Outgoing
We took to Craigslist recently to get rid of a few things. Even though we are less than pleased with our new mattress, we’re stuck with it, so the old one needed to go as it was taking up too much space. We quickly found an interested party because people love free and within a day it was gone. We didn’t get so lucky with our old 19″ tube TV or the broken 32″ LCD. There were two interested parties in the LCD but both of them flaked, so I told Joe to just put both TVs out on the curb the day before trash pickup to see what would happen and the next morning they were gone. So sometimes Craigslist works and sometimes it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Incoming
I ordered lots of Bath & Body Works stuff when they had their 75% off sale earlier this month. I had a $20 off $50 coupon so I went a little nuts. My cousin is to blame for getting me hooked on them to begin with, damn her!
I also ordered a wide angle lens for my camera.
The funny part is I ordered it the weekend before my birthday in hopes it would arrive in time for us to visit the conservatory to try it out. The day before my birthday I received a notice from Amazon saying it was cancelled due to lack of availability even though when I checked Amazon it was there and in stock but mysteriously $20 more than before (and yes, both listings were shipped and sold by Amazon). The next day I went to a local camera shop to see if I could buy one but the only wide angle they had was a 3rd party one for $500. No thanks! Saturday evening I got on a chat with Amazon, explained the situation, and asked them to honor the original price, which they did. The kicker? The damn thing shipped almost immediately and I had it Sunday afternoon! Son of a…
So anyway, I haven’t really been able to test it yet but I think it will be great for landscapes. It’s 10-18 mm which is perfect since my next lens is 18-55 mm. We’re planning on going to the Chicago Auto Show this year so it will really come in handy then.
Saturday we made a trip to IKEA with E to look for a few things, including a TV stand for his room at home to hold the new TV we got him for Christmas. First we had breakfast in their restaurant which isn’t fancy, but super cheap. It was $8.78 for three people. You really can’t beat that. Plus when all was said and done it ended up being free because they had a promotion when you spend $100 or more they will refund you any restaurant purchases for that day. We laughed when they gave us that coupon because we never spend that much but we did because E’s stand was $68 alone plus we got some other small things including a rubber wisk, two cutting boards, 5 candles (2 for E and three for me), two silk flowers in pots, a candle holder, and a nightlight for the bathroom.
The candles are particularly interesting because they’re only $1.97 for 25 hours of burn time and they are very fragrant but not as much when you burn them. I don’t even know what that grey one is supposed to be (they don’t describe the scents on the packaging) but it smells awesome.
The nightlight was dubbed a ghost but it looks like a panda for me. It will eliminate the need to keep swapping the nightlight in the bathroom for my hair dryer which is a real PITA because that particular outlet is really snug and I have to jiggle the nightlight back and forth just to remove it. This new nighlight changes colors and is rechargeable to it will sit on the bathroom sink.
Yesterday we hit up a few places including Savers’ 50% off sale. Joe got two t-shirts and I got a sweater, a knitted beanie, an awesome pair of Star Wars pajama pants for only $1.50, and four new blankets to use in the rats’ cages.
We also stopped at the calendar store in the mall where everything was deeply discounted. I got a frog calendar to hang up in the my cubicle at work. I was using a generic one from our village but it’s ugly so $4 is a small price to pay to have something nicer to stare at three days a week.
We also picked up a hilarious board game I plan to give Brother #1 on his birthday and for us I picked up two card games because I love adding to our game collection. Our total for all four items was only $22 (which includes tax).
As you can tell, we definitely had more come into the house than leave, although size-wise it takes up less space.