Saturday, July 31, 2010

Where the hell is my driver's license???

Good news and bad news. Good news - today I found my cell phone that I thought I lost yesterday. But I spent all morning at my yardsale worrying about it since I had no idea where it could be. Also spent all morning asking the guy next to me what time it was since I don't wear a watch - I just use my cellphone as my clock.

The bad news. I lost my driver's license. Again. The last time I lost it, I paid to get a replacement, only to find it a short while later. So I think I will just hold off a bit on getting a replacement. I stuck the expired license in my wallet, just in case I need some ID. I'm a slow learner - you would think after paying once to replace it, I would be more careful.

So I rounded up a bunch of stuff yesterday and threw it my minivan and did a yardsale today at the fairgrounds ($10 rental space). There are a lot of professional flea marketer type people sellers there - you know if someone is hauling a trailer and unloading 10 or more folding tables and setting up at 5:30am it's not their first rodeo. But you never know who will show up from week to week. I showed up at 6:30am and was surprised at how many sellers were already there.

I made around $225 today. It was too busy to shop all morning but I closed up around noon and walked around and found few things that needed to come home with me.

What I like about selling at this sale is that you can park your vehicle right next to your spot - so you don't need to haul your junk far. And with my minivan, I just open up the hatch and it provides shade and a place to sit down for a few minutes here and there. Here is my minivan (circled in purple - in the center). There is a center dirt pathway that people walk down and you put your stuff on both sides.



Towards the end of the sale - looking pretty sparse (I did sell that big group of plastic hangers $1 - yea!)


Here is one thing I bought today ($1). A nice scary ugly man McDonald's Hamburgler from my youth.



Uggggh - I dislike the "cutesy" kid hamburgler of today.


So the $225 was burning a hole in my pocket so late this afternoon I went and bought two tires for the minivan for $186 (bought the cheapest they had since I will probably be selling it by the end of the year). I figured seeing the steel belts coming thru on the front tires, probably wasn't a good thing.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Alli Diet Update





I'm slowly taking my Alli diet pills. Not taking 3 a day, too afraid of possible side effects, so I am starting off slow and taking 1 a day.

Today for lunch I had the above. Of course it's low calorie - there's chicken and lettuce in there! And I told them to hold the tomatoes in order to lessen the calories :) I'm on the Quiznos email list and they recently sent out a printable coupon for a $2.99 meal deal - small sub, chips and a soda all for $2.99 so I couldn't pass it up. If I was to buy just that small sub - without a coupon - it alone would have been $5.29! I'm a firm believer in signing up for email coupons from companies.

And I didn't open the Cheetos - I took them home for Jacob.

I also went to Staples to do their free backpack deal that's going on this week. You buy a backpack, send in the rebate (I do the rebates online) and they will send you a gift card for the amount you paid for the backpack. The backpack I got was a $48.74 backpack. I also bought the .01 ballpoint pens and the .01 packs of paper (after rebate).

I'm thinking of doing a yardsale this Saturday (at the Calvert County fairgrounds if anyone wants to buy my junk). So I gotta throw some stuff in the car for that within the next few days.

Note to the Message Board People - I know the board is down. No, I wasn't doing anything to it to cause it to mess up. If I doesn't automagically fix itself by tomorrow I will look further into it.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Acting screwy

The main site at www.yardsalequeen.com has been acting screwy off and on all day. The blog works fine since it's on a different server than the website. I've called my website hosting company about it and they fixed it earlier in the day. Only for it to get messed up again tonight.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Went to the mall today and actually spent money ($3.17 to be exact)



With Jacob in summer camp and DH having the day off from work, he and I headed to Annapolis on the motorcycle for the day. It was a hot. I think I got a diaper rash from being sweaty and sitting on the motorcycle for so long. Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter, like 104 degrees. I wish I was going to Ecuador - if anything just to cool off. Only supposed to be 83 in Ecuador tomorrow.

There's going to be two yardsales (actually within walking distance of my house tomorrow) so I've decided to postpone my Ecuadoran adventure temporarily. I am still taking applications for those wishing to jet me to South America though. So keep the applications coming.

At the mall I spent a total of $3.17 on the above book. Also today, DH said he wanted to look at new cars - because nothing is better than walking around on hot black pavement looking at cars when it's 100 degrees out. I test drove one car which I liked - Mazda CX-7. Ever since my car broke down during a road trip, I don't trust it completely anymore. The dealer was next to a pawn store, which I had to visit. I bought my last car from the same car dealer, so I've been in that pawn shop before. Today's pawn shop visit was better though, since they were giving out matchbooks with their name/info on them. I have a matchbook collection dating back to when I started collecting them at age 13. So it's been a decade or two.

I can't remember the last time I was at a business that gave out matchbooks with their name on it.




