Calvert Marine Museum Solomons Maryland

Since school is out, we've been going a lot to the little museum near our house (The Calvert Marine Museum). I bought a family membership in May during a half-priced membership day (Normally $50, I paid $25). Jacob likes going to see the fish and the otters. We also climb up to the top of the Drum Point Lighthouse. The above picture is of Jacob outside the otter habitant and the Drum Point lighthouse is reflected in the glass. We are definitely getting our money's worth out of the membership fee. If I was to take Jacob there - and not have the membership card - it would cost $9 for the both of us. So since we usually go at least 3 times a WEEK, we definitely got our money's worth.

Free twin bed (only cost us $99)

I visit a local community type website that has free classified ads, you know I have to check out which yardsales are added every week. Well anyways they also have a "freebie" section where people post stuff they have for free. The other day I saw someone was giving away a 3 year old boxsprings for a twin bed (they switched to a bunk bed so they no longer needed the boxsprings). And that was exactly what my son needed. Jacob sleeps on a twin bed - the exact same one I had when I got my own room in the third grade! Really - the same frame, headboard, boxsprings and mattress. Geez, you would think a twin bed would last a lot longer than 35 years - just kidding. The fabric on the boxsprings finally tore and my son was pulling out all the padding and the actual springs were visible - yes, it was made during a time when actual springs were in boxsprings.

So I called about the boxsprings and we picked it up the other night - looked brand new and it was made by Serta. So then we stopped at BJ's Warehouse (since it was nearby) and saw that we could get a new mattress for only $99 so since we were in the truck, it just made sense to get one. So for $99 my son got a new bed (still has the same headboard that I had as a kid).

Before anyone suggests that I check out freecycle.org - yes, I know all about them. I just never had any luck with it. Seemed like the "good" stuff was gone quickly and you really had to read the emails ASAP. Also seemed there were a lot of greedy people on it. Someone would post something like: I have these items to give away, let me know if you can use any of it: a pack of diapers, a hammer, 10 cans of lima beans, 5 kittens, 2 yards of polyester material, 3 spare tires, 5 big landscaping rocks and a hairdryer. Then someone would say "I'll take it all!" Come on, how could anyone need all of those things. People were just getting greedy and all the constant emails were annoying. That's why I prefer the little local website where I found the boxsprings.

My Bargain at CVS Pharmacy : Razors .20 a package

I had some coupons for free packages Bic Shavors Comfort that were due to expire on 6/18 and I couldn't find them at the grocery store or Target, but I found them at CVS the other day. The coupons value was for up to $5.29 off a package, but at CVS they were on sale for $3.99 - which was good since the regular price at CVS was $5.89. So since I had to pay tax, they were just .20 a package!

Results of my pink shoes experiment

A few months ago I mentioned here that I couldn't resist buying a pair of pink suede shoes for .50 - for my son. They looked just like a similar beige pair that he likes and wears often. They are definitely not pink anymore. I put both liquid shoe polish and waxy shoe polish on them so now they are a one of a kind creation.

Got Free Sierra Mist at Food Lion grand opening

A new Food Lion grocery store opened up in our town earlier this week so I stopped in. While I'm glad I have a new store near to my house (3 miles away), there's another Food Lion that is 5 miles away. So that means they are ony 2 miles apart. I know in big metropolitan areas, having multiple grocery stores near each other is common, but geez, this is a pretty podunk area that I live in.

Anyhow at the store there was a display, "Free Samples Sierra Mist" and the Sierra Mist guy was stocking it up and told me to "help myself to as many as I would like". I questioned him what he meant by that and he reiterated that I could have as many as I want and that he had a lot to give away. He really seemed like he wanted people to take a lot. He commented something to the effect of the quicker he could give it away the better for him or something. So I helped myself. Do you remember that Sierra Mist commercial where the dog is laying in front of the air conditioner with it's legs spread? I think my dog Whiskey looks just like that dog.

Stay in School, don't loose your education!

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll notice that every so often I find a funny ad that I want to share. Usually it's an ad that I found funny (especially when it wasn't intended to be funny) or just weird. Well the above ad is sort of sad in a way, bad spelling for a local educational supply company that calls themselves "the learning experts". Their ad states: Your child may loose 80% of what they learn in class while away from School." So they used "loose" when they meant "lose" and they capitalized "school" when it shouldn't have been. Plus, the sentence just sounds bad to begin with. They should have said "Your child may lose 80% of what they learn in school over summer vacation". Or something like that. (Anyhow, I heard that 63.9% of statistics quoted in surveys are made up. See I even made that up! :) And yes, I know I have typos in the title for this posting - I did that on purpose.

