Friday, April 30, 2010

Where did April go?



I went to Walgreens yesterday and realized that I hadn't been there in 3 weeks. I've been slacking off at my hardcore bargain hunting. April just seemed to fly by. Well anyway, the deal I got yesterday revitalized my love of Walgreens.

I bought the 4 things pictured above. Total paid (after coupons) was $11.37

But $12 in Register Rewards printed out. So basically I got the stuff for free, and made .63



p.s. what is the deal with people tossing out their used dental flossers in store parking lots? I swear, I cannot walk thru a parking lot without seeing someone's gross flosser laying on the ground. I am not the only one who has seen this, right?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Yardsale Buys from last Saturday

My yardsale buys from last Saturday are pictured below. I started off at a church yardsale that started at 7am. I think it was the first time I'd been to that particular church's yardsale. But I will definitely try to go back next year! It was one of the better-organized church sales I've been to in a while. Some of the things that stood out: they had a large collection of empty cardboard boxes available that you could take upon entering the sale to hold your purchases. They had an area set aside for "sold" things so you didn't have to carry around large items while you shopped. They had roaming volunteers throughout the sale to help customers and to hand out shopping bags (in case you didn't picked up a box on the way in). They had helpers to help carry large purchases to your car. Just really a well put together indoor church yardsale.

Here are some of the things I bought. It's been a while since I did a Youtube video of my purchases so thought I would start doing that again. One thing I forgot to include in the picture was a .10 purchase - a mini karaoke machine that works with my Hit Clips collection. Will have to take a picture of my Hit Clips collection and post it. Cuz I have a feeling many of you may not know what I am talking about.





And speaking of Slapchops, I was watching Regis & Kelly the other day and guess what? She wants a Slapchop.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Today I decluttered....

To all the skeptics who don't believe I can declutter - ha! I already decluttered something today. I opened a kitchen cabinet and a thermos thing fell out and crashed into a dirty drinking glass that was on the counter and shattered it into a million pieces. So basically, the way I figure it, I threw away a million things - all before 9am. Big congrats to me!

So there. Proof that I am able to declutterize.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Bennington, Vermont Radio Interview

I did a radio interview yesterday that will air tomorrow (Saturday). So if you are wide awake tomorrow at around 7:20am EST and want to hear it, you can listen live on WBTN just click on the Listen Live button. And actually, if you just want to yardsale vicariously, you can listen every Saturday to their Saturday morning radio show about yardsales and stuff for sale, see their other website at Tri State Bargains If you listen tomorrow you may hear me discussing a little bit about nuclear power, ranting about the Bennington Monument being closed and my love of David Cassidy. Oh and some yardsale tips stuff too. But I'm not sure what they plan on editing out.

So if you new here and heard the WBTN interview - welcome! And I'm glad I didn't scare you off!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and a Bus

We are planning a family vacation. Personally, I really don't like vacations since it cuts into my yardsaling time. If I could do a Sunday-Friday vacation only, that would be ideal. The bulk of the planning is complete. It will involve various modes of transportation. It starts off with a mini adventure just to get to the airport. I will be amazed if it all works out. Goes something like this:

Drive to a Metro (subway) station that has free long term parking. Cross fingers that the car doesn't get stolen. Take the subway to another station that has a bus service to get to the airport. Fly to Long Beach, California. Rent a car and spend several days in Los Angeles. Then drive to Big Bear Lake, CA and spend a night. Then continue driving to Vegas, baby. Spend two free nights at Mandalay Bay (cuz DH got a promotional flier from them). Win tons of money. Visit the Pawn Stars pawn shop. After checking out of Mandalay Bay, drive to Oatman, Arizona and feed wild burros some carrots. Continue driving to Lake Havasu and see the London Bridge and what else Lake Havasu has to offer. Jacob loves bridges. Spend a night. Leave Lake Havasu and drive to Palm Springs, CA. Maybe spend a night there (undecided). Then drive back to Los Angeles for a few more nights. Then get on an Amtrak train (with a sleeper car) and take the train back to Washington DC. Once off the train in downtown Washington DC, take the subway back to where our car is parked. Then drive the 50 miles home. Then relax.

