Yard Sale Frustration: Has This Happened to You?by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 08 Jul 2007 06:07 AM One of my biggest pet peeves in the frugal living arena is when I try to save money and wind up spending more in the process. In other words, it costs me more than I actually save. Does this ever happen to you? Yesterday was a good example for me. It is what I call a bad yard sale day. It was so bad that it left us all very frustrated. I have been itching to go to the yard sales, but we have had too many other priorities to make the time. Well, yesterday, we made the decision to go. We were up early and out the door (relative when you have three small children, but still, we did pretty well with getting out at a good time). We consulted Craigslist and our local newspaper classifieds and we mapped out a route. Since we didn't want to overspend our time, we choose only three yard sales. They were listed as multifamily and advertised the type of items we needed. This way, we figured, we were most likely to find a great bargain. Well, unfortunately, our strategy fell flat. It seems that one multifamily sale after another turned out to be nothing more than a small card table or tarp filled with dust collectors. Where were the baby clothes and equipment? Where were the tools and books that were advertised? What happened to the new in the box toys? I thought perhaps that early birds had come and snatched all of the goodies up. But in actuality that wasn't the case. Of course I had to ask. One multifamily sale turned out to be a woman and her aging mother who lived in the same household. At another sale, we were told that they just didn't feel like putting most of their stuff out. At the third, well, there was no third. It simply didn't exist. Finally, in an effort to save the yard sale shopping morning, we started chasing yard sale signs. This was a bad idea. One sign we chased led us around in circle and back out to the main road. Another revealed the "huge garage sale" to be nothing more than a man in a hammock selling a couple of car tires. I guess it just wasn't our day. Sigh. We wound up not only wasting time, but spending money on gas to drive all around. We now live in a bit of a rural area, so any yard sale involves some driving. Have you ever had any yard sale frustration? What are your worst yard sale experiences? Mary Ann Romans also writes for the Computing Blog here at Families.com where she shares everything from the latest news on technology to cool downloads and fun websites. Related Articles: Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments jonesx6 (1606) 09 Jul 2007 06:06 AMHah!! This is exactly what happens to us when we "do" yard sales. I am sorry that your yard sale day didn't turn out! Laura Community Tags frugal, garage sale, yard sale Discuss this article
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