, it's those are things that you spent so much money, people have sunk cost fallacy on that we spend so much money on the soccer cleats, use them for one season. I don't want to give them to the thrift store. But it's also too much to all list out individually on Facebook Marketplace, So we put the whole box out.

In the yard. Now, kids everything. Most yard sales these days are children's items. Please don't buy another toy or clothing item at full price. Just just drive through your neighborhood on Saturday. You're going to find kids clothing, kids toys at a fraction of the cost. It just is the best way to get things for your children that are going to grow out of them, lose interest in them. But I love the sports equipment idea because I was just walking through Walmart and seeing all the pads and the cleats, Like you're saying, in the special socks, and that's so expensive, especially if you have multiple children and they're going to be doing sports throughout the year. Check out your yard sales first. Be thinking ahead about the activities that the going to be engaging in this fall, and start to get those items now in the summer at yard.

Sale, or let those items inspire you on what sports to put your kids in. It's like, oh, we have the cleats, who soccer?

That's how I got our bird. We bought a bird cage. Yes, we bought a bird cage first at yard sales.

The bird cage was very cool true story.

Then yes, the bird cage was a very cool bird cage. I wanted it. We bought it, and then we were like, well, I guess we should go get a bird to put in here. So we went to a bird farm, got.

A bird and like an aightyary yeah yep.

And we got a little parakeet.

Yeah.

And Eric taught him how to beat box and he was adorable.

Wow.

Yeah, he's still alive. We just had to give him to a friend. That's another story. I also like to look at tools, tools, tools, tools, tools especially This is I mean only true for you d wires. People who are going to use tools. Don't buy tools if you won't use them. But if you do need them, definitely check out your yard sales for that. Again, that's what you're going to want to show up to early for.

I love.

Adjacent to this, pots and plants at yard sales, and that'll be advertised in the pictures or in the description of the yard sales. But if you are looking for we all know if you have plants, especially big pots are very expensive, and a lot of times you can find them at more reasonable prices at yard sales, and people will even often get rid of their plants. This one woman who I got some very lovely clothing from, had planted an entire jungle in her yard and she was selling a couple of the plants. But she saw my excitement over some of the things she was selling, and I was there at the very end of the yard sale that she just started taking clippings off of all the different plants that I was saying I loved, and I walked away with so much free stuff for my yard just because we struck up a friendship and I was there at the end of the day and I took an interest in her things. So try my trick.

And she gives you all her clothes.

Now, yes, I should drive by, just knock again. What else you got for me, Wendy? All Right?

The last one that will cover is holiday decor. So this is gonna be in your this first yard sale of the year. Honestly, is people getting rid of their holiday decor. It's either like I don't know, people are like, oh this And for me, the tree we put up last year is on its last leg, like that was it. Yeah, I was like, we can't take this tree out again. So I got a tree, a really good quality one half off nice, you know, the day after Christmas or whatever. And so now I will be looking to I'm not going to sell mine because it's just it's a it's in. But if I were going to, it would be at my first yard sale of the year because I already know I already have my other tree, or I already know I'm going to get another tree. Still feeling the trauma from last Christmas's Charlie Brown tree, like this our tree is hilt, like it no longer stands up straight. Bless it's hard. So ornaments lights. I don't know everybody I've ever heard who gets a pre lit tree. The lights go out go quickly. So we didn't get a pre lit tree.

We although I think the led are lasting longer. So if you are going to get a pre lit look for led.

Yeah, but I mean look for LED lights just yeah, yeah, and all of these things people's you know, first anniversary, first baby, first Christmas together, ornaments like just decorate, you know.

Yeah. So a lot of times Holiday to Cork can look tacky in the summer. It looks like the spot you want to just walk past and not give any attention to. But think of your future self. If you are the person who finds yourself in Target November fifteenth, wanting to buy all the stuff harness that, harness that now in this summer, and recognize that you can get all of those things just a little early and save yourself so much money. Now, granted, you don't have to have Holiday to Core, you don't have to store Holiday to Core, you don't have to do any of that. But if you know you are the person who does do that. Do it now, because you will not get the good deal. Calm Christmas time.

Do not try to be someone you are not. If you are already done and you I don't know who else is like very Christmas y. If that is you, you do it at the art sale. Get all of your knickknacks and shotch keys at the.

