The “First Saturday of the Month” sale at Goodwill is hard to resist. Alas…we could not…and neither could lots of other Indy-area Goodwill shoppers. We delighted in the fact that we weren’t the only ones making the rounds when we saw a few familiar faces from store to store.  We visited the stores in Castleton, Nora, and Westfield, adhering to the lesson we learned last month: start later in the day to avoid the crowds. I’m also proud to report that my Mom joined us for our visit to the store in Castleton and she found a bunch of brand new blazers…definitely the biggest bargain of the day!

In addition to lots of other great finds (and fun), including a huge batch of brand new high-end makeup, a fun swimming hat, and a picture proudly proclaiming Chrissy’s new cleaning motto (I’ll believe it when I see it!), I also decided to upgrade from the standard orange and green shopping bags and pick out my own fun bag to tote all my treasures from the store.  At the previous store I found a fun wicker basket for the task but forgot to snap a photo. *Sadly, Anna did not purchase the pan flute that she found but we had a lovely impromptu concert.

I also decided not get the item shown below, but it will make a surprise appearance in a future post…

Here in Central Indiana, the Goodwill has regularly scheduled sale days each week and each month including Facebook Fridays, Extra Color-of-the Week Deals on Sundays, but arguably, the biggest sale day of the month is the first Saturday whole-store half-price off sale.  No matter the tag color, no matter the item, everything in the store is half-off.

There are pros and cons to taking advantage of the first Saturday sale day. The obvious downside is the fact that sale makes for a very crowded store and long lines for changing rooms and checkout. There’ve been days I haven’t been able to find parking at my local stores and if you only manage to find one or two treasures, sometimes the wait time just isn’t worth it.  On the flip side, its a great day to stock up on clothes and other household goods if you can tolerate the crowds. Plus you don’t have to track down a specific color to get the best deals since everything in the store is on sale!

Yesterday, I hit the Goodwill in Martinsville on my way up to Indy and found a cool puzzle on sale for fifty cents a Dickens Village house for only $2.50, and a Clue game for $1.50 (the later of which turned out to be an even greater deal when we discovered that it had all the pieces – more to come in future posts about what to do when a game doesn’t have all the pieces).

I joined up with Chrissy, Anna, and Evie and we ventured to three Goodwills in the Indy area – including Noblesville, Olio Road and Fishers. As always (or at least usually) Chrissy cleaned up in the clothing department – but I had some great finds too including a funky puzzle with 160 identically shaped pieces (won’t that be fun!) and a bar cart for $5 that I’m looking forward to redecorating

The more you spend, the more you save. Chrissy outspent me, but there’s no doubt she also out-saved me when you consider the heap of brand-name clothing that she found for less than $3 per item.  She also found some fun planters and baskets that she’ll use for her crafting projects – a leg stretching device and an awesome lamp base that she had the perfect shade for.

Anna found two hedgehogs and a fun hedgehog shirt along with some other goodies.

Evie, the rockstar, found a “paper” guitar. We also found some great books for her – First Saturday sale days are the best days to shop for books since they aren’t tagged with color tags and therefore aren’t part of the weekly sale rotations.  Same goes for shoes.

As Evie so wisely pointed out at the end of the day, more so than the treasures she found, her favorite thing was getting to spend time with people she loved.

TIPS OF THE DAY

• Check “the cart” multiple times.  The Goodwill is constantly restocking and the newest inventory comes out on big carts. Checking the cart is generally a good tip, but especially on the first Saturday when all of the stuff on the cart is half/off!
• Don’t forget to check the checkout displays. Chrissy found the blue lamp base in the checkout line.  Whether its things that people have put back at the last minute or other seasonal items that have been placed near the checkout lines, don’t forget to scan these shelves for treasures that others might have overlooked.
• Sleep in and shop late!  We didn’t start shopping until about 4:30, but the longer we went, the less crowded the stores got.  There were still plenty of deals to be had, and I’d argue that we found the best finds at our very last stop – simply because it was easier to get around the store to find things, easier to try things on, and generally less stressful.
• The early bird gets the furniture. Furniture gets really picked over by the end of the day – it seemed like some people had come to the store early to buy furniture items and then came back later in the day to pick them up.
• First Saturdays are the best days to shop for books and shoes – Since these items aren’t color-tagged, first Saturdays are typically the only days that they go on sale.

As I was getting off the highway back in Bloomington, I realized that I was behind a Goodwill truck…apparently on its way to restock the Westside Bloomington store for the Sunday color-of-the-week sale.