My friend Rick - a potential date for the Big and Rich Concert Calvert Marine Museum 8/27/06

Because I'm an optimist, I started thinking about who I would take with me to the Big and Rich concert at the Calvert Marine Museum on August 27 if I somehow manage to wrangle some free tix. (You really don't think I just want one free ticket, do you?) My husband would probably rather stay home and scrub toilets than go to a country music concert. So I got to thinking about who would really enjoy it, and it would be a yardsale acquaintance of mine. He's recently had a ton of bad luck (not counting the pacemaker bandage on his chest) and I think a concert would lift his spirits. And because he's cheap like me, I know he wouldn't actually go out and buy tickets.

Girl with 4 arms wins beauty pagent!

Saw this in the newspaper (Washington Post) and made me realize how far beauty pagents have come. In the past having four arms would have meant point deductions, but it's good to see that the judges no longer discriminate.

Big and Rich - still need tickets

"Free is good" - Kelly Ripa 8/10/06 (or maybe it was 8/9/06, I don't remember)

Ok, day 3 of my attempt of getting free Big and Rich tickets for the August 27 show at Calvert Marine Museum. I haven't heard a thing yet, but I realized my email is not easily visible here. No wonder why I haven't heard anything, so here it is: yardsalequeen@hotmail.com

Big & Rich (Big and Rich) Concert Tickets needed

Big & Rich (country music duo) are coming to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland on August 27, 2006 and I gotta find a way to get free tickets. Even celebrities like free stuff so why not try to make a pitch to score some free tix? Yardsale royalty likes free stuff too. I figure if I blog about it for a few weeks, it will show up in Google searches and maybe Big and Rich will throw me a bone.

Found condom wrapper at a yardsale - and more Super Nintendo

Luckily the condom wrapper and Super Nintendo were at different yardsales. I was at one big yardsale where they had tons of stuff everywhere but it all looked kinda junky and dirty. I peered into one box and in the corner was an empty condom wrapper. Ewww, while I was glad I didn't find the condom itself, seeing a wrapper mixed in with things for sale was kinda yucky. At a different sale, I came across a small box full of Super Nintendo stuff. It was only $2 for all of it. The seller said one of her friend's dropped off a bunch of stuff for her yardsale but hadn't priced anything so she was just making up prices. That's the best way to get a good deal since the seller has no money invested in it and no sentimental value attachment to it either to drive the price up.

It's kinda funny that I've been looking for a Super Nintendo every week since May and don't find any, and then boom, two weeks in a row I find them and at cheap prices. So now I am glad I have one to send to my Mother-in-law. My husband is testing it out now so I'm pretty sure it works.

Went to the mall today (I can't remember the last time I was there, but probably in the spring??). Our nearest real mall is 45 miles away. We do have regular shopping though nearby: Old Navy, Best Buy, Petco, Staples, Michael's, JC Penneys, Belk, Target, etc, but they are in shopping centers, not in a "mall".

I spent a whopping .50 at the mall, and that was in the arcade for Jacob to play a game. My husband did buy some stuff at Dick's Sporting goods (bought a golf bag that was on sale for half-off) and a book at Border's so we didn't drive that far for nothing. And we went to Chuck E. Cheese for Jacob to play games. We don't go to eat there, just play games. I have a ton of the Chuck E. Cheese tokens. I heard rumors that a CEC may be opening near us, so that would be great. We also went to Toys R Us and I bought two items. An inflatable pool slide (on clearance for $25, normally $50) and a Fly Wheel toy (normally $39, on clearance for $10). There were a lot of toys on clearance, I guess they're cleaning out summer and making room for Christmas stuff.

I had a $10 coupon for Toys R Us that I was able to use, so my total with tax came to $26. Then I used gift cards to pay the rest. Jacob gets Toys R Us gift cards occasionally from family and plus we have a Toys R Us Visa card that sends us $10 gift cards occasionally depending on how much we charge.

We pay off our credit cards every month so for us using credit cards is the smart thing to do.

My .25 yardsale buy is a museum quality item!

The top two pictures are from a display in the local Calvert Marine Museum (it's the little local museum that Jacob and I go to a lot). They recently opened a new display featuring aspects of the oyster packaging businesses that thrived in the area decades ago. Well anyways, in looking at the display I realize I have an identical oyster can at home in my kitchen! I bought it at an indoor yardsale several years ago for a quarter. I am kicking myself that I didn't buy them all. Anyhow, the two top photos are pictures I took at the museum and the bottom two are pics of the identical can in my kitchen. I added the red arrow to the top picture to point out which oyster can I have.