Yard sale, and I will add to this cards and wrapping paper. I have never, never, have I ever bought wrapping paper or cards full price at regular stores because you can find them at yard sales and sometimes the most adorable vintage wrapping paper and ribbons and cards. Get it there, beautiful. Don't spend the money, yeah, do you know? But you know what you don't have to spend money on. Also, but in UNIFL.

Actually never find it at thrift store, you'll never find it in a state sale. You'll never find it at any sale because we own it.

The middle of the week.

That's right, it's toime for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your.

Car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.

Be'st bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week.

Hello, my name is Danielle and my bill of the week is a car insurance bill. So my next installing installment was about to be pulled out, and I checked my email about it and they had upped my cover. It or not my coverage, but they upped the bill over twenty five dollars, almost thirty dollars, and so when I talked to a representative about it, they said, oh, the prices have gone up in.

Your area, so we can't really avoid it. Your next six months has to be, you know, twenty five dollars more than your last six months. And so I went to a different insurance and company and chatted with a representative and they offered me twenty five to thirty dollars less than what I was already paying. And so I went back and said, hey, can you match this and they said no, So I switched. But now I'm paying less in car insurance than I was even paying before, and that starts this week. So I'm excited to I'm glad I paid attention to what was going on, and now I feel like I have a few extra dollars a month to put toward something else.

Danielle.

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Whoa when you call Okay.

That's all we can do. You're just singing it's Noel. Sorry, we're gonna get sued copyright issues.

So good Danielle. You are. You're the Princess of the Day, Princess of Genovia. It's I mean, all it takes is a call, right, and you might sit on hold for a little while, but it's one day and it's going to save you so much more money than a bunch of other decisions you could make throughout your day when you're tired. Just make this one decision once a year to eliminate so many other spending decisions. So good for you, Danielle.

Jill still ye, I can't we just get to a sign here, Danielle. I've been there with episodes that wow. For your big reveal of Genophia, you you did it.

You shopped around and you tried to negotiate, and yeah, you you spend a little bit of time, saved some money and you're just feeling on top of the world. We're on top of the world with you. If you all listening, feel on top of the world. If you feel like a princess today and you want to share that in some version of a bill, visit Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash bill. We are ready for it, and now it's time for.

All right, for today's holdability, around, for today's vulnerability around which princess diary's character are you?

I'm just kidding.

What's the most recent thing you bought at a yard salem?

Okay, I was at a yard sale, not that long ago. I got one of those egg cartons for my fridge to organize my eggs in my fridge. Not worth it at the container store, Nope, Why But when it's twenty five cents, I'll tell you why.

Okay, yeah, I just need to know why.

I'll tell you why because they can hold more eggs than the egg carton thing that it comes with from the grocery store. So like you get eggs from the grocery store, there's twelve eggs in it. Then by the time I'm down to like two to four eggs, I buy another carton. Now I've got stacks of cartons, whereas with this one clear plastic carton, it holds like eighteen eggs. And I can more easily see how many I have. That's why, and it's because it was twenty five cents perfect, so that makes sense for me. I'm not gonna spend twelve dollars on it, no way, no, how, nope. But I'm like, there you go. That's nice because I did have one before that I had also gotten out of yard sale, and then it melted in my dishwasher. Yikes. Yeah, so now I just don't wash it. But also a squeegee and also a curling iron, and I'm pretty sure I got all of that for two dollars, just random stuff. We were just at the end of it and it was like, yeah, I could use a curling iron for the guest bathroom because everybody's always asking me to borrow my curling iron. So here you go. This one looked clean and a squeegee for washing the car.

So great. What about you, Oh girl, I can't tell you the last time I went to a yard sol.

Then let's let's add in Facebook marketplace.

Oh well, okay, so is that anything that's yard sale adjacent?

Yeah?

