Yard trash makes me a free soda winner

Last week or so I spotted a Dr. Pepper bottle in my yard - courtesy of some stupid litterbug. At least they left the cap on it that said "1 in 6 caps win" - so I got online and yep, I won a Dr. Pepper with it. The coupon quickly came in the mail for it. Not as good of a win as the time someone threw an empty Lunchables box in my yard and it turned out to be an instant winner for a pair of Motorola walkie talkies, but a win is a win. My Lunchables Prize

And my son won something this week too. Our county has a Parks & Recreation Department and they are always running contests for kids - guess the # of jellybeans and stuff like that. I've never really paid much attention to it. Their office is next to the library. Well last week when I went to drop off some books, I noticed that Parks & Recs had a random drawing for leftover Valentine's Candy, so I put my son's name on a slip of paper, and here's the important part, folded the entry form like a little accordian and deposited the entry into the shoebox. And he won a bouquet of lollipops.

Folding the entry form like a little accordian makes it more likely to be chosen (I think) when there is a random drawing. Here's the little bouquet and his entry.

I'm now a Walgreens shopper

My little town is getting more shopping possibilities. A Walgreens opened a few weeks ago. They gave out tons of coupons to save $3 off a $10 purchase. Went today and used another coupon before they expire (on 3/1). I've never lived near a Walgreens so this is all new. In NY, I was always a CVS shopper (and still am). When I lived in Charleston SC, the drugstore that I loved there was Phar-Mor. What was kinda weird today - there was a nice looking, but older man (probably late '50's) trying to strike up a conversation with me in line. He was staring at me and his first words were "I love Walgreens" and then when he saw me whip out my coupons etc, he goes "A woman after my own heart" (he was, without a doubt, looking for a coupon clipping trophy wife). I don't think he saw my husband hanging out by the door, waiting for me.

Prior to Walgreens, we ate at a new Mexican restaurant. No, not a restaurant serving the food of New Mexico. A restaurant with Mexican food. The same family has some other restaurants so the food/menu was the same as what we've had at their other locations. But this one is real close to us now. And of course, used a Buy 1 Lunch get 1 Half-off coupon.

More on stupid pricing

Took Jacob to McDonald's this afternoon. Used coupons that I had bought on ebay (if you search McDonald's coupons on ebay - you'll see people selling packets of McDonald's coupons intended for kids - free small fries, free cone, free kid's soda etc). It really is against ebay's coupon policy on listing those free coupons, but ebay doesn't normally shut the coupon auctions down.

Well anyway at my McD's, you can get 4 piece McNuggets for $1. Jacob normally gets two 4 piece (8 nuggets total for $2, if you're doing the math). On their menu, McDonald's sells a 10-piece McNuggets for $3.39 (that's just for the nuggets, no drink or fries with it). Why would anyone ever order a 10 piece??? It would be cheaper to get three 4-packs for $3 and get 12 nuggets than spend $3.39 and only get 10 nuggets.

Then went to Giant to get a big bag of Doritos on sale for $1.74 (not like the 3 for $1 puny bags pictured below). Then Jacob wanted to ride the grocery store elevator. Our new grocery store has an elevator, which I think is odd. The only thing I can think of is that they grocery store had to limit their environmental footprint in construction, so they had to move their offices/employee breakroom to a second story. And maybe there is some sort of disability law requiring them to put in an elevator if it's 2 stories. And the thing is, the elevator is not tucked away in a corner, its right there, next to the customer service desk, so it's physically impossible for Jacob to walk past it and not want to take it for a spin. And I am a pushover, so I say yes.

Pretty Uneventful Week

Not much was going on in the last week. Did go to Smile on Wednesday and ended up just buying 3 books - Dinner Doctor (.50), The Cake Mix Bible ($1 - cuz it's hardcover) and Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals (.50). A few years back I bought the Cake Mix Doctor book for my mom for Christmas - a cookbook where all the recipes start with a box of cake mix. The Cake Mix Bible book and The Dinner Doctor are by the same author. I am gathering a collection of Rachael Ray books, so I will list them in a big bunch on ebay. I saw an auction where a grouping of about 5 of her books sold for $50.




Been trying to be good and declutter and get organized. Somewhere within the last 10 years or so, I've gotten really disorganized and all my paperwork is starting to really get out of control. I did declutter something yesterday. A collection I had going on in the kitchen. Turkey wishbones (and a few chicken wishbones). Come on, I can't be the only person who saves wishbones. Correction - I am a person who USED to collect wishbones. I trashed them. They looked gross.