WILSON!!!!!! (that's me doing my Tom Hanks impression)

Call Tom Hanks - I found Wilson last week! (Ok, there were probably thousands mass produced as a promo for Cast Away but I had to have it.) And it was only .50 at VV. And same with the like new Land's End shoes for Jacob - only .50

I shopped at VV after I had my checkup for my ear tubes. Didn't do a hearing test this time, the doctor said next time. When I do a hearing test they put you in a little booth the size of a phonebooth. (Believe it or not, we still have regular old phonebooths in our rinky dink town - complete with a folding glass door.) Anyhow during the hearing test, I feel like I'm doing an audition for Jeopardy - I'm positive the little clicker is exactly the same.

My best yardsale buy from last week was a big box of old Nintendo and Atari games for $5. During my mother-in-law's last visit, she told me to keep my eyes peeled for a Super Nintendo for her since hers died. Unfortunately, my husband had to "test" all the games etc and now Jacob loves the Super Nintendo. So...I guess I'll still have to keep my eyes peeled for another for her.

Ear Tubes Surgery - strip from the waist up!

I forgot to mention that I did have the tubes put in my ears last Thursday and I survived (and I even did some thrift shopping afterwards). I went to the part of the hospital for outpatient surgery and was led to a little room by a nurse and was told to strip from the waist up and to put a gown on. And I'm thinking, what the heck??? Is the Doc gonna throw in a complimentary breast exam? So a few minutes later a different nurse came in and I questioned the reason behind the bra removal and she told me to put it back on. And if that isn't bizarre enough, I wore my glasses thru the whole procedure. Heck, even when I get my hair cut I'm told to remove my eyeglasses, but surgery on your ear drums - it's ok to leave them on. LOL!

My ears felt a little funny the rest of the day, but now just a few days later, they feel fine. I just can't go underwater, scubadive (which is fine since I hate scubadiving), and be careful about getting water in them when I shower. And now that tubes are piercing my eardrums, I cannot "pop" my eardrums anymore. I go back on Friday for a check-up, (and probably a hearing test) so it will be interesting to see how the results compare. I know one thing is much better - the "crackling" sound I often had inside my ears is gone which is nice.

More Cheap Yardsale Liquor and Yardsale Food

Well actually I think it would be considered Moving Sale Liquor. Went to a pretty big indoor moving sale today - the seller happened to be someone I remembered from working at the nuke plant (she worked there the same time I did). She was selling food 5 for $1 since she had to really reduce the amount of weight for the moving company. Here's a pic of some of my buys, there's more but it all didn't make it into the pic. I got (free) two gallons of deck stain and deck protector. She also gave me that bottle of Smirnoff Vodka for free too. The Bacardi was $1.50. She was pulling things out of her cabinets left and right, but that was all the liquor she had. The deck stain will come in handy since I need to re-stain Jacob's swingset.

Another gift for my mom - Meditations for Miserable People

At a moving sale today, I bought this book for my mom, it was .25

Ok, before you all tell me what horrible daughter I am, let me tell you a little story. A few years ago my parents went on some senior citizen bus trip to somewhere (most likely a casino). They were all given a blank name tag and told to write their name on it with an adjective describing themselves. Example: Jolly Joe, Sassy Sue, Lucky Louie and so on. What does my mom put? Mean Mary.

One of my buys from last week - Russian Matryoshka Nesting Doll

I guess I forgot to post about what I bought last week at the yardsales. For $1 I got a set of Russian Matryoshka nesting dolls (you unscrew it and inside is another doll, then unscrew that one there is another one and so on). Not sure if they are from Russia but they definitely were not made in China. Will be a gift for my mom at Christmas. I think she'll like it since she is 100% Ukrainian and it's a pretty Matryoshka with a cat, not your run of the mill bland looking doll.



Another memorable buy was a big STACK of pink Depression glass plates and bowls and 4 old pink swirl Fire-King cups and saucers, all for $10.

We had a big thunderstorm tonight, I hope it doesn't dissuade anyone from having their yardsale tomorrow.

I think I may be able to do some thrift shopping tomorrow

Tomorrow I may have some time to do some thrift shopping at Vintage Value. But first I have to deal with a little appointment at the hospital to have a medical procedure done. ACKKK - I hope really its nothing and I'll be in prime condition to do some thrift shopping afterwards. I'm having tubes put in my ears. It's normally a procedure that kids have done rather than adults.

Went out on the boat again last week and took this pic.

Remember the supposed squirrel proof birdfeeder I bought?

