Barbie

Never in my life did I know all that Barbie has.  Complete house, townhome, furniture, jet, cars, RVs, SUVs, tons and tons of clothes, dolls, the Ken dolls, babies, kids, and everything. For anyone who has a Barbie love in the house, you can reap in the savings by finding items at yard sales.  My daughter is such a lover.  When she started getting in the Barbie phase, my friend and I were talking about Christmas.  Her daughter was twelve and had outgrown the phase and was talking about getting rid of a Barbie house that was just sitting in their garage, which just so happened to have been passed down to them from another friend seven years prior at Christmastime.  I was jumping for joy when she brought it to me at work along with a box of furniture and clothes.  I cleaned it all up and  Santa gave it to my daughter for Christmas.  My daughter was soooooo ecstatic.  I also had found a blue VW Barbie Bug on Black Friday for $15 and I thought that was a steal, because when they had come out they were $30. 

I started stopping at yard sales around a year later and wanted to kick myself when I found how cheap Barbie cars are at yard sales.  I couldn't believe all the fun Barbie things we found while we were out and about.  Believe it or not, these are the things I found at yard sales (and I am sure I will think of so many more items later on that I forgot about):

1) Barbie furniture galore (50 cents to a dollar a piece)

2) Barbie boat ($1- I looked it up on ebay and found one at the time listed for $30)

3) Barbie cars (50 cents to $3)  *remember I paid $15 for a Barbie VW Bug and believe it or not I found VW Bugs ranging from $1-$3

4) Barbie airplane (ready for this only $5!!!)

5) Wooden Barbie house ( only $5 and I looked it up on ebay and found them for $169.00)

6) Barbie jet ski ($1)

7) Barbie RV (originally they wanted $10 but I literally only had a five dollar bill on me so they let me have it for that)

8) Barbie dolls (25 cents to $1)

When I was young I had this awesome huge pink Jeep Wrangler for my barbies.  We gave the barbie stuff away when we grew out of that phase.  For my daughter's birthday my friend gave her cash and told her she could buy whatever she wanted with it, instead of giving her a gift.  My daughter wanted to go to Deseret Industries.  Believe it or not, we found a Jeep Wrangler just like I had when I was little for only $5!!  We also found a Barbie cruise ship for $5.  My daughter was so excited.  She plays with that Jeep Wrangler all the time.  It was such a great buy. 

In conclusion, when it comes to toys for kids, look at yard sales and thrift stores.  You would be surprised how cheap you can buy items instead of paying full price.  Your kids can have hours upon hours of fun for little money.