Last few days

My son was home sick from school on Thursday so I didn't go to Smile. Went Friday and got a few things: $1 new Clinique lipstick, $1 container of Kid K'nex. And I can't remember what else.

I got a $6 coupon in the mail from Staples - I'm a member of their rewards program and I guess when I bought some of their Black Friday sales, the $6 is a certain percentage of what I bought that quarter. So I have a free $6 to spend at Staples

Took my son to lunch at Chick-fil-a yesterday. I have a bunch of coupons for free kids meals and free ice-dreams. Our library was giving out the coupons a while ago. And they have no expiration on them. Personally, I hate Chick-fil-a's Icedream, I think it's a waste of calories. But my son likes it.

Afterwards we walked around a new Petco that opened up a few months ago (he had never been to it) and enjoyed seeing all the animals. A lot of people had their dogs on leases, including a big bull mastiff - man, I would hate to pooper scoop my yard if I had one of those!

Then since it was such a nice day out, we took a stroll on the boardwalk that is nearby - above is a picture of the area. Yes, I routinely drive over that 2 lane bridge that is in the background.

Message Board problem

The Yardsalequeen.com Message board is acting weird today - saying that people are suspended when they are not. Heck, it's even saying that I'm suspended. I have an email into their customer service dept and hopefully they'll respond quickly. Sorry for the confusion and inconvenience.

Got $115 in the mail yesterday

Forgot to mention, I got $115 in the mail yesterday. Back on Black Friday I did shopping at both Staples and Ace Hardware for sale stuff that had rebates. And this is pretty weird - I got BOTH rebate checks yesterday. I have to go to the Post Office today so I will stop at the bank and get them cashed. Probably get the money in all ones and fives. The teller will probably think I'm headed for a fun night seeing Chippendales or something. But in reality, I want the small bills for my thrift store shopping (they don't like big bills there). Will take my dog with me on my errands - when I go thru the drivethru at the bank, they give him a dog biscuit.

went to an indoor yardsale yesterday

There was an indoor yardsale at a neighbhorhood clubhouse yesterday. There were lots of vendors. Some of the things I bought: $1 each sealed DVDs "The Terminal" and "The Edge", bottle of Bath & Body Works Purely Silk lotion $1 (price is $17.50 at the store), some Wade figurines at .10 each. Got a FREE bopper toy for my son - you know the 4' tall plastic inflatable thing where the kid punches it and it comes back up. Over Christmas when we were at my cousins, her son had one and my son loved it. Not only was it free, it was already blown up!

Been busy deleting some clothes....

I can tell I've spent too much time on the computer when I'm doing housecleaning or looking in my closet and think to myself "I should delete these jeans..." or "I should delete these cardboard boxes". Well I did do some clothes deleting (our local recycling place recycles "textiles" that I don't think are worthy of donating to a thrift (heck, I probably got them in a thrift in the first place!)

gotta run..
chris

Did I tell you my resolution this year?

My New Years resolution for 2006 is to declutter my house. It's gonna be a challenge since I don't like to throw things away and I like to always buy stuff. I definitely need to hold a few yardsales this year and donate the still useable stuff. Today I declutted some plastic food containers that have seen better days.

I went to the church yardsale today. Since it had an early start time, I was home before my husband even knew I was gone! Bought a few neat vintage Christmas items for .50 each and some Disney videos for only .25 each. And a new crown for myself for a nickle - it's a fancy beaded one from Barbie. So now I am back to having 2 crowns. As a yardsalequeen - I have to have a crown or two! My last one (which I trash-picked several months ago and mentioned on the blog) got broken by my son (no he wasn't wearing it!) so I threw it away. Yep, I threw it in the trash rather than trying to duct-tape it together :)

My best buy in a "real" store this week was at CVS. Went to a few other CVS stores to check out their 90% off Christmas and at one I found a Lucky perfume gift set that was originally $9.99 and at 90% off it was only .99. Will probably keep for myself.

I am still mourning the loss of my favorite radio station Z104 It was a shock to turn on my radio one day and instead of hearing my favorite radio personalities and great music, I heard classical! It was such big news that it was on the cover of the Washington Post. I had been listening to it since 1990. Of course I listen to other stuff (Don & Mike occasionally and used to listen to Howard Stern) but Z104 was my primary station. Billy Bush (from Access Hollywood) used to be the morning DJ years ago and his show was called "Billy Bush and the Bush League". And if Sean Sellers (afternoon DJ) is reading this, I miss hearing about your buys! And I miss Howard Stern too, but not enough yet to get Sirius.

No Yardsales today

Today is one of the few rare Saturdays during the year that I am home in the morning. Oh but I see a light at the end of the tunnel - there is a church one next Saturday. This particular church has 3 indoor yardsales every year. Their January one is pretty good since they get a lot of donations since people have to make room for their new Christmas junk. And if they got Christmas gifts they don't want or can't use, they often donate them.

Got some bargains at Smile and Vintage Value this week. I swear though once I buy something and get it home, it's hard for me to sit here and remember what I bought days earlier. I do remember buying an awesome Levi's denim jacket (model Type 1) for $2. Maybe I lead a sheltered life, but I've never seen a jacket like it before - I think it looks pretty cool, it has oversized buttons and a big Levi's pocket design on the back. Haven't decided what I want to do with it yet.

Did get a few 90% off Christmas Target bargains yesterday. Nothing too exciting - by the time I got there in the afternoon, it was pretty picked over.

Message Board back up

The yardsalequeen.com message board was temporarily out of service earlier today. Seems to be working fine now. You can find a link to the board at the column to the left.

High scoring Redskins = More Free Pizza Toppings

The Redskins did well yesterday so we had pizza again for dinner. With the deal our local Papa Johns gives regarding Redskin game scores, that equaled to 8 free toppings per pizza today. I really don't like cooking, so it works for me.

After I ordered the pizza, I went over to CVS and found some cute kitten Christmas notepads for .25 each that I didn't see when I went the other day. (I usually get the pizza "to go" rather than having to tip a delivery person. Plus, getting it delivered takes a long time compared to getting it myself). I bought 4 notepads to put away for Christmas '06. One of my nieces and my SIL loves cats. Also went to Food Lion for a few items. Again a cashier made an error in my favor. I had a coupon for a free package of a TGIFriday's appetizer. They were on sale for $2.50 but when the cashier deducted the coupon, he took off the full price off ($3.69) rather than the sale price. So, I got the free item PLUS $1.19 taken off other stuff I bought.

First bargains for the new year

I went to CVS because I heard they were going to have 75% off starting today. Bought a few things but nothing major. Bought a few boxes of Christmas cookies for .25 a box - the cookies were only .99 to start so it's not like they are going to be some fantastic gourmet cookies.

While out, I stopped at a grocery store to buy an onion for chili that I made today. Well anyways I picked out a Sweet onion which was on sale for 1.19 a lb and instead the cashier rang it up as Yellow onion which was .99 a lb. The way I figure it, the cashier is the "professional" so when they make a mistake in my favor, I don't feel the need to tell them.