Yeah, well, I mean we're gonna we're getting a couch delivered tomorrow. We bought on Facebook, Marketplace I had. So we have this very unique layout now in this new house that would be better conducive to a corner couch that has the same you know, with by length versus our regular couch, so just so that we can have the right amount of seating. So we've been looking for a corner couch for probably six months, I would say six months. On marketplace I found and it's also we're we're limited by the size. It's got to be like ninety six to ninety eight inches both ways. So that's been another There's there's a lot of quarter couches, but they're all very big or very small. Yeah, so the middle right, So I finally found one that we checked out yesterday, and it is not like the Dream color or the Dream style, but it is top grain leather, It is comfortable to sit on, it is the right size, it's we've got ninety eight inches and it is ninety seven inches, So it really is like it's got everything going for it that's important. And it looks good. Nice, It's going to look good in the space, and it's going to give us the right amount of seating for the layout. Nice, and I'm very excited. Yeah, to get it. That is that is very exciting.

I love it when we can find even some of the bigger items at yard sales or Facebook marketplace, because those are some heavy hitters too, Like it's great for me to find a curling higher for a dollar, but even better when you can find the couch you need at a fraction of the cost. Thanks everyone for listening. We have this inspired you to get out there and do some yard sales, but only spend on things that you actually need. Make sure that you're bringing your list along. You're buying the things you need and use, but always considering secondhand first. If you need more tips like this, you know, we got a newsletter. It's called the Friend Letter. It goes out three times a week Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We're in your inbox. We're giving you freebees, savings tips. One of the things I love that we're doing is deep dives on particular items. So well, oh recent a friend letter that we did was on lawnmowers because they're going to be on sales soon, so like, what's the best type of lawnmower you can get? We've done pots and pans, so these things that can cost us a significant amount of money but could last us a really long time kind of how do we get the best bang for our buck and then just money mindset hacks. We love to give you prompts to go into your weekend to think about your money. So it's all the things. It's a full person approach, and our friend letter is an email that you can actually respond to with kind messages like this one from Katie who wrote back to one of our friend letters and said, Ladies, I find the show very entertaining. I actually found you through the Choose Fi podcast when I was trying to learn all the ways to vacation in Italy for almost free. I'm very new to the financial independence scene, and I didn't jump into no Spend January because my husband and I were doing whole thirty in January. Yeah, that's a lot. However, we did live in the spirit of no Spend January and sold a property that we held in a rural area. Now we have a nice chunk of change savings in a cit hyld savings account.

A yay, how awesome funbeh love We love brad Over at Choose Fi. Yeah, so such a fun guest episode. And we've been hearing from so many of you who found us through that episode. That was such a good one, So thank you, Katie. Yeah, thanks everyone for listening as well.

If you want those freebie savings tips, values based spending hacks, h head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com. Get that in your inbox. Also, feel free to leave us a review if you're feeling it, if you're liking it, if.

You want to support us in a way that doesn't cost money, we would love that. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. All right, Jill, if you don't have any relevant things to say, I've looked up some famous quotes from the Princess Diaries movie.

Okay, perfect, let's go there.

Some some that may like define what it is to be millennious from most of them come from Joe, who is butler?

Right?

Is he a butler, chauffeur, chauffeur? I mean he is everything and he swoons her at the end, So I think he's a butler. Yeah, he's the best, but he has the best things to say, like nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. Oh right, yeah, yeah Joe. Again, I've never put on pantyhose before but it sounds dangerous.

I remember that scene.

Joe trying to remember Lana's friends Anna, Falana, Banana, Bandana, Montana. I love that scene.

We need to watch this movie.

I know, Hey, Joe, can we park a block away from school? I really don't want to cause a riot with this, hearse Joe. This is a non riot, hearse, And if it were a there would be silence in the backseat. He's the driver. He is the driver.

Yeah.

Oh he's so snappy, man, he is really uh, he is really the best, Joe. This is between a waltz and a tango. Yeah, it's a wango.

Oh my gosh. Wow. We should move on with our lives. That's a great movie.

I can't okay, last one, Mia, Joseph, can we eighty six? The flags? Please?

No?

The flags allowed me to park anywhere we keep the flags. Sorry, Joseph, you can call me Joe Joey, No, Joe.

I remember that scene very vividly. And you just you just read the script very well. Yes, just had a very nice table reading.

I'm I'm reading Jeanette mcurtiy's memoir and I feel like an actress. I feel like I could do it. Wow, basically.

Okay, well, if we don't hear from Jen again, it is because she's pursued.

Her in Hollywood. I have pursued my real dream, being a child actor.

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