What I love about summer: yard sales

For the past three Friday mornings, my friend Christine and I have been loading our kids into her van and hitting various yard sales across the Dayton region. We've both scored major deals. Today I picked up a Diaper Champ for the new baby's room, two first word books for Elliott and a cute Carter's outfit for the baby. Total price: $6. The Diaper Champ, which retails over $30, will need a good cleaning, but it's otherwise in perfect condition, as were the books and outfit. It's difficult for me to buy things at full price when I know that I can usually find them at less than half the cost at garage sales or through Craigslist postings. I rarely, however, buy my own clothing second-hand, but I shop sales and manage to get what I want most of the time. Perhaps it's my size or height, but it's not often that I can find clothing for myself at thrift stores or yard sales that would fit correctly or frankly that I would want to wear.

So far this yard sale season, I've bought a chair for Elliott's room for $40, a smattering of books and puzzles for Elliott for probably $5 total, a set of Pottery Barn soft alphabet and word blocks for $2, the diaper champ for $5, a diaper bag for $7 and a few pieces of clothing for Elliott and the baby for probably total $10.

Christine is using the yard sales to help her oldest daughter learn to recognize coins and to understand the value of money. It's fun to watch her become more judicious about what she buys.