Yardsale Tip - make sure street name is spelled right in the ad

Aye yi yi. If your street's name is Cox Road, you should always double check to make sure the classified ad person knows how to spell it correctly. (House # was blackened out by me). This ad appeared in our local rag last week - I couldn't go to it since I was busy with my own sale.

Happy Memorial Day

Had a pretty relaxing Memorial Day weekend. I took the above pic last summer while out on a boat. I wanted to post a different one but I can't find it easily - it's somewhere temporarily lost on a disk amongst my clutter.

School here is getting out the week after next (has a year gone by already???) So that means I better get my thrift store shopping fix in in the next week. My son doesn't like to go thrift store shopping so I take a break during the summer. (But sometimes I manage to sneak in a quick look every once in a while). I am happy that last week I found some end-of-school-year teacher gifts. I was starting to stress on what to give (1 teacher, 3 assistants, 1 speech therapist and 1 occupational therapist). My son had the same teachers as last year and I didn't want to give a duplicate gift (last year gave little gift bag of small items: B&BW hand sanitizer, pen set and something else I forgot). At Staples (on the clearance table) they had these cute turquoise photo boxes with notecards inside for $3 each. So I got six ($18) but then, of course I used three of my $3 Staples coupons and saved $9. So the total came to $9 plus tax. Here's a pic of one:



My husband is going to Los Angeles within the next few weeks. For a job interview. OMG is all I can say. I can't imagine trying to move all my junk. He thinks a new job may make him happy. Unless the job involves getting paid a ton of money to play golf all morning and watch movies in the afternoon, I don't think a job is going to make him happy. So....needless to say, I don't want to move to California. It's just not having to move my junk, I would seriously miss the two awesome thrifts that I live near.

Did a highway yardsale yesterday (made $150)

On my website I say in general to stay away from holding a yardsale on 3 day holiday weekends. I did it anyway. My friend asked me to do a "highway yardsale" with her yesterday and I agreed. For some weird reason (that I don't know the answer to), the highway near us has these weird short dead-end roads that don't go anywhere. So during the summer, many people just set up their yardsale right along the highway without any problems from the police or zoning. I made $150 with just miscellaneous junk and ebay duds. I did stop at a few yardsales before I met my friend and just bought some books for Jacob and a few VHS for .50 each.

I did a web radio interview today with EZHelp.org Most radio shows I've done in the past are live (or pre-taped) and run just once. This one will be preserved forever in a mpeg file online on their site. Oh gawd. I know I sounded like a total doofus (as if that's something new). While it was being done, I booted DH and Jacob out for the morning so I could have peace and quiet. I sent them to Best Buy to buy the $349 laptop that was on sale today. So now when I travel, I won't have to go cold turkey without internet. Yea!!!!

Several months ago I was interviewed for a book on garage sales and it was published this past week. The title is Garage Sale America by Bruce Littlefield. He is sending me a free copy (you know I love free) and I'm on page 46! OMG - I will have to buy a copy to give to my mom for Christmas. But I probably won't be able to keep my mouth shut until then and will have to give it to her before then.


I made some slight changes to my website the other day and figured out how to add YouTube videos. I added a few funny yardsale related YouTube videos to the Humor page

Nasal Douche .50 (I think it can double as a crack pipe)

I had to yardsale with Jacob on Saturday since my husband played golf. We hit a school yardsale (mostly newer items) and then a church yardsale. Best thing about the church yardsale was that all books were .10 each. I bought a box full of hardcover Nora Robert books (for ebay) and also three Taste of Home annual cookbooks.

At a regular yardsale I bought the above vintage nasal douche for .50 (although it has .25 penciled on the box.) It will fit in nicely in my bathroom where I have my vintage shaving brush collection displayed and have a White Beaver's Cough Cream glass canister on a shelf.

Went shopping at the .35 clothing thrift store

Today I bought the above vintage wool letterman cardigan sweater for a whopping .35! Certain day of the week, Vintage Value sells clothes for only .35. I also found a few shirts for myself today. And I bought myself two pairs of shoes, one is a pair of Converse All Star slip on sneakers (.75) and the other is by a brand called Simple. I thought it was neat that it says "future" and "past" with arrows on the bottom.

How much would your Average Joe pay for all this?

Today I bought these ten compact fluorescent light bulbs at Giant (grocery store) - where the normal price is $4.99 each, then you add in the 3 blue cloth re-useable grocery bags that sell for .99 each....so that would be $52.87. But you wouldn't expect ME to pay that of course! I paid nothing. Let me explain. A few weeks ago the store had the lightbulbs on sale for $1 each, but they were sold out. They also had a promotion that if you bought 10 lightbulbs, then you would get 3 reusable grocery bags for free. Since they were out, I got a raincheck for the lightbulb promotion with the free bags. I knew in the Sunday coupon insert there was a $1 off a GE compact fluorecent lightbulb. So I went to ebay and bought 10 of the $1 coupons for $2.25 (including shipping). So I guess I did pay something...$2.25

Wonder bread prices make me wonder. Newsflash - I went to the mall today!

My life significantly changed for the better in the past year when my picky eatter son began eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That was a big accomplishment because up until then, he had never eaten a slice of bread - let alone bread with peanut butter and jelly on it. It makes it so nice to be able to make him a sandwich for lunch. Anyhow because he is a such a picky eatter, I buy the Wonderbread for Kids which supposedly has extra fiber and vitamins in it. The usual price at the grocery store is $2.69 a loaf. Once in a while it will go on sale for $2 a loaf. Walmart sells it for $2.02 a loaf everyday (but Walmart is a 20 minute drive). Today I took my husband's truck to the dealership to have some work done on it (dealership is an hour's drive away.) Afterwards, I also went to the mall and wandered around. Only bought one $9.99 thing at Kohl's and used a 15% off coupon. (I also shopped at Dollar Tree - love the Dollar Tree - and Tuesday Morning).

I also stopped at a Wonder Bread "thrift" store near the dealership and they had the same Wonderbread for Kids that the grocery store sells for $2.69 per loaf but instead at the thrift store it was only $2.57 for TWO loaves. And the bread is fresh. Knowing this, it makes me never want to buy it again at $2.69. I just wish the bread thrift was closer.

Bargain junk from yesterday = college fund

Yesterday I went to take recycleables to the recycling center and right on top of the bin was this empty clean water jug. I've been looking for one for a while now so I grabbed it. It's going to be a Christmas gift to my brother, but first I will write "Jacob's College Fund - Jug #1" on it. I'm doing it partly as a joke. What I really would like to do is find a nice 55 gallon drum to give him instead of the small 5 gallon jug. My sister has 3 girls (2 which have graduated from HS), and my brother has given both older girls a jug of cash at graduation. So, with Jacob being in First Grade, this will give him plenty of time to fill it.

Note to Self: May 1, 2008 - go to St. Mary's College

and look for some beefcake eye candy. It's a free frugal nude event. Here's a link to remind myself: St. Mary's College naked bike ride

Met former Maryland Senator Bernie Fowler on Saturday

On Saturday the Calvert Marine Museum had a free festival with lots of activities etc (there was a Chesapeake Bay dog retriever demonstration where they would throw stuff in the water and the dogs would retrieve it). I knew Jacob would love it (and he did). Afterwards my husband and Jacob left me there to go to McDonald's while I waited for a live auction to start. While I was waiting, I met former Maryland Senator Bernie Fowler (pictured above). He is very active in promoting the need to clean the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay.

Happy Birthday to me!

Today's my birthday but I feel like I received my BD present earlier in the week. Some loser neighbors I had got evicted. So they are now gone and its such a relief.

I saved $2 by not entering the Lobster Zone today

I had lunch today with my husband at a local restaurant. Hadn't been to this particular restaurant in a while and was a little bit weirded out when I saw this Lobster Zone game tank thing. You put in $2 and use the "claw" to try to grab a lobster and put it down the chute. Then they cook it and you eat it. I know people eat lobster all the time but I thought making a game out of it was kinda strange.

More Staples bargains

I went to Staples the other day and went a little overboard on stickies. I couldn't help myself, they were on clearance for only .50 a package. I used one $3 coupon so my total came to $0. If you've read my blog before about Staples, then you know I buy used inkjet cartridges on ebay for about $.75 each and then I recycle them at Staples in exchange for a $3 coupon. So actually all these stickies "cost" me around $.75 since I had to buy the empty inkjet cartridge to begin with. And of course I used my Staples Rewards card so I should earn a few cents back in a cash back bonus.