Attempted Child Abduction at Yardsale

Someone emailed me this story about a man who tried to abduct a child during a yardsale: Attempted Child Abduction at Yard sale

free garage sale classified ads

Since it rained this morning, I had some "extra" time today so I finally got around to making a place on my message board for people to post free ads for yardsales and garagesales. Personally, I have no idea how successful it will be but I know in the past people have advertised their yardsales on my message board. So now there's a specific place for yardsale ads. The link to my message board is over there on the left.

We had a pretty big storm last night so I think that scared a lot of people into not having a sale today. Only found 2 yardsales in my area, which typically I would find a dozen or so. Where I live a lot of people don't place an ad in the newspaper, they just put up signs around their neighborhood in strategic spots. Didn't buy anything exciting today.

Been spending money left and right

Well my son graduates from Kindergarten on Monday, so I've been spending this week doing a lot of thrift shopping and real store shopping. My son doesn't handle thrift shopping very well, so I don't thrift shop much during the summer (I still yardsale tho).

Got the AC fixed (service and diagnosis was $95 flat, I was expecting extra "labor" charges). Turns out our thermostat was bad so tonight I bought a new one on ebay.

I joined BJ's Warehouse again. Ok, I know I mentioned in a previous post that it was silly to join BJ's when they keep giving free shopping days. Ok, well they haven't done any free shopping days in a while and they sent me a free $10 off coupon on re-joining. I still hadn't planning on joining but then they sent me a save $20 coupon on re-joining. So I did re-join on June 1, so that means it will be good till the end of June 2007. So even though it's a years membership, I'll really get 13 months. Then I'll let it expire again. I've found that many companies really don't do anything for their long-term customers, they are more interested in getting "new" customers or pursuing former customers. Another example would be one of my newspaper subscriptions. They always have "deals" for new customers but the old customers get screwed regarding the rates. Sometimes it works out to be cheaper by letting subscriptions expire for a bit and then getting it again as a "new" customer.

When I was at BJ's, I did buy my husband his Father's Day gift, they have a huge bucket of David's Sunflower seeds for $19.99.

Found a rare Friday yardsale (moving sale) today. We don't have many Friday sales around here. Bought 5 bottles of stuff for the yard (Roundup, concentrated weed killer, gallon of deck cleaner and some other stuff), all for $2. I've found that when people have moving sales, they rarely want to pay to "move" household stuff like cleaners and they are usually *dirt* cheap.

Man, it felt like 1972 for a little while today...

Our internet went out for a few hours today, and also our cable (both supplied by Comcast). So no TV and no internet. Since we live in the boonies of Maryland, there are no "local" stations, so you have to have cable. Or else have a huge ugly antennae on your house to maybe get a fuzzy station or two. And to top it off, something is wrong with our air conditioner. So no air conditioning. Will be paying a HVAC service technican $95 to walk in the door tomorrow and diagnose the problem.

There's a reason kitchen rhymes with bitchin'

It's Memorial Day weekend so I wasn't expecting many yardsales, but there were a bunch. I was the first person at one sale and bought a ton of stuff, including some Hallmark Maxine items. The seller told me that Hallmark no longer makes the Maxine stuff. Along with the magnet I bought - pictured above (I paid either .50 or a .25 for it) I bought a Maxine teakettle for $2 which I'll put on ebay and a Welcome mat for $1 which says "Welcome to my home. Don't touch anything." Probably keep that for myself.

Bought a new Elvis Presley Zippo lighter in a tin for $1, and ton of CDs for only .10 each. Nothing was marked at the sale so I kept loading up an armfull of stuff finding out the prices, paying and putting it in my car and going back for more. I picked up 3 CDs that I wanted (including Clay Aiken Measure of a Man). When she told me the CDs were .10 each, I had to restrain myself from jumping up and down. So I calmly paid, loaded up the car and went back for about 30 more CDs.



Took this pic yesterday, thought it was funny. I'll be putting a larger version of it on my website.

Oh I don't think I mentioned this but I did "splurge" the other week and became members of a local museum. Joined during a half priced membership day, so a years family membership was only $25. The museum is the Calvert Marine Museum It's a small museum but they have a few fish tanks and a kids room etc. One of the highlights of the museum is the Drum Point lighthouse which you can climb up into. The museum always has a few "free" days a year but I figured for $25, it would be nice just to stop in whenever we want and not pay anything. I plan on taking my son there a lot over the summer. Since becoming a member, we have gone once a week.

End of school year coming up

The end of school year is coming up so I've been busy trying to run of bunch of errands now rather than having to do them with my 6 year old. Things like oil changes, hair cut and of course thrift shop. My son is not a good shopper, so I definitely scale back my thrift shopping in the summer.

