Saturday, December 24, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Happy Festivus Everyone!
and now I will do an Airing of Grievances on how you, my blog readers, have disappointed me in the past year. In my earlier post, I told you I wanted you to buy me the $249 plus tax & shipping parade bracelet. Such a simple thing to do and you failed miserably. I was going to guess that at least I would receive a dozen or two of them, and not a single one has arrived! Phooey on you and you and you. And I was only planning on keeping one or two and ebaying the rest - because I'm generous that way. Shame shame shame on you.
So therefore I had to take matters into my own hand. I assumed (and rightly so) that you would disappoint me, so until I win the lottery, I bought myself a knockoff. So there. It's even imported! From exotic China!
Here's the one you were supposed to buy me: (which is now soldout on the BJs Warehouse website, so you can't even attempt to get into my good graces if you tried)
And this is the one I bought myself:
I hope you're happy. Now go enjoy the rest of Festivus!
So therefore I had to take matters into my own hand. I assumed (and rightly so) that you would disappoint me, so until I win the lottery, I bought myself a knockoff. So there. It's even imported! From exotic China!
Here's the one you were supposed to buy me: (which is now soldout on the BJs Warehouse website, so you can't even attempt to get into my good graces if you tried)
And this is the one I bought myself:
I hope you're happy. Now go enjoy the rest of Festivus!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
My Christmas Troll Collection Expands
Somewhere in this castle is my Christmas Troll collection - so one day when I find them, I will have 3 more to add. The stuffed Santa troll is so ugly I had to have it. Plus, at .50, it was well within my budget. I bought the 2 other small trolls a few weeks ago for .25 each.
And today I bought a hardcover book - The Gospel According to Superman. Who says I'm not religious????!!!! It was in the kid's book section (kids books are normally .25 - and today was a half priced day, so I got 2 books for .25).
And here is one of my awesome buys from last week. I was donating items when another woman was donating this Berlin Sports wagon. I told one of the workers I was interested in it so they looked it over to price it. They decided that since it needed some work done on it - it is missing a screw - they would only charge $15 for it. Sold! If you were to buy it retail, it would *only* cost $189 at Toys R Us In my pic, it looks like it's missing one of the slats, but its laying down in the bed of the wagon.
One more day til Festivus!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Bargain Liquor and Mickey Mouse - what a combo!
There were no yard sales for me this past Saturday morning, so I had to get my bargain shopping fix elsewhere. On a couponing message board, I had read that Walgreens had $19.99 Christmas shirts ringing up at a .80 clearance price. So I had to check to see if my Walgreens had any. I found (and bought) two. Unfortunately, I only have one Walgreens near me so I cannot easily drive to other Walgreens to buy and hoard more.
Then leaving Walgreens, I saw a big "going out of business - everything 40% off" sign at a local gas station/convenience store. So I stopped in to see what they had. I hadn't been in that store in forever since I don't shop at gas station convenience stores (cuz everything is overpriced). When I buy gas, I just swipe my credit card at the pump so no need to go inside. Well what a surprise - it was a small liquor store inside. And at 40% off, I stocked up. It had been picked through already, so there were no large bottles of Johnny Walker for DH (so I had to settle for small bottles). The 1.75 liter bottles of Aged Cruzan rum were only $19.99 so, after the discount, they were $12 each. I would have bought more but 2 was all they had. The liter bottles of Myers were also $19.99 so $12 after discount. They also had a lot of generic cheapy type of liquor made by companies I have never heard of - which I passed up. Cruzan rum is from St. Croix - where we honeymooned and toured the Cruzan Rum distillery. For all the liquor in the pic, I ended up paying around $90. I will be all set for at least a month!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
A Day in the Life of the Yardsalequeen (December version)
- Got up, made Jacob's lunch and got him on the school bus.
- Left the castle to get the royal vehicle's oil changed at Mr. Tire using my Groupon oil change coupon (paid $13 for the oil change and tire rotation coupon).
- while car was in the shop, walked to the nearby Staples and used $66.80 that I had in Staples Rewards credit to buy more printer ink and some other stuff.
- also browsed BJs Warehouse. Saw a $299 bracelet in the jewelry case that I liked. I see it's only $249 (+ tax & shipping) online (what a bargain - I really think you should buy it for me. Yes, I'm talking to you.) Here it is: Parade Bracelet Note to BJ's Warehouse advertising management: If you would like, you can send this item for me to review here on this super popular blog. With all those blingy, shiny gemstones, I think it would go well with my crown.
- picked up the car and drove to a nearby thrift where I spent around $5 on stuff. ($1 of it was a package of 2 ink cartridges which I will probably end up recycling at Staples for $4. Either that or I will ebay it for more).
