.10 a book? Too expensive in my book

Ok, so pictured above is the yardsale I went to on Saturday where the seller potentially had restrictions on what she would sell you. Books were .10 each but I didn't want to waste time only to possibly be told I wasn't allowed to buy something.

On Monday I went to the library to return some books and of course, had to check out their used books for sale area (.25 each or fill a grocery sized bag for $1). The same 4 or so boxes of books that were at the yardsale on Saturday were at the used book table at the library on Monday. You can tell since they didn't even remove their yardsale sticker. I bought a bag of books and my dollar went to the library.



And enough already with the small tv's at the thrift stores.

Bad Yard Sale Sellers

Today was just an overall annoying yardsale day (or should I say morning). Went to one that was advertised as a community yardsale. It consisted of 2 small yardsales plus a woman with a small table of stuff. Pitiful. I spent a quarter at the "community" sale.

Then a little later, at one yardsale my total came to $6.50 - I handed the seller a $10 bill. She asked me if I had anything smaller. Really? She didn't expect people to need change? There was also a sign posted on the books for sale "I reserve the right to not sell you a book. I wasn't able to to thoroughly go thru them all. Thanks" Sheesh. I get where she's coming from but it turned me off from even looking at the books.

Then there were just a few that I had on my list to go to - but the sales were just non-existent. Like the person changed their minds on having a yardsale.

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I love getting mail. I look over every piece of junk mail that I receive looking for the next great *deal*. Yesterday I received this sheet of coupons good at a local shopping center. I haven't been to the Dynasty Chinese take-out place in a while but I wonder if they've gotten all fancy, calling it a "restaurant". That's like calling McDonald's a restaurant. To me a restaurant has servers, not a walk up and order thing. And now their special is a $35 General Tso chicken dinner. For $35, it better be a ton better than their $5.25 General Tso chicken lunch special that I normally get.

Today's Buys

This is what I bought today at CVS for $1.84 (plus I got a $4 Extra Care Bucks, plus will get an additional .25 Extra Care Bucks money for scanning my Green Bag Tag.) For my birthday, CVS sent me a free $3 to spend at CVS then today I got a $3 off a $15 purchase coupon. So the cashier deducted those first, then deducted the manufacturer's coupons, so that's how it got down to $1.84 Both Walgreens & CVS had a great deal with that Shick Razor this week - since there was a $5 coupon in the newspaper last Sunday. My mom mailed me her two $5 coupons so I used two at Walgreens and one at CVS. (Walgreens was the better deal but they ran out so I used my last coupon at CVS today).




At the thrift today I purchase (.25) an odd jigger glass from Dr. Seuss. Official When Hen from Seuss Navy / Esso. It will go up on ebay. I've been taking an ebay break for a while but I gotta get back into it soon.

Yardsalequeen in Real Simple Magazine

Next time you are standing in line at the grocery store, check out the May 2010 issue of Real Simple magazine. Page 188 to be exact. Lots of good info I assume. But I haven't read it yet. Makes me nervous to read what I've said in a telephone interview.

p.s. Note to Real Simple - if you had asked, I would have provided a 1990's era Glamour Shot of myself to use on the cover - instead you used a bottle of cleaner. Really???

Saturday's Yard Sale Buys

Here's the stuff I bought on Saturday. In the picture I forgot to include a $5 Longaberger teapot. And in the video, I forgot to mention that I paid .50 for the Santa - which is called a Smoker Santa. You put an incense cone on a little tray inside Santa and I guess it will look like smoke is coming out of his mouth. I will probably put it on ebay eventually. And the Clarks shoes are a little too small, so I will probably ebay those too.

Mother's Day Gift to my Mom

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. Surprise, surprise, I got a Slapchop and Jacob helped me open it :) I told my mom that her gift would be delayed - especially since I just finished it today. A while back I bought the bracelet on the left from a yardsale seller who mostly had scrapbooking supplies. I am scrapbooking impaired but I did buy the $2 bracelet which has room for 5 photos.



Walgreens had a deal yesterday for a free 8 x 10 collage print - so I uploaded 20 photos (the max that the collage can handle) hoping that I'd be able to cut out 4 that would work in the bracelet. I already had a tiny pic of Jacob that would work. My mom doesn't read my blog so I don't mind showing it here since she won't see it before it comes in the mail. The bracelet has my dad and the 4 grandkids. For someone who isn't crafty, I think it turned out nice.