The above pic is of one of my recent favorite yardsale buys. The basket on the bottom is my "new" vintage basket, paid $5 for it. The basket on the top is the one I bought a few months ago and blogged about. Made by a company called Redman in Peru, Indiana.

Yea for Taylor Hicks. I liked Katherine McPhee too, and also Elliot Yamin but I'm glad that Taylor won. It would have been neat if Elliot won since he really did not have any singing experience other than karaoke (unlike Katherine and Taylor). I am a big reality tv show junkie. So after the Apprentice ends in 2 weeks, there will be a lull until some new ones start up like Big Brother.

Voted for Taylor Hicks

Just a quick note but I'm hoping for a win for Taylor Hicks tonight.

been busy

My mother-in-law has been visiting this week so really haven't had much time to blog. Had a few awesome buys last week that I will post about when I get a chance.

Arrested Development Yardsale

Now that the tv show Arrested Development is no longer, they are having a yardsale (kinda) of stuff used for the show. If you are in Los Angeles, here's how to check it out:

Estate Sales Los Angeles is pleased to announce that it will conduct an exciting prop house sale of the contents of one of Twentieth Century Fox Television's favorite television shows of the past decade “Arrested Development”.

Spectacular array of items will include several periods of furniture, magic show accessories and artifacts, interior décor items, art, books, kitchen appliances and kitchen ware, interior/exterior lighting, office furniture, extensive entertainment memorabilia and too much more to itemize.

Don’t miss the opportunity to own a piece of this show.

Sale location:

La Trova House
2032 Stoner Avenue,
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Sale dates: May 19 – 21, 2006
8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

For more information, please contact info@estatesalesla.com or visit
Estatesalesla.com

Yardsale Liquor - .25 each

At a yardsale yesterday I was digging thru a box of stuff marked ".25 each" and among the used McDonald's toys and baby rattles I found these two little mini bottles. Was hoping to find more but only found the two. I figured I was doing my good deed of the day by buying them - rather than some kid finding them.

Also at a yardsale I bought an old printer with 10 cartridges of ink - all for $10. I can recycle the printer at our local recycling center and then turn the 10 cartridges into Staples and get $30 worth of Staples coupons. (Bring in any inkjet cartridge to Staples and they give you a $3 coupon good towards anything in the store).

Well I know my website (and blog) gets fewer visits on the weekend soooooo I've decided to keep my Botox Donation Fund open if anyone still wants to donate to this worthy cause.

Did a couple of radio interviews in the past few days. Radio interviews make me nervous. One was on Friday for a Columbus Ohio radio station and the one today was one in Detroit and that one lasted about a half hour.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hey, it's my birthday! And I can't think of a better way to spend part of it than going yardsaling at my favorite church yardsale. They price things at .10 and .05

Since it's my birthday - show me some love by signing my blog OR by making a little contribution to my Botox fund (any amount will do, like $100, $250, $400 etc :) Your choice! For your convenience, I've included a little handy dandy Paypal donation link:

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.

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.

If you shop on Amazon.com

Here is another shameless plug, if you do any shopping at Amazon.com, I would appreciate it if you would get to Amazon.com by going thru my link. Thanks!

Went to Smile today and it was a half priced day. Every once in a while they'll do a half priced day and it's great. I bought about $15 worth of stuff. Most expensive thing was a $4 Sony Dream Machine clock radio. For myself I bought a $2 black Liz Claiborne purse. And of course, a bunch of other junk.

Been doing some Christmas shopping lately in real stores where they sell new stuff. Today I bought a March of the Penguins DVD as a gift and at one Walmart it was $19.99 and at another one it was $14.98. How crazy is that!?

I've been using some of those $10 JC Penney's coupons that I mentioned in a different post to score some bargains. Here's my JC Penney's buy of the week: spent .53 to get my husband 7 new pairs of Adidas socks. The socks were on sale for $10.50 so after the coupon I paid .50 plus .03 tax. And the package has a bonus black pair of socks, so it was 6 white pairs plus a black pair, for a total of 7 pairs of socks.




Today at the grocery store I saw something that makes me wish my cellphone had a camera. It was this HOT guy and guess what make him even HOTTER? He had a white envelope and he was sorting thru his coupons! I NEVER see any guys carrying coupons in a grocery store, let alone a cute one!

I haven't checked the newspaper ads, but I'm guessing there are no yardsales tomorrow. But that's ok, since I know there are going to be tons of people at the malls and other stores buying high priced stuff to give to people who won't want it and it will end up at a yardsale this spring for cheap! (Am I bad or what??) But it is the truth since I've often bought stuff at a yardsale that still had remnants of Christmas wrapping paper on it.