- by this time, it was around 11am so I stopped at Quiznos and used my last Quiznos Groupon. If I remember right, I paid $2 each for 8 Quiznos sandwich coupons on Groupon. Got the sandwich "to go" so I didn't buy any soda - I have an electric cooler in my car full of canned sodas. Ate half the sandwich in the car and took the rest home for later.
- went to Old Navy to use my $20 Groupon coupon. Recently there was a nationwide Groupon for Old Navy - for $10 you could get $20 worth of merchandise. And since I had $10 in referral money in my account - I paid $0 for the Old Navy Groupon coupon. I bought 10 pairs of cozy socks (which were on sale for $2 each). I just had to pay .60 in sales tax. Will probably give as gifts.
- went to Bath & Body Works and used a 20% off your entire order coupon. I bought 2 things that were already on the 50% off clearance shelf.
- went to Target where I bought 4 boxes of Chex Rice cereal. On sale for $2.25 a box. And I had 2 coupons that were save $1 off 2 boxes. So I paid $7.00 for 4 boxes.
- went to Shoppers Food Warehouse, where they double coupons up to .99. I had some .75 off McIlhenny Tabasco sauce coupons. Price was $1.50 so I paid $0 for them when the coupons were doubled. Also bought a few other items (did not do a major grocery shopping trip).
- went to Kohls with my 20% off coupon. Plus I had a $10 off anything coupon which was only supposed to be good from Dec 1st - 10th. I asked at Customer Service if they would still honor it and they said yes. Bought a $5.99 winter themed doormat, a $6.99 gift for a child, plus some clearanced Fall dishtowels. Paid $4- something out of pocket.
- went to Walgreens. Got the Goody hair clips and the Salonpas pain patch (that are free this week with Register Rewards). I also *bought* a Revlon Top Speed nailpolish, which also was free ($3.99 on sale, minus $1 Revlon coupon which is in the coupon booklet by the Walgreens make-up counter) and received the $3.00 Register Reward (plus the Register Rewards for the Salonpas and Goody). I plan on giving the pain patch to my sister-in-law who uses them.
- went to Giant grocery store for a few things. Since I use the scanner gun to record my purchases, the scanner gun automatically gives me electronic coupons too. I've noticed that everyday it gives me a $1 electronic coupon to save $1 on any 4 Marchuan Ramen Noodles. So since individual packages are .27 each, I am able to get 4 for .08. Like almost everyday. Also bought packages of Betty Crocker Fun-da-middles cupcake box mixes for .84 each. The chocolate flavor was on clearance for $2.34 (the vanilla was still $3.19 a box). I had .75 coupons that doubled to $1.50. So $2.34 - $1.50 = .84 each. (Although Giant doubles coupons too, sometimes certain things are cheaper at Shoppers Food Warehouse so that is why I shop there occasionally).
- Returned to the castle and unloaded the royal vehicle.
- Jacob came home and took him to get his hair cut at Great Clips with a $6.99 coupon that was due to expire on the 18th. And yes, I do tip. I am thrifty but not cheap.
- then went to Papa Johns and picked up two free large 1 topping pizzas for dinner. A while back I won the coupons for free Papa Johns pizza at a Christmas bazaar. While waiting for the pizza to get done, walked around Food Lion where I bought a half-healthy Poinsettia plant that was on clearance for .50.
- did a blog post.
- thinking about what I want to buy tomorrow.
- Left the castle to get the royal vehicle's oil changed at Mr. Tire using my Groupon oil change coupon (paid $13 for the oil change and tire rotation coupon).
- while car was in the shop, walked to the nearby Staples and used $66.80 that I had in Staples Rewards credit to buy more printer ink and some other stuff.
- also browsed BJs Warehouse. Saw a $299 bracelet in the jewelry case that I liked. I see it's only $249 (+ tax & shipping) online (what a bargain - I really think you should buy it for me. Yes, I'm talking to you.) Here it is: Parade Bracelet Note to BJ's Warehouse advertising management: If you would like, you can send this item for me to review here on this super popular blog. With all those blingy, shiny gemstones, I think it would go well with my crown.
- picked up the car and drove to a nearby thrift where I spent around $5 on stuff. ($1 of it was a package of 2 ink cartridges which I will probably end up recycling at Staples for $4. Either that or I will ebay it for more).
- by this time, it was around 11am so I stopped at Quiznos and used my last Quiznos Groupon. If I remember right, I paid $2 each for 8 Quiznos sandwich coupons on Groupon. Got the sandwich "to go" so I didn't buy any soda - I have an electric cooler in my car full of canned sodas. Ate half the sandwich in the car and took the rest home for later.
- went to Old Navy to use my $20 Groupon coupon. Recently there was a nationwide Groupon for Old Navy - for $10 you could get $20 worth of merchandise. And since I had $10 in referral money in my account - I paid $0 for the Old Navy Groupon coupon. I bought 10 pairs of cozy socks (which were on sale for $2 each). I just had to pay .60 in sales tax. Will probably give as gifts.