I bought a "squirrel proof" birdfeeder a few weeks ago for $2 at a yardsale. Thought I would share some pics on how much the squirrels love it. They eat - without disturbing the lever that hides the seed - then leave.

eBay clutter! Oh the Horror!

I was looking at some pics I took earlier this year and found this one. Aye yi yi. I really need to start selling again on eBay. I am happy to report my desk area DOES look better now, I have a real computer chair (bought new) and my new fancy big flat screen monitor.

Yardsale Bargains from Saturday

I had a good morning yardsaling yesterday and then after I went to Smile thrift (boy have I been missing that place since it's been a whole two weeks since I've been able to go), JC Penney's for their clearance sale and then did some grocery shopping. I left the house at 7:30am and didn't get home 'til about 1pm. It was nice to have some "me" time.

My yardsale buys:

.10 each - 26 CDs, various artists. This is twice this summer that I found a seller who was selling CDs for only .10 each. I sold a lot for $1 at my mom's garagesale the other week. I bought more than half of what they had - left the ones where the CD was missing (I pulled the case for them, was heavily scratched, was a totally obscure artist).

$5 new in package Grampa's Weeder garden week pulling tool. Their website is www.grampasweeder.com. Original price sticker says it was $19.99

$3 Dora sleeping bag (keep)
$2 pretty glass candy bowl (pic below)
$1 Green Glass (I think it's Vaseline glass or depression glass) canning jar with ceramic lid
$1 three compartment foldable laundry bin that pops up
.25 (for both) two Leap Frog small toys
$1 package of Burt's Bee sampler items
FREE - new in package inflatable snow tube
FREE - Boyd's Bear small pillow
$2 pair of Cabela's pants for me
$2 Tony Stewart Woman's blouse (resale)
.50 1994 Patrick Ewing Starting Lineup action figure in package

At JC Penney's I got Jacob two t-shirts on clearance for $1.97 and two Plug N Play 7 in 1 casino game thing for tv, Orginally $30 on clearance for $5.97. My husband's birthday is coming up and the other one I'll give to my casino-loving mom. But chances are I'll show her how to use on Christmas day, but then it will be too "electronically difficult" for her to do it on her own - even though there are probably two steps to do it. She has a simple VCR and we've written down instructions for her, but she rarely uses it since it's too confusing for her.

Woman's Day July 11 issue

I should have mentioned this earlier but I'm quoted (and my website) is mentioned in the current issue of Woman's Day that is one the newstands now - the date on it is the July 11 issue.

So if you are standing in line at the grocery store checkout, take a look at page 15. Not sure how much longer this issue will be sold before the next one is out.

My free Stargazer lillies

Back on September 19, 2005 I blogged about getting free bulbs from Brecks.com - I chose Stargazer lily bulbs - the squirrels ate most of the bulbs that I planted in the back yard, but the ones in the front yard came up nicely. Here's a pic I took earlier in the day:



I hope they multiply. But the funny thing is, when I was visiting my mom last week, she got ANOTHER Brecks catalog with no-strings-attached $25 coupon that she didn't want, so I'll end up ordering more bulbs for free - again!

Kohl's shopping bargains

I forgot to mention, I did do some "real" store shopping last week. I love the Kohl's near my mom's house. Last Friday they had late night hours till 11pm so I was able to do some shopping after I put my son to bed (my mom was still home so it wasn't like I left my son unattended). There is a Kohl's near the mall here in Maryland (the mall is 45 miles away so I don't go there very often). But still for some reason I don't like that Kohl's as much as the one near my mom. I've figured out why - the one that I like has high ceilings and everything is on one floor so it's easy to navigate. The one "near" me is two stories and has regular height ceilings. Plus when I go to the one near my mom, my husband isn't tagging along and rushing me.

Last week I spent about $25 at Kohl's and got: $7 Go Diego Go shirt (orig. $14) for Jacob, $1.99 each (orig. $4.99 ea) two nice dishtowels with embroidered lobsters on them, $7.50 double sided birdfeeder (orig. $29.99) and a patriotic bunting $5.99 (orig. $12) I did try on some clothes for me but since I only had about an hour to shop before it closed I didn't have time to really shop for clothes and still look at everything else.

back from upstate New York

I just got back from visiting my mom in upstate New York and going to my neice's graduation party. I'll post some pics later. Since I'm always telling my mom she needs to have a garage sale, I stuck my foot in my mouth and said I would have one during my stay this time. Boy do I really need a vacation (and a strong drink) now! It was a ton of work for one person (me!) to do. My mom is not much help when it comes to stuff like setting up tables, putting up signs, displaying things, you know all the stuff that needs to be done when having a garagesale. The tables that my mom has are ancient and must weigh 50 lbs each. Which I had to lug from one garage to the other. And then back when the sale was over. And of course all the stuff she wanted to sell was down in the cellar. And with all the rain, water was leaking into the cellar so I had like a mud pit I had to cross everytime I wanted to bring something upstairs.