Till next time, happy saling,
chris

Well on Friday I didn't go to Smile (I couldn't - haha) We had a little bit of snow/ice so they closed schools. So when schools are closed for bad weather, so is Smile.

My husband really outdid himself this year as far as my Las Vegas souvenir. Man, this gift makes me WISH I got another shirt advertising a strip club. I got a paper towel. You read that right. He said while at the bathroom at the Venetian, the paper towels in the men's room were so nice that he had to bring me one. I'm hoping at least it's one that he picked up AFTER he washed his hands, but I can't guarantee it.

Hey, if you are on JC Penney's mailing list, check your mail for their $10 coupon they are mailing out. I got one yesterday. It's good for anything over $10. Earlier this year, I got it and got some great deals on socks. I think I even blogged about it.

Got the software from Estore.com. A word of advice, don't buy the Candyland computer game from them. It sucks. It did not hold my 5 year olds attention at all.

Went to Smile yesterday and today. Also went to Vintage Value. I need to start paying more attention to the books at VV. They are only .10 each. I bought a stack of about a dozen Dr. Suess books in very nice condition ($1.20). At Smile I found yet another Kacie the Kinderbot robot ($2) so I bought it. I figure it will be good for resale eventually. And I got lots of nice t-shirts (.50) for my son, including a I heart NY one, which I heart since I am originally from upstate NY.

Today I bought two pillows that match our sofa, a nice magnetic "chores chart" thing ($1.50)for kids made by Lights, Camera, Action. A bright orange vintage looking metal watering can ($1 - it's brand new, but has a vintage design, I figure I can spray paint it).

I just remembered another neat thing I got at Smile yesterday: a pink Serta sheep stuffed animal. A few years ago I bought a few Serta sheeps at a yardsale and then found out there are people who love those things. They are the counting sheep that appear in the Serta commercials. At the yardsale, I bought #13, which is a desirable number for the collectors. I think I paid .50 for them and they sold for about $25-30. The one I got yesterday is the #3 pink breast cancer awareness Serta sheep. I checked ebay, and I think I will have to hold onto this one until the #3 sheep gets harder to find. Smile sells bags of toys for $1, so the sheep was in a $1 bag along with some other toys.

I got a bargain buying my brother's Christmas gift. There is a seller on ebay (ebay seller name: Elenahume) which has cheap magazine subscriptions. Right now she is offering a 3 year subscription to the Sporting News (a weekly sports magazine) for only $5.99. That is super cheap compared to what it normally sells for - at the Sportingnews.com website, they sell a one year subscription for $19.97 and I got my brother a THREE year subscription. He used to get it all the time, so I know he will love it (I checked with his wife and he doesn't have a current subscription to it).

And that's not where the bargain ends...There is a 10% off eBay/Paypal coupon code that is circulating around the net, so I entered the coupon code at the checkout and I ended paying just $5.39! I'm not going to post the code here since it's going to expire in a few days, but if you really want it, it's posted on my message board in the Reselling Forum.

My husband got back from guy's trip to Las Vegas last night. I wonder if he brought me back any souvenirs - he has quite the track record for souvenir gifts. One year after a golfing trip he gave me a plastic cup emblazoned with "The Witch" on it, (apparently The Witch was the name of the golf course or the drinking establishment at the golf course). Another year on a golf trip he brought me back a t-shirt from the Crazy Horse Gentleman's Club in Myrtle Beach. Just what I wanted.

I gave up going to Nashville last weekend (a relative was getting married) so my husband could take his annual Las Vegas jaunt. But don't worry about me, I think I need to plan a cruise trip with the girls, or else a world's longest yardsale trip! Also would love to go to the unclaimed baggage center in Alabama.

Anyhow, I wanted to mention, my sister had a celebrity sighting while at the Nashville airport - she saw and talked to Paula Deen from Food TV. My quick thinking sister ran into an airport newstand and bought a Paula Deen magazine and got Paula to autograph it for a surprise Christmas gift to my mom. So hey, if you are reading this and know my mom, don't say anything! My sis said that Paula was very nice in person and smaller and thinner than she appears on tv.

My bargains for the week

My bargain of the week was getting a huge dying pine tree cut down (and most of it hauled away) for free. The guys who do the tree trimming for the utility company are trimming the trees in our neighborhood and when they got to my house they asked if we wanted the big dying pine tree to be cut down for free. Of course! The above is a view of it from the front yard and from the back. It's totally cut down and they mulched up the branches and just left us some big pieces to deal with. We have a large back yard so we have plenty of room to let the big pieces decay on their own. I don't think pine is a good wood for burning. Also I asked the tree guys what they do with the mulch and they said they just dump it wherever they find a good spot, so I told them I could use some and so they dumped a few large truckfulls on the edge of our property.

