Today was a big shopping day. Here's where I went: bank, Smile, library, JC Penneys, Food Lion, dollar store, CVS, Shell gas station (gas was "only" $2.63), V V, Target and Giant (another grocery store).

Got some pretty good deals today, even at the library! When I was checking out a book, they had stacks of Chick-fil-a coupons good for free kid's meals and free ice cream cones. Totally free coupons with no expiration dates. The chick-fil-a cow was promoting reading to kids. I think I'm feeling the need to check out some more books tomorrow...

At Smile I bought Jacob a like new swimming life vest for only .50 (the kind where the floaties are built right into the suit. Also bought a tub of K'nex for $2 and some other stuff.

At JC Penneys according to my receipt, I "saved" $167.76 (but actually spent $14.87 including tax for 8 baby outfits (marked down from $22.99 to $1.77). I'll put them on ebay next spring. Reminds me of a quote from Peter Walsh of the Clean Sweep TV Show that I should try to heed "You can go broke saving money".

At VV, it was .30 day and bought 3 pieces of clothing and two vintage 3M Bookshelf games at $1 each. One is an ebay dud (game called Contigo) but the other called Acquire should sell well.

I found a gas station (Shell) who had gas for $2.63 today. Meanwhile everyone else (including the discount stations like Sheetz and WaWa) were at $2.79 or higher.

Here are a few of the things I bought yardsailing last Saturday. After I took the pic I remembered a few other things I bought but forgot to include in photo. Like a brand new Rubbermaid dish drainer (.50) and a baby's bubblebee Halloween costume ($1). It kills me since I just bought a brand new dish drainer a few months ago (paid full price at Walmart) since I knew I would never find a new one at a yardsale.

Here's what I bought, some stuff to keep, some for ebay:

.10 pack of index card organizer (exactly that I needed)
.10 set of vintage ceramic spice jars
.50 each - printer cartridges
.10 package of Bic lighters
$1 brand new sealed Baby Einstein VHS
.25 each - two new bottles of Banana Boat sunscreen
.10 bottle of lavender shower gel
.25 new Glamorise bra, size 54C (I'll keep you guessing whether it's for me or ebay)
.25 each 3 books by Dave Pelzer
.10 roll of crepe streamers

Well it's Sunday night - had a good weekend. As usual went yardsaling Saturday morning (I will post my buys tomorrow). Then in the afternoon we drove to Annapolis (about an hour away). Stopped at Trader Joe's for the $1.99 dried pineapple that I like. The primary reason we went to Annapolis was to go to a crab party bbq held by one of my husband's coworkers. And actually the guy was one of my coworkers too back when I worked at the nuke plant. He has a very nice waterfront home on the Chesapeake Bay. They have their own pier and crab pots so there were plenty of crabs to eat. When we first moved to Maryland, going to a crab feast was a new experience. A typical crab party has paper covered tables, rolls of papertowels handy (because it's messy), and a bunch of wooden mallets to whack the crabs with and of course, plenty of Old Bay seasoned crabs. Some people will sit for hours and eat crab (it's a lot of work). I ate 1 (but needed instructions - it's been a while since I ate crab). So I gave up and ate a hotdog, much easier!

Afterwards we stopped at Chuck E. Cheese so Jacob could play some games. There is a Chuck E. Cheese in Annapolis so we might as well stop there to play considering it was on the way home. (We don't have a Chuck E Cheese in our town). I have tons of free tokens from buying the specially marked packages of Koolaid Koolbursts.






Then today I took Jacob to the pool at the nuke plant. After next weekend it will be closed for the summer. So after we swim, we have a routine. We go to their fishing lake and walk around it and throw rocks. The above two pictures are pictures I took earlier this summer, you can kinda see my car in the distance in the second photo. Then we go to the McDonald's drivethru for mcnuggets and ice cream (for him, not me).

So after going thru the McD drivethru, I went to the KFC drivethru for our dinner. There was a coupon in the paper for a $11.99 8-piece meal. The coupon specifically said "Does not include a free chocolate cake". KFC has a special going on that if you buy the 8 piece meal at the regular price, you get a free cake. Well my bargain of the day was that I used the $11.99 coupon and they still gave me a free cake anyways. Just what I don't need....

