Trent has a Garage Sale and Thrifting Tool Kit so he can find the sale locations, know what sizes he’s looking for in clothing and household items, and has plenty of small bills to make the purchases.

This was quite an experience! There were lots of people shopping. But my co-workers who had worked at the inaugural sale in March said it there were even bigger crowds at the first one. This is the end of garage sale season in Monroe, Mich., we’re already into craft show season, so it’s time to look for other things.

And today is Halloween. A lot of families had other plans today. We saw only a handful of kids – most of them were in costume. (There was a kids’ party hosted by a nearby church this afternoon.)

Here’s a picture of some of the stuff that was for sale at the Evening News booth.

We also had the usual “newspaper store” merchandise with the local history books, photography art books, Cat’s Meow Evening News piece and Evening News umbrellas.

I found some Barbie doll stuff to look at in two other booths. There were some vintage women’s magazines at another booth. There was some nice handcrafted jewelry.

I bought a tiny blue vase, a box of beautifully designed greeting cards, and a Beanie Baby sheep. I also bought an Evening News umbrella and Cat’s Meow building for my mother’s Christmas gifts. (She knows what I bought her – I called ahead. I’ve been asking about the umbrellas and couldn’t track one down until today.)

My best “find” was in a freebie box: a glass plate that was a turntable for a microwave. I thought it would fit my oven, and it does. That’s a good thing because my existing turntable was chipped.

Now, if you want to see the deals go down at a garage sale … you need to see my co-workers in action. I was told to “make a deal” with the customers on anything except the newspaper store merchandise. I thought I was making fair deals based on what I’ve seen stuff sell for at sales this summer. But especially toward the end of the day, our booth items were priced to MOVE!

I don’t know when another such sale will be scheduled at the expo center, but I’ll be sure to post it. You will want to do some shopping if there is a third edition of this event!

Monroe’s Largest Garage Sale and Flea Market will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Oct. 31 at the Monroe Bank & Trust Expo Center at the Monroe County Fairgrounds, 3775 S. Custer Rd., Monroe, Mich. This is the second such sale and the first one in March brought in huge crowds to the expo center.

More than 100 booths will feature items such as antiques, yard items, collectibles, household goods and tools. There will also be two drawings for $100 gas cards.

This event is sponsored by The Monroe County Fair and The Monroe Evening News.

If you are shopping after 1 p.m., stop by The Monroe Evening News booth and say hi. I’ll be staffing the afternoon shift at the booth. (I’ll arrive about 11:30 a.m. to do my own shopping from other vendors).

For information about the sale, call (734) 241-5775.

Organize your inventory. A few months before your sale, designate a spot in your house for the things you’ll want to sell and let your family members know about it. As time goes by, the spot will fill up with things around the house that you discover you no longer need. Also, schedule a family clean-up day several weeks ahead to go through closets and storage areas. If you wait until the last minute, you’ll find yourself needing to have another sale with all the items you forgot about.

After all … you will need room to put the stuff you BUY at the garage sales!

In the meantime, for my local readers, there are 26 garage sale ads in today’s edition of The Monroe Evening News. Remember … the weather is getting kind of crappy in southeast Michigan for outdoor sales.

But there are several indoor rummage and Mom 2 Mom notices are posted in the MonroeTalks calendar. Some of the fall craft shows will also have rummage or flea market items.

Let’s say you need one yard of fabric in an exact color to create a table topper to go with your seasonal decor. You should go to the craft or fabric store to get that fabric (buying the fabric on sale or with a coupon, of course).

But let’s say you are assembling a diorama for a classroom project. You can dig into the odds and ends of useful and interesting fabric, wood and sewing craft supplies that you picked up for incredibly cheap at the garage sales.

I’m not kidding – this summer I got a plastic shoe box full of someone else’s leftover wooden craft pieces for just $1. And here’s some of the fabric, a wooden box and a candle holder I picked up at another garage sale. That St. Patrick’s Day wreath also came from a garage sale. It is now in a storage box and I’ll put it up in March.