I think I've pretty much finished doing the little mini-remodeling of my bathroom. Painted the ceiling, replaced the towel bar, took down unused soap dish that was attached to the wall from when the house was built, painted the baseboards, filled in nail holes in the wall and painted over them, fixed where the linoleum was coming up near the tub and water was getting underneath (I know all the flooring in the house is ready to be replaced but this was a temporary fix since I am not personally ready for the hassle that it would take to replace all the flooring). Put up Spongebob (yes, Spongebob) border. Now I think I just want to get a new toilet seat and new faucet. Will have pics later.

The year is going by so fast. Here is it almost March already. Valentine's is over and Easter is coming up real quick. I am glad that Easter is early this year. (It seems early at least to me). Here's my thinking - the stores just finished up with their Valentine's Day displays and now they only have a small window of opportunity to sell Easter candy - which I think by far has the best holiday related candy. Mmmmm Cadbury eggs. Mmmm Cadbury eggs with the crunchy shell. So with this short window of opportunity to sell, my theory is with a shortened shopping season, a lot will be leftover - and marked down for me to buy real cheap.

And the Oscars are even early. I gave birth on Oscar Night 2000, and that was at the end of March (I remember seeing Annette Benning in the audience looking extremely preggers and thinking "she should be having that baby now, not me!" Jacob was 3 weeks early and I was a little unprepared.

Walmart pricing

I bought new eyeglasses today at Walmart for $208 plus $49 exam fee. I'll get them next week or so. My current glasses are Walmart glasses and they've held up good, but I have too many scratches on them and wanted new.

Afterwards I did some shopping and saw this sign (I usually keep my digital camera in my purse since you never know when a photo-op will occur). Still haven't figured out how to take a pic with my cellphone.

Math was never my strong suit, but even I can figure out that buying 3 at .33 is better than three for $1.

Update on the new message board

As I wrote yesterday I said I was working on a new board - which I was - in the evening after spending the day in Baltimore. But today I realized, it was gonna take me a looong time to figure out that program. It was making me mad. So I gave up on that new board today.

BUT I found a different board hosting program that was much easier to figure out. Spent some time on it this afternoon and so far got it to look like this:



There is still some work to do on it before it goes "live". Hopefully the old message board will be fixed soon - knock on wood. There are things there I want to copy to the new new board.

It will take some getting used to, not exactly like the old board, but similar in ways.

Spent yesterday at the Inner Harbor

We are members of Baltimore's Aquarium thru August 2008 so we made another trip to the city to go there. Geez, why wasn't everybody doing President's Day shopping like they are supposed to? The place was totally packed. Ugg. I thought that it wouldn't be too bad since at least there wouldn't be any school field trips going on, but I was wrong.

Biting the Bullet

I'm working on a new message board. It's totally different set-up than what I am used to so it will take a little while to tweek it and figure out how it works. Hopefully the spreebb board will be up soon so I can copy things that need to be copied.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day to me from me

I got this in the mail yesterday. Clinique had a online freebie a few weeks ago for a free sample of Happy perfume (the promo was over quickly due to a big response). You could send a sample to anyone (limit of 5 samples) and could write whatever you wanted on the card. So of course I sent one to myself. I did a simple "Chris Happy Valentines Day YSQ (yardsalequeen). I think I also sent one to my sister and my mom. Came in a nice box (which I will reuse for ebay stuff).

A Sassylicious Valentine's for Jacob

Ok, I easily admit I can be a re-gifter sometimes. So when I got this super cute belated Christmas gift full of candy from my friends at Sassy Signs, I thought Bingo! Valentine's gift for Jacob. I added in a $1 Dollar Tree Lollipop that I had already bought and some heart wrapping paper (bought at a thrift) and ta-da!

Sassysigns.com sells a variety of very colorful and eye-catching outdoor signs. I first found out about them because of their yardsale and garage sale signs, but they also sell others (like It's a Boy, It's a Girl) and recently came out with a sign you can customize yourself called DeZign A Sign. If you had thought about ordering yardsale signs from them before (I've had their banner on my website for a few years now), they are currently running a sale on their yardsale signs: winter special – buy 6 signs, get 3 free; or buy 4 signs get 2 free.

The way to a man's heart is thru Twizzlers and Jerky

The above pic is what my husband is getting for Valentine's Day. Black licorice and peppered beef jerky. The icing on the cake (so to speak) would be if I thru in a cigar (yes, he smokes nasty cigars, but only on the golf course). I can't imagine a worse breath than a combo of black licorice, beef jerky and a cigar. Makes me gag thinking about it. Just imagining black licorice breath makes me gag. Happy Valentine's Day.