- went to Bath & Body Works and used a 20% off your entire order coupon. I bought 2 things that were already on the 50% off clearance shelf.
- went to Target where I bought 4 boxes of Chex Rice cereal. On sale for $2.25 a box. And I had 2 coupons that were save $1 off 2 boxes. So I paid $7.00 for 4 boxes.
- went to Shoppers Food Warehouse, where they double coupons up to .99. I had some .75 off McIlhenny Tabasco sauce coupons. Price was $1.50 so I paid $0 for them when the coupons were doubled. Also bought a few other items (did not do a major grocery shopping trip).
- went to Kohls with my 20% off coupon. Plus I had a $10 off anything coupon which was only supposed to be good from Dec 1st - 10th. I asked at Customer Service if they would still honor it and they said yes. Bought a $5.99 winter themed doormat, a $6.99 gift for a child, plus some clearanced Fall dishtowels. Paid $4- something out of pocket.
- went to Walgreens. Got the Goody hair clips and the Salonpas pain patch (that are free this week with Register Rewards). I also *bought* a Revlon Top Speed nailpolish, which also was free ($3.99 on sale, minus $1 Revlon coupon which is in the coupon booklet by the Walgreens make-up counter) and received the $3.00 Register Reward (plus the Register Rewards for the Salonpas and Goody). I plan on giving the pain patch to my sister-in-law who uses them.
- went to Giant grocery store for a few things. Since I use the scanner gun to record my purchases, the scanner gun automatically gives me electronic coupons too. I've noticed that everyday it gives me a $1 electronic coupon to save $1 on any 4 Marchuan Ramen Noodles. So since individual packages are .27 each, I am able to get 4 for .08. Like almost everyday. Also bought packages of Betty Crocker Fun-da-middles cupcake box mixes for .84 each. The chocolate flavor was on clearance for $2.34 (the vanilla was still $3.19 a box). I had .75 coupons that doubled to $1.50. So $2.34 - $1.50 = .84 each. (Although Giant doubles coupons too, sometimes certain things are cheaper at Shoppers Food Warehouse so that is why I shop there occasionally).
- Returned to the castle and unloaded the royal vehicle.
- Jacob came home and took him to get his hair cut at Great Clips with a $6.99 coupon that was due to expire on the 18th. And yes, I do tip. I am thrifty but not cheap.
- then went to Papa Johns and picked up two free large 1 topping pizzas for dinner. A while back I won the coupons for free Papa Johns pizza at a Christmas bazaar. While waiting for the pizza to get done, walked around Food Lion where I bought a half-healthy Poinsettia plant that was on clearance for .50.
- did a blog post.
- thinking about what I want to buy tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Changes to Yardsalequeen Message Board
Just a quick note to say that a few days ago I made my Message Board viewable only to those who are registered members. Up until recently, I had a small portion of the board viewable to anyone and everyone. Well because of computer attacks by spam-bots (if you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky) I had to make the board only for registered members.
I've gotten a few emails from people who had been lurking for years and now are wondering why they can no longer read the board - so I figured I'd better say something here in case anyone else was wondering. So if you are intelligent, smart, witty, love yardsales and know how to play nice with others and know how to curtsy, I encourage you to register to be a member of the Queen-dom.
I've gotten a few emails from people who had been lurking for years and now are wondering why they can no longer read the board - so I figured I'd better say something here in case anyone else was wondering. So if you are intelligent, smart, witty, love yardsales and know how to play nice with others and know how to curtsy, I encourage you to register to be a member of the Queen-dom.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Taking the time to celebrate one holiday at a time
In my previous Debbie Downer post, Anonymous commented that they wanted to see the Royal Christmas Tree. Hello??? I don't know about you, but I like to take my time and celebrate one holiday at a time. Therefore, behold, I present to you, the Royal Festivus Pole.
After celebrating Festivus then it's time to start thinking about decorating for Christmas.
I will have to post about my successful yardsale when I have more time. But later today - woohoo - I get yet another crown! (on bottom left molar).
Thursday, December 01, 2011
First Yardsale of 2011
I have one day to pull a yardsale together. I signed up to sell at an indoor yardsale this Saturday, December 3. My first and last one for the year. So tomorrow I will just walk around the castle sticking price stickers on stuff and throwing it in my car. You know, for being a yardsale queen, I really should be better prepared.
I haven't blogged much lately so this post will be a mishmash of things to catch up on what's been happening lately.
Been doing lots of shopping lately, including some online deals and even (gasp) retail. But my retail shopping is pretty tame. Over Thanksgiving weekend, I hit CVS and Walgreens for their freebie deals with Extra Care Bucks and Register Rewards. I am part of the Occupy Walgreens and Occupy CVS movement.