Wow!!! They put Wow!!! on every price tag. I will have to try that during my next yardsale and see if it works.

p.s. did not buy anything at the pawn store, even tho DVDs were $2.50 each which I thought was a pretty good price.
p.s.s. Did not buy a new car. Not yet anyway.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Get Your Groupon (and Dikes & Bikes for Free)



I am no longer a Groupon virgin. Groupon is daily deal website that is localized to major markets. Well, surprise surprise, Lusby Maryland is not considered a major market. But I still subscribed to the email list months ago just to see the deals that Washington DC and Baltimore get offered everyday. Both cities are about 50-75 miles away.

Finally yesterday the Baltimore Groupon had a deal for me. It was to our local waterpark (which is only about 20 miles away). I had already told Jacob we would go once this summer. So I purchased 2 tickets yesterday at a savings PLUS since I paid with my Discover Card, Groupon said I would get 20% of the total in my Discover cashback bonus.

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My other deal yesterday was this book Dikes and Bikes. I had some time to kill before I had to pick up Jacob from camp so I went to the library and browsed their table of used books for sale. The Dikes & Bikes caught my eye (it's a book from 1953 published by Amstel Beer) and when I went to pay (it would have been .25) the librarian told me just to take it.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I have a small favor to ask

I need to get to Ecuador this Saturday and was wondering if anyone here had a small personal aircraft and could fly me there. I'm not talking a puddle jumper or crop duster, what I have in mind is more along the lines of a small personal luxury jet. Please email me immediately if you do.

Here is an email I got the other day and I think it would be rude of me not to attend the Ecuadoran yardsale. In the event that I am unable to attend, I asked Alberto to email me some pictures but I don't know if he will or not.

Dear YardsaleQueen,
I am from Guayaquil - Ecuador and I am planning to make garage sale this weekend, so i google "yardsale tips" and there was your page. It has been very very helpful. You really love yardsales!!! So, I wanted to spend a couple of minutes thanking you for making that page and taking the time to work at it so that "yardsale rookies" like me can benefit from your experience.
Thanks alot!
Oh!.. I almost forgot.. you are invited to my yardsale this saturday.. the address is Bellavista, Mz. 22 V. 18, Guayaquil - Ecuador... I know.. its a bit far..
Thanks again.
Alberto Z.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Welcome to a new addition to the family - a new baby!



We added a new addition to the family over the weekend. Say hello to our baby laptop. Jacob has bonded with it already. (It's the one that is on the cover of the Target ad this week for $199. But I did use a "Save $5 off a $75 purchase" coupon I had). And we do call it the "baby laptop" since it is baby sized compared to our full sized laptop. So now the computers in the house outnumber the humans.

And on the drive home from Target, Jacob saw a dog in a car next to us and for the first time since Whiskey went to the big dog park in the sky (a little over a year ago), he said he wanted a dog.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Saturday's Yard Sale Buys

Here's a few things I bought on Saturday. At one sale the seller had a bunch of jewelry laid out in a box - a piece of a cardboard divider had fallen down within the box so I lifted up the cardboard to find this cool heavy Batman ring (.925 silver marked DC - for DC Comics) for $1. It's a man's size 12 so it's a tad too big for me. I can't find any similar ones online. The next time I'm in Vegas baby, I'm taking it to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop to see how much they would give me for it, just for fun. Visiting the shop is on my to-do list for Vegas. The ring is tarnished but wanted to leave it as-is.



I also bought this Russian hat with a bunch of pins for $4. I don't think the pins are too old, I see one has a 1987 date on it. But it's the kind of thing I don't typically see at a yardsale so I bought it.



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I have to apologize to the winners of the Sassy Signs contest who won earlier this month (Diana, Shara, Briana & Ann) - there was a communication glitch between Sassy Signs and myself so that is why there's been a delay in getting your prize. The winners will be contacted by Sassy Signs very very soon, I promise.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Pop Quiz: Let's Play Guess the Cheapskate



Would you guess me (holding a book with CHEAPSKATE on the cover) or the man on the right?

Well if you guessed I'm the cheapskate, you are so wrong. The man on the right is the ultimate cheapskate. Literally. It's Jeff Yeager, the author of The Cheapskate Next Door. And according to his definition of cheapskate, I am not even close to being one. (Not that there's anything wrong with being a cheapskate.) I should call my sister and break the news to her - she won't believe it.



I got to meet Jeff this morning during the filming of an upcoming tv project that is a highly guarded secret. I could tell you more about it but then I would have to kill you. And I don't want to do that since it would cut into my shopping time. Once the information becomes declassified, I will let you know more about it.




p.s. One of the funniest things that happened this morning was that a yardsale customer (it was being filmed at a real live yardsale) starting browsing thru a bag of camera accessories that the film crew had left unattended.

p.s.s Yes, I know my hair looks messed up in the photo. I had taken off my crown earlier in the day (I like to blend in with the regular yardsailors and that's hard to do that while wearing a crown) and that combined with the humidity and the heat, made my hair the mess that it is.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Eat Nap Play (Yardsale)



Last fall a writer contacted me and interviewed me for a book she was writing calling Eat Nap Play (How to get even more out of your child's day for less). The book came out in the spring, but being the disorganized mess that I am, just recently remembered it and reminded the author she said she was going to send me a copy.

