JWR:
I strongly suggest checking out yard sales. Every Thursday we get our free local community paper that lists all of the upcoming weekend yard sales. The night before, I go to yahoo maps and map out our route which greatly saves time and wasted miles driving around.
Then every Saturday morning my family and I head out – sometimes a little later than what we hope, but most of the time we are out the door by 8 a.m. Note: this is also a great way to spend some family time together. We’ve even found great deals at 2 p.m. so it’s not necessary to be the first there and often later in the day, prices become reduced or items become free (I picked up a box of medical supplies the week before last for free).
Kids – well let me just say they make out like a bandit. My grandson this weekend got a free basket ball, free baseball glove, and a big box of legos that has kept him busy for hours all for $5. It’s like Christmas every Saturday for him and at the tenth of the cost for us.
I also scored well this weekend with two, pristine sleeping bags. One was a Eddie Bauer and the other an L.L. Bean mummy sleeping bag, and each one of these mint condition bags cost me $5 each.
My other prepping find this weekend was nine full tubes of tooth paste and three new-in-the-package toothbrushes for $5.
You never know what you will find and most seem like they just want to get rid of some of the abundant amount of stuff that we Americans are so blessed to have. We take it for granted how rich and blessed we are. Good luck and God bless.