So I ended up scoring some pretty decent deals at the consignment sale I mentioned in my last post, and another one this morning. What I found that I enjoyed most about this morning's sale was the few hours before the sale started when I worked as a volunteer. I know I'm a pretty outgoing person, but it was a lot of fun to meet other people and help get things ready for the sale. It's open to the public on Saturday and the room was JAM-packed, so if you're in the Raleigh area, you might go check it out.Consignment sales can save you a lot of money on baby and kid items, but what's even better is when stuff is FREE! About a month ago, I heard about a new website called "Freepeats." It's based on the Freecycle model of sharing items you no longer need with other people who live in your area to keep them from ending up in landfills. The difference with Freepeats is that it's all baby, kid & maternity stuff! Members who have something to give away post an "Offer" ad, and then when someone else has picked it up from them, they change the title to "Taken." It's as simple as that! Members can also post "Wanted" ads if there is a specific item for which they are searching.
Freepeats requires you to join a local chapter group and pay a one-time ever fee of $4.95. However, if you join a newly-formed group with the first 2 weeks of its inception, you get a lifetime membership for free! And it just so happens that the Raleigh-Durham chapter opened its virtual doors TODAY! So if you live anywhere near the Raleigh area, I encourage you to join right away simply so you don't have to pay the fee! (I did notice that the free lifetime membership cut off for Raleigh is listed as 9/01/08 instead of 8/14/08. So I checked with the moderator and found that she will be on vacation during mid-August, so the Raleigh and Birmingham chapters get an extra two weeks to sign up for free!)
Another difference between Freepeats and the Freecycle models that I've used, is that Freepeats utilizes a message board system for listing items instead of the archaic Yahoo email groups that most Freecycle groups still use. This makes it much easier to quickly scan the list and see what is available that you might be interested in. I've noticed they also have areas for free formula as well as coupons and formula checks.
So clean out your closets, check this out, and let me know if you snag a great item for free!
http://www.freepeats.org