Bought the licorice on sale. He couldn't find black licorice Twizzlers at Target recently, so now he thinks all the stores have stopped selling it. I told him they probably did since it's so gross. Yesterday I was at a grocery store I don't normally go to (but it was near my doctor's office - I had an appt.- so I stopped in). I saw they were remodeling and had a clearance cart. Found the peppered beef jerky for $1.49 each.

Will post Jacob's Valentine's gift later.

Did some retail shopping today

My husband had the day off from work so we did a little bit of shopping and eating of lunch. The nice lady at the SPCA faxed me a copy of my dog's rabies vaccination record so we also picked up a dog license (and paid the $5 fee). It's nice having a combo printer/fax machine/copier at home. Now tomorrow I'll call the dog catcher and tell him the license registration # so Whiskey will be taken off the bad doggy list.

I saw that JC Penney's had a big clearance ad in last week's paper. My sister emailed me to tell me she got some bargains there over the weekend. So I had to stop today and see what I could see. I did have a 15% off coupon with me from filling out the survey at JCPsurvey.com (I had a receipt from last month when I bought something.)

I bought the above two things for $8.05 (including tax). A hoodie jacket with removeable liner for Jacob - originally $49.99 (yeah right). I paid $5.92 plus tax. And a pair of some sort of ugly fake Croc type shoes (originally $18) for me. I paid $1.67 plus tax.



Then went to Best Buy and as my DH looks at whatever he looks at, I busied myself looking at the cameras on sale. Saw the above Sony Cybershot for $139. Saw a fancier one for $159 but I liked the cheaper one since it takes AA batteries. I like using rechargeable AA batteries - I don't like having to use expensive lithium batteries. I currently have a Cybershot camera that is a few years old, but I broke the battery door a while ago and its a pain always having to tape it up to keep it closed. Didn't buy it at Best Buy but figured I'd check and see what Staples had and also check ebay. So after Best Buy we went to Staples (the stores are close together) and saw that Staples had the identical camera for $99. I bought it (and used three of my $3 inkjet coupons). Total with tax came to $96.44

Happy (early) Valentine's Day or something

I stopped at Food Lion today with my son. I normally don't take him grocery shopping but I wanted to run in and get a few things. Of course all the Valentine's cakes and cookies were all in full view on a big display right when you walked in the store. He wanted a Valentine's cake, and since I am such a pushover, I couldn't say no. At least they were on sale for $4.99 (he won't eat a cake that I make, only store bought cakes). I asked the person working the bakery counter to write Happy Valentine's Day on it. This is what I got (pictured above). Maybe by Thursday they'll get it right.

While at Food Lion, I bought a bunch more of the Banquet TV dinners (on sale for .88 each). On the package, there is a coupon for a free game of bowling. Well some of the tv dinners did - not all the varieties had the coupon.

Yesterday was a good day too. I found another thing I thought I had lost. It was a replacement credit card for one that is expiring at the end of the month. I knew it came in the mail but hadn't activated it and didn't know where it was. I'm glad I found it.

Haven't found my dog's rabies vaccination certificate yet but the local SPCA did return my call (but I wasn't home). They're the ones who administered the shot he had back in the fall. I called them to see if I could get a copy of the certificate. So I'll call them back tomorrow and see what they say. If I can't, I'll just keep looking for the certificate. I know its around here somewhere.

Yesterday was a good day!

I found my car keys! You wouldn't believe all the crazy places I was looking for them - freezer, refridgerator, the backyard, places that I know they shouldn't be. I found them because of Pajama Day at school today. Kids bring in a can of food to donate and they can wear pajamas to school. Kinda weird if you ask me. Well Jacob doesn't normally wear regular pajamas to bed so its not like its a big deal to wear PJs to school. I just sent him to school in lounge pants and a crazy tie-dyed t-shirt. I prefer it when they have Crazy Hat Day (because he has an awesome crazy hat that I paid $1 for at a yardsale).

In our garage, I have a shelving unit where I store canned food and extra supplies. Well yesterday I was rearranging the canned goods and I saw the keys - they had fallen between some cans. I must have set them down on one of the cans while I had gone back to the car for something.

On my keychain I have all my shoppers cards: Food Lion, CVS, Staples, Ace Hardware, Best Buy, Giant, Petco, McKays cookie club card, McKays regular shoppers card (Mckays is a small local grocery store), Dicks Sporting Goods, Price Chopper (for when I am in NY), and my library card. I didn't like the idea of having to replace them all.



