Buying Rock Salt in July, Patio Umbrellas in January....

I've been pretty busy the last few days. Tonight I had to attend a meeting about summer camp for Jacob and I didn't want to bring him to the meeting so I got a babysitter. DH is playing in a summer golf league so he wasn't going to be home until later. I don't get babysitters very often since I've had some bad experiences with babysitters and if I find someone who is good, they are never available. But the babysitter I had tonight I think is going to work out really well - she's 18 so she can drive to my house and lives very closeby. And I'm friends with her mother. I think I need to get a babysitter more often - its sorta like when a relative visits, I get into a cleaning mode if I know someone is coming over. So yesterday and today I've been cleaning. It's the only time I feel like cleaning. Why clean if there is thrift store shopping that needs to get done? haha.

Before the meeting, I used coupon for a free smoothie at our new Smoothie King I had never heard of it before but it's a franchise in many states. The free coupon came from a Valpak coupon pak. I think the smoothie I got would have cost $3.99 if I was paying for it. And that was the "small". It was tasty, but if I had to choose between spending $3.99 on one smoothie or buying several 2-liters of Diet Pepsi, I'm going for the Diet Pepsi of course.

Anyhow after the meeting, I was able to do some shopping. I had already paid the babysitter until 8pm, and at 7:45 DH called me to say he was on his way home. So I didn't have to rush. I did a little grocery shopping at Safeway and some Walmart shopping. At Safeway, I bought the current issue of
Wondertime magazine since yardsalequeen.com is mentioned in it. $4.95 plus tax for a single magazine - oye. For $10 I could have bought a year subscription. But I like to believe that even if I subscribed today, they probably wouldn't send me the current edition. I had never heard or seen the magazine before until someone here on the blog commented that that was how they found my website.


Also at Safeway I bought a 25 lb. bag of rock salt for $1. It does snow occasionally where I live so it will be used. Gotta buy off-season to get the best deals. Like this past January (I think) when I bought the brand new patio umbrella at Food Lion. It had been a leftover from the previous summer and someone discovered it tucked away in the stockroom. So they took it out and put a $10 price tag on it and I bought it. (I know that's what happened because I asked if they had any more and they told me the stockroom story).

Then went to Walmart and saw they started to put out the back-to-school supplies. Hooray, it's almost back-to-school time! (not that I'm counting or anything...)

p.s. Oh and forgot to mention I also bought some sliced turkey breast at the deli at Food Lion for .23 for a half pound. Nope, that's not a typo and it wasn't a cashier mistake. Will post my receipt tomorrow.