Lessons on Bargain Shopping

Yard sale season is upon us.  Oh, how I love yard sales (or rummage sales as they're called around here).  I used to wake up early nearly every Saturday in graduate school with my sales already marked on my laminated city map and cruise around Louisville finding treasures galore.  I furnished my first apartment almost exclusively with yard sale finds.  It makes me almost giddy just thinking about it.

Since having kids I haven't gone yard-sale-ing as much.  Mostly because I just don't relish the idea of driving around town, finding a sale, getting the kids out for a quick look, strapping them back into their car seats, and repeating this over and over. Because of course many yard sales only warrant a quick glance and on to the next.  Not fun when you have to drive to get from one to the next with three small children.  

This weekend there was a big annual neighborhood sale that I have been wanting to go to.  I am all about being able to park the car once and walk to lots of sales in a short distance.  I have heard good things about this particular neighborhood sale.  I have been itching to go to it so much that I actually considered trying to get up extra early and hit the sales before going to our play date yesterday morning, knowing that all the best stuff would probably be gone by today.  I quickly discarded that idea as completely insane, but I couldn't help but feel all antsy about getting to the sales this morning.  When we did get there late this morning, it was wonderful.  Big girls in the wagon, Baby Sis in my wrap, and we were all set to shop.  

It was awesome.

I love finding bargains.  But I think this time I loved teaching Miss and Lass what a "bargain" is even more than the bargains themselves.  We found one sale where they had lots of Little Mermaid books.  Very nice hardcover books that were like new (Miss is holding one in the photo below) for 50 cents each.  I grabbed up the books, gave each girl a dollar, and told them they could each pick two books.  The lady running the sale said, "They can have three for a dollar."  Naturally, I said, "What a bargain!" and proceeded to try to explain to Miss why this was so.  She wasn't really listening, because she was carefully going through each of the books to choose her three (which she has been "reading" nonstop and she is sleeping with tonight, BTW), but I was excited to tell her anyway.  I loved watching her select her books, take them to the lady with her dollar and shyly give her the money with a quiet, "Thank you" and a little sideways grin.

Later on I happened to find myself at a sale being run by two ladies in my book club.  They commented on how quietly and peacefully my girls were riding in their wagon.  Thank you Little Mermaid books.

One of my friends was selling Candy Land and Memory games, in great condition, for 50 cents each.  Score.

Miss and I played a game tonight before bed.  She kicked my butt.

I'm looking forward to many years of bargain shopping with my girls.  Next lesson?  I'm teaching them how to haggle...