Bought lots of stuff yesterday. Will post about it on Monday.

Amazing Race finale tonight - come on cowboys - the inhabitants of the YSQ castle are rooting for you guys!

Burger count for the week is up to 3

The diet starts next week for sure. And if not then, the week after. Today I went and had my free birthday burger at Ruby Tuesdays. I ordered the bison burger (the most expensive burger - I wanted to get the most bang out of my free burger coupon), which apparently is healthier. And if its not true, please don't correct me. Just let me think I was eating healthier.

As promised, here's my two piece I'll be wearing this summer. Did you think I meant a bikini?? Ummmm no. This has more material to it than my current one piece so everything will be hidden, concealed and sucked and tucked in. I just love it that the bottom is just like a pair of shorts but bathingsuit material. It will be sooooo much easier for when the queen needs to use a throne.

Gifts being bestowed upon the Queen

Happy birthday to me! I'm right smack dab in the middle of the gift bestowing festivities. Last week was the wedding anniversary, birthday today and then Mother's Day on Sunday.

Here's what I'm getting for one of my gifts. I know cuz I bought it. I saw this Vera Wang handbag at Kohl's a week and a half ago, it was on sale for $35 and liked it. I went to Kohl's yesterday to see if it was still on sale. It wasn't. It was on clearance! Woo-hoo! And I had a 15% off coupon, plus a store credit (After Christmas, I returned something that I received as a gift that wasn't my style - the person who gifted it to me doesn't read my blog). So my $79 handbag cost $3.86 out of pocket.





Love my new handbag - its so huge. You know I love storage. It's what I call a "big mother purse". A few years ago, when I when I visited my niece at the University of Vermont, my sister and I were commenting that we could easily be mistaken for co-eds ourselves (given our youthful looks) but our "big mother purses" were giving us away.

The day is just getting better and better - my boyfriend David Cassidy sent me a special email. I didn't think he would remember, but he did. I can't tell you what it says, it's personal.

2 Days, 2 Patty Melts

Yesterday I went to the mall. The mall that I hadn't been to since August, 2009. We just really don't need to go to a real mall very often anymore. Plus, its a 45 mile drive to get there.

Anyhow yesterday after shopping, I ate my free birthday meal from Red Robin (you get a free birthday burger every year after joining Red Robin's email club). My birthday is coming up soon. If you didn't get me anything yet, that's ok. My special day is still a few days away and I will accept belated gifts.

At Red Robin, I chose a Patty Melt since I do love a good patty melt. A Red Robin is being built nearby, so next year I won't need to travel that far for my free birthday burger. Then tonight we went to another email club party at Cheeseburger in Paradise When they re-do the menu, they throw a free get-together to try out sample sized portions of their new foods. We had sweet potato chips, boneless wings, pesto shrimp, two different salads, pretzel dipper things, and our choice of one of their new burgers. I choose the patty melt. That came full sized. I took most of it home.

And sometime before May 9 (cuz that's when the coupon expires) I gotta go to Moes and get my free birthday meal.

And did I mention I bought a 2 piece bathingsuit for myself? Yes I did. I thought my days of wearing a two-piece were over, but they aren't! Will take a pic of my new beach-wear and share later. I told my sister I bought a two-piece and she was shocked.

Well enough about me. Let's talk about what I bought at the yardsales last weekend. Here's a pic and video. Most expensive thing was the $5 Wii game.

Where did April go?

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

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

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



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

Yardsale Buys from last Saturday

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

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





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

Today I decluttered....

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

So there. Proof that I am able to declutterize.

Bennington, Vermont Radio Interview

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

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

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and a Bus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I found it! I found a SLAPCHOP!!

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

Garage Saling Mom in Ohio goes missing

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

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

Read the story from CBS

Had a yardsale yesterday

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

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

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

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

I bought a Grundtal

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



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

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

Happy Birthday David Cassidy

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

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

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

Easter Break - continued

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

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


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


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



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


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



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


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



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


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



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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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







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


Gotta run for now, more about my trip later.