You're probably thinking "why not just drive to the airport?" Well silly, that would mean we would have to pay to park. If we were flying roundtrip, that would be logical, but we aren't. And since the airport is so far away, asking someone around here to drive you to the airport is equivalent to asking for their firstborn child.

While in Los Angeles, we may go to Disneyland (I have some old Hopper passes that have some unused days on them - I was told they never expire. Will have to research that). Also plan on visiting the Aquarium of the Pacific Originally we had planned to fly to Los Angeles, driving to San Diego and then going to Vegas. But in researching hotel prices in San Diego and seeing that admission to Seaworld is a crazy $69.99 per person for ages 10+, I got to thinking I really don't need to see San Diego this time around. And just going to the aquarium in Los Angeles at $24 a person will be good enough. Would like to see a taping of a TV show. May try to go to The Price is Right taping. Would love to go see Ellen

DH lived in Los Angeles during his teen years and when in Los Angeles we'll be staying at his mom's.

If you have any tips about any of the places I mentioned, just leave a comment.

================
About a week or two ago, Jacob's school sent home an order form for spring pictures. Normally they have the date printed on it telling when pictures will be taken. But there was no date printed on it. So yesterday when I went to the school to do some volunteer work, I asked the teacher when pictures are being done. Well wouldn't you know they were done yesterday. And as luck (???) would have it, he wore the EXACT same shirt he wore when the fall pictures were taken. Ugh.

=================
Update on that missing garage saling mom in Ohio. She was found safe in Florida with her mystery man. No comment (that I want to share, that is).

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

I found it! I found a SLAPCHOP!!

Had a great day today at my favorite thrift. I found the item I've been wanting to find at a yardsale (or thrift store) for a while now. A Slapchop! It was on my *list* of things to find this year. Jacob loves the commercial and he's always looking at them at the stores. And I refuse to pay $19.99 plus tax for one. Back in April, I said my goal was to find one for $1 or less. But I don't mind at all paying $1.50 for it.

Well I got one today, still new in the box, for $1.50! And my thrift was having a sale on all clothes - everything was half priced. I bought a pair of shoes for my father-in-law for $2.50 (would have been $5) and a pair of pants (.75) and a shirt (.50) for Jacob.

I will talk about the shoes on another post. Umm...they have a 3" heel.

And I bought myself for $2.50 a gauzy long sleeved hoodie with tags, from QVC.

I took pics, but had to use my cellphone camera. For some reason my computer isn't playing nice with my digital camera.




You can see a much better picture of the hoodie on the QVC Website

Since Jacob's birthday was last month and Christmas is still a ways away, I will wrap up the Slapchop as one of my birthday gifts from my DH. That way it will be like the Slapchop was my gift even though Jacob will be the one playing with it (under supervision). We don't want him getting spoiled by getting a Slapchop for doing nothing.

Garage Saling Mom in Ohio goes missing

I saw this story today on Good Morning America. Tiffany Tehan, a married mom in Ohio, goes garage saling last Saturday and disappears. There is a $5000 reward, so if you go looking for her after seeing this bloggy post and you find her, I want my cut.

Her vehicle has been found - so my tip to investigators is to look thru her vehicle for yardsale purchases. If she was indeed out garagesaling all morning, there should be her purchases. If no garage sale buys, she was out doing something else. But used the "I'm going garagesaling" as an excuse. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Read the story from CBS

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Had a yardsale yesterday


I had a yardsale yesterday, made $135. I had a free rental space at the Parks & Recs indoor yardsale. I heard several sellers didn't show up but still, the place was incredibly empty. So making $135 was good, considering. They used to have a yardsale in March (a good one to sell at), then one in May (a bad one to sell at) then sometimes one in September (bad to sell at) and sometimes one in December (also good to sell at).

