great ways to save.

Here is one great thing about summer, it makes people want to share.  The warm weather brightens everyone spirits and people become more giving, I say take advantage of these times, but remember to pay it forward somewhere.

One example is rhubarb, someone with an established crop will almost always share, as they never want to deal with it all.  My husband had been doing some landscaping work for a couple and I was helping him. I mentioned to the homeowner how nice his rhubarb looked and how I was trying to get my own going.  Well, the next thing I know I'm home washing and cutting what ended up being 12 cups of rhubarb, I had already been given 5 cups by a friend and had made a dessert so I froze these 12 cups for later.

Perennial flowers are another thing, late spring and early summer people start to thin their perennials, although it is not the ideal time to transplant, the plants will survive, though often flowers will not bloom the first year. I have gotten iris', honey suckles, and hostas this way.  I had been given so much I actually donated some of it to our local community gardens.

I truly enjoy sharing what I have extras of and I love to expand my flowers and gardens every year so I can share. I can guarantee if I got it for free from someone you will get it for free from me.

Rummage sale finds

I promised you a how to on rummage sale shopping so I am going to give you a few tips on how I like to rummage sale.

First thing is that there are two different types of rummage sale shoppers;
1. Drive-bye: Drive around randomly looking at a rummage sale from the road
2. Plan and attack: get listings in advance mark the ones you want to visit and map in order.

     I am a Plan and attacker, although I have been known to do the drive by thing if I just happen to see a random rummage sale (or small neighborhood one).  So basically what I do is find a city wide rummage sale I am interested in, get a listing and start by marking all of the ones that have something I would have a need for.  Next I follow the map, that is usually provided, for the city wides and make a list of what order I want to go in.  I will even go as far as programming them into my GPS.  Then I just start going.  Often you find during City wides many people do not place their listings but still have sales, so if I get to an address I often check nearby houses for sales.  If house has a lot of children's stuff, chances are so will the neighbors, since neighborhoods tend have similar family structures.

    Last weekend I went with my Mom and my 3yr old son to a big city wide, I had everything mapped out and ready to go, and was pretty disappointed, the sales were listed well and in order on the map but the information was not all that good.  The first one we went to said boys clothes to size 6 and when we got there they had 4 pair of shorts and 2 t-shirts.  We found multiple places that the listings were a little misguiding, but that is all part of the sales.

   That being said we did not come home empty handed by any means, My Mom purchased Braxton a Spiderman bike (15 in) with training wheels for $15, and I purchased him a Lego table, with Marker board, chalk board and matchbox road path and storage for $10.  We both picked him up a few small toys, a few clothes, some books and pajamas.  Mom also bought him a Leap Pad with 5 games for $15.  All in all I think we spent around $75-$85 dollars and had quite a few things when we got home.  We even got him a Home Depot work bench for FREE! it is already out in my Dads wood shop so he can help Grandpa.  I have to admit it wasn't one of the best days of rummage Sales (Huge Thunderstorm shut many down early) but I did get some pretty good deals.

  I plan to try again in two weeks if all goes well, and see if I can do any better.

Side Note from a rummage sale addict......I don't care if the Jeans say Gap, Ambercrombie, or Deisel, I will not pay you $2 or more for jeans that have holes in the knees.  My 3 yr old does a great job of putting them there on his own I would hate to ruin his fun.