Lots of *new* shoes

Went to VV this week and bought a several pairs of shoes for .50 each including that pair of navy blue ones for me and pink suede ones for my son. Before I went to VV, I went to Smile and found the sneakers on the bottom far right (those I paid $1 for since Smile's prices are a little higher).

Before you think I am totally crazy for buying pink shoes for my son, I figured for .50, I would try putting some liquid shoe polish I have and see what happens. They are very similar to beige pair he has and likes, so I'd figured I would take a chance. I'll post a pic of the 'pink' shoes, when I finish my experiment.

Tomorrow starts my gift receiving season - anniversary, birthday and mother's day all once a week for the next 3 weeks. But I bought myself my bd present the other day. I got a good deal on a 19" flat screen monitor at Staples. My husband said it should knock out at least 2 out of the 3 gifts. It was cheaper and nicer than the monitor I bought my husband for Christmas last year. I think I even blogged about it - back on Black Friday when I was waiting in line at Staples at 6am to get it. What a difference a few months makes.

I'll post a pic of my cleaned-up dog soon. Yes, he is a scrappy dog even when clean. Here's the story behind Whiskey:

About 12 years ago, Whiskey was a stray that one of my neighbors was tossing food out to but was skittish and could never catch him. The first time I saw him, I could see even from a distance he had a flea collar on. Well one night, my neighbor and I managed to grab him and it appeared that the flea collar had never been loosened and was starting to cut into his neck. So using a knife, we cut the collar off. Well the next day, he was like a new dog and we've had him ever since.

Well anyways Whiskey has always been a little troublemaker - never listens and loves to dig holes to try to escape from the yard (I heard that the terrier breed are known for being "escape artists". On one of his escapades, another family a few streets over fell in love with him so now when he manages to escape, I know where he's headed. The other family doesn't want him permanently, but likes to get visits from him.

Whenever he's over there, I let him visit for a while and then go pick him up. One night (it was an election night), I went to the other family's house and got him (the parents weren't home). So then I drove to the school to vote (Whiskey likes riding in the car.) At the school, I see the parents on the other side of the parking lot. Since I wanted them to know I had picked up Whiskey, I yell "Hey Dawn, I have Whiskey in the car". Since she didn't acknowledge that she heard me, I yell a little louder in the school parking lot "DAWN, I stopped and got Whiskey - I have Whiskey in the car!" I didn't realize until later, how that must have sounded to the voters going in to vote. (But anyone who knows me knows I'm a rum drinker).

Update on dirty dirty dog

Ugh - he got dirty again! Sometime in the middle of last night he tried digging out again but gave up and came inside and the mud dried on him. So he got another bath.

Today I cleaned up and painted an old school desk that I got from my mom's cellar. She had a friend who worked in a school district who would get the discarded school desks and chairs (for free) when new ones were bought. The paint on it was all banged up and lots of little pieces of tape all over the desktop. My mom had about 5 to choose from, so I looked them all over and I'm happy with the one I took. So I cleaned it off and painted it a dark green. Not the greatest pic, but here's what it looks like. It's going in my son's room and I plan on selling the small toddler sized table & chairs that is currently in his room.



Oh I forgot to mention my site was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal last week, here is the link
Wall Street Journal article

Free Scoop day at Ben & Jerry's

Hey, if you live near a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop, you can go on Tuesday April 25 and get a free scoop. Make sure you check out the details (note the time restriction): Ben & Jerry's You should also check the store locator to make sure the scoop shop near you is participating.

I don't live near a scoop shop, but both my brother and sister do.

Dirty dirty dog

Went to a few yardsales this morning and then it started raining which lasted most of the day. My dog freaks out during heavy rain and thunderstorms and he tried to dig a hole to run away. I used to freak out whenever he did, but not anymore. He's sort of become the part-time dog of another family in the neighborhood. So when he gets out, I know where he will end up. He is fixed so he's not out cruising for a date. He was unsuccessful in his attempt today to get loose, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

My big buy today at a yardsale was an outdoor canvas swing, the kind you have to hang from a big tree branch. It looked new and I paid $5.

I am getting a large number of hits on my website this week...if you are reading my blog for the first time, please leave a comment and let me know how you found my page. I think it was mentioned in a yardsale article in the Wall Street Journal the other day. Over the next few months my website will appear in some pretty well known publications: Woman's Day, Woman's World and Better Homes & Gardens.

