People are so stupid....

Occasionally I like reading the online edition of my old hometown newspaper and seeing what's cooking. This article caught my eye A Lobster Tale (Amsterdam is a name of a city in NY). As punishment, they should make him live on SoyJoy bars for a month (now that would be cruel and unusual punishment).

Triple Coupons at Giant

My grocery store (Giant) is having a special this week. I think I mentioned that they are now doubling coupons up to .99 (which is great). But this week they are tripling coupons up to .99 - but with a limit of 5 triples per shopping trip. But its not a company-wide promotion - only certain select stores are having the triple coupon promo.

I went yesterday and did 5 triple coupons. I bought 2 boxes of Celestial Seasonings tea for .02 a box. (On sale for $1.67. Then tripled my .55 coupon for an additional $1.65 off per box). I am not a tea drinker but DH is. Also bought a box of Kelloggs new fiber bars for .75 a box (on sale for $3.00. Tripled a .75 coupon for $2.25 off). I can't remember the two other items I bought.

Then today DH was taking Jacob to the library so I told them to drop me off at Giant. After coupons, I bought: Hanover frozen pretzels for $1.00, package of Trident gum (free), another Kelloggs Fiber bars .75, Lysol toilet cleaner .25, 2 package of Ortega Chili seasoning (both free) and bottle of Aleve painkiller for $2.74 (it was on sale for $4.99 and I tripled a .75 coupon. Plus the package had 50% more in it for free).

I know that is more than 5 items but I didn't need to triple the gum coupon since by just doubling it, it was free anyhow. If the coupon amount is more than the price of the item, you just get the item free, you don't "make money" on the item.

No yardsales today, but I did dream about going yardsaling last night so that will have to do.


While at the grocery store yesterday, I spotted this junk lover in the parking lot. (I asked if I could take a pic and they said yes. They are a junk cleaner-outter so to speak).

And I while I was at Old Navy a little while ago, I snapped this pic:


I thought of buying it, but didn't. It didn't really make sense to me. I do understand what a "yardsale" is in skiing terminology, but I couldn't figure out why the abominable snowman would say that skiers weren't allowed. It would seem to me that the abominable snowman would WANT more skiers to yardsale just so he could laugh at them.

(for the uninformed - you can read the alternative definition of a yardsale here)



Took the above pic the other day, before having lunch. Used a restaurant gift certificate that I had won thru a local freebie newspaper.

Sassy Signs Sale

Oh I almost forgot to mention this but Sassy Signs is having a sale on their signs - their lowest price ever. Sale ends on January 20. Click on the "Order Now" link on the left hand side of the page to see their current promotion.

Lost Cat (?) Sign

My sister sent me this pic in a joke email that is making the rounds. I know the pic is probably a fake, but even so, I think it's funny.

Spent $355 tonight for a good cause

If you've been reading my blog for a while you may remember that back in September I blogged about a little girl in my town who escaped out of a hell hole while her two sisters lay dead in a freezer. Tonight the man who initially found the little girl and called the police organized a fundraising auction on her behalf. All the money is going to be put into a bank account or something for her.

The auction was from 3pm-7pm but in reality, the actual auction took place from 6pm-6:45. There was music, inspirational speakers, yadda yadda beforehand. Only 30 items where auctioned. I won two. First item was a 2 night stay at The National Harbor. The National Harbor is a new waterfront complex with hotels and restaurants etc near Washington DC. I paid $225 for a 2 night stay in one of the hotels there. I went to the hotel's website and see that the price for one night is normally $249 so I got a good deal.

Oye...but now I am thinking, we'll probably go on a Friday/Saturday night. And so I will miss out on yardsales. Waaaa. Hmmmm...will have to check the school calendar and maybe do a Saturday night/Sunday night. Or wait until June when schools are out.

And the second item I won was for playing golf (for two) and some expensive golf course that my DH has never played at. I paid $130 for that - which is probably too much but it does come with a $85 Greg Norman golf shirt & towel. I had stopped bidding but then the auctioneer drew me back in. Participating in a live auction can get spendy. At least there was no auctioneer's premium or sales tax.

I took some pics with my cellphone. Will post some later maybe.

p.s. The free Suze Orman download book is ending tonight (if it hasn't ended already). I saw it at CVS the other day, where it was priced at $9.99

p.s. 1/17/09 - just added two pics to this entry. Most of the pics didn't come out very well because there was a lot of sun glare as it was setting. Some of the items auctioned were something called "press plates" from the Washington Post. I had read the info that came with it and it said it was sensitive to light and they were some sort of reproductions. I did not bid. And the emcee of the event was Spiggy - a Washington Redskins Hogette. He and his fellow Hogettes do a lot of fundraising events on behalf of children. During the cocktail hour, I was talking with a woman who was fairly new to the area and she asked me why was there was a clown walking around. During an intermission, Spiggy lead everyone (not me!) in singing of the Hail to the Redskins song. boo hiss

Free Suze Orman Book Download

Suze Orman 2009 Action Plan

You can download Suze Orman's 2008 Action Plan book for free until January 15 (sometime in the evening).

