Garage Sales Are My Life!

I LOVE garage sales. No, I mean I really do LLLLOOOVVVEEE garage sales.  I bet I am the "Queen" of the bargain hunters.  I get this tingly feeling when I read the ads in the paper and know that I am going to go to garage sales the next day. 

I love to bargain hunt and to get the best and cheapest price . Yes, many have tried to get the best of me. But when I am in my haggle mode, no one can score a win on me.  I come by the haggling talent naturally.  My mother is a champion haggler, and so was her mother before her.  I bet if I could go back in time, I would find that all of my matriarchal relatives were great hagglers.

I learned the fine art of haggling at an early age.  My mother loved to go to sales.  It didn't matter if it was at the grocery store, clothing store or car lot.  She looked at the price and tried to get a better deal. Even if it was only a few cents cheaper, she wore the seller down until I think, just to get rid of her, they agreed to her price. 

Yes, there is a fine art to haggling.  One must convey the image of the bored, and I don't really want this thing but I'll do you a favor and buy it.  Another tactic that I have used is " You know I'm getting this for a friend and I'm not sure she'll like it."  "Could I get it just a little bit cheaper, just in case I get stuck with it?"

I'm cool, calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside I am frothing at the mouth.  I want the thing I am trying to haggle for, I need it, I may not have a use for it, but I HAVE to have it.  Sometimes there isn't any real logic in haggling.  But in my defense, I have gotten some really great things cheaply.  I got a $100 diamond necklace for $5 from a girl who just broke up with her boyfriend.  Some well placed men slams worked wonders on her.  Another time, I got a great upright piano for $30.  I guess I have a great puppy face.

I was blessed when I met my husband.  He is a kindred soul when it comes to garage sales.  He loves to find things and then sic me on the seller to get a better price.  It is a marriage made in heaven.  He scopes out the things he wants and I get to haggle to my hearts content.

My daughter, when she was younger, used to get embarrassed by my haggling,   But now that she is older, married and on a budget, will find an item at a sale and send good ole mom over to haggle for a better price.  But she is learning to haggle too.  I've caught her, now and then, working on a seller to get the price down.  Wow, it brings a tear to my eye to see her score a win....like mother, like daughter.  It's got to be in the genes.

Hopefully, next summer will be full of new garage sales to conquer and more bargains to find and haggle for.  I am really looking forward to it.  Till tomorrow........ Make love, read a book and eat chocolate.