My message boards are down yet again. It has been so frustrating lately, when I switched to the current system, I thought it would be a big improvement. But now I am ready to ditch this message board as well and look for something better, a board that doesn't have ads and tracking cookies.

I don't have time right now to write about my yardsale buys today but will do so either later this weekend or Monday.

Went to Smile this morning and bought myself a pair of Crazy Horse (Liz Claiborne) jeans $2. And a "The North Face" men's fleece jacket for $2. Usually men's jackets are $4 but the cashier just charged me the $2 sweater price. A lot of times they'll price certain brand names a higher price just based on the brand, which is stupid. They'll put a $4 price (instead of $2) on a very used Eddie Bauer shirt just because it says Eddie Bauer. Same with the Gap or Old Navy, they'll mark it higher just because of the label. I guess the clothing sorters at the thrift have never seen the bargain racks at Old Navy. And then they are clueless about brands like The North Face, so its priced at their standard price. I subscribe to the Washington Post, so I know that I read about how last winter people got shot and mugged over their North Face coats, and here I can buy one for $2.

Also bought two videos ($1 each) but they turned out to be duds for resale on ebay. After Smile I went to another thrift (called The Spot - the proceeds benefits a local animal group). I bought 3 Thomas the Train videos for $1 each. My cousin's son is a Thomas addict. Afterwards I picked my husband up at a local motorcycle repair shop where he had dropped off his bike for some work. We went to lunch at a mongolian barbeque and did some Walmart shopping. Bought 50 lbs of sunflower seeds (around $12) and a $2 clearance sheet cake pan with lid for my mom for Xmas. I noticed on my recent visit, she made a sheet cake to share with her friends at Bingo, but only put plastic wrap over the top. So this cake pan with the lid is a better way to carry a cake.

I put a free ad in our local Pennysaver to try to sell our old waterbed. The ad will run starting next week, it would be nice to get rid of it.

Thursday

Went to Smile again today and bought myself a pair of like new Union Bay sandals for $2, pictured above. Also bought my son a pair of Stride Rite sneakers $1, and a talking plush Eeyore (with batteries) who flaps his ears for $1

Then went to our Food Lion for a few items. They are re-doing our store, upgrades etc. Well they even replaced all the shopping cart corrals in the parking lot to new, nice looking ones. Anyhow, there was a professionally made sign on the side of the cart corral: "Shopping carts are 4 your convenience...." Sheesh - what spelling - using "4" for "for". I called Food Lion headquarters to tell them I thought it was tacky and they agreed and are going to look into it. I mean,that's the kind of grammar you would see when someone uses a handwritten sign and is trying to sell a car or something, not proper English for a corporation to use.

Much better day today

My son's bus schedule has been changed - thank God - to just a little over two hours a day (total) so I have calmed down.

Today was my first "big" thrift shop shopping day since June. Very hard for me to go thrifting with my son. I went to both Smile and VV. At Smile I bought the above pictured nightstand for $3. I just liked it - it does need some work - I'll probably paint it rather than refinish it. I like the way the the top had a curve and the way the legs stick out at a bit of an angle. Also at Smile I bought:

$1 each - two (new in package) Balzac toys
.50 Chutes & Ladders game
.25 package of Avery colored sticker dots (good for yardsale prices)
.25 Spongebob Squarepants book with googly eyes (original price was $7.99)
$1 bag of someone's used refridgerator magnets. There were several of the cartoon "Love is" by Kim magnets so I think they would be good for ebay since there are a people who collect "Love is" stuff
and a few bottles of Bath & Body Works stuff for either .25 or .50

Then I went to Vintage Value which has .30 prices on Wednesdays. Bought Jacob several pieces of clothing including a t-shirt with his new school's logo on it. That was a great find, considering the thrift is probably 40 miles from where his school is located. Also bought myself a .30 Target Isaac Mizhrahi shirt.

Got my tire fixed and oil changed too.

My bargain at the grocery store was for my beloved Diet Pepsi. The store had buy 10 2-liters for $5, so that is .50 each (you had to buy 10 bottles to get the sale).. There was a 10 bottle limit (I also bought 10 yesterday). So that should last me a good 20 days.