Oh speaking of the rain, did you hear on the news about that section of highway in upstate NY that crumbled and 2 truckers died? I drove on that highway on Monday afternoon and the highway collapse happened on early Wednesday. How awful. I am really lucky I drove to NY on that Monday since I heard that on Tuesday that area got torrential rain all day. Today I drove home on the same highway and there was a detour because it will take months to reopen that stretch of Route 88. All the rivers and creeks in that area were a nasty brown color.

Well that's it for now, I have a lot of reading on my message board that I need to catch up on.

Yardsale Buys today and Cypress Swamp visit

Been raining the past few days so not many last minute yardsales. Only went to a few sales and mostly bought food items. Strange but true. Bought a 12 pack of Diet Coke with Splenda for .50, a big box of Act Popcorn (16 packages of popcorn) for $1, a gallon Arizona iced tea .25 (I hate tea in any form, but my husband drinks it). Also bought a bunch of kids books at .10 each and a big spool of fencing wire for $1 - to fix where the Whiskey dog keeps digging out.



The other day was awfully hot and humid - so I figured the best place to go was the local Cypress swamp of course ;-). Above is a pic. That's the way I like to enjoy nature - see it but not get dirty. No charge to visit the cypress swamp and nature center.

Greetings from a pretty ghetto area of Southern Maryland!

The local news is all over a story about Hilary Duff refering to a nearby town as "pretty ghetto" in an issue of Elle magazine. Hilary Duff Joel Madden Good Charlotte article

Actually the local DJ's (Don & Mike) refer to Waldorf as the "Armpit of Southern Maryland" which is pretty accurate. The Waldorf I know has lots of sprawl, townhouses and traffic. I do like the Dollar Tree that Waldorf has - man, that is so ghetto!! Would have been really funny if she had said that the area was "pretty armpit-like" rather than "pretty ghetto".

Boat ride on the W. B. Tennison

Haven't bought any bargains lately (hard to really shop at the thrift store with my son) so if I don't have any bargains to post about, I'll just talk about what's going on at yardsalequeen.com headquarters.

Yesterday I took my son out on a boat ride, my son loves it and it lasts about an hour. It's $11 for the two of us. He'd like to go out on it everyday, but I told him we'd do it once a week during the summer. Usually they only do one boat ride per day, but yesterday was a busy tourist day at the museum so they did a second cruise. We got on the second cruise and there was only about 15 people on it which was nice. The boat ride goes under the long two-lane bridge that we regularly go over. My husband wants to buy a sailboat and go out sailing on the weekends, and I'm like, well if we did I wouldn't be going out on Saturday mornings, that's for sure!

If you happen to see the current issue of Woman's Day (dated July 11 and it has popsicles on the cover), look at page 15. That's where they put my interview and yardsalequeen.com is mentioned. A much better spot than last summer when I was all excited about yardsalequeen.com being in Woman's Day and it turned out to be a two sentence blurb buried in the middle of a article.

Yardsale Buys

My favorite buy from yesterday yardsales was a squirrel proof bird feeder ($2). It has a lever on it and when lightweight birds land on it they can eat the food, but when a heavy squirrel gets on it, the lever falls and blocks the food. Well in theory anyways that's how it's supposed to work. The seller had other birdfeeders too, but the thing was, there was still seed in them all. Yuck. The cheap birdseed too - millet.

Went to Target yesterday and returned a $15 blow up pool that I bought for my son. I inflated it (thank god we have an air compressor) and by the end of the day, it had a hole in it. I knew when I saw how cheap the plastic was that it wouldn't last long, but one day???!!!! I thought I threw the receipt away, but I found it so I was able to get a refund. Went to K-mart and bought a pool that I think is a little more heavy duty for $24. I hardly ever shop at K-mart but a similar pool at Target would have been $30. I swear you walk into our K-mart that we have here, and it feels like you've entered a time-warp and it's 1973 again.

Also went to a jewelry/gift store since they mailed out coupons for a free watch battery replacement.

Today Jacob and I went to the museum again (they had extra activities going on today due to Father's Day) and he and I were able to go out on a little rowboat for a while.

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.