Went to NY for Easter

I've been busy this week - and last - so I haven't had time to write. My son's school spring break was last week and part of this week so I went to upstate NY to visit my mom and family. I still haven't caught up on all my tv watching when I finish writing this, I'm going to watch the latest Sopranos episode that I missed when away.

There's a Chuck E. Cheese (CEC) not too far from my mom's house so I took my son there twice and used free tokens that I had gotten off packages of Koolaid Koolbursts and my sister gave him a large quantity of tokens for his recent birthday. Every once in a while Koolaid Koolbursts will have special packaging advertising CEC and have a token coupon worth 10 free tokens. It's really a good deal since I can buy the Koolbursts for .99 and get $2.50 worth of free CEC tokens. Well on my way there, I noticed smoke in the distance and as I got closer, I saw a car was on fire. It was kinda weird since traffic was still going by etc, it didn't look like anyone was trapped inside considering someone opened the trunk. But I'm thinking "I know I moved away from home a long time ago, but have things changed so much that cars just catch on fire and no one does anything?? I was stoppped at a red light when I snapped this pic. As my light turned green, I saw the firetruck arriving.

Whenever I visit my mom's, there are 5 places I try to go (make it 6 if I include Chuck E. Cheese. But I read that a CEC may be opening close to our house which would be great). The other places are: Aldi's grocery store, a Dollar Tree dollar store (which I think are better than your average dollar store), the Freihoffer bakery thrift store, the Salvation Army and a community based thrift store. Oh and I left off another place: The Golden Krust bakery in Cohoes. Unfortunately this time I couldn't do that since it burned down to the ground a little while ago.

My bargain at the Freihoffer store was on Boboli pizza shells at .75 each (still with good expiration dates). I've had them years ago when I bought them in a regular grocery store using a coupon and on sale. But haven't seen them on sale in a long time. If I was to buy them around here, I'd be charged the full price at $3.69 and really, I don't think they are worth that. And since I stocked up on sliced pepperoni ($1.39 for 8 oz at Aldi's), I am set!

I still have more to write about my trip, but the Sopranos are calling!

Another Saturday of mediocre yardsales

It started pouring today at around 10am, so not many people had yardsales today. Only went to about two and two more had signs posted with their raindate on it.

At one yardsale they had a big rubbermaid type tote full of free live white mice. They were giving them away. The seller took one out and it jumped out of her hand and their cat got it. I know Petco and other places sell white mice as food for snakes and stuff, I just don't want to think about it (or see it happen in front of my eyes). Ok, I know I am a wuss. I think we have or had mice in our attic and even then I don't want to see a dead mouse and just put out the Decon poison rather than seeing a dead mouse in a mousetrap.

My good bargain of the week was a free haircut (no, I didn't do it myself!) A coupon booket came in the mail earlier this week (coupons for various local businesses) and the coupon for the hair salon said first three haircuts on Friday are free til the end of May. So since I needed a haircut, after my son went to school, I got in my car and drove to the hairsalon. Got there about 20 minutes before they were set to open. The parking lot was deserted so I knew I would get the first free haircut. Did give the stylist a $5 tip.

Another freebie I got the other day was some free digital pics at CVS. They had a 5 free print offer this week.

Did (of course) do some shopping at my thrifts this week. Can't really remember what I bought except for a few DVDS for $2 each (Bridget Jone's Diary and Forgiven).

Been busy doing some interviews...

Yardsale season is definitely picking up (even though I went to a bunch of crappy ones last Saturday.) I've done 3 interviews in the past 3 days from media people wanting to interview me for yardsale stories (did 2 newspaper and 1 radio). I get nervous when I do live radio interviews (much prefer when they tape it to play back at a later time).

Yesterday I had to go to my son's school, so I stopped at Catholic Charities on the way. Bought two ice-cream scoopers for my collection at .50 each and a $1 VHS called Jasper to the Rescue. It's a 10 minute video on bed-wetting done by Disney. On the website it sells new for $19. For a 10 minute video! But of course if someone has that problem and it helps, then it's money well spent. I'll put it up on ebay eventually (I want to watch it first - not that I need it but just out of curiosity). I have so much junk to sell that it's ridiculous. Last night I even had a dream about storage space. I definitely need to declutter!

You know I was thinking about those ratty looking jeans I saw at Penney's the other week. If anyone was to donate them to my local thrift store, they wouldn't be considered nice enough to put on the sales floor. The volunteers there carefully inspect the clothing before they put it out and if there are holes, rips, etc, they won't put it out.