Now I remember why my site hasn't been updated in so long....

I really need to clean out my inbox and all the subfolders. I need to update the yardsalequeen site with some new stories that have been submitted over the years. Here's an email dating back from 2002 that I haven't put up on the website. Now I remember why updating the website with new stories is such work. Here's a typical email about a yardsale that someone submitted for inclusion on the Stories page: (due to my short attention span, my eyes just glaze over when I attempt to read it).

all my stuff at my garage sales are mine or given to me by my family. the
last sale i previously bought a 3 wheel yellow adult bike with basket and
bell for $100.00. my hubby kept telling me it has been in the garage so
long unused put it by the curb at that time i did not know if i was going in
on the neighboorhood garage sales so i did. time for the sale you always
get customers 1/2hour early well i knew the man from the neighborhood and he
helped me put up the colorful streamer then he went into my garage and said
i did not know your motors for boats were for sale and they did not go well
he took them for a very good price that brought over the rest of my close
neighbors. but the thing that irked me was the neighbor to my north
repainted same yellow adult bike of mine and sold it and put the $in his
pocket for the price of paint. then that same year i had a second sale my
mistake a neighbor called the police on me and he said are you sure this is
your stuff i said yes all of it the other policeman said i am not telling my
wife about this 1 i said u tell her i will make her a good deal hah. the
other policeman said we are going to license garage sales pretty soon did
you know that i said no. then another customer i knew always looked at my
mom's jewelry antique marked. that time 2 she came around and asked where
is the jewelry never bought anything before i said i kept it. hubby then
came home from work. we closed shop my daughter and i came in the house
this was the biggest garage sale i ever had. i alone made over $2,000.00
just on this 1. never had a garage sale again too much trouble and now
daughter has 2 kids so she cannot help. secret if you are alone or go into
the house for something it never fails something is stolen!!!!!!!!!

gal from somewhere

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I think I am going to be ruthless when it comes time to update my site with new stories. I will only include stories where I only have to spend 2 minutes or less correcting grammar/punctuation/etc. Those emails that don't make the cut are getting deleted.

Almost Back to Normal

My relationship with computers is definitely a love/hate type of deal. Mostly love them, but they are easy to hate when they don't work right. I am back to my computer, with a new browser (Mozilla Firefox) and new operating system (Vista). We had the Vista upgrade for my computer but never used it until now.

Zakary, I saved all my old files (pictures mostly) on a little external harddrive that plugs in via a USB port. $99 from Staples External Harddrive I will eventually burn them all on disks, and the external harddrive can be used for other things.

DH was able to import all my old emails to my new Windows Mail. My inbox has thousands of emails (mostly fan mail, of course :). I have "sent" emails going back to to 2005. Sometimes I wonder if I should have just stuck with Hotmail. I still love my hotmail email account.

Only thing I think I am missing is all of my bookmarked pages. I had tons and tons of websites bookmarked. And I had a ton of sites listed on my desktop as shortcuts. I think they are all gone. I guess whatever I need to find, I will just google it.

Archive your files!

Just a word of advice - archive your files. That means all the pics you cannot live without if something happened to your computer.

My computer locked up on my a few days ago and I rebooted it like I've done before and it wouldn't come back up. The computer is not that old, maybe 2 years? And I hadn't been doing anything weird on it when it happened, like downloading crap etc.

DH had to re-install Windows on it. Then the internet connection stopped working and is still not working. It looks like it's connected by its not. Tried everything, fixed all the settings yadda yadda.

Today we went to Staples and I bought a little portable harddrive thingy for $99 - so now all the files I absolutely don't want to lose are on it. I am so thankful they aren't gone. All my pics from Jacob from 2005 to present. (Somewhere I have the older pics stored on CD/DVDs which are somewhere around here...) I really need to get my act together and get organized.

I am typing this from our laptop. I am hoping all my emails in Outlook Express aren't gone - thousands of emails there. Lots of yardsale stories where people sent me stories and I hadn't updated the yardsale stories page (in years...my bad).

So go now and make copies of all your valuable info!!

Giant Grocery Stores now doubles coupons up to .99!

One good change for the new year is that one of my grocery stores Giant Food is now doubling coupons up to .99! As far back as I remember, they would double coupons worth .50 and less but now up to .99 I think it's a permanent change, not just for a week or two (I have my fingers crossed).