I know cutting down a large tree like that costs a lot of money so I'm glad the utility tree guys did for free. I wanted to get rid of that tree for a long time.



My other good bargain of the week was finding a Longaberger basket for .50 at a thrift store. The handle was broken but I just sawed it off. In Longaberger baskets, I prefer no handles or swinging handles rather than the "fixed position" handles. The "fixed" handles make the baskets look too Easter Baskety for me. The basket I just bought had a fixed position handle so actually I'm glad the handle was broken so I don't feel bad about sawing it off. I also found a vintage felt Christmas elf ($1) for my collection. I will have to take a new pic of my elf collection (I think there's a pic of my collection in my blog archives).

At Vintage Value, I bought myself two nice Liz Claiborne tops for myself (.30 each) and a pair of Michael Jordan sneakers (.50) for my son. And at Smile I bought my son a nice winter jacket for $2 (made by Boardgear). His coat that he has been wearing is a size 6/7 and it's a little big on him. This "new" coat is a size 6 so this one fits him better.

I finally planted my free Stargazer lilly bulbs that I mentioned back in the blog in September or October. I planted 4 in the front of the house and 2 in the back. About a day after I planted them, I saw that some animal (a squirrel maybe?) dug it up but they haven't gotten the others. Geez, you would think that they'd be happy with the sunflower seeds and cracked corn I give them.

I bought my son a bunch of kid's software this week. I buy it from www.smart-estore.com I've bought from them before and it's good software, but you don't get jewel cases or any instructions/paperwork with it, you just get the disk. Anyhow, early on I've realized that you have to be "smart" when buying from smart-estore. If you go their regular website (www.smart-estore.com), you see software for $5.95. But I've found other links within their website that offer the SAME software for $3.95 or even $2.97. To see what I mean, check these out: $3.95 Smart E-store and $2.97 Smart E-store If you do order any, at the check-out you can use coupon code GET10 to get 10% off.

Sunday

Well I never finished my post from Thanksgiving day. There was more that I wanted to say but I never got back to the blog that day.

I forgot to mention my buy at my regular VV store on Monday. In their toy bin I saw my son's current favorite toy: Kacie the Kinderbot robot. I bought one (new in box for $3) at a yardsale a few years ago, and so now we have a "backup" and it was only $1. When they were at Target, they were $39.99

Well in my previous post, I said I wasn't one of those crazy early bird Black Friday shoppers. Well I guess I lied. I was at a Staples at 5:30am on Black Friday waiting in line to buy a 19" flat screen monitor for $199 for my husband for Christmas. But at least I am not one of those tent people camping out at Walmart. I steered way clear of Walmart that day. So while some of you may think I am super cheap because of all my yardsale buys, I don't think I am since I *do* spend money at regular stores (but I just like to get a great bargain). Also bought my husband a 512 MB MP3 player (off ebay) as a gift recently.

We live about an hour away from a regular indoor shopping mall so I didn't go to a mall on Black Friday but didn't manage to hit these: Staples, Giant (grocery store), Target, Bath & Body Works (twice), Belk Dept. Store, JC Penneys (for free mini snowglobe), CVS, VV (yes, they were open and they even had a sale - fill a huge bag of clothes for $3), BJ's Warehouse, and Ace Hardware (for their One Day sale).

I had two coupons for Bath & Body Works: free item (up to $12.50) with any purchase and save $10 off $35 purchase. Well on Black Friday they had a sale on their fancy room deodorizers for $5 (normally $12.50) - but they don't call them "room deodorizers", they call them "Wallflowers". So I used both coupons and I bought a bunch of the room deodorizers as gifts plus a candle (to give to my sister in law). As I checked out, they gave me another $10 off $35 purchase coupon. So then after I left, I started thinking about what am I going to do for gifts for my son's 5 teachers (1 teacher, 2 assistants, 1 Speech Therapist and 1 Occupational Therapist. So I thought what the heck, I'll give them "Wallflowers" and I went back and bought more and used the coupon they had just given me a little earlier.

Today I got "my" Christmas gift from my husband - a Sony S90 Digital camera. It was no surprise since I'm the one who saw it on sale at Target ($199) and he told me to buy it. We had seen that model before at a different store and liked it. My current digital camera is held together by duct tape (I dropped it and the battery compartment won't stay closed on its own).

Oh here's something I forgot to mention the other day, I did a phone interview with a writer from Better Homes & Gardens magazine. They are doing an article about yardsale safety in their April '06 issue and I should get a mention of yardsalequeen.com in it. Knock on wood.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. It started off pretty rough for me - wasn't feeling well last night or this morning. But I snapped out of it and I'm feeling better and cooking a turkey breast.