Oh I guess I forgot to mention what I bought yardsaling last Saturday. My best buy of the day was a ton of Bionicle toys at .25 each. They normally cost $7.99+ each and I probably got 30 or more of them.

What a crappy day

What a sucky day. Sorry but I need to rant. Imagine you have a 2 hour commute (one way) to your job, that would suck wouldn't it? Now imagine if you're a 5 year old doing it. Well that is my son. I am so po'ed right now at our local school system (Calvert County Public Schools). My son has apraxia (which is a disorder which affects his ability to speak) so they wanted to put him in a special class in a school that is 25 miles away. No problem, I thought. But I would never have imagined him having to be picked up by the bus at 6:30am for a 9am school start time. The school didn't even tell me until last minute - literally - about his pick up time. The past few days they kept telling me "oh the bus driver will call you with details but never did. So again I called the Bus Transporation office today at 6:15am only to be told they had mis-typed our phone number on their list so the bus driver wasn't able to call. We're in the phone book! So anyways I'm talking to the guy (remember it's still 6:15 am) and he said the schoolbus would be there momentarily - sheesh - my 5 year old is still blissfully sleep in his bed. The bus arrives at 6:30 and one of my high school neighbors actually got on the bus thinking it was hers and the driver had to shoo her off. Her bus comes later, around 6:45.

I followed the bus today so this 2+ hour commute they made is not an exaggeration. On my way home I stopped at a grocery store and noticed a nail in one of my tires. I made an appt to get that fixed tomorrow.

And this stupid blogger is still giving me problems about adding pictures. I still have vacation pics to add below. It's driving me nuts. And my message boards are down...again.

Well at least I have Smile (thrift) to look forward to tomorrow. That is, if I don't get a flat getting there.

What I did on my summer vacation

I drove to upstate NY with my 5 year old son and spent a week with my mom. Talk about excitement! We did all kinds of exciting things like going to the Senior Citizen center for the free bread distribution on Tues & Thurs. I got to take her to her eye specialist appt and to top it off, I got to clean out both garages! And I found not just one but TWO dead mice.

Seriously though, I did have a good time. I saw a Brian Wilson (old Beach Boy) concert at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. I used to see tons of concerts at Spac (including ones I wasn't crazy about since I used to usher there). The highlight of the concert was drooling over a hottie tambourine/guitarist/zylophone musician (not Brian Wilson). Luckily since I keep a pair of binoculars in my car for reading far-away yardsale signs, so I was able to see good at the concert. The tickets would have cost $35 but my sister got two free tickets thru her work. Look, I paid $0! Another highlight of the concert was seeing a super long line for the men's room (possibly a first in history!) - while the ladies room had none. The ladies room was huge - it was great, there was a never ending line of stalls.



I also got to visit with some friends, including an old high school friend who just had twins. Omigod, I wouldn't want to trade places with her - be a 42 year old with a 14 year old and twin newborns!!! Aye yi yi!

And of course went garagesaling with my mom. Two of my more unusual buys was a goofy hat ($1) and a vintage kerosene heater ($3) for resale. Some people like these vintage heaters to repaint and decorate etc.

I'll add some pictures to this entry soon. The blog editor keeps giving me error messages tonight so I will fix and do it tomorrow.

Jacob with his $1 goofy hat

Thursday

My message boards are currently down (they are doing some upgrade or whatever). Hopefully they will be back up shortly. Will post some pics of my upstate NY trip soon, along with some pictures of some garage sale buys. I don't have time to do it now, I need to get to sleep.

Wednesday

I am beat. I got back home this evening from upstate NY - drove 500 miles today and then unloaded my car. I should have packed lighter. I didn't use half the stuff I brought. Will write more (hopefully) tomorrow. My husband said he's invited people over to watch the Vikings on Friday so I need to unpack all my crap and find a home for the new stuff I bought. And clean the house. And catch up on sleep. Most nights I didn't go to bed til after 11pm and was up at 6am with Jacob.

Sunday

Last few days have been busy. On Friday my son Jacob (5 years old) had a bunch of dental work done - on baby teeth! Had to be at the hospital at 6:15 am, (he was put under general anesthesia). I am glad that is over with - he and I are leaving in a few days to visit my mom in upstate NY for about a week or so. School starts on the 23rd. I hope there are some good garage sales while I am there - I absolutely love the garage sales in my old hometown.

