I love to shop as much as the next woman, but since I am back to staying at home, I really don't want to be spending the extra money by shopping until I drop.  Well, at least not by going to shopping malls and paying full price- I can certainly do without that.  While I often shop at stores like Marshall's and TJ Maxx, sometimes it makes more sense to save even more money.  And we all like to save money, don't we?

City-wide garage sales are a great way to find treasures amongst what other people consider used up trash.  I love city-wide garage sales in particular because they make for a very productive day.  Personally, I take off on a whim and a budget, meandering through neighborhoods.  I don't look at ads... I'm simply out and about, wandering aimlessly (but with purpose), hunting for bargain treasures.

This week my budget was $40.00.  I received payment for a couple of mystery shops I did, so I had extra money to play with.  I want to redecorate our living room, but I don't really want to spend a lot of money to do it.  I found a pair of white chairs that have great bones but need a little fixing up.  They were only three dollars each.  I can work with that!

 These will be great centered with a small table in front of our picture window- perfect for chess or checkers, or an afternoon game of scrabble.  I would love to have mostly black furniture, so I'm thinking that I might keep these white or paint them blue with some kind of black and white fabric cushion.

Check out this amazing basket!  $1.00- you can't beat that unless its free.  I'm not sure where this will go, but I can always use another basket around the house to catch things before it becomes clutter...

Thinking along the lines of our new living room decor... whenever I finally get to painting and decorating and figure out a new couch, I saw this little decorative black and white accent and black lab puppy.  $1.75 combined.  I love finding bargains like these.

This lamp is practically brand new and sells for at least twenty dollars at Target.  I snagged it for $2.00!  My daughter is going to absolutely LOVE it, and how perfect is it that it matches the color scheme of her bedroom.

I haven't had a magazine rack in years, but we desperately need one. We always have magazines laying around, and having a place to stash all of them would be so useful!  I have a feeling this is going to take a lot of work to refinish, because I want it to be black, white, or blue.  I'm still not sure on the color, or how exactly I'm going to refinish it.  However, for less than $2.00...it was worth it.

A few more finds for our daughter's room: mirror, shelf that will be painted black, and ladder things that I was told are for beanie babies. Those will also be painted black and I think probably placed horizontally on one of her walls and used either as a place to hang accessories or to tack photos.  I paid less than $4.00 for all of this:

Again, a little bit of paint goes a long way.  I'm thinking I will paint this plant stand blue and pair it with some great planters and flowers on our patio for a pop of color.  $1.00... now these are truly my kind of prices.

This poster will look a ton better once it is in a frame.  I can't pass up a picture of New York, a city I just love.  

So... all those great home decor finds, but that wasn't all I got.  Can you believe I also go:

• Pair of Steve Madden boots for myself
• Spare pair of gym shoes for my son who is forever loosing shoes
• 18 pieces of clothing including sweaters and shirts for myself and my daughter
• New England Soup Factory cookbook
• Twilight game
• Twilight book
• Glee Notebook
• Unopened (still in shrink wrap) geography board game

I think that completes the list...all for LESS THAN $40.00!   And that ladies, is why I love trash.

So... I would like to know- do you shop at garage sales AND if you do (or if you hold garage sales from time to time):

• What do you think is a reasonable price for clothing?
• What is the craziest thing you've ever seen at a garage sale?