Discount Filet Mignon dinner

I really don't like cooking, but tonight I made bacon-wrapped filet mignon, baked potatoes and fresh broccoli. As I was eatting it, I realized everything was stuff I had bought on sale! I got the filets on clearance and they were $2.10 each (they were the kind that were already packaged, not custom cut by a butcher or anything like that). The broccoli and baking potatoes were on sale, as well as the sour cream. And I'm sure I used a coupon for the margarine.

Speaking of food, I got another bargain at the grocery store today. As I was walking by the Coinstar machine, I saw that someone didn't take their money receipt. So I'm thinking "woo-hoo"!! So I look at it, and it's for a whopping .03! LOL! Hey, well a free .03 is better than a kick in the pants.

But my real bargain of the day was I did a short (2 minute) online survey and they'll be sending me a $7 check for my time. During one of my last trips to the grocery store, I got invited to participate in a survey. You know the thing that sometimes spits out coupons and ads that you get along with your receipt? Well that's where the invitation was - it gave a specific website and code for me to input. So you really should look at the coupons and stuff that they give you with your receipt, sometimes there's something that's actually good.

Feb. 14 - bad day for Valentine

I saw this article in our local paper the other day and I thought it was a joke. Our local rag comes out only twice a week so we get news very slowly. I plan on sending it into Jay Leno.

My buys today

Went to a pretty big indoor yardsale today. I had my son with me so I didn't really get to look as closely as I normally would. My favorite buy of the day was this set of storage bins for $2. Gonna put it in my pantry closet for food storage. Right now I just stack stuff up and it's a pain. The indoor yardsale was held in a community clubhouse which is very close to the Chesapeake Bay so after the yardsale I took my son to the Bay and let him throw rocks in the water (a favorite activity of his). I should have taken my camera with me, since we were at the beach at 7:30am (the yardsale had started at 7am so by 7:30 we had already shopped), and the sun had just risen and it was very peaceful. I saw some grey and white egret type bird which was awesome.

I am very sore today. I spent part of yesterday shoveling mulch and moving it around. The Penn Line utility tree trimmer guys who cut down my big tree gave me 3 pretty big mountains of mulch (3 truckloads!) The only place they could dump it was on the side of our property, so its a little bit of a walk, and our wheelbarrow is not very big.

Oh speaking of yardwork, I remembered another bargain I got this week. I got a catalog in the mail from the Audubon Workshop that had a $25 off any purchase coupon on the cover. So I bought two Zebra Plants that were $9.95 each. After shipping costs were added, I only paid something like $1.89. They'll be mailed to me at the end of March.

Ok, I know I've been bad...

and I haven't written much in the past few weeks. I promise to remedy that soon. Well to summarize the past few weeks - went to a bunch of thrifts and bought a bunch of stuff. What exactly? Ummm...I can't remember.

Ok, one thing I do remember is three old expired inkjet cartridges that don't fit my printer. I paid $1.25 for all three. Am I stupid or just crazy? Neither (well maybe a little crazy). Now here's the deal with that - I took the cartridges to a local Staples for recycling. Staples has a promotion that if you bring in any inkjet cartridge they will give you a coupon for $3. So for my $1.25 that I spent, I have $9 to spend at Staples.

No buys yesterday

Well since it was raining yesterday I didn't go to the yardsale that I saw the sign for.

My husband bought a new $1200 computer this week, should be delivered in a few weeks (bought it at an online place where you pick and choose your specifications). His current computer has Windows XP, but I am so used to my old computer with Win98 and all my tons and tons of bookmarks I really don't want it so instead of me getting my husband's "old" computer, it will go to our 5 year old son to replace his. (Yes, we are a 3 computer family).

Well I am trying to keep up my deluttering resolution. I am glad to say that after 5 years,this weekend I finally got copies of all my son's pictures burned onto some CDs and it freed up so much space on my harddrive. I always feared my hardrive crashing and losing all the irreplaceable digital pics. I even made a back-up copy of the disks, so if anything happened to the original, I would have a backup.

Went to lunch at Lone Star yesterday. We used a $11.99 coupon for two lunches. That's a pretty good deal since the lunch I ordered alone would have been $9.99 if I had not had a coupon.

Bought two Flitigs today at $4 each

Went to Smile and didn't find too much to buy so I went to the part of the store where they sell furniture. Most times I don't find anything in the furniture area since a lot of times it's stuff like washer and dryers or used sofas. But occasionally I find something good. Today I found two brand new unassembled Ikea kid's benches. If you've never shopped at an Ikea, they give a name to all their items. These benches are called Flitigs. There's a storage compartment in the center.

Then when I came home, I saw someone in my neighborhood put up a yardsale sign for this Saturday so I had to do a "drive-by" and scope out which house would be having the sale. A nice, waterview one.

