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.