For my local readers, there are 35 garage sale ads in The Monroe Evening News today.

However, this is the time of year in Monroe, Mich., when the garage sale season shifts away from single-family outdoor sales into the bigger rummage sales or indoor sales. You’ll find that list here at the MonroeTalks calendar.

When she told me about that gift exchange theme, we had bumped into each other at a garage sale and she was admiring some wine glasses.

If you’d like to attempt that gift exchange rule as a cost-cutting, eco-friendly or just “have a little fun” rule within your family, I suggest you make that proposal now because the southeast Michigan garage sale season is starting to wind down. While there are many people who refuse to do any Christmas shopping until Black Friday, frugal people really do shop year-round. My grandma and her sister, who were children during the Depression, always picked up great deals because they were willing to shop off season.

For my local readers in Monroe, Mich., there are 37 garage sale ads in The Monroe Evening News this weekend.

I also have several garage sale and flea markets listed in the MonroeTalks calendar.

The first such sale was held March 29 – and was a sold-out event with huge lines as the sale opened. Here’s a link to the follow-up article that was in The Monroe Evening News.

If you are interested in selling stuff, here are the rules:

Used items such as antiques, yard items, collectibles, household goods and tools are welcome at this sale. No crafts at this event. Anyone selling new items must have a business license. No exhibitor may sell or give away food or drink. Both businesses and individuals are welcome.

A 10 by 10 foot space is $35 and includes one table. Electricity will be $5 additional. Setups will be from noon to 7 p.m. Friday Oct. 30 and 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday Oct. 31.

Applications are due Monday Oct. 12 and booths will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

This event is sponsored by The Monroe County Fair and The Monroe Evening News.

For a reservation form, look for the ad that is running in the print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News, or call (734) 241-5775.

I haven’t decided yet whether I am selling, buying, or staffing the newspaper booth at this event. But I do plan to be there. I was out of town when the first one took place.

You might remember how to operate the machine, but your customers won’t know.

I won’t buy an electric gadget without a manual if I can help it.

Yes, you can find instruction manuals for all sorts of things on the Internet.

The problem is those manuals, in many cases, aren’t free. After my husband paid $17 for an instruction manual for my 1960s-era sewing machine (I believe I am the third owner), I can tell you I have no interest in getting stuck paying for an instruction manual for another gadget. In the case of my sewing machine, although it was a hand-me-down, I paid about $40 to have it overhauled and cleaned by a repairman before I attempted to use it. So we had $57 invested into a 40-year-old piece of equipment before I loaded even one bobbin of thread into it.

And it’s a pretty bad photocopy for the money we spent on that manual.

For my local readers in Monroe, Mich., there are 52 garage sale ads listed in The Monroe Evening News today.

And here are the fundraiser and charity sales during the next three weeks as posted in the MonroeTalks calendar. Yes, the sale postings are picking up in frequency.

That is why, when I launched this blog, I decided to give it a very local focus. The title, Monroe on a Budget, spun off from “living in Monroe, Mich., on a budget.”

If an idea, tip, discount or resource will work for those of us who live in The Monroe Evening News local readership area in Monroe County, Mich., I write about it and provide key details such as deadlines, addresses, web sites and phone numbers.

If an idea, tip, discount or resource will NOT work for my local readers, I won’t post about it. I really have annoyed some publicity people and web site hosts by refusing to follow up on their story pitches on the basis that their information or service would not be of use to my local audience.

As the recession started settling in nationwide, I did notice a shift toward more relevant information in financial reporting and advertising campaigns. There has been a lot more effort during the past year to get practical, timely and useful tips and advice to those who are thrifty, frugal, unemployed, own homes that are worth less than the mortage due, or otherwise struggling financially.

But once in awhile, I’m sad to see,  … those attempts are off the mark.

USA Weekend’s SaveSmart column today has a piece on 3 Ways to Cope With High Card Balances. USA Weekend is distributed with the Detroit Free Press and many other papers across the county. Most of the information in the article is very timely, referring to recent credit card practices and laws.