I plan on doing a little bit of Black Friday shopping tomorrow - but I don't plan on going crazy and set my alarm for 4am or anything.

Yesterday was the only day this week that Smile was going to be open but I didn't go (actually I couldn't go and it drove me nuts. My 5 year old son had off from school and I won't take him to Smile anymore since he is not a good shopper). I did go to both Vintage Value stores on Monday though. They have two stores and I normally don't go to one since it's a lot smaller and further away, but I went on Monday and found several nice tops for me (and they also have .30 days so my new-to-me clothing was .30 each, Liz Claiborne, St. Johns Bay etc).

My buys this past week

Went to my thrifts this week. My favorite buy was this Espirit purse for .50 at Vintage Value - looks brand new, no marks or anything inside. Since I went to VV on a .30 day I also bought some clothing including a new looking Johnny Knoxville Jackass shirt (probably for me) and a Ralph Lauren short sleeve buton down shirt for my husband (each were .30). At Smile I bought my son a Fisher Price tape recorder with microphone for $1, a reversible talking Veggietale Larryboy plush (for ebay) and bunch of other little stuff.

I had to stop at Walmart for something the other day and I wish I had had my camera in my car. I parked my car next to a grassy patch and when I got back to my car, I see someone had parked their Amish horse and buggy next to it. Acck...with all the car traffic at the Walmart, I feel sorry for the horse who must be scared.

Bought two turkey breasts (.99 lb) at the grocery store for Thanksgiving. We'll have one next week and save the other one for later.

My buys

My favorite buy this week at Smile was this great vintage picnic basket for $3. The manufacturer's label depicts a Native American Indian and the politically incorrect name Red-Man Quality Baskets Peru, Indiana. I just love it because of the design and the fact that it will be great for storage. With all the stuff I buy, I gotta have my storage! As I was walking around the store with it, one lady came up to me and said "wow, what a great basket". I love it when that happens, it just reaffirms that I think I have a good eye for junk.

I also bought some other stuff, a Boy Scout uniform shirt (for ebay) that was .50, a very cute battery operated dog (called Artlist Collection dog) that barks and wags his tag furiously ($1). Plus other stuff.

Today was another beautiful fall day and there were two large outdoor yardsales, one at a school and one at a church. Bought some Christmas sock monkeys at $1 each, an old green handled egg beater $1, a Smokey the Bear ashtray $1 and two sealed boxed sets of the 80's tv show Five Mile Creek at $3 each (pictured above). I had never heard of it but knew that the boxed DVD sets of any program usually sell for $25 and higher. I put one of them up on ebay already.

My husband took off half a day and we went out to lunch to a Lonestar. Then stopped at Target to look around. Just bought one thing. They had electric 6-sheet paper shredders on clearance for $2.48, normally $9.99. It fits over a trash can. Or in my case, I'll shred whatever needs shredding into our paper recycling bag. (I'm a big recycler). I don't think I'll need to do a lot of shredding, but as it is now, I tear up credit card applications etc.

It was a beautiful Fall day here in Maryland. Found lots of yardsales but I had my son with me so I just went to a few and was home by 10:30am. The best buy was a set of 4 like new patio cushions for $5. If you've ever priced patio chair cushions, you know they aren't cheap. Of course I bought a bunch of other stuff, but nothing to write home about.

Forgot to mention that a year ago yesterday was when I got filmed for movie "Zen in the Art of Yardsailing" by
ThUnderground Films The last I heard they were still in the editing phase, I'll probably get edited right out of it - LOL! Here's a photo of me with the director and the sound guy. My house is a mess as usual, but they did rearrange somewhat for the filming.

My buys

First let me say that the Message Boards are back to normal (they were only out of commision for a few hours the other day). If you haven't checked out the boards, please do, the link is there on the left.



On Wednesday, I was at a CVS store and they had all their Halloween Candy priced at .50 a bag. The above pic is a small sampling of what I bought (I ended up buying 16 bags, but gave a lot to my dog's other family. Long story, my dog lives part-time with another family). The previous day at Walmart, I got some other candy. I bought bags of Hershey Kisses and some other stuff. I think I'm going to make those cookies with the Hershey kisses in them. But if I had known I was going to get so much candy at .50 a bag at CVS, I would not have bought the candy at Walmart.

On Wednesday at Smile, I bought several bottles of nice perfumes at $1 each. Sunflowers (Elizabeth Arden), Velocity (Mary Kay) and Calyx by Prescriptives. I had never heard of the Calyx but I knew Prescriptives is an expensive brand name.