I was there today and used some .75 Pounce Cat treat coupons. The treats are normally $1.59 so with the coupons, I ended up paying .09 each. Too bad I don't have a cat. But it's hard to replace Rudy, the best damn cat who ever lived. Perhaps you've even him, he did appear once in a national cat calendar....maybe someday I'll show a pic. No, he wasn't some special hoity toidy cat, just a regular awesome cat.

Anyhow, I'll end up doing something with the cat treats. I know people with cats. Speaking of pets, or animal companions, or whatever the politically correct term is....I bought a hamster over Christmas. I normally try to avoid buying stupid stuff, but I saw it and had to have it. It's a fake hamster that runs on a wheel. It is mesmerizing I tell ya. And I paid retail - 9.99 plus tax. It was at Cracker Barrel near my mom's house, I had stopped in to buy 70% off Christmas stuff and saw that stupid little fake hamster. It's stupid but I love it.

I also did some some after-Christmas shopping at Target, Walmart and CVS. CVS is not exciting me this year. I swear too much Hannah Montana and High School Musical crap leftover. When CVS has gone to 90% off Christmas stuff in the past, I've gotten lots of good stuff. Not sure how I will do this year. Right now the stuff is still sitting at 75% off.

Also while in NY, I went to a KB Toys going out of business sale. Bought Jacob some small toys and for DH I bought two talking Homer Simpson/Smithers car dashboard statues (will put away for Valentines Day). I went to the Christmas Tree Shop but the only thing I bought was Portugese breakfast rolls that I always buy there.

First Yardsale of the New Year

I accidently found my first yardsale of 2009. I was on my way somewhere yesterday when I spotted a yardsale sign. It was 11:30 so I wasn't expecting to find anything great. I spent a total of $14. Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker was $5, Jack LaLanne Juicer (for ebay) was $5, a $3 glass swirly bowl and a $1 Good Charlotte CD that I didn't have. Sorry the pic isn't too great. Disregard the Diet Coke.

Someday....I will have my own personal pew

When I was growing up, we had an old church pew in our cellar (and still do). Why? Because my Dad probably got it for free somewhere. I don't recall it ever being upstairs in the main part of the house, it was just always in the cellar. I've told my mom I want it. It's really not too big I don't think. I should measure it - I think it would fit in our foyer, if I got rid of my gossip bench seat. But I would hate to part with that. I guess I just need a bigger house.

Anyhow, you can see the pew underneath the miscellanous junk. One thing I know for sure is that those cushions are going in the trash. I don't need a constant reminder of the funky smell of my parent's cellar (although it would bring me back to my childhood).

Another interesting thing in my childhood home is this antique Detroit Iron Works wood stove:



I can remember my Dad using it to heat up the cellar and I thought it was so cool to look thru the peep hole and see the fire inside. It's too darn heavy to move to Maryland. Someday I'll probably be looking for a buyer for it. Refurbished ones sell for thousands of dollars. My mom says that when she dies, I'm in charge of the big garage sale.

Here's a pic of Jacob hanging out in a wheelchair that he had fun rolling around in.

Update on Christmas Present for Niece

In December in this blog posting, I mentioned I bought my niece something at Staples as part of her Christmas present. And how I thought it was big and ugly but there was a chance she may like it, and it was only .50 (but shushhhhh.... don't tell her that!!!)

Good news! Kelly gave it her approval the other day. As it turns out, she already has the exact same picture in her bedroom, but a smaller version. So I did good!

p.s. I cropped the above pic a little, but of course I didn't want to crop out the Queen!

Tired and Cranky - Happy New Year!

I put 500 miles on the car today so I am a little tired and cranky. Not hungover at all. Only had one glass of an adult beverage last night. Now I am home checking email, catching up on blogs etc. I had very limited computer access while away.

A lot of the free Wifi places near my mom's house either dried up, or closed early (like Panera Bread).

My car is still loaded down with presents and junk collected over the past week. I am irritated a small souvenir plate I bought (to keep) fell out of a bag while I was unloading the car and it chipped badly.

Jacob is glad to be home too. It's tough for a kid to have to go back to playing Super Nintendo when they are now used to Playstation 3. We did play Wii (for the first time) last night at my brother's house. It was fun, but of course it's fun when you win :) (and not so much fun if you happen to be sitting directly behind someone bowling and get wacked in the noggin). I think we'll just stick with PSP3, the Wii is too much like exercise.

Need to go relax, will write more soon.

Christmas at the Castle

Did the Christmas thing this morning. Now Dh is watching Hogan's Heroes and Jacob is playing out in the yard. Weather is nice here. I made a big meal yesterday so just leftovers today. I have stuff to do today. I got an email saying Walgreens is open and Christmas is 50% off.

I will be busy over the next week or so...so if I don't blog that is why. Cuz I have people to see and places to go. Now I got laundry to do.

Just one more day Santa!