But then I got to the last paragraph:

Boost your income
You’ll likely need to make more money to make more than the minimum payment. To do that, take on a part-time job, or hold a tag sale or sell gently used items online or via your newspaper’s classifieds. Working a few extra hours or selling your old clothes, household goods and jewelry can help you pay off your debts that much faster.

Reality check: To whom do you expect to sell your stuff to, and do those people even have money to spend?

Michigan’s unemployment rate was 15 percent for June, July and August 2009, and the Ohio unemployment rate isn’t that good either.

• I have one friend who has been unemployed for a year, and the only interviews she got lately were out of state.
• I have another friend whose husband lost his job late this spring. She had been working part-time anyway, but can’t pick up any more hours at her workplace.
• I have another friend who did find a job in her career field, but it was five months after she lost her previous job.

If there were part-time jobs or extra hours available for someone with credit issues to easily pick up in order to pay down debt … why is the unemployment rate so high in Michigan, and why do I personally know people who have been struggling to find work?

You may also remember that my husband works in the automotive industry and he was on layoff for several weeks this summer. At least he had a job to go back to, once production started again. But, as many of you also know, there is a big difference between paycheck income and unemployment income.

Now about the tag sale / yard sale idea. Yes I shop at garage sales. I’ve posted several pictures this spring and summer about my “finds.” But the stuff I’m finding and buying is CHEAP.

Examples:

• I spent $10 on a bread machine.
• $3 on a cake pan.
• $1 for a bag of silk flowers.
• $1 for a box of woodcraft supplies.
• $2.50 on a handcrafted doll dress.
• $1 for a Beanie Baby.

Maybe I’ve spent a total $50 on garage sale purchases this year. Would that amount have paid anyone’s credit card bill?

Selling items online is not guaranteed income, either. The last time I put anything on eBay was more than two years ago. I listed three kitchenware items through an eBay vendor. One item sold – just enough to pay for the listing fees. I also posted in August 2008 about collapsing online prices for collector Barbie dolls.

And National Public Radio had a piece this spring about pawn shops being overwhelmed with merchandise.

A garage sale, classified ad, pawn shop transaction or online sale will solve a clutter problem. The sale can also help you downsize to smaller living quarters if you are in that situation. But in this market, how will selling stuff second-hand solve someone’s cash flow problem?

In fact, one of my friends who was hosting a sale said it seemed like she was getting more interest from people who wanted free stuff – than were willing to pay for it.

What do I suggest instead?

My tips, including the Downsized Budget series, focus on how to cut your everyday household expenses. In this recession, you have little control over how much money you earn. You do, however, have some control over what you spend it on.

Most of the money-saving steps that really do work for middle class and working class families will take time, money or both before you see results. It can be an annoying process to work through. There’s no quick fix for a downsized income.

But frugal living tactics are a much more practical way of coping with this recession … than expecting someone else to have the cash flow to hire you for a part-time job or buy your second-stuff.

Now the buzz is: What does this mean for garage sale sellers and buyers, especially when it comes to kids’ stuff?

While I don’t have the answers, I can point you to the discussions.

Here is the Fox News report that’s getting chatter on the Frugal Village Forums.

Here is the Resellers and Resale / Thrift Shop and Yard Sale Information Center at CSPC that includes a section where you can check for recalls.

And my co-worker Charles Slat focuses on recalls and other consumer issues on his blog, Consumer Alert!

Now, here is something to consider: some stuff I see at garage sales and yard sales has no business being resold in the first place. It needs to go in the trash. There does come a point when stuff is no longer useful – and a lot of toys in particular are lucky to survive just one owner.

If you feel guilty about throwing out “perfectly good stuff,” then stop buying it and ask the relatives to limit the toys they purchase to one really nice item instead of a pile of stuff. Another option for gifts is that the relatives can buy your kids tickets to the zoo, theater or concerts, or pay for their sports and music lessons.