Last few days

My son was home sick from school on Thursday so I didn't go to Smile. Went Friday and got a few things: $1 new Clinique lipstick, $1 container of Kid K'nex. And I can't remember what else.

I got a $6 coupon in the mail from Staples - I'm a member of their rewards program and I guess when I bought some of their Black Friday sales, the $6 is a certain percentage of what I bought that quarter. So I have a free $6 to spend at Staples

Took my son to lunch at Chick-fil-a yesterday. I have a bunch of coupons for free kids meals and free ice-dreams. Our library was giving out the coupons a while ago. And they have no expiration on them. Personally, I hate Chick-fil-a's Icedream, I think it's a waste of calories. But my son likes it.

Afterwards we walked around a new Petco that opened up a few months ago (he had never been to it) and enjoyed seeing all the animals. A lot of people had their dogs on leases, including a big bull mastiff - man, I would hate to pooper scoop my yard if I had one of those!

Then since it was such a nice day out, we took a stroll on the boardwalk that is nearby - above is a picture of the area. Yes, I routinely drive over that 2 lane bridge that is in the background.

Message Board problem

The Yardsalequeen.com Message board is acting weird today - saying that people are suspended when they are not. Heck, it's even saying that I'm suspended. I have an email into their customer service dept and hopefully they'll respond quickly. Sorry for the confusion and inconvenience.

Got $115 in the mail yesterday

Forgot to mention, I got $115 in the mail yesterday. Back on Black Friday I did shopping at both Staples and Ace Hardware for sale stuff that had rebates. And this is pretty weird - I got BOTH rebate checks yesterday. I have to go to the Post Office today so I will stop at the bank and get them cashed. Probably get the money in all ones and fives. The teller will probably think I'm headed for a fun night seeing Chippendales or something. But in reality, I want the small bills for my thrift store shopping (they don't like big bills there). Will take my dog with me on my errands - when I go thru the drivethru at the bank, they give him a dog biscuit.

went to an indoor yardsale yesterday

There was an indoor yardsale at a neighbhorhood clubhouse yesterday. There were lots of vendors. Some of the things I bought: $1 each sealed DVDs "The Terminal" and "The Edge", bottle of Bath & Body Works Purely Silk lotion $1 (price is $17.50 at the store), some Wade figurines at .10 each. Got a FREE bopper toy for my son - you know the 4' tall plastic inflatable thing where the kid punches it and it comes back up. Over Christmas when we were at my cousins, her son had one and my son loved it. Not only was it free, it was already blown up!

Been busy deleting some clothes....

I can tell I've spent too much time on the computer when I'm doing housecleaning or looking in my closet and think to myself "I should delete these jeans..." or "I should delete these cardboard boxes". Well I did do some clothes deleting (our local recycling place recycles "textiles" that I don't think are worthy of donating to a thrift (heck, I probably got them in a thrift in the first place!)

gotta run..
chris

Did I tell you my resolution this year?

My New Years resolution for 2006 is to declutter my house. It's gonna be a challenge since I don't like to throw things away and I like to always buy stuff. I definitely need to hold a few yardsales this year and donate the still useable stuff. Today I declutted some plastic food containers that have seen better days.

I went to the church yardsale today. Since it had an early start time, I was home before my husband even knew I was gone! Bought a few neat vintage Christmas items for .50 each and some Disney videos for only .25 each. And a new crown for myself for a nickle - it's a fancy beaded one from Barbie. So now I am back to having 2 crowns. As a yardsalequeen - I have to have a crown or two! My last one (which I trash-picked several months ago and mentioned on the blog) got broken by my son (no he wasn't wearing it!) so I threw it away. Yep, I threw it in the trash rather than trying to duct-tape it together :)

My best buy in a "real" store this week was at CVS. Went to a few other CVS stores to check out their 90% off Christmas and at one I found a Lucky perfume gift set that was originally $9.99 and at 90% off it was only .99. Will probably keep for myself.

I am still mourning the loss of my favorite radio station Z104 It was a shock to turn on my radio one day and instead of hearing my favorite radio personalities and great music, I heard classical! It was such big news that it was on the cover of the Washington Post. I had been listening to it since 1990. Of course I listen to other stuff (Don & Mike occasionally and used to listen to Howard Stern) but Z104 was my primary station. Billy Bush (from Access Hollywood) used to be the morning DJ years ago and his show was called "Billy Bush and the Bush League". And if Sean Sellers (afternoon DJ) is reading this, I miss hearing about your buys! And I miss Howard Stern too, but not enough yet to get Sirius.

