A Money -Maker For Our Family ~ Part 2

Okay, so cleaning out all our nooks and crannies, for the most part, is done and now we are on to making some sense of the craziness in our garage! :)  I had so many books and school oriented supplies to sell that I have already had a major sale for local homeschoolers but now I am armed and ready to make battle on the rest.  My oldest two have had the job of sorting the bags and bags of clothes (amazing that they actually beg me to do this!) and half of it is already done.  Since my van had to be worked on this week, it cut us short on going out to look for boxes but my dear mother came to our rescue and brought some boxes and baskets she had at her house.  So, now, we begin to work on a variety of things to get ready for our sale next weekend.

One interesting thing I allow my children to do at this time, and even before now, is to think of other ways they would like to raise money on their own in addition to our garage sale profit.  They will be paid a small percentage of what we earn and some will be added to their savings accounts but they are in charge of deciding whether they want to earn more.  This week, we have talked about having a table for my daughter to sell beaded jewelry she has made as well as ribboned hair accessories.  My son is more food minded and wants a refreshments table.  Since this is their entrepreneurial deal, we let them buy the supplies needed unless they use things around the house.  I will probably help them make cookies (I try to make up batches the weekend before and freeze cookie dough balls so it is not time consuming the weekend of the sale) but my son is an excellent brownie cook so he will make those.  Then we allow them to figure the cost of buying drinks and for how much to sell them......a few questions they have to deal with is buying name brand versus generic, the price of items, and how much profit they would like versus marking too high where people won't buy them.   They make their signs and take turns sitting at their table during the sale as well.

Speaking of making signs, we always make ours big and fluorescent!  We live right near North Hills Street so a couple of those placed in strategic places always brings customers as well.  I try to give the children time to color the letters big and bold but if that has slipped through the cracks in my brain, I am frantically coloring in big bubble letters the night before the sale!   I also post our sale in the paper as well as Craigslist.com and am thinking of allowing my children to take a survey this year of where our customers saw our sale so I know which is the most beneficial (and for the main reason of tacking on one more mathematical experience to our sale for my kids!)  Since our sale is Friday and Saturday, we put them up Thursday night and take them down Saturday afternoon.  One of my big pet peeves is the fact that some people seem to think it's someone else's job to clean up after them and actually never go back to take these down.  In my little opinion, I believe these people need to ticketed with littering....maybe a little money out of their pocketbooks would make some realize that it does not in any way make our city look better....and it's not like we don't know where they live since their address is on the piece of litter!

Stepping off my soap box, I'll get down to the nitty gritty.  I buy the little color circle stickers and try to label as much as I can.  If you get on a roll, this really does not take as long as people think.....especially with my kids helping (another great teaching moment as well.  If my children will write neatly, I allow them to price stickers as well as tell me what they think an item will sell for.  It is amazing how much they will charge for things until I ask them if they would pay the same price for an item!  They begin to have a better understanding of marketing when they are allowed to do this with me, and to tell you the truth, they make a huge job much smaller for me with their helpfulness and enthusiasm!

One of the most thrilling things for my kids to do when we have a sale is to operate the cash register.  We have a  used one that my parents passed on to us that we take down for every sale and set up to help with adding several items and cash back....even though I am pretty good with money, this has saved my tattered brain on those mornings before my first cup of coffee.   When traffic is slower, I allow my children to practice making change and using the register, but when traffic gets higher, they are allowed to stand beside me and observe and also help with bagging items.

All in all, making your children a part of your garage sale is one of the best learning experiences if you take the time (and patience) to make it so.  And, in time, I hopefully will just be able to sit down and kick back while my children fine tune their skills.....while, of course, chomping down on our tradition of Krispy Kreme garage sale morning donuts and a big cup of coffee!