It's That Time of Year

YARD SALES!

Ok, I totally love yardsaling. Yes, I know, that's technically not a word, but it should be. With everyone's focus on saving money, yardsales are a great way to live on less. I love getting a great deal on something, and I have to confess, I was born to haggle. I think it's a gift. I get some kind of high out of negotiating the best price.

It used to embarass my husband. He sees a price on something, he thinks, that's what it costs. If you want it, that's what you pay. Nah-uh. That's just a reference point from which to begin the negotiations. Once, I saw a particular item I wanted. The price said $50. For that? Nope. I whispered to my husband that I would buy it, but that I had no intention of paying more than $35. "The price says $50," he whispered back. "I'm going to try to get it for $35," I stubbornly replied. I turned to the man selling the item and offered him 30 bucks. I could see my husband's mouth about to open and I knew the words that would issue forth, I thought you said you'd pay $35, but thankfully the dear man kept his thoughts to himself. The man whose item I was trying to buy paused a moment, the wheels in his head whirring rapidly as he considered my offer. "How about $35?" I nodded thoughtfully and with feigned reluctance, agreed. Now my husband sets his embarassment aside and is thankful that his thrifty-minded self married a woman of like mind. He's even haggled a little himself on occassion.

I take yardsaling seriously. Therefore, I plan ahead to make sure I don't miss the perfect deal.

Here's my strategy:

1. Check Classified section of local papers online and on Craigslist for yardsales in my area.

2. Use the search engine on each website to search for those items I'm most interested in finding. This helps me weed through a sometimes lengthy list of yardsales. That way I know which ones are most likely worth my time.

3. Write down the addresses of all the yardsales I want to attend and the times they start.

4. Day of yardsales - get out my handy GPS and type in the address of the first yardsale I want to check out. I never thought I'd be a GPS kind of girl, but seriously, I'm not sure how I lived without it.

5. Continue to navigate from yardsale to yardsale using the GPS. Just type in the address of the next yardsale (from your prepared list, of course) and off you go.

6. When haggeling, I always offer a little lower than what I'm willing to pay. Then I hope that the other person is willing to negotiate and offers a price close to what I want to pay. Also, I don't haggle the small stuff. If they're asking a reasonable price on a small item, and it's within my price range, I pay it. Save your superb negotiation skills for those higher priced items where you'll really save a few bucks.

I've already found some great items this year. The other week I bought an antique Louis Vuitton trunk for $5! It's in pretty rough condition, so I'm not sure that's it's really worth much, but it'll make a neat coffee table at least and I'm thinking it's probably worth more than five bucks.

Do you yardsale? If so, do you have a story about a special "find" or "deal" of which you are particularly proud?