Happy Dyngus Day

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

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

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

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

The Yardsalequeen Roots - Albany NY in the 80's

Ahhhh, this takes me back to the glory of Albany, NY in the 80's. The clothes, the music, the hair! I could watch this all day long. But a disclaimer to others not from the upstate New York region: I am not responsible if your eyes and ears bleed afterward. I cannot even name my most favorite part - too many to list - we got Nipper, we got a woman in a crown (that is not me, by the way - that is a Tulip Queen), we got a priest wearing a Michael Jackson glove, we got a "insert Governor here" sign, we got Mike Tyson (who I did touch while in a bar in Albany but I digress), we got Dick Wood (yes, that is the name of one of Albany's local celebrities). It's so perfectly 80's.

Kim in Florida won the Chicken Soup book

Hi - just a quick note to congratulate Kim in Florida who won the Chicken Soup for the Shoppers Soul, which random.org picked her entry as the lucky winner. The book is already on its way to her. The thing she is looking for is Serta Sheep. That is one thing I look for too at yardsales - they are plushie counting sheep that people can buy at Serta Mattress stores - (for some reason I'm also thinking you get one free if you happen to buy a mattress but I could be wrong).

The sheep all have a different #, and each # is only available for a certain length of time. I was at one yardsale where I bought two number 13's - and sold them on ebay for $20+ each - in checking ebay now, they don't go as high. My mom mentioned she liked the sheep with braces (I guess she saw him in a commercial) and I was lucky enough to find the exact sheep at a yardsale one year. The sheep I am looking for is a huge one - the kind that sell for $75+ on ebay.

It only took 12 years but...

I finally qualified to be an eBay PowerSeller. And I hit 2000 in my feedback. I joined ebay November 1998. I can't even remember when I hit 1,000. Seems so long ago that I don't even remember it.



Jacob and I went to Rita's Italian Ice for our free ice today (every year on the first day of spring they give out a freebie. I got the strawberry and Jacob got the Cotton Candy flavor. I think next time I will get the cotton candy. When DH drove by later, he said there was a long line so he didn't stop. I guess I just lucked out and hit it when there was no line.

Even tho its spring, here's an article from last month that appeared in the Washington Post. I mean, if you are so concerned about dog being stuck, wouldn't you try to go help it rather than calling animal control?

Walgreens Grocery Shopping

I stopped into Walgreens today (I was thinking I had a $2 Register Rewards expiring soon but I must have used it). But I saw that they are reorganizing their frozen food section and had clearanced a bunch of stuff, including some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. (But alas, the Ben & Jerry's flavor that was on clearance for like .82 had been cleaned out).

I did buy several tubs of .55 Coolwhip, $2.19 Bertolli Lasagnas (normally $7.99 each) and .75 Gordon's Fried Rice Shrimp bowls for me. No one else in the house will eat food that can swim. I even had some .40 coupons for Gordon's so after coupons some were only .35 but others I did pay the *full* .75 each for.

I also stopped at Hallmark for a free kid's card The cashier told me to come in once per day (really she did) and get one free everyday until 4/4/10.

And in today's mail I got a coupon from Food Lion for a free can of dog food. As if I need it. That is one downfall of those shopper rewards cards, it knows what you have bought in the past and frantically wants you to keep buying the same stuff, even if your dog has died. But you know I will get the free dog food and probably give it away. I mean, I can't not use the coupon. I got to.

Yardsalequeen Give-away Contest

I gotta declutterize!!!! My house is bursting at the seams with stuff that I have to clean out. I have tried to be good lately and list stuff for ebay.

Anyhow, this giveaway is for a copy of the book Chicken Soup for the Shopper's Soul. It was a duplicate Christmas gift (yes, Kathy, if you are reading this, I didn't want to mention it at Christmas, but I already had the book).

So to enter this contest, just leave a comment here on this post and make sure if your email isn't obvious, I have a way to contact you if you are the winner. Tell me the one thing you really really want to find this yardsale season. Contest ends midnight EST March 23. USA only (sorry rest of the world) - since the book will be mailed via cheap Media Mail within the USA. Cuz I am cheap that way. One entry per person. The winner will be randomly selected on March 24 and contacted on March 24.

BONUS: If you are one of the first 10 people to enter, you get a bonus entry. Just come back before the contest ends to enter a second time.

And if this book doesn't tickle your fancy, stay tuned. I will be running another contest soon to win some awesome sassy yardsale or garage sale signs courtesy of Sassy Signs

I found the commercial online

Yardsalequeen: The Early Years

Boy, I haven't written in a long time. Nothing much is happing. I did come across one of my secret diaries today and thought I would share a part of it - you should feel honored because it's my super secret diary from 1978 and no eyes besides my own were to ever see it. It details all the exciting things that were happing in my life in the early years.