Well they moved the March one to April and it's just not as good as before. Back when it was in March, it was like the only game in town (too cold for regular outdoor yardsales), but now they've pushed it to April, there's too many others having yardsales at the same time. Back in March, they used to have so many sellers, the place would be jammed packed. I think from now on, if I'm going to sell stuff, I will either sell at the fairgrounds (which turns into a big flea market on Saturdays at $10 space), have one at my house, and sell at the Parks & Recs December indoor yardsale.

One of the benefits of selling alongside other sellers, is that you can shop from them. But I only found a few things I wanted. Other sellers mainly had baby stuff or overpriced stuff. ($8 for a small broken & re-glued Nipper figurine? I don't think so).

$1 bag of Bath & Body Works stuff.
.50 mylar balloon. Will take to the florist at the grocery store where they charge me .50 for helium.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

I bought a Grundtal



I popped into my thrift this week and found this Grundtal so I bought it. Originally from Ikea - it's a magnetic strip to hang your knives off of. Or anything else that is magnetic. Now I just need to buy a new house so I'll have kitchen wall space for it. It was $3. I've been wanting one for a while.



I had a good frozen pizza deal yesterday. A while ago CVS had a Buy 1 at $6.99 and Get 1 for a penny DiGiorno frozen pizza sale. They were out so I got a raincheck. This week, they are on sale for $4.97. And the cashier couldn't override the price so she rang up the sale price. Then I used some Extra Care Bucks to pay for most of it.

I should be organizing now for my yardsale this Saturday. I signed up again for the Parks & Recs indoor yardsale for this Saturday. I still have some mystery credit on my account so I didn't have to pay the $5 rental space fee. Maybe if I did have to pay it, I would be working right now getting my act together. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Happy Birthday David Cassidy



Happy Birthday to David Cassidy - perhaps I will celebrate his birth by drinking an adult beverage out of one of his coffee mugs (as seen above). (Thanks to the anonymous bloggy reader who reminded me of his birthday)

During this past trip to upstate New York - I got to meet one of my bloggy readers - Ann aka Rusticbuilder on ebay. She's the lady who also shared with me her pics she took at David Cassidy's moving sale. It was fun meeting her and seeing her house. She has so much of David's things, she gave me one of his coffee mugs. Back in September, when the moving sale was over, she was able to purchase a huge lot of the unsold stuff. In getting the tour of her house, it was fun to hear "this was David's comforter set", "these were David's curtains" - "here is David's fake fruit". So needless to say she is definitely using his stuff but has a ton more of stuff that she plans to put on ebay eventually (if you are an ebayer, just add Rusticbuilder to your favorite seller list.

===========
We made reservations for Vegas baby - for later this year. Two free nights at Mandalay Bay - can't beat that. Also during that trip, we plan on going to Los Angeles etc.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Easter Break - continued

Here's more pics from my Easter spring break trip to upstate NY. Pics are in random order.

Easter isn't Easter without buying some Paska bread from a Polish bakery. I love how they have the kielbasy next to the cakes.


You know, I really wanted to keep our minivan, since besides having great storage room, it has a DVD player for Jacob to watch. But he's outgrown the DVD player, when he wants to watch something, he can watch it on his PSP player. Which he doesn't really do in the car anyway - since there is more interesting things to do on a road trip. Like count the # of bridges between my house and my mom's.


Old bathhouse in Saratoga Springs. Didn't have a bath, but I think the building is cool.



There's lots of funky historic buildings there, here is just one I came across and thought was neat. You can't throw a rock in Saratoga without hitting some old historic house.


Saving money doesn't take a vacation. I used some of my mom's $3 double coupons to buy a few things (she didn't mind). You had to have the $3 newspaper coupon to match up with your coupon.



A new park was built within eyesight of the YSQ's childhood home. Just a lovely stroll through the former hay field, with a view of the highway department buildings.


Ahhhh - childhood memories. I bought this Beer ashtray since my mom had an identical one and I remember it fondly growing up. Salvation Army price sticker said .29 - but I paid .15 since it was a half-priced day.



I was only able to go to a few garage sales over Easter weekend. Last month when I showed a handwritten page from the YSQ Diary and mentioned a store called Korell's - well this was it. I passed it when leaving a garage sale. The building looks the same, but now its something else.


At one of the garage sales I went to. I don't want to place blame on anyone, but it was a garage sale run by all men. And just had men's tools, and man things. Like this leather coat. Gee, I wonder how much they wanted for it. I did buy a $2 ice chopper (like this and I also took a half used bottle of windshield glass cleaner that was in the a freebie box)



My mind reading skills weren't working too good over vacation, so I never did find the multi-family sale.



Well that's it for now. I still have more to report. Like for instance - if you thought I was done talking about the David Cassidy Moving Sale - you are so wrong!

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Snow + Broken Car + Oneonta New York - $175 = vacation



Jacob had school spring break last week. I wasn't totally sure if I was going to visit upstate New York during that time, but I decided to go. I like it because his school has the week before Easter off, meanwhile the kids in New York have the week after Easter off. So when we visit NY and go to kid focused places - like Chuck E. Cheese, the place is deserted and we have it practically to ourselves.

Had I known I would be driving thru SNOW in Pennsylvania, I would have waited a day. But made it thru a freak snow storm without problems. I started thinking how lucky I have been in my many driving trips to NY, that I had only had a problem once - a long time ago, I got a flat tire which a state trooper changed for me. (FYI - I have changed a tire by myself back in my early 20's, but hey, if a state trooper offers to do it, why would I decline?)

There is a stretch of about 150 miles where my T-Mobile cell doesn't get coverage. Then my luck finally ran out. I noticed the car was starting to run rough and a check engine light came on. Luckily I was near an exit and got off and while on the ramp, I could tell something was really wrong. I stopped at the first gas station/convenience store I saw and got directions to a mechanic/garage. It was 4:30 in the afternoon. I got to the garage and told them my problem (I was still about 100 miles away from my mom's house). They said they would try to help, but of course, they closed at 5pm. By 4:55 they had hooked the diagnostic computer up to my car and found the problem (a broken ignition coil). But the car parts store they used also closed at 5pm. The car parts store got the part, and left it outside for one of the mechanics to pick up.

Long story short - they stayed and put the part in, and I was back on the road by 5:30pm. Even though my car broke, the way things all worked out, I still feel very lucky. Total cost for parts & service was $175. They could have told me I needed a $600 double-sided flux capacitor and I would have said "fine - just do it, and I'll also buy a spare". And all in all, I think it was ok that I didn't have cell coverage, because if I did, I would have ended up calling DH all freaked out saying "what do I do? what do I do?" rather than just handling the situation on my own. And another thing that was lucky was that when my car was breaking down, I was near an exit that had civilization - there are a lot of exits in that area that are in the middle of nowhere.

The rest of the trip and the ride home was uneventful. Yeah!

Jacob loves the Washington Monument, so when I found out there was a similar monument only about 10 miles from my sister's house, we had to go. It wasn't open for the season yet, but we'll go in it another time.




One day I had some time to kill before picking my mom up at the adult day care - also known as the racino so Jacob and I walked around the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, no concerts were going on but we had fun walking around the grounds. I used to volunteer there as an usher (out of the goodness of my heart - haha), got to see a ton of concerts and it's where my high school graduation ceremony was held.







Easter afternoon walking around downtown Saratoga Springs (niece, Jacob and sister)


Gotta run for now, more about my trip later.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Happy Dyngus Day

I haven't dropped off the planet. I went to upstate New York for Jacob's spring break and got back today.

The drive back today was nice, boring and uneventful. Just like I like it. I had too much excitement on the drive up to New York to last awhile.

More later. Gotta catch up on watching DVR'ed Amazing Race.

P.S. Happy Dyngus Day - a day where if you're lucky, you get buckets of water poured on your head and get your legs beaten with pussy willows.