On Thursday at Smile, I bought myself a Jack Daniels cowboy hat. It was only .50 and it looks brand new, and it's my size. Now I just need to find a rodeo to wear it to. A while ago, a regional shopping mall had a phrase in their ads "Buy the dress, the party will come". So I guess I could say something similar, Buy the cowboy hat, the rodeo will come.

The Mary Moo Moo that I bought last weekend for .10 bit the dust. I accidently knocked it over and it fell about a foot and a hefty chuck broke off. It surprised me how easily it broke.

It's going to be a nice day tomorrow, so there should be lots of yardsales. I'll have my son with me, so I may not get to a whole lot.

Message Board problem

My message board is having technical difficulty...hopefully it will be fixed soon. I'm not going to start up a back-up board until I hear news about how long the downtime will be.

Buys last few days

Went to a few yardsales yesterday (Friday yardsales are very rare here). And bought this fish windsock decoration. It was brand new and never assembled - the original price was $26.99, I paid $4. And bought another Little Tikes wagon ($10) for my son, it's nicer than my other Little Tikes wagon. At Smile I bought two old (1940's) University of Maryland college yearbooks. $2 each. I never see yearbooks for sale, so I felt compelled to buy them.

Today went to a few yardsales and an estate sale. I bought a nice lamp for .10 - yes, .10! It doesn't have a lampshade though (but I'm sure I can find one cheap at a thrift store). Also bought a Mary Moo Moo figurine for .10 and a cow bobblehead for .10. The bobblehead is a particular brand that my mom buys at gift stores, so that was a good find. And at the estate sale I bought a bunch of full bottles of various cleaners for $1.50 - cans of Scotchgard, Shout, Armstrong floor cleaner, Spot Shot, Rug Doctor Pet Stain remover, full can of Lysol etc - all for $1.50.

In the afteroon, I took my son to a trick-or-treating event in a local park Ann Marie Garden . They get about 50 vendors to set up booths along the trail and give out candy. The admission cost is $1 per child or a can of nonperishable food. The park is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute, so they do have a bunch of sculptures on loan. Admission is free, except like today, when I had to bring a can of food.

Missed out on a pizza bargain...

I really don't pay attention to football much at all. But in our house we root for the Vikings, not the local teams (the Redskins or Ravens) - but shush don't tell anyone, I don't want my house TP'ed on Halloween! Well anyways, at our local Papa John's pizza, every week during football season they have a promotion. For every touchdown the Redskins get during a game, the next day you can get a free topping on a pizza. And if they win, the toppings are doubled. Well anyways, because of all the touchdowns last game, on Monday I could have gotten a 14 topping pizza for the plain cheese pizza price. Can you imagine 14 toppings on a pizza??? I was reading about it, and Papa Johns was telling people that getting all 14 toppings would result in an inadequately cooked pizza. I will have to pay attention to the Redskin scores from now on.

And speaking of the Redskins, I met a Hogette today and got a free autographed poster and football card - LOL! For some reason, the Hogette that lives in our little town was at Smile (in full Hogette regalia), making an appearance and giving aways posters. Had him personalize the poster to The Yard Sale Queen and the card to my son.





Heck, even when I actually met a pro football player in person I never thought to get an autograph. Many years ago when I was flying first class (I had a free upgrade coupon), I sat next to Dave Meggett when he was with the New York Giants. Very nice - he even ordered a rum and coke and gave me the rum bottle to stick in my purse for later. I love my rum and cokes! Actually what was pretty funny was that my husband was actually sitting back in coach at the time (he didn't have an upgrade coupon) and here I was chatting away with a pro football player.

Anyhow, didn't buy much today. Bought a .25 spoonrest to replace the one my husband broke and a $1 baby sling for ebay.

Spent $17.50 yesterday

Went to Smile yesterday and spent more than usual. Above is a few things I bought, $1 McCoy planter and two pairs of Easy Spirit slingback shoes ($2 a pair). No, they aren't mismatched, I bought a black pair and a tan pair, but only took a picture of one of each. Also bought a navy blue blazer/jacket for my son. It was more than I normally spend ($5) but it was in perfect condition and from Nordstrom. It's too big for him now, but will fit in a few years. I always buy things like this for him and put away for the future. I'm sure he'll need to dress up occasionally when he's older and I think its good to have some items like this on hand, so I don't have to run out and pay full price. Also bought a fancy Christmas dress for a little girl ($3) for ebay. I know this doesn't add up to $17.50, but I can't remember what else I bought.

No plans on doing any shopping today.