No Yardsales today

Today is one of the few rare Saturdays during the year that I am home in the morning. Oh but I see a light at the end of the tunnel - there is a church one next Saturday. This particular church has 3 indoor yardsales every year. Their January one is pretty good since they get a lot of donations since people have to make room for their new Christmas junk. And if they got Christmas gifts they don't want or can't use, they often donate them.

Got some bargains at Smile and Vintage Value this week. I swear though once I buy something and get it home, it's hard for me to sit here and remember what I bought days earlier. I do remember buying an awesome Levi's denim jacket (model Type 1) for $2. Maybe I lead a sheltered life, but I've never seen a jacket like it before - I think it looks pretty cool, it has oversized buttons and a big Levi's pocket design on the back. Haven't decided what I want to do with it yet.

Did get a few 90% off Christmas Target bargains yesterday. Nothing too exciting - by the time I got there in the afternoon, it was pretty picked over.

Message Board back up

The yardsalequeen.com message board was temporarily out of service earlier today. Seems to be working fine now. You can find a link to the board at the column to the left.

High scoring Redskins = More Free Pizza Toppings

The Redskins did well yesterday so we had pizza again for dinner. With the deal our local Papa Johns gives regarding Redskin game scores, that equaled to 8 free toppings per pizza today. I really don't like cooking, so it works for me.

After I ordered the pizza, I went over to CVS and found some cute kitten Christmas notepads for .25 each that I didn't see when I went the other day. (I usually get the pizza "to go" rather than having to tip a delivery person. Plus, getting it delivered takes a long time compared to getting it myself). I bought 4 notepads to put away for Christmas '06. One of my nieces and my SIL loves cats. Also went to Food Lion for a few items. Again a cashier made an error in my favor. I had a coupon for a free package of a TGIFriday's appetizer. They were on sale for $2.50 but when the cashier deducted the coupon, he took off the full price off ($3.69) rather than the sale price. So, I got the free item PLUS $1.19 taken off other stuff I bought.

First bargains for the new year

I went to CVS because I heard they were going to have 75% off starting today. Bought a few things but nothing major. Bought a few boxes of Christmas cookies for .25 a box - the cookies were only .99 to start so it's not like they are going to be some fantastic gourmet cookies.

While out, I stopped at a grocery store to buy an onion for chili that I made today. Well anyways I picked out a Sweet onion which was on sale for 1.19 a lb and instead the cashier rang it up as Yellow onion which was .99 a lb. The way I figure it, the cashier is the "professional" so when they make a mistake in my favor, I don't feel the need to tell them.

Happy 2006

Happy New Year. Ok, I know I still have a little of 2005 left. I am glad that 2005 is almost over. Will always remember 2005 as the year that my Dad died.

I am looking to make some big improvements in 2006. In case you haven't figured it out, I am a big packrat. I really have to declutter and have some mega yardsales. I also have to get my house is better order. I used to be very organized, I would match all my receipts to my credit card statements every month - then save the entire bundle forever. But sometime in the past few years, I've been slacking off, so I still have all the receipts and all the statements, just that now they are not matched up nicey nice. I need to start shredding. There's no way I need to look at my Discover card statement from October 1992 and reminisce about what I bought back then. Or look at my cable bill from August 1990 and see what I was paying. But right now, I could. I hold on to too much crap!

On Christmas Eve 2005, I told my brother and my SIL that by Christmas Eve 2006, they are going to see a much thinner Chris.

One good thing that happened in 2005 was the big improvement in the message board program I use for my website. We started off with the usual crappy board I had for years at bravenet and in May 2005 I switched to a different board, which turned out to be totally unreliable. We suffered with that board for 4 months, until September when I found the super awesome board system from Spreebb.com . You can see my actual message board by clicking on the link to the left.

Did a little bit of bargain shopping at Target today, Christmas stuff is 75% off. Also got a bargain the other day at home. I went out to get the newspaper and saw found a dollar bill in my yard.

Happy 2006 everyone!
Chris

Happy After Christmas Bargain Shopping

We spent Christmas in upstate NY - including our dog. I was hoping my dog's other family would watch him but it didn't work out. So we took him to my mom's. Didn't really want to take him to a kennel - since boarding prices are high plus, I would have had to take him to the vets for a kennel cough shot beforehand (another expense). In the past I've also hired a local Dog Nanny to come to the house but the last time I did that my dog ran away (to his other family) and I still had to pay the dog nanny every day regardless. Also in the past I've used a reliable teenager too, but they moved. Taking the dog to NY worked out pretty good I think. My mom lives on a busy road so we couldn't let him off the leash (plus he doesn't listen anyways) it gave us a good reason to get out of the house a few times a day for some fresh air and exercise. Which we need - the above pic is of the yummy cookies made by my cousin Kathy.

