How I Saved $140 By Shopping at the JBF Consignment Sale

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Just Between Friends of Reading. All opinions are my own.

Our Most Difficult Time of Day

One of our most difficult times of day is right before dinner, after my oldest son comes home from school. Everyone is tired and hungry and patience runs thin all around. Sometimes mommy is just completely out of ideas on what to do next! I’ve tried a lot of different strategies, and a variety of solutions have worked throughout our different seasons—for one season I even made all our dinners at 2pm and just kept them warm until dinner time, just so we could have peace at this time of day.

With homeschooling, private school, piano lessons and gymnastics, our schedules have shifted quite a bit lately and some days we all get home as late as 4:30pm and I have had no time to re-coop or come up with a plan for that time of day. Sometimes free play works well, but I’ve learned I can’t always count on it with a 3, 4 and 6 year old! 🙂

While I was shopping the JBF Lancaster Consignment Sale today, I had a brilliant idea to use this time of day intentionally and rotate a variety of crafts, activities and new games—specifically some they can do on their own while I prep dinner. I was very excited to find some incredible steals! I didn’t realize how good some of the deals were until I came home and did a little research. It was then I realized that I was able to spend only $25 for items with a retail value of $166!

Yes, I saved $140 on these 8 items!!

The 8 Items I purchased for only $25!

Perler Beads and Pegboards

This bucket had 20,000 perler beads and 9 pegboards and was only $3! A similar jar of 22,000 beads (but no pegboards) sells for about $15 on Amazon, and 7 pegboards sell for $6.

I saved $18!

Martha Stewart Crafts Paper Bag Puppets

Perhaps this wasn’t the best deal, as it sells for about $8 online and I paid $3, but I thought it would be a great activity that has everything included. My kids can follow the directions and do it themselves. My personality works well with finding things they can do alone, or with minimal help, while I am making dinner or going through the mail. It is for ages 4 and up, and there are 6 crafts, so this should last for at least 2-3 afternoons.

I saved $5!

Alphabet Train Puzzle

We are always practicing letters with my three-year-old. I chose this puzzle because the pieces are big and easy for him to put together, but also because it has the image of the word associated with the letter. I like that I can say “find the C”, and if he doesn’t find it right away, I can say “find the C for car”. It gives him another visual to help with finding the letter, and it helps me to have patience with him. This was only $2.00. This Melissa & Doug puzzle is very similar to the puzzle I found, and sells for about $13 on Amazon.

I saved $11!

Phonics Ready Readers (Books 1-12 and Audio Cassette)

My four-year-old has been really improving in her sounding out skills and is starting to read. When I saw this set, I was excited about how the book was set up. My oldest child didn’t learn to read so easily and I found that I needed a lot of patience. I believe the simple words and repeated phrases in these books will keep my daughter excited as she sees herself finishing one book after another! I was excited it was only $3.50. I didn’t know if that was necessarily a good price, but when I got home I found this same set sold a week ago on eBay for $35 (and sells for over $70 on Amazon).

I’ll count that as a savings of $31.50!

Hexabits Flexible Building Tiles

This tub of building tiles has 1000 pieces, and it says on the box you can make 100s of designs. My kids LOVE to build. In an effort to declutter my home, I wasn’t going to buy any more building sets because I thought we had enough, but when I saw this was only $3.00 I couldn’t resist. I quickly looked it up online while I was at the sale and was ecstatic to find that a tub of this size sells for about $40 on eBay (plus shipping)! There are only a few on Amazon, but it looks like Puzzibits are the exact same thing. Considering I’ll probably sell this on eBay after we are done with it . . .

I’ll count this as a savings of at least $37!

Do A Dot Sponge Tip Applicator Washable Markers

A few years ago I found the In My World website that has FREE downloadable letter and phonics worksheets I can use with my kids. I fell in love with how she did the letter find with dot paints. I’ve always wanted to get the dot markers for my kids, but I never wanted to spend the money. Do A Dots sell for about $16, but I got this set for only $5!

I saved $11!

Dinosaur Toddler Backpack

I have started homeschooling my daughter for Pre-K. On the days we go to co-op, my 3-year-old son likes to also bring school things. I’ve been thinking that getting him a backpack will give him even more ownership and a sense of responsibility. Plus, it gives them something to do in the morning when I need to be getting other things together — they can pack their bag! When I saw this backpack for only $3.00, I knew I had to get it for him! I chose it because of the price and because it had a side pocket for his water bottle. Similar dinosaur backpacks sell for $18.

I saved $15!

Disney Elsa and Anna Backpack

My daughter needed a different backpack that fit her school supplies and lunch a little better. I wasn’t keen on getting her a princess backpack, but this was the only one I could find in an affordable price range and quality that she needed. There were some Lands End and Jansport backpacks that were really nice, but they were for slightly older children. Considering she loves Elsa and this backpack also had a side pouch for a water-bottle, I decided that since it was only $3.00 I had to get it! The exact same backpack sells on Amazon for $15!

I saved $12!

Thats 8 items that retail for $166, and I paid only $25!
Folks, this is why I shop at consignment sales!

The Just Between Friends Lancaster sale will be held October 6-8, 2016 at the Lancaster Fieldhouse, 1901 Miller Road, East Petersburg, PA 17520. Here is the complete JBF Fall sales schedule.