Well it came the other day and it looks like a fun book. Of course I haven't read it yet, only the pages I am on, not that I am narcissistic or anything.

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I have a friend to unload some Coolwhip on, so I'll get some freezer space back soon. I started a diet the other day, I tried one of my Alli pills but too afraid of the "side effects" to take 3 a day like it says to do. But I'm really not on a bona-fide "diet", it's more like I am just cutting out eating those yummy bargain $2 Taco Bell meal deals and I stopped having ice cream for breakfast.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Rain is a good thing - except on Saturdays



I like it when it rains, except when it has to rain on a Saturday morning, which it did yesterday. It pretty much kills the yardsales around here (the concept of having a yardsale in a garage and calling it a garage sale hasn't reached Southern Maryland yet). But I was able to get my shopping fix satisfied due to an "indoor yardsale" at a firehouse (heaven forbid they call it a garage sale). Here was my favorite seller of the day. When you asked her how much anything was, her answer was always "a quarter". For the heck of it I asked her how much the tv was - not because I wanted it I told her, it was because I wanted to hear her say something different ($5). She was fun. I bought several quarter items from her.




And on my way home, I rescued this guy who was going to be crossing the road. I walked him over to the other side (which you are supposed to do) and then saw some steep terrain. I worried that he may flip over so I took him down the steep drop-off and am thankful I didn't break my leg climbing out of there. Then this morning I had to go somewhere and saved a second turtle. I wish they would stop trying to cross the road.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Happy 50th Birthday Cowboy



I don't know how it happened but I now have a much much older sister and much older brother who are in their 50's. Thank God I am so much way younger than them. You know, since Teen Vogue still wants me as their customer and all.

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Of course on Wednesday I found and bought a can of temporary hair color for .50 at my fav thrift store.



I would have bet money I was going to find something like that. Because on Tuesday, it was "crazy hair day" at Jacob's summer camp and I had no temporary hair color in the castle. Plus his hair is like a #1 barber cut so there isn't much a person could do to it. So I did the next best thing - sent him to camp wearing a hat with fake surfer dude hair sewn on (bought at a yardsale of course). Nope, its not girl hair at all, its surfer dude guy hair. And that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I had other pics, but I think they accidentally got deleted.


Tuesday, July 06, 2010

My name is Chris and I am a Cool Whip Hoarder



So for the past few days I pretty much stayed far away from grocery stores (too many people doing their BBQ shopping etc). I made up for it today though. I stocked up on free Cool Whip. I didn't realize what a great sale it was until today when I finally looked at the sale ad (the sale ends tonight). The deal was at Food Lion: Buy 5 of any of the 5 dessert items listed in their sales flyer, and get $5 taken off your transaction. Well with Cool Whip sale priced at $1 - you just needed to buy 5 and $5 would be taken off your total. There was no limit, so I did multiple transactions. And with the sale ending tonight, the store still had plenty for others to buy. The above picture is just some of my Cool Whip stash. I still have the freezer in the kitchen and some in the fridge.

And after enjoying my Cool Whip, I'll have the empty containers to sell at my next yardsale. Just kidding.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Happy 4th of July



As I would have guessed, it was a bad yardsale Saturday yesterday. Last year, however, was a good 4th of July yardsale weekend. With people having Friday off from work, there were many Friday/Saturday yardsales last year. But with people having Monday off this year, the yardsales basically sucked. But you know I still found stuff to buy. I bought nothing in the above picture.

Went to a pre-4th of July party on Friday night, so I don't feel the need to see fireworks again. The hosts of the party probably had $1000 worth of fireworks that they had bought in Pennsylvania - looked nearly as good as any professional run show. So today is just laid back day, we will grill and I need to go now and boil some potatoes for potato salad.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Yard Sale Buys from last weekend - thrift store buys from yesterday

Here's what I bought last Saturday at the yardsales. I was lucky enough to see the same yardsale seller who sold me the Barbie clothes the other week had cleaned out his basement and had found more to sell, for .25 each.

At one yardsale, I knew the seller. She asked me if found anything good so far that morning. So when I went to leave, I put on my $1 corn hat which I had bought earlier in the morning and waved to her. As I was waving, a car that was driving by in the neighborhood slowed down, rolled down the window and the driver called out "Nice hat Chris". I have no idea who is was, I assume it was someone who knew my husband.





One of my better buys last Saturday was a free carwash that the boyscouts were having. Several local businesses donated to the Boy Scouts to have a free carwash for the community and we were given a packet of fliers from the various businesses. They also accepted donations, which of course I gave to. After the kids did their work, the Dads & Moms joined in and did a wonderful job.



Here's what I got yesterday at a thrift:

.75 new in package Snuggie for Jacob. It was only a matter of time before the Snuggies start showing up cheap at yardsales and thrift stores.
$1 t-shirt Official Member of the Piss & Moan About Everything Club. Up until now, I was just an unofficial member.
$1 unused Slatkin Bath & Body Works candle.