Yard Sales

Matthew 14:17-21
"And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children."

I really believe that no matter what our financial circumstances, the Lord wants to bless us with the ability to meet our needs, even if this means we need to get a little creative. Sometimes, being self-reliant means finding ways to save some money, to make a little go a long way. Sometimes we are in dire financial circumstances, and other times, there might be things we need but don't want to spend a million bucks on it. And let's face it, it's much nicer to get more for your buck and either set aside the money you saved, or get two things you needed instead of just one.

For these reasons, we have always loved yard sales. Some simply don't like the idea of buying used items. Others may argue that the time and gas spent driving around to the sales would negate the money saved. But let me give you a few examples of our yard sale successes.

We have a baby on the way. It's been years since we were in the realm of infants, and had given away all of our clothing and equipment. The idea of spending jillions of dollars to start over is a little more than I can bear. We have been watching the yard sales. Recently Vance was able to find one with lots of little clothes and was able to get probably a week's worth of clothing for less than $12. We will continue to look for furniture and other needs. (Please note that it is NEVER safe to buy a car seat from a yard sale, because you never know what kind of abuse it has been through, which could render it unsafe in an accident.)

For a while our microwave has been possessed. The door will be closed, and suddenly out of nowhere it will start cooking. (Please imagine some creepy "Twilight Zone" music here.) And then the other day, it started shooting blue lightning. Time for a new microwave, but to find one with our size and wattage requirements would cost over $200. Yikes. Today Vance found just the microwave we needed and paid... $11 for it! It works great!

Every few years we take a family camping trip out of state. With our increasing family size and luggage demands, we are rapidly running out of room in our vehicle. We need one of those hard-side rooftop cargo deals. Again, these are pretty darn expensive, and we have a limited vacation budget. But Vance had his eagle eye open and found one, brand new, for $45.

We have been able to acquire a very large portion of our emergency supplies, household equipment, and even canning equipment in our yard sale escapades. I think some keys for successful yard saling are to make sure that you keep your budget in mind and make sure that you are only purchasing items that you really need. Just like any enjoyable shopping excursion, it can be easy to find a lot of stuff that would be fun but just not needed. If you have the budget for that kind of spending that's fine, but what if you have a limited budget for these purchases and you already spent your $5 on an inflatable canoe with a hole in it (just saying), when what you really needed were dishes?

Just remember, if your freaky about germs and such, most items are easy to sanitize and disinfect, and you can usually tell if they come from a home with pets or cigarette smoke (which may or may not be a turn-off for you).

I really can attest to the Lord's ability to help us stretch our dollars! He wants to bless our means and make them greater than we had thought possible. It's easy to get caught up worrying about what we can't afford, but sometimes if we re-evaluate our budget and think outside the box, He is more than willing to provide a way for us to have the thins we need, and even some of the things we want! We just need to have a little faith and imagination.

-Katie