Hey, I'm gonna add to this post, but gotta run now and watch Criminal Minds. Will finish this post on Thursday.

--ok, it's Thursday now and I am back to finish my post.

Whenever I visit my hometown I always visit two thrifts - a Salvation Army and a community based one called Captain's Treasures. At SA I bought myself a $1.99 Saratoga Springs t-shirt and a $1.99 vintage Adidas shirt for ebay. Also bought for .99 a vintage melted plastic pellet Santa decoration. At Captains I bought a bunch of new in package Covergirl makeup for myself that I love, only $1 a package. A $1.75 black Aigner purse (for myself), two books for .25. Also a vintage Napco ceramic Christmas sleigh in perfect condition (no chips, cracks etc). It was only marked $1, and the cashier didn't see it when she was ringing up my other items and when I asked her if she rang it up, she said no and said that I could just have it.

My son got to go to Chuck E. Cheese twice (didn't spend a thing there). When a child walked in, they got a mystery sticker that revealed X number of free tokens. The first day he got 10 and the second time 15 free tokens. Plus I had a ton of free tokens from all the specially marked .99 Koolaid Koolburst packages I had been buying.

Also stocked up on stuff at Aldi's and Dollar Tree. I love Aldi's - I wish I had one close to me. At the Dollar Tree, I mainly bought $1 packages of Panasonic C & D size batteries. All those Kacie the Kinderbots I've been buying lately need Size D batteries and they are expensive at regular stores. We use a lot of rechargeable batteries for AA and AAA. I tried going to a Pepperidge Farm outlet store that I went to over the summer to stock up on Flavored Blasted Goldfish crackers for my son, but it wasn't there anymore - they must have moved their location.

After Christmas I went to a few Targets and also Walmart and CVS. Went on Monday with my mom to her Target and she bought a lighted star window decoration. They only had one and she wanted two. But she could live with just one. Spent most of the day Tuesday driving in the car so no shopping on Tues.. Anyhow I told Mom I would check "my" Target and on Wednesday I bought the last one they had, so now she'll have two.

Bought several bags of Dove chocolate on clearance $1.49 each - will give to my husband for Valentine's Day since Dove chocolate is his favorite. (The package does say it's good until May 2006). At CVS, I bought two half priced Celine Dion perfume gift sets. One to give to my mom for her birthday and one either to keep for myself or sell on eBay. Also bought a sale Mary Kate and Ashley perfume set to give to a niece.

Also on Wednesday I went to VV. I bought 4 pieces of clothing for .30 each and some games. Paid $1.50 for The Game of Cub Scouting (for ebay) and some games for my son.

And lastly I went to BJ's Warehouse. My free membership is expiring at the end of the month and I don't plan on paying for a membership. I stocked up on birthday cards to last me thru most of 2006 for people I send BD cards to (greeting cards are half-off the price printed on the cards). The one I like the best (and bought a few of) was a card that said: I looked all over for a nice gift for you but I all I found was crap - then when you open it it says: maybe I should have left the house. LOLOL!! how true!

Nothing much going on. Just busy thinking up a ton of resolutions for 2006!

Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays

I barely got my Christmas cards (bought last year half off of course) mailed out before Christmas. My friend from high school has to show me up (again of course ! LOL) by sending out her custom handmade Christmas cards that have at least 4 layers of acid-free paper and a string "embellishment" for the reindeer reins. All this done of course while tending to her 5 month old twins. She is totally nuts! But she thinks I'm nuts for buying other people's junk.

I'll be busy for a little while, so I may not get a chance to post again before Christmas. Today was a good day at Smile - everything half off. I bought several Hallmark ornaments for .25 each and a few things that I intend to give this year (a new Old Navy stationery set for .50 for a niece, and also a hardcover cookbook (.50)by redneck Jeff Foxworthy to give to my mom.

Til next time,
Chris

My Papa John's pizza bargain yesterday

Didn't get a chance to post yesterday about my Papa John's pizza bargain. I mentioned this in a previous blog posting about how our local Papa John's gives free toppings on Mondays depending on how the Redskins did the following day. Well this past Sunday's game they made 5 touchdowns so that means we can get 5 free toppings the next day. Wait, there's more...if they win, the amount of free toppings is doubled. So yesterday was a 10 free topping day! It's hard for me to come up with 10 toppings that I like, so on a pizza for me I did double pepperoni, double cheese, double onion and bacon. And I still had "free" toppings leftover! On the pizza intended for my husband, he got 3 different kinds of peppers plus every kind of meat.

And remember me talking about bargain in buying the DVD, March of the Penguins? Well yesterday I saw there is a $3 rebate on Minute Maid orange juice. So I will send the rebate in - will do it in my niece's name so she'll get the $3, afterall, I did have to cut off the Proof of Purchase.