Go to Krispy Kreme in your costume to get a free glazed doughnut!

Kindermarket starts tonight! Public admission starts at 6:00 and is $4. Go!

Now that the weather is cooling off it’s a great time for yard sales and estate sales. While summer is filled with these outdoor sales, the heat keeps many people away and the sales pick back up throughout the fall. We all know one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure, but yard sales can also be a wash. So, how do you find a good sale?

~The Athens Banner Herald has a garage sale section in the classifieds. Typically sellers who have a lot of stuff to get rid of and are really motivated to move it will list their sale in the paper. This is great news for readers because when people are motivated to get rid of their stuff they are often willing to negotiate. This site also includes a map so you can tell exactly where the sale is.

~Serious estate sales may be listed at www.estatesales.net. Many of these are hosted by auction houses or antique dealers, so the prices may be higher but the goods are probably better quality too. You can subscribe to this site and get an email alert when there’s an estate sale in your area.

~Many times sales are also listed on Craigslist and yardsalesearch.com.  Just enter your zip code and search radius to see what’s nearby.

~Don’t forget the benefit of good ole fashioned riding around! Right or wrong, I tend to judge the quality of the sale based on the signs. If the sign is clear and easily readable with good information I’m more likely to seek out that sale than one whose sign is hard to read, messy, or looks like it was created in haste. My thought is that someone who has spent a little extra time to create their signs and attract customers has probably spent more time going through their merchandise and may have it better organized and priced. Happy savings!

Academy has tons of great shoes marked down, including Sperrys for $30, down from $60. Crocs, Skechers, Tevas and more!

If you’ve read my column before you know I love free things! It’s even better when it’s free and useful. Are you familiar with Dropbox? If not, it’s going to change your world. Let’s see, how to describe it? Dropbox is a digital “box” where you can “drop” files that you want to access from other computers. The information you put in the box is saved on an online server, much like the cloud drive that ipad and iphones use. Best of all, it’s free!

~If you have the program installed on your work and home computer, you can begin something at work, save it to your Dropbox, and pick up right where you left off when you get home. You can even get the Dropbox app on your smart phone to read or work on something on the road.

~Dropbox offers 2 gigabytes of file sharing for free. Two gigs is a lot of space, but that only applies to what’s actually in your box. You can save items to your computer and remove them from the dropbox when you need to free up space. You can complete simple tasks like taking a short Dropbox tour, to earn increased space. You can also earn increased sharing space when you invite others to use Dropbox too.

~Dropbox is also a way to share documents or folders with others. If you are working on a group project you can choose to just share the project information and not your summer vacation pictures. When your co-workers update or add to the project, they can share it back with you and the updated version is stored in your Dropbox again.

~The process is quick and painless. The installation takes just a few minutes and has never caused me any problems. If 2 gigs isn’t enough for you, you can upgrade to Dropbox Pro to get up to 500 gigs starting at around $10 a month. You can sign up for Dropbox here.