Did a little bit of shopping this week. Bought the above Bullets pennant for $1. The basketball team in Washington DC used to be called the Washington Bullets until whoever decided that name didn't seem appropriate for a city that has a lot of gun violence.

Whiskey has been good and staying home the last few days. I think I found how he was getting out. Here he is relaxing the other day.

Started Christmas shopping today

My plan of the day was to buy a bridal shower gift for this weekend and get my hair cut. Mission accomplished. The bride is registered at Target so that's where I got the gift and then decided to stop in Bath and Body Works, just to look. Well I spotted a 75% off shelf and saw some coconut scented items and remembered my sister mentioning over Christmas that she likes coconut scented stuff. Bought her an Exotic Coconut Body Splash for $2.62 (reg. $10.50) and a Eau de Toilette spray for $4.62 (regularly $18.50).

The price of bridal shower cards is ridiculous!!! I even stopped at Big Lots and BJs Warehouse since they have discounted cards, but I think paying $3.69 plus tax (minus 25%) is still a rip-off. I am glad I didn't buy a card. I came home and went thru a huge box of assorted cards I bought at a yardsale last summer for $3. It was box of cards made by The Paper Magic Group it's an assortment of about 30 fancy cards, all with embellishments etc on them and I found a card that is appropriate for a bridal shower.

Now for the wedding card, I am set for that. When a card store was going out of business at the mall, all the cards were 90% off and what was left when I was there was wedding cards and sympathy cards. So I bought a bunch of fancy cards that were originally $4 and $5 each.

Met the dog catcher and went bowling.

But not in that order. Yesterday the family and I went to the local bowling alley and bowled one game - compliments of Banquet tv dinners. There is a coupon on certain packages for a free game of bowling. I bought 3 packages when they were on sale for .88 each. So yesterday we were able to bowl for free. My husband and I each have our own bowling shoes and kid's bowling shoe rental was free. I bowled a 110.

Today the Whiskey dog decided to visit his other family a few streets over. On his way there, he came upon the county dog catcher - who happened to be in the neighborhood to deliver a cat trap to some family. Damn those cat trap wanting people! (So it wasn't like someone called to report Whiskey).

Whiskey has been visiting this other family for years now off and on (long story). Somehow he always manages to get out of our fenced in yard. We paid about $3,000 for the fencing and installation many years ago. Part of it is white picket fence, which we have reinforced with heavy gauge fencing - since he was squeezing thru the slats in the fence. We've poured cement in places where he has dug underneath portions of the chain link fence, etc etc. But all the time he manages new ways to get out of the yard and then get himself back in.

Well long story short - the dog catcher was very nice and just told me to get a $5 animal license for Whiskey and call him back with the registration #. Now the hard part, find the rabies vaccination record that I got a few months ago so I can get the animal license. Paying $5 for the animal license is a lot cheaper than if the dog catcher decided to take Whiskey for a ride in his van.

Maybe when I look for the rabies certificate, I'll find my car keys which are still MIA.

Paint Snot

Yesterday I did finish painting my bathroom (including the ceiling) - yea for me! I no longer have the embryo looking stain on the ceiling (which was caused by a small leak in the roof. (Well the roof is fine, it was just where some pipe thing sticks out of the roof lost a thingy which caused some water to come in during rainy weather).

The paint I used is probably a decade old and had a lot of paint snot in it. I don't know what the term is but when I mixed it up, I saw a bunch of little paint chunks in the mix and when I painted, it looked like paint snot on the brush. Which of course was a pain in the butt to deal with. I should pour it thru a filter or something next time.

My bathroom is not finished so no Before and After pics yet. Need to fix the flooring next. Then buy the new faucet.

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Something has been driving me nuts the last few days. I cannot find my car keys. I have a back-up set, so I can drive the car, but I want my regular set. The set with my million shopper's cards attached. In my effort to get organized, on Thursday I vaguely remember having the car keys in my hand to put a new shoppers card on the keyring. Well I still have the little shoppers card to add, but have no idea where I put the keys. I mean, they have to be somewhere here in the house.

I swear lately, I always have something lost that I am looking for. So besides the lost car keys, but I still have to find the new credit card that I know came in the mail and I need to activate to replace the one that expires at the end of February.

Happy Ground Hogs Day. In *honor* of Ground Hogs Day, our local newspaper ran an article yesterday, on the front page: Groundhogs: bad for some, tasty for others. Oh. My. God. I know I live out in the boonies but geez. Here's the article:

Groundhogs: bad for some, tasty for others