Here's one of my CVS receipts. The majority of that receipt is the free Extra Care Bucks. I know it looks impressive, but in reality, it really should have been twice as long. I split my shopping cart into two orders. After I bought my first half of stuff - I had a receipt this long, but I tore off all the Extra Care Bucks to pay for this second order.
My Black Friday Kohl's trip was worse than I could have ever imagined. The checkout lane was ginormous - and took hours to check-out. I went because I had the free $10 to spend between midnight and 4am and additional 15% off and got the Kohls register rewards (or whatever they are called). But totally not worth it. I should have known better.
The checkout line went on and on and on and on...
Speaking of Kohl's, here is their $39.99 fragile glass hourglass (on sale for $19.99) - notice the debris from broken hourglasses. My $2 hourglass from a yardsale a few weeks ago puts these to shame.
One of my "buys" from Walgreens. Is it still considered buying if they pay you $4 to take it out of the store? In the mail, I got a free coupon for a free Shick Hydro razor (I have no idea why they sent me the coupon and don't remember signing up for anything) - so the cashier deducted the cost of it $8.99 - and then a $4 Register Reward printed. So I "made" $4 on that deal and got a free razor.
And I've been doing some Christmas Bazaar shopping. I went to one church bazaar the other Saturday that had a large "grannie's treasures" room. I bought a single endtable for $8 (plus I bought other junk). Remember, God loves a cheerful giver! I liked the mid-century modern look of this endtable.
The thrift stores are all decorated for Christmas. One of my thrifts has really gotten out of control in their pricing. No way would I ever pay $8 for used shoes. Or $8 for a prison ornament. Do people decorate their Christmas trees with prison ornaments to remind them of their relatives? Like do they say "I want a Lompac ornament because that's where Uncle Joey lives"??? Or maybe there is a group of collectors similar to those hardcore Hallmark ornament collectors but instead they collect penitentiary ornaments.
My son Jacob is very interested in all things relating to weather - so when I heard that his favorite weatherman - oops I mean favorite Chief Meteorologist - was going to give a talk at the library - I got him out of school early so we could go. Those of you who are in the DC/MD/VA area, you gotta know who I am talking about - weather superstar Doug Hill.
I printed out one of his head-shots and got him to autograph it for Jacob.
I haven't blogged much lately so this post will be a mishmash of things to catch up on what's been happening lately.
Been doing lots of shopping lately, including some online deals and even (gasp) retail. But my retail shopping is pretty tame. Over Thanksgiving weekend, I hit CVS and Walgreens for their freebie deals with Extra Care Bucks and Register Rewards. I am part of the Occupy Walgreens and Occupy CVS movement.
Here's one of my CVS receipts. The majority of that receipt is the free Extra Care Bucks. I know it looks impressive, but in reality, it really should have been twice as long. I split my shopping cart into two orders. After I bought my first half of stuff - I had a receipt this long, but I tore off all the Extra Care Bucks to pay for this second order.
My Black Friday Kohl's trip was worse than I could have ever imagined. The checkout lane was ginormous - and took hours to check-out. I went because I had the free $10 to spend between midnight and 4am and additional 15% off and got the Kohls register rewards (or whatever they are called). But totally not worth it. I should have known better.
The checkout line went on and on and on and on...
Speaking of Kohl's, here is their $39.99 fragile glass hourglass (on sale for $19.99) - notice the debris from broken hourglasses. My $2 hourglass from a yardsale a few weeks ago puts these to shame.
One of my "buys" from Walgreens. Is it still considered buying if they pay you $4 to take it out of the store? In the mail, I got a free coupon for a free Shick Hydro razor (I have no idea why they sent me the coupon and don't remember signing up for anything) - so the cashier deducted the cost of it $8.99 - and then a $4 Register Reward printed. So I "made" $4 on that deal and got a free razor.
And I've been doing some Christmas Bazaar shopping. I went to one church bazaar the other Saturday that had a large "grannie's treasures" room. I bought a single endtable for $8 (plus I bought other junk). Remember, God loves a cheerful giver! I liked the mid-century modern look of this endtable.
The thrift stores are all decorated for Christmas. One of my thrifts has really gotten out of control in their pricing. No way would I ever pay $8 for used shoes. Or $8 for a prison ornament. Do people decorate their Christmas trees with prison ornaments to remind them of their relatives? Like do they say "I want a Lompac ornament because that's where Uncle Joey lives"??? Or maybe there is a group of collectors similar to those hardcore Hallmark ornament collectors but instead they collect penitentiary ornaments.
My son Jacob is very interested in all things relating to weather - so when I heard that his favorite weatherman - oops I mean favorite Chief Meteorologist - was going to give a talk at the library - I got him out of school early so we could go. Those of you who are in the DC/MD/VA area, you gotta know who I am talking about - weather superstar Doug Hill.
I printed out one of his head-shots and got him to autograph it for Jacob.
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