On Saturday I had a yardsale with a friend. I finally sold my Peg Perego stroller ($10). I bought it at a yardsale (for $20) when my son was a newborn. It was a very beautiful stroller, but it was an older model so it was bulky. The big drawback was the front wheels did not swivel - I guess it was made more for leisurely strolls down long and straight sidewalks than navigating thru the mall. I also finally sold a big remote control robot (called Emiglio) for $10. I was yardsailing with my mom when she bought it for $1 and made me take it back to Maryland with me. My son didn't really play with it so I was glad to get rid of it (and make a profit). That particular robot is pretty common, so I probably wouldn't have made more selling it on ebay, (and none of the hassles of trying to mail it).

My friend really wanted to declutter and towards the end of the yardsale, she kept telling me to take stuff. So I ended up taking an old pie tin (I have some others), a nice memoryfoam pillow and a 70's Playboy. She was embarrassed to even try to sell it, so when I told her I have the biggest porn collection of any woman I know, she made me take it. I have cases of vintage Playboys and other lesser known girlie magazines that I've bought at yardsales. I'm not into looking at naked women, but I bought them to put on ebay since "sex sells".

Oh and she even put a "free" sticker on a bookcase and no one wanted it. I'm glad, since after I looked at it, I realized it would be great for Jacob's books and computer games. So I took that too! Here's a picture - I think 99% of the stuff on the bookcase was bought at yardsales! The only thing that I know wasn't, was the Rolie Poly Ollie. And that's not even all of this books, he has a ton more.

Wed.

I started to freak out late last night when I started wondering if my free trial of Big Brother Live Feed was for 14 days or just 10. Not that paying $12.99 would bankrupt me, but I really didn't want to pay for it (in order to get the free trial I had to give them a credit card #.). Plus, my husband kept reminding me, "don't forget to cancel the Big Brother thing". And I didn't want to hear him say "I told you so". Long story short, I do have a 14 day trial and not 10 so I didn't go over. When I was talking to the Customer Service Rep she said she'd be happy to extend my free trial for a full month, just so I would have time to access all their features yadda yadda.

For those new to my blog, since my son is out of school for the summer, I haven't been thrift store shopping like I do the rest of the year.

I am planning on having a yardsale this Saturday with a friend. So I really have to get my crap together for that.

Tuesday

I am a big reality TV addict. For the past week or so I have been watching the live feed for Big Brother. I got a free 10 day trial - at least now I know for sure I would never pay to watch it. When Julie Chen says "watch the Live Feed 24/7" - that is such bullshit. Whenever they don't want you to see something, they just focus all the cameras on the fishtank with a "Be Right Back" message. Or even if the cameras are on, the cameras can be focused on an empty room. Or the opposite - they are all together talking over each other so you can't make out what they are saying. And on top of that one of them will be washing dishes, so all you hear is the water running.

My printer is out of ink (for the first time). I went to Walmart today. If I bought all 4 cartridges at Walmart, it would cost around $60. I checked eBay and bought 8 cartridges for about $16 including shipping. Of course it's a generic brand so I hope they work. Once school starts back up, I plan on doing a lot of ebay selling, so that means I'll be printing out a lot of shipping labels.

Also at Walmart I bought a ton of glue sticks for .20/pack. My son enjoys gluing little foam shapes to construction paper. I figure it's good for his eye-hand coordination. Well anyways, after he goes to bed, I soak the construction paper in water and all the foamies come right off. So then the next day, he's ready to glue them all over again. No, I'm not that cheap that save and dry the construction paper - I have a huge stack of construction paper (bought at a yardsale for a buck a while ago).

I forgot to mention my yardsale buys from last Saturday. Not much - for some reason there weren't many yardsales nearby but my thrift was having a half priced day. I bought: .25 Salad Shooter, .25 vintage Pappy Parker Chicken House advertising doll, .25 vintage Little Sprouts doll, .25 Gund Stumpy frog plush, .25 small cast iron pan.

First day of new blog

Well I decided to switch to a "real" blog instead of just updating my blog that I started at http://www.yardsalequeen.com/yardsalediary.htm Now if you have a comment, you can leave a comment. Eeek, I hope that will be a good thing.