We took the kids to a bunch of garage sales this morning since their grandmother had included $5 for each of them with the girl’s birthday card. They learned the art of budgeting and getting a deal. The boy ended up with two Pokemon books, some Pokemon cards, and a stuffed penguin. The girl got a trapper keeper type folder, a stuffed koala, and a stuffed dog. They both had about $2 left too. I was showing the boy how the Pokemon books originally cost $12 each and he got them for $1 a piece. What a steal! It was a nice, and cheap, way to spend a few hours and we saw areas of the neighboring towns we hadn’t seen before. We did spend too much by stopping at a local restaurant for lunch, though. We hadn’t tried it before, and while it wasn’t bad, I have no desire to go back there. Oh well, you live and learn. Now I’ve got to finish frosting the “birthday” cupcakes I baked so the girl can open her presents. We are playing a trick on her and wrapped up a huge can of Beef-a-roni since she had told Joe a few weeks ago that she’d be happy with just a can of it for her birthday. Look, you got your wish, LOL! Her real present is a scooter that she’s been asking for, which if I know her as well as I do, will end up in it’s own garage sale years from now in like new condition.
Month: August 2006
My Tuesday
Today was a very stressful day at work; when I got home, I worked out on the elliptical for a half hour while watching 24 and felt better. Still on Season 1, but nearing the end. Two more seasons to go before we’re all caught up! Surfed some blogs for awhile, then went for a walk with Joey. Had leftover pizza for dinner and cheesecake, then cleaned Peanut’s cage. This will test whether her last full-cage cleaning was the cause of her antisocial behavior. I hope not – she can’t live in filth!
Spent far too much time creating a master grocery list in Excel. Found a template online but tweaked it to my specifications. Ordered it according to the layout of the Super Target since we do the majority of our shopping there. I’m so tired of coming home only to realize I forget something important because I can’t seem to keep track of what we’re running out of. With this list I hope to check off things as we need them so we only have to make one trip to the store weekly to get everything we need. I’m sure I’ll be adding more items as I go but I think it’s fairly complete with all the typical items we buy in the course of a month.
Relaxing
Tonight is the first night in weeks it’s cool enough outside to turn off the air and open the windows, and I plan on taking this opportunity to get into bed early so I can read my book to the sound of the crickets chirping.
Garage sale
Our local park hosted a community garage sale on Saturday. For $10, residents could rent a space and sell their unwanted junk. We didn’t participate, but we did go to check out everyone’s else stuff. It was so much fun! We spent about an hour visiting all the booths and while there were some professional vendors there, most were just regular people trying to make some money on their old treasures. Everyone was really nice too. I wish we had the kids because it would have been a lot of fun giving them $5 each and seeing what they got for it. I only spent $0.50 and that was on a Harlen Coben paperback. It doesn’t even look used; the binding is pristine. I almost got a Trivial Pursuit game for $5 but decided against it since I suck at that game. Now I have garage sale fever. I’m guessing these community garage sales must happen in other towns, so now it’s just a matter of locating one.
Cure re-releases
Holy crap! I ordered $76 worth of Cure cds yesterday and the sad part is most of it is material I already own, just remastered. Although there are bonus discs with demos and live stuff on them. Almost seems like a scam, and for any other artist I wouldn’t think twice about refusing to re-purchase my collection, but not for my beloved Cure who is no doubt getting rich off me alone.
Oh well, I am looking forward to getting the cds (8 in total) sometime next week or the following. The official release date is August 8th but they ship them the day before. Another site was shipping them earlier so fans would have them on or before the release date, but they were also charging $10 more, so I passed. There was a special bonus poster included at that site but what am I, twelve?