Note: the "diary" was actually a 1976 calendar/address book that I bought on clearance in 1977 at K-mart. So this particular page of the diary is at the end of the book where the address section was located.

On that particular day I bought two shirts because they had holes in them for .50 . The store was called Korell's and was located in Mechanicville, NY. It wasn't a thrift store but looking back on it, I think it was some sort of factory-seconds store. I remember as a teen buying a red satin bridesmaid dress there for $5. Just because I wanted to. I did wear it to a Halloween party years later. I've since cut it up and now sometimes use the material as a backdrop for ebay items. For instance, you can see the dress in my Waterford Crystal auction Which by the way, I reduced the price to only $100, so now is the time to buy this bargain. Red dress not included.



Speaking of bargains, I got some free medication the other day. I haven't figured out what ailment it cures. As I was picking up a juice box that someone had carelessly thrown in our yard, I came across this little baggy of someone's medication. Now why would someone throw their medication out the window of a moving vehicle???? And what a unique little package, looks like someone recycled the cellophane off a cigarette pack to put their medicine in. Nice way to reduce/reuse/recycle and save the planet. Except for the whole littering aspect of it all.

My Whiskey Dog Reincarnated

I saw a commercial today which had the spittin image of my beloved Whiskey Dog in it. I think the commercial is for State Farm (I took a pic of the TV). Here is the Whiskey dog lookalike actor dog:


And here is (was) my Whiskey dog below (his hair would get all crazy and long like the dog/actor above, but I would trim to make it more manageable).

Oscar Night

Tonight is the Oscars and I cannot think of the Oscars without thinking back to Oscar night 2000 when I gave birth to Jacob. He's not 10 yet, the Oscars in 2000 were held late in March.

Of course I have not seen a single movie that is nominated. I can't remember the last movie I saw at a movie theater. Pulp Fiction? Titanic??? We don't have any good theaters nearby with stadium seating - have to drive a bit. Then I hate dealing with people talking in theaters, people sitting in front of me etc etc. The general public, in general, drive me nuts. haha.

Here is my debut on Great Day Houston with Deborah Duncan. I haven't gotten the guts yet to really listen to it. After I heard myself say a few "umms" I turned the volume down. There was a sound problem so that's why it wasn't done via Skype.

I did a little bit of grocery shopping today. $2 worth. I am loving the double .75 coupon policy that my grocery store has. Bought a ton of Quaker True Delight rice cakes (hey, I figure if they are bad, the squirrels can eat them). The store basically paid me .50 per package to take them. They were on sale for $1 each - and with my .75 coupon doubled, it took off $1.50 per package. So I had to buy other stuff too so it wouldn't be a negative number at the end.

Queen for a Day

Well today I had my interview on Great Day Houston a morning tv show in Houston, Texas. I was supposed to appear via Skype but there was some technical difficulties so Skype couldn't be done. Good thing I didn't waste money doing some emergency liposuction. But at least now my teeth are white with my Crest Whitestrips, my greys are Miss Clairoled and I'm wearing nail polish AND earrings.

I'm not sure when it will air. They normally have the shows live, but today they had a rerun and they first told me that it would be shown tomorrow but it won't be streaming since is taped. I guess I'll just have to watch my website hits to see if there is a spike in traffic. I even remembered to say yardsalequeen.com in the interview, so that is a good thing.

The first interviewee on the program was Heloise - she's been around for years writing tips books covering all sorts of subjects. I was on her radio show a few years ago and I broke out the rum and coke before that interview to calm my nerves.

5 Years Ago Today

5 years ago today, I was shopping at one of my thrift stores. I remember because it was the day my dad died and I got the call while I was standing in line to pay. Hard to believe its been 5 years already.

The phone rang again this morning - early. 8:10am. I don't like getting calls that early, it seems like it's gotta be an emergency or something bad when someone calls that early. It was an automated phone call from ebay saying that there was a one day sale on listing fees today. ebay calling at 8am!!!???!! Good thing I wasn't sleeping. Well I'm gonna run and list some stuff on ebay. My Dad would approve - he had the most rock solid work ethic I've ever seen. I just wish more rubbed off on me!