Then you can take your annual well-deserved vacation with your bird(s) to your favorite clothing-optional resort and let it all hang out.

Speaking of birds, I was at the grocery store today and in the meat department they had put those cheapy peel & stick bows on all the turkeys. I've gotten some bad gifts over the years, but if I ever get a turkey as a gift - especially a turkey that I have to cook - someone would be headed to the doghouse. (Getting a free turkey from an employer doesn't count tho.)

p.s. Picture is courtesy of my Stampin' Up/scrapbooking obsessed friend Donna who forwards me all kinds of crap.

Double & Triple Coupons at Shoppers Food Warehouse

I had intended to have a relaxing day at home today, catching up on reading the newspapers and maybe wrapping some presents. Well when I opened today's newspaper I saw that Shoppers Food Warehouse was having double & triple coupons again thru Wednesday.

Then I spotted all the deals that CVS was having for free items (using ECBs - Extra Care Bucks). So I spend all afternoon at the stores.

At CVS I ended up with 4 Listerines, 2 nailpolishes and 1 Ecedrin for free. I planned on hitting another CVS for the items that my store was out of, but never got around to it. I spent a lot of time at Shoppers Food Warehouse.

Once again I had a cartload of stuff. I had my DH's cellphone on me, (not my own with the good camera) so I didn't get a pic of the full cart. And too lazy to photograph it at home.

My total before coupons was $231.58 and after coupons it was $76.71. For a savings of $154.87



At the end, the cash register spit out a coupon for ".50 off my next purchase" but it was going to expire 1/4/09. Since I wasn't sure if I'll be back to that grocery store soon, after I put the groceries in the car, I went back to the store to use that .50 coupon.

I picked up a package of vanilla creme cookies for Jacob and went thru the self-checkout lane. I really hate those self check-out lanes, especially since they aren't easy when it comes time to redeeming coupons. Well a cashier had to help me with it and ended up paying 0.00 for the cookies.



I really should be happy that I "saved" $154 today. But I'm irritated with myself. After I got home and was putting away the food, I spotted a coupon to save $10 off a $50 order at Shoppers Food Warehouse that I had stuck on the refrigerator door. Ugghghgh...I hate when that happens!

New Years Resolution for 2009: Get coupons organized.

My Vintage Elf Kneehugger Collection

I finally put up our tree today and got out my elf collection. My latest elf (he's in the last row center - the one with the red shiny legs) was just purchased at a thrift in early December. There's a few imposters in the bunch, like the Santa and the Pez Elf.

My tree is bare bones really. I just didn't feel like digging out all the ornaments in all their little boxes this late in the game. Maybe next year I'll be on the ball when it comes time for Christmas. Last Christmas at my thrift I bought a bunch of Christmas trolls. I don't know where they are at. They have to be around here someplace. I know I didn't put them with the rest of the Christmas stuff.

And I was late again with mailing out Christmas cards. I got the handmade one from my friend Donna, so I have to post it. I think I've posted the last few cards she has sent me here on the blog. Which reminds me, she gave me a bunch of Stampin' Up stamps to sell on ebay for her and I haven't done it yet.



Almost forgot to mention it, but I actually have 2 trees up. Earlier in the week I was at VV and bought a bunch of stuff, including a small fiberoptic tree for $3. And I also bought 2 pairs of Uggs clogs for $3 a pair.



Today was the first yardsale in months and months that I did not go yardsaling (I don't think there were any).

Holiday Countdown - 4 days til Festivus!

Only 4 more days til Festivus. I found this video today, it's all about the Festivus airing of grievances and about 50 seconds into it, you'll see one of the grievances is that someone smells like a thrift store. I am glad I don't have to shop at stinky thrift stores. My stores don't stink.



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Update on JC Penneys, I had to go back today and the person next to me had a $10 coupon plus a 15% off coupon and the cashier told them they could only use one or the other. So it seems Penneys finally figured out they were losing a lot of money accepting both discounts on one transaction.

Bought an Ugly Santa Today. An expensive Ugly Santa

While the cats away, the mice go shopping. My DH has been in Vegas with the guys for almost the past week, so while the cats away, I go shopping. And shopping. It's almost like a vacation for me too, let the laundry pile up, who cares. I get total control of the remote control. I can make yummy peanut butter, jelly and Frito sandwiches for dinner if I want (don't knock it until you've tried it - delish). But like I said earlier, I couldn't taste anything for several days so I didn't bother making food that I couldn't taste. Back to reality and dirty laundry - DH comes home tonight.

Anyhow today I found this ugly Santa at Smile and thought it could be something my mother may like. But then I did a little research and found the company online and see that if you were to buy one, it would be $92, since its made out of pewter by some artsy company. Mom is not getting an ugly Santa from me this year. The price sticker said $2, but Christmas was half-off, so it was $1.