I had some errands to run yesterday and P (our 3.5 year old) happily came along with me. One was to take advantage of the coupon and Tom’s of Maine deal at Walgreens. P needed a new Silly Strawberry toothpaste anyhow and we seem to go through a tube of toothpaste every 6 weeks, so having a few extra on hand (and for an end total of $2/tube) seems pretty reasonable.

We stopped at two garage sales on our way home and got some really nice things! One of the few plastic toys I’ve found that are durable and not too intolerable are the baby toys by Leapfrog, so to pick up the Learning Drum for $2 was a treat. P selected the Thomas puzzle set (3 49-piece puzzles and a story book) for $0.75. Not pictured, because at the moment I can’t remember where I stashed them, are two adorable Aborsba girls outfits that are in perfect condition. I’m adding them to my HUGE resale pile because I know I will get more for them at the consignment store than the $1 I paid for both. Throw in the teething toy and we paid an even $4 to our neighbors.

Down the street, I grabbed a bag full of work clothes for $10 –  2 pair of pants, 2 awesome cotton sweaters (always a plus for those of us allergic to wool!), 2 button down shirts and 4 knit shirts — in that pesky size 14. Someday I’ll be a 10 again, but until then I’m not going to spend a lot of money on clothes.

The real pick-up for Saturday was at the farmers market, though. Some Whole Foods marketing folks were there putting $30 off coupons on cars. We got to talking to one guy and he handed us a whole stack! Now, you have to spend $50 to get $10 off and $100 to get $20, so 7 of those coupon (expiring 10/31) would be a little excessive for most families. Not ours! I work a few blocks from the store, so it’s not out of my way to visit frequently, and if I am in for our regular grocery purchases, the formula we special order each week, and a little stockpiling, I will use them all, for sure!

Since I last posted a victory shot, I hadn’t had the best weeks at rummage. Until today. I went to a handful of sales this morning, but then around 2pm one of the babies was fussy and the rest were asleep, so my husband suggested that I take R out and hit some garage sales. Who was I to argue?

I noticed some late posts on craigslist in a neighborhood adjoining ours so I headed out that way. I stumbled across a few signs for a sale on my way home so I decided to stop. I was so tentative, based on what I could see from the car, that I left baby R in his infant seat with the minivan door open, assuming I would take a peek and then come right back (he was about six feet away from me, don’t worry). I was so very wrong…

The family having the sale has one child, a boy. They were parting with his perfect condition size 4-7 clothes for $3/bag. I grabbed the infant seat from the car and started making piles. I took about half of the clothes! I got 7 pairs of pants, 2 button down shirts, 3 pairs of pajamas, 2 long sleeve t-shirts, 2 pairs of cargo shorts, 1 sweat suit, and a pile of underwear, for $7, or less than a quarter a piece. All brand names: Gap, TCP, Gymboree, Ralph Lauren. I spent another $1 on a much-needed twin Ralph Lauren Home sheet set that will fill out the used Pottery Barn Kids odds and ends we use in our older son P’s room. They threw in some vintage fabric, of the type I collect, on top of everything.

Also inbound this week was the first of our 4 Halloween costumes. Our precocious P decided he should be the big bad wolf and his brothers could be the little pigs. I’ve won 2 on eBay, one which arrived yesterday.

Baby Gap, size 6-12m. If you happen to have one laying around, or a wolf in 3T, I’ll take them off your hands

I made out well at the rummage sales today, so I thought to myself if people can post their victory shots from CVS, why not from thrifting or yard saling, too?

Here is my bounty:

• Anne Klein driving moccasins, soles appear unworn, in my size, $2
• Converse One Star sneakers, soles appear unworn, also in my size, $3 (I will be swapping out the laces, though!)
• 6 books including 2 Eric Carle, 1 Richard Scary, and 1 Sesame Street, $2.25
• 1 Old Navy lounge set, $2
• 1 Pottery Barn throw pillow with down insert, $3
• 5 Lamaze baby toys, including 2 desperately needed carseat clip-on toys, $5

I spent more than I usually do, but these were all things we definitely needed. Except maybe the pillow which, like picture frames, is a weakness for me. Oddly, I encountered no boys clothes, which is generally the bulk of my purchases, making it a really unusual week for sure. I never buy more for myself than for my boys!

I conservatively estimate the retail price of these items around $180 ($40 for the green shoes, $30 for the sneakers, $30 for the books, $20 for the clothes, $25 for the pillow, $35 for the toys). I paid $17.25. Not too shabby. I just tossed all of the Lamaze toys into our frontloader with a drop of method free & clear laundry detergent and a bunch of white vinegar, and now they’re drip drying in our bathroom, good as new!

What I didn’t know when moving to the Midwest is how much this region loves to rummage! I have never lived somewhere with so many garage, yard, church, tag, and rummage sales each weekend. In our city, most sales run Friday and Saturday, with a few starting on Thursday or running through Sunday. It’s a green mama’s dream come true, honestly.

I’ve had two “rummaging” strategies in my time here: Before Triplets (BT) and After Triplets (AT). I think they would be applicable to any WOHM vs WAHM/SAHM or someone trying to drive less in general. BT, I was working for a nonprofit a few miles from home and my older son was in daycare near my office. Fortunately, the distance between the two was through a nice semi-suburban community. I would frequently be leaving the office at 2 or 3pm on Friday and would snake my way through the town, stopping when I saw a sign on my way to one or more sales that I picked from craigslist. I would also look at where my meetings and lunches were on Thursday and Friday and see if I could throw any rummaging in without running over my lunch hour.

It was a bounty season last year: a like-new bike trailer that we use to take DS to daycare several times a week, one sale where I bought all of the 4T pants I’m ever going to need (Gap and Mini Boden, to boot), a Step 2 wagon and Little Tykes picnic table in perfect condition… Is it a bad sign that I still remember my bargains this fondly???

AT, of course, everything is different. Instead of a leafy ‘burb, I have the hit-or-miss sales of our city neighborhood. My strategy now is as follows:

• CL garage sales is part of my Google Reader. I don’t look at it all week, and then I open Reader in another window of my browser on Wednesday and start scanning for sales in my neighborhood. I open each of those in a separate tab. I also open a tab if there is a sale outside of our neighborhood listing something we really need.
• Babies willing, I make it to any of the Thursday or Friday sales.
• Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, I write down all of the sales I want to hit on Saturday and any open on Sunday, and then I rank them based on their ads (Baby clothes? Toys? Womens clothes in my still-postpartum size?) and their proximity to our house or our route to the farmer’s market.
• I’m lucky that my older son loves to go to sales, so he and I will grab a baby and go to as many as is feasible in our day. There are 7 on my list for today, 3 prioritized based on their ads/location, and I know we’ll see others that weren’t advertised on CL along our way that we will stop at.

Maybe I’ll take a photo of my bounty today, if it’s any good. I always bring a lot of cash with me, just in case, but find I rarely spend more than $10 across the weekend. No matter what, I only buy things we need because I have a stern anti-clutter policy in our house. But with growing triplets, we need a lot, especially in the realm of kids clothes!