Ate at a place with cloth napkins today

My husband and I went out to lunch today. Decided to try an Italian restaurant that we've never been to. The place used to be a Perkins restaurant. But I think I got that Perkins closed down since I used to do Mystery Shopping (well Mystery Eatting) at that Perkins and my last review wasn't good. Anyhow they remodeled inside and now it's a sorta fancy restaurant. Had cloth napkins which I don't see very often. well I guess Outback Steakhouse has cloth napkins. Will have to pay better attention. Anyhow, I got a chicken parmigiana that wasn't great (dry and not very cheesy). My husband liked his lunch though.

Afterwards we walked around the nearby JC Penneys. Didn't buy anything. But what I thought was funny was seeing some very super distressed Levi's priced (on sale) for $34.99. Actually I think whoever is buying jeans like that is either stupid or lazy. Why not take a pair of your old jeans and distress them yourself and save $35? When I commented to the salesclerk who was standing nearby (I said something like "wow, these are really distressed" and she kinda rolled her eyes at the jeans and said "did you see the next table, they have paint splatters". And sure enough, the next table has distressed Arizona (brand) jeans that had distressing plus white paint splatters. When I say "distressed", I'm not just talking about jeans made to look already worn or broken in, I mean jeans that have 5" wide holes in both knees, hems that are torn and looked like they've been dragging on the floor.

Exactly 6 years ago today, I had a yardsale.

You know how I remember so well? Because the next day I gave birth! No, I hadn't planned it that way (he was 3 weeks early). And if I knew I was going to give birth that weekend, I wouldn't have had the yardsale but instead I would have packed my overnight hospital bag which I ended up having to do last minute.

There were only a handful of yardsales today. Didn't buy much. One neat item I bought for $1 was a vintage ceramic piggy bank marked "Corky Pig" on the bottom (it was made by the Hull company). See above pic.

Had an Elvis sighting while shopping at the hardware store

About once or twice a year our local Ace Hardware store has a "Ladie's Night". They are normally closed on Sunday nights, so they have it when they would otherwise be closed anyways. I went to my first Ladies night in the fall, and they just recently had one another one this past Sunday night. They have 20% off everything in the stores, freebies, goodies to eat and Elvis as entertainment. I am not kidding! It certainly is a surreal experience to be pushing your cart in a hardware store (in my rinky dink town) and see rhinestoned cape wearing Elvis impersonator strolling by belting out tunes. I regretted not bringing my camera. I would definitely describe him as the older, *fluffier* Elvis, not the trim and young Elvis. I haven't seen a ton of Elvis impersonators in my life, but I think he sounds very good. Visit the The Rockin Elvis website.

The freebies I got this time where two canvas tote bags and 4 Benjamin Moore sample paint cans (normally $3.49 each). I ran into a yardsailing friend there and she had her paint samples but then said "oh I should have gotten some darker colors for making yardsale signs!" What a smart cookie!

I didn't really buy anything. They had a good sale on suet cakes for the birds at .50 each. I had gotten a free $5 gift card in the mail from using my Ace frequent shopper card. So with my free $5, I *bought* 10 suet cakes for the birds.

March 16

Got some good bargains at my thrifts the past few days. Today I bought a little lightweight collapsible cart thingy (the wheels even fold down) for $1.50. Also bought myself a few tops at V V (it was a .30 day). I plan on going to a big indoor yardsale this Saturday so I plan on bringing it. And a bunch of other stuff.

I got a good bargain online the other week at Amazon.com We have a California King sized bed so buying sheets is always a challenge. Most brick and mortar stores only carry regular King sized sheets, not California King. Well the other week while looking on Amazon, I found brand new Cal. King sheets (300 thread count and they also flannel sheets) for only $14.99 a set. And if you spent over $25, shipping was free. Well at that price I couldn't resist and ended up buying 3 sets. I think a lot of people only think of Amazon for books and DVDs but they really have quite a selection of all kinds of stuff.

Sat. 3/11

The Message Board is down. But hey, you should be out yardsailing anyways! Not sure when they'll be back up, hopefully soon.

Chris

BJ's Warehouse Open House

Did some shopping at BJ's Warehouse today. Until March 5, they are having an Open House, go to this website to print out a shopping pass:
BJ's Warehouse

We used to have a membership, but let it expire. But it seems like they have Open Houses a few times a year (last one was in September). Then they sent us a free 3 month trial which lasted until January 1. Heck, so really, it doesn't make sense for us to buy a membership.

Anyways today, we bought an awesome deck bench with tons of storage. You know I have a thing for storage!

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.