Yard Sales - oh my!

August 1st and 2nd is the 14th annual Yards and Yards of Yard Sales event organized by the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce. We paid the $15 to be "official participants" and to be included on the map given to visitors looking for bargains.

I've been scouring through all our closets, the garage, and the basement to find things worthy of selling at our yard sale. We have a pretty wide variety of items this time, from baby gear (our three year old refuses to sit in a stroller any more), to appliances, to electronics and household items. It's strange how many promotional pens I've found with the names of companies I've never heard of. I suppose the life of a pen is much like the life of money, changing hands so many times it ends up very far away from its origin.

Anyway, I hope this year's yard sales are a big success and that we can sell lots of stuff and make a little bit of money!

What to wear

Now that I am "thirty-something" I don't feel the need to impress people with my wardrobe. I just wear what is comfortable, but doesn't make me look like a slob. I was never too much into being fashionable, and usually stuck with classics like jeans, t-shirts, and button-up shirts. The only times I remember worrying about my outfit was when my husband and I would go dancing at nightclubs in college.

The nightclubs we went to were pretty much fashion shows in themselves, with extravagant outfits including thigh high boots, leather, vinyl, and electrical tape. We never went quite that far, but I wore some outfits to nightclubs that I couldn't imagine wearing anywhere else. It was fun at the time, but we are beyond all that now.

Father's Day deals

Continuing with my affinity for online shopping and finding great deals, I found one site that has great ideas for Father's Day. Most men would be happy with a gift of more tools, right? I found an online store called Burns Tools with all the major tool brands, plus deals like free shipping on Delta machinery and DeWalt products.

The site is organized so searches can be done by product or by brand name, which is very convenient. The design is simple and straightforward with easy navigation. The Burns Tools store is a member of the Better Business Bureau's Online Reliability Program, which gives consumers peace of mind while shopping on the internet.

Online shopping rules

So I've mentioned before how moving to a small, somewhat remote town has spawned our revelation with online shopping. I mean, we've shopped online for quite sometime now, probably longer than most people, but now we buy practically everything online aside from groceries and everyday household items. With the price of gas as high as it is now, it's cheaper to pay the shipping fees (if any), and we save the wear and tear on our car, and we don't waste half a day driving to the big stores.

Another thing that happens when we drive an hour to Rogers for shopping, is that we usually have to buy at least one meal out while we are there, which is more out-of-pocket expense. I know, I know, we could pack food to take with us right? Well, we just never expect our shopping trips to take as long as they do, but let's face it - stores like Home Depot and Lowe's are like the Twilight Zone, aren't they? Where does the time go???

So anyway, now that we do most shopping online, we are somewhat obsessive about getting the best deals. We will search all over the place to find a site with Kohls coupons, or free shipping, or whatever comes out the least expensive. Shopping online is also convenient because you can read consumer reviews for the products. This is important to us because you can never trust advertising 100%. Pictures of products online can be very deceiving.

So even if it takes a couple of hours to find what we are looking for, we still come out ahead in the long run by shopping online.

Reserve groceries

In Mary Hunt's book "Live Your Life for Half the Price", she says there are two types of grocery shopping: needs and reserves. Either people shop for only what they need at the time and buy just enough food to last until the next shopping trip, or they study grocery store circulars and stock up their reserves on items as they come on sale. She is a big promoter of the "reserves" method and says you can end up saving lots of money if you shop this way. The hard part is switching from "needs" shopping to "reserves" shopping. She estimates it will take about 3 months to build up your reserves enough to be able to essentially "shop" from your own pantry when you prepare meals.

With the help of a free site like Coupon Mom, you can look up major grocery store chains to see what is coming up on sale that week. Then you can look up which manufacturer coupons will appear in the Sunday paper, then match the two up for the lowest rock-bottom prices on grocery items. Those are the ones to stock up on. If you can find a store that will double coupons, you will save even more and sometimes even get an item for free!

I am willing to give this a try since I am still having trouble cutting the grocery bill to where I want it to be. The problem is, there are no major grocery store chains near us and I don't like driving to Berryville just to shop at Wal-Mart. But we do have two big local grocery stores that compete weekly for business, so between those two, I should be able to get good deals if I only buy what's on sale and stock up on those items.

Think Globally, Shop Locally

I am shocked at the amount of money we are saving by shopping locally. I guess when we drive to a different city to shop, we feel like we should "stock up" so we won't have to drive there again for a while. But what ends up happening is that we just use up everything faster and stuff doesn't last as long as you figured it would. This is true for groceries, health items, household items, etc.

When I shop in town, I have to go to different stores depending what I need. This makes me really stick to my list. When we used to drive out to Wal-Mart in the nearby town of Berryville, we would buy all kinds of stuff on impulse and spend at least $50 more than we budgeted, not to mention the extra gas money spent driving there. I thought all the shops in town would be more expensive, but as long as you are comfortable using generic brands (we are very comfortable with them!), then you don't have to spend much to feed your family. Plus, since there are two local grocery stores, they have really good weekly specials to get your business. Hart's actually had bananas for 10 cents a pound one week!! We also got a 20 pound bag of potatoes for $3.99!

Christmas shopping all done!

Yay, we have finished our Christmas shopping!! I was so worried that we were procrastinating (as usual), but we found everything in one shopping trip! For our families, we made ornaments with the kids and burned DVD photo slideshows.

Since we're still working out the whole self-employment thing, we don't have the money right now to buy gifts for everyone. But I think making gifts for people makes an impression and is something that they will remember more than a candle or scarf or something.

No more Wal-Mart for me

Ever since the accident we saw last weekend, we have decided to drive as little as possible. We have even reconsidered our weekly trips to Berryville to do our grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. Then, I checked out a DVD at the library that solidified my thoughts even more. It is called "Wal-Mart: the high cost of low price" - a Robert Greenwald Film. When faced with all the facts and statistical data against WM's practices, I can't justify making the drive to shop there.

The local grocery stores may have higher prices, but I am less likely to impulse shop like I do at WM. So I spend less and don't end up with useless items. Plus, I feel better supporting local businesses to keep my community thriving. Eureka Springs relies so much on tourism for much of its capital already, then if all the residents do their shopping in other towns we will be totally reliant on tourists. We want our town to thrive on its own, with tourism being an added bonus. So from now on, we'll find what we need right here and encourage other locals to follow suit.