Thrifty Tip: Go for the FREE boxes at Yard Sales

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Today’s Thrifty Tip is go for the FREE boxes at yard sales! It’s that time of year again! If yard sales haven’t already started to crop up around your neighborhood – get ready! They soon will! That’s why I want to take a moment to stress the importance of digging through those FREE boxes.

For some, the word “FREE” is synonymous with “junk” so they don’t even bother looking through them.

Well, honey – their loss is YOUR gain!

You should never dismiss a free box, sight unseen. These boxes often contain toys, office supplies, electronics, books and more. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve scored over the years from free yard sale boxes:

• Toys – If the toys are in good condition (and they usually are!), I’ll allow my children to select 1 item each. {Just because they’re free doesn’t mean they need every single one!}
• 3-Ring Binders – I found a whole box of binders at a yard sale last year – all for free! This saved me a ton of money in September during the Back to School rush! {That and every couponer needs a back-up binder, right?}
• Movies –  Yes, they were VHS tapes. However, I was able to donate them to a local nursing home where the residents were very happy to receive them.
• Software – When my kids were little, they wanted all those learning programs like Reader Rabbit and Jumpstart. But of course, I wasn’t about to invest $30+ on each one! Enter those free boxes! I got every single “learning game” they wanted – plus a few they didn’t even know existed – for nothing!
• Designer clothes – Yep, you read that right. Designer clothes! One of my favorite “scores” was an old pair of Levi’s that had the red line stitching along the seams. These babies are considered vintage and go for a pretty penny in the re-sale market! I took them home, washed them up and sold them for $100 on eBay. {Cha-ching!}
• Vintage books – I remember the time I found one of the original first-run copies of Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss, published back in 1869. The pages were yellow with age and threatened to fall apart in my hand, but I had a piece of history! {I later sold the book to an antique dealer for $50.}

See what I mean? You should never dismiss those free boxes. You never know what you might find! 😉

So tell me. What kinds of things have you found in those FREE boxes at yard sales?

About Karrie

Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...