I live near a 30+ acre flea market and farmers market, and I couldn't live without it. It's not the preppy kind of farmers market, like the kind carrying only organic hand-picked food for double the cost, but instead they cary whatever farms in the area have too much of, so staples are rarely more than $1/lb, and at the peak of a season, 50¢/lb isn't uncommon. Just last weekend, I bought a half-dozen honeydew melons for 50¢ each and a few pounds of apples for 50¢/lb. Even pomegranates are usually $1/lb.
Most vendors sell Blu-Ray movies for $1 each, and one even has them for 25¢ each. There's a guy who sells fasteners for $1/lb, so I go there first, before the hardware store, for any projects.
They also have a monthly auction, mostly of returns from hardware stores, and I buy all of my appliances and power tools from there, for usually a quarter of retail.
I once needed a powered tiller, and I bought a lot of three "broken" ones for $40. They weren't used, but one had a damaged power cable and the other was missing a wheel. I scavanged those parts from the third, which was actually damaged, and kept one of the two working ones, selling the other at the next action, and getting paid $80 for it. For an hours work, I doubled my money and got a tiller out of it.
Most vendors sell Blu-Ray movies for $1 each, and one even has them for 25¢ each. There's a guy who sells fasteners for $1/lb, so I go there first, before the hardware store, for any projects.
They also have a monthly auction, mostly of returns from hardware stores, and I buy all of my appliances and power tools from there, for usually a quarter of retail.
I once needed a powered tiller, and I bought a lot of three "broken" ones for $40. They weren't used, but one had a damaged power cable and the other was missing a wheel. I scavanged those parts from the third, which was actually damaged, and kept one of the two working ones, selling the other at the next action, and getting paid $80 for it. For an hours work, I doubled my money and got a tiller out of it.