Another new lamp

Went to Smile and Vintage Value today. At Smile I bought 10 Wade figurines at .25 each. I collect them, since they are small and I can find them pretty cheap. Since I am cutting down on my "collections", I can still collect Wades, since they are so small and don't take up much room. They are a small giveaway that comes in Red Rose Tea (I don't even drink tea.). You can see what they look like at Red Rose Tea

At Vintage Value, it was a .30 clothing day. I bought 4 pieces including a like new Girl Scout Leader sweatshirt (for ebay) and an orange t-shirt for my son. I got a notice saying that his school is having a "Harvest Day" on October 31. Costumes are not allowed that day. No parade around the parking lot. Sheesh - his old school allowed Halloween parties and costume parade. Well anyways, his new school wants children to wear orange and black on Oct. 31. Oh boy, does that sound like fun.

Well anyways, at Vintage Value I bought this awesome floor lamp for $4! The camera flash washed out the beige color of the ribbed lampshade. Has a cracked glass (?) decorative thing at the center. As I waited in line to pay for it, several people commented on what a nice looking lamp it is. Here is a photo of my new lamp, and the photo below is the old lamp which it is going to replace. My old lamp is at least 17 years old, the gold is discoloring at the base and the shade has some paint splatters. Wanna buy it? It will be at my next yardsale.

Oh, I forgot to mention, about the "rumage" sale sign I saw, I'm going to be sending a copy of it to the guys at ThUnderground Films. They are looking for pics of funny or unusual yardsale type signs. See my website for more details: click here

I also forgot to mention what I bought at yardsales this past Saturday. I had my son with me, so I didn't go to many. I bought: $2 lead crystal decanter, a large 6 drawer plastic upright storage dresser (I love storage...). Paid $3. Later in the day, I went to BJ's Warehouse and happened to see a similar but smaller one for $19.99

Also bought a nice Welcome sign for $2 (painted on a piece of heavy slate), got a fancy fake diamond ring for free and 17 music CDs for .10 each. I had picked out about 10 when I saw the ".25 each" sign. But then when the seller was ringing me up, she said "oh, how about just .10 each". I love it when sellers reduce the price on their own. Anyhow, when she said that, I said I'd get the rest too. And they are all pretty decent CDs of mainstream artists (Bon Jovi, Janet Jackson, Bonnie Raitt, etc.)

My bargain today happened while at Food Lion. At the meat counter, a meat clerk was marking down a big bin of 93% lean hamburger to about $1 a pound. I bought 9 lbs of it. It was NOT past the sell-by date. I'll freeze it.

More about our trip

I finally downloaded the pics I took of our trip to Wisconsin (to attend a wedding). The wedding was held in a little town outside of Milwaukee. I finally got to go to the Taste of Home (magazine) visitor's center and the surrounding stores and had lunch at the nearby restaurant with my mother-in-law from San Pedro and my Wisconsin sister-in-law.. I bought a few things at the Reiman Publications store but spent less than $10.

On our drive there, we stayed overnight in Dayton, Ohio and went to the park at the river and saw their big fountain. Since it was late in the season, everything else was closed.

The wedding was held on a Saturday afternoon, so in the morning, I had nothing really to do...except go to a few yardsales! As it turned out, it was raining in Maryland that day, so I didn't miss any good yardsales back home. One thing I noticed about Wisconsin, is that they call their yardsales and garage sales "Rummage sales", or even in at least one case, "Rumage" Sale.

There were only a few sales, and I only found one with stuff worth buying (no, I didn't buy a big Packers blow up - that sale didn't have anything I wanted). That day I bought a cut glass pitcher for .25, a pair of sexy Aerosole shoes ($1) and a bunch of VHS for .25 each, including one of the old show: Ma and Pa Kettle. And when I went to Smile this week, what did I find? Another VHS of Ma and Pa Kettle, so now I have two to put together and sell on ebay.

The wedding was fun. Jacob and I viewed the wedding from a special sound proof booth...haha. Geez, I wonder why.

On the way back, we stopped briefly in Chicago to visit one of my internet emails friends who I have met a few times before. Took some pics of the Sears Tower while driving past....it takes a lot of skill to photograph the Tower while it's being partially obscured by a tractor trailer.

Just got back from Wisconsin

We took a roadtrip to Wisconsin to attend a niece's wedding. Will write more later. Oh and of course I went yardsailing in Wisconsin on Saturday and bought a few things. And of course I took lots of pics.

Geez, what the &*$%@#! is going on with all the stupid spam comments??? (see the below post with the 12 spam comments). I changed the settings on the blog, so from now on, if someone wishes to leave a message, you have to manually type in a code first. A real pain but maybe that will help with the stupid spam comments.

Today my favorite church had their semi-annual yardsale. They have awesome prices - so many things are marked .05 or .10. I spent $3.50.

My favorite buy of today was a pair of lamps for our nightstands. Since we got rid of our old bed with the built-in lights, we needed lamps for reading in bed. I love them (paid $5 for both), here's what they look like: