Yard Sale Finds: Name Brand Kids Clothes for 25 cents

I love my iPhone's capabilities!

I learned 3 good lessons about yard sale hunting this week.

The first...Get a good night's rest the night before! I had worked late on Friday and then stayed up even later making a list of the yard sales on Craigslist and our local newspaper. I had to hit the snooze on my 6:15 am alarm a few times before I had the energy to climb out of bed. I was feeling good for the first few yard sales but then the grogginess set in and my brain turned to mush. I have a feeling I passed over a few good deals.

The second lesson I learned was not to trust that the newspaper's online list of garage sales is up-to-date. After talking with a fellow yard sale-er I found out that a Friday edition of our local paper had a much longer list than what was on the website. Grrrr! Of course because of the grogginess I was feeling I wouldn't have made it them anyway.

Third lesson, when yard sale-ing in Florida in July...wear a tank top! It was so humid and hot out! After weeding through a pile of books (4 for $1!) and getting bit by ants, I decided to hit just two more yard sales and call it a day. ( Side note: I really need to learn more about selling books online.)

A few items were 50 cents but most were 25 cents!

I ended up finding name brand children's clothes (Gap, The Children's Place, Carter's...) at both sales. It would have been great if they had had more boys' clothes but they didn't. I bought all that I could with the hopes of trying my hand at consignments sales.

For J-bird "The Children's Place" Outfit $1

Feeling a little better about the morning not being a total loss I headed home. The A.C.'d house felt so good! It was just what I needed to feel like myself again. I couldn't help check the Craigslist app on my iPhone one more time for yard sales. There was a benefit sale right up the road!

Every piece of Little People item $5, Leapfrog fridge phonics $1, Little Tikes beach ball $1

Little People pieces galore!

Now I just need to figure out the best place to sell them.

I'm linking up with Yard Sale Mommy, Her Library Adventures and My Life on a Taffy Pull.

Specially Marked Boxes

One of these things is not like the other!

Publix had Mini-Wheats buy 1 get 1 free this last week. My sister had a $5/5 coupon and I had a $1 off fruit coupon when you buy 2 Kellogg's cereal. We decided to combine our coupons and split the deal since our stockpiles had some cereal already. We ended up paying $1.25 a box which is a higher than my usual "buy" price. As I was putting the boxes away I realized that 2 of them mentioned a promotion on the front. I had already bought 2 specially marked boxes a few weeks ago (Harris Teeter Triples!) and had already entered their codes online.

Now I have enough to redeem for a $5 prepaid Visa card for gas or $5 in movie concession cash!

So...
Next time you're at the store, check for specially marked packages when making your selections. I especially like the ones that mention "coupons inside".

Recyclebank

I just earned 210 points by participating in Recyclebank's "Green Your Vacation" contest. You can too!

Here's how:

1. Sign up for a new account or log in to an existing account.
2. Click on the "Green Your Vacation" play now button.
3. Click on the "Travel", "Beach", "Camping" or "Staycation" tab at the top.
4. Click on the flying objects and follow the instructions. Sometimes you have to make a pledge. Other times you answer multiple choice questions or download a check list.
5. Click the "get my points" button and the points will be added to you account.

If this is your first time on Recyclebank or you haven't visited in awhile, check the "Earn Points" tab for more offers. The points can be redeemed for different rewards including COUPONS!

Thanks Moneysavingmom!

(The links in this post are my referral links.)

Fresh Fruit At Low Prices

Rainier cherries, blueberries and mangoes

I usually only buy a fruit when it is at it's lowest price. This happens coincidentally when it's in season. Bananas are the exception for me since they are usually very reasonable. (Keep an eye out for marked down brown bananas which are great for banana bread.) This week Publix had some produce at my "buy" prices.

The blueberries were on sale for $1.50 a pint. We like adding them to our cereal, yogurt and smoothies. They are also great in muffins and pancakes. At this price we buy extra to freeze and use later.

Mangoes were on sale for 89cents each. I buy them when they are $1 or less. We eat them cut up in cubes for a snack. I will use them in smoothies this week too.

Rainier Cherries were buy 1 get 1 free making them $2.99 for a 1 pound container. These are a new fruit to us.

Today is the last day to get these prices at our store on Amelia Island. If they are sold out be sure to stop by the customer service desk and request a raincheck. Rainchecks let you get the item for the sale price at a later time. Each grocery store has different policies on how long rainchecks are good so check with your store.

Remember that you can get these deals at Walmart too (if a Publix is near by) since they price match.

There are some produce that I don't know the best price to buy them at yet. I plan to start tracking those prices and adding them to my price sheet.

Eating from the stockpile



Simple lunch


Today's lunch was simple but what I liked about it most was that it came from my stockpile.

Yesterday I did some "shopping" in my freezer to prepare for this week. I pulled out the things that we had run out of in the fridge:

Bread- I bought it when it was buy 1 get 1 free. It defrosts in the fridge overnight. It tends to be a little stiff afterwards but after about 10 seconds in the microwave it's just right.

Ham- Bought for $1.50 after sale and coupons.

Turkey and Provolone Cheese- Purchased at Harris Teeter. Buy 2 Get 3 free.

The only item I purchased this week was the fresh spinach. (Publix $2) The Pepperidge Farm cracker chips, mayo, and pickles are all things I keep a stock of on my pantry shelf.

So...
Stock up on your weekly used items when they are on sale. If you do this, then everything you need for a simple lunch is always within arms reach.

Kids Eat Free Today Only (July 18, 2011)

Chili's is feeding the kids again for FREE with this coupon. The fine print says you can get up to 2 kids meals free per Adult Entree. Offer valid for kids 12 and under. We like getting ours to go. Brian and I will share their Monteray Chicken and then both kids get their own meals. We use a savings card we bought from the local pop warner players to get free chips and salsa too. If you're dining in you can get free chips and salsa by sitting in the bar area.

Thanks Money Saving Mom!

CVS: My shopping trip for the week of July 17-23, 2011

I gave my sister the toothbrushes before I took the picture.

I had $11.99 in CVS bucks expiring and wanted to "roll" as many as possible. There weren't many "freebies" this week so I pulled out all of my rainchecks to come up with a scenario. This is what I came up with:

2 Oral-B Indicator Toothbrushes (not pictured) $1.99 x 2 = $3.98
2 Crest Kid's Toothpastes $1.99 x 2 = $3.98
2 T.G. Lee gallon Milk (rainchecks) $2.79 x 2= $5.58
1 Nivea for Men (raincheck) $4.99

Coupons used:
$2/2 Oral-B Indicator Toothbrush coupon from 7/3 P&G insert
2- 75cents Crest Toothpaste coupon from 6/5 and 7/3 P&G insert
$2 Nivea for Men coupon from 6/5 RP
$5.99 Extra Care Bucks
$3.00 Extra Care Bucks
$3.00 Extra Care Bucks

Had my Green Tag scanned.

Subtotal: $1.04
Tax: $0.91
Total Out Of Pocket: $1.95

Extra Care Bucks Earned: $2, $2, $1, $1, $5, $1 (green bag tag) for a total of $12

Thanks to my rainchecks I was able to "roll" all of my Extra Care Bucks! Now you see the importance of asking for a raincheck when your store is out of all those "freebies".

lTo see all of the coupon matchups for this go here.

What did you get at CVS this week?

Yard Sale Finds: Dinosaurs, Stride Rite and Highlights

Toys

Yay! Another Saturday  morning spent yard sale-ing with my sister! I found some good priced toys. The boys will get to enjoy the Little Tikes B.C. Builder Dinosaurs for a little bit while I prepare to list them on eBay. My little J-bird was excited to see puzzles he can add to his puzzle shelf. A couple of the Dinosaur Morphs were incomplete but there are still enough pieces to make some interesting creatures.



Gymboree Shirt $2, Stride Rite Shoes 50 cents each, bags and belt FREE


J-bird is going to look so cute in this shirt! I don't find a lot of boys' clothes at garage sales. When I do find something I get it, even if the boys aren't ready to wear it yet. I almost missed out on the Stride Rite shoes. I had passed them up at $2 each earlier in the day but after I told my husband about them he drove us back to check them out again. To my surprise they had been marked down to 50 cents each! I grabbed both pair even though they were the same size. Little B will probably be able to wear them some and then they will get passed down to J-bird. I picked up the belt for my little sister. I found it in a box marked "free". If she doesn't like it then I think I have something else in mind to do with it. The last garage sale on our list was generous enough to pack my goods in reuseable bags. I heart free reuseable bags!



Thrifty Homeschool Stuff


Little B will be starting his Kindergarten work at home next month. I've been steadily gathering things for cheap to help us not break the bank our first year. I got all 30 Highlight books for only $1. I have some ideas on how to use them that I'll post soon. I got the textured alphabet cards for $2 which is much cheaper than Amazon. Those are mostly for J-bird. I couldn't resist the bag of mini blocks for 50 cents. (Yes, they can be a choking hazard but they'll only be used under supervision. Promise.) I'm already brainstorming ideas for them. The books ranged from 10 to 50 cents but I did fork over a buck for the Mo Willems book. I found the Leap Frog Tag system on my return trip for the Stride Rite shoes. It was only $2! It came with an additional book too. I'll be keeping an eye out for more now.
I almost forgot...

Chomp Chomp!

My new Gator lunch bag! I had to snap a quick picture with my iPhone. It's worth way more to this family than the 50 cents I paid for it.

I'm linking up with Yard Sale Mommy and Her Library Adventures.

Thrifty Finds: Books and Legos!

Earlier in the week the boys and I ventured out treasure hunting (that's our code word for yard sale-ing lol). I was looking up the garage sales on the Craigslist App and found one that had just started that morning. The ad listed Legos and Lego table so I quickly got the boys ready and headed out the door. I tried not to get my hopes up that the Legos would still be there since the sale had started a few hours ago. To my surprise they were both still there! The lady was asking $12 for the table and BIG bag of Legos. I knew it was a great deal for my little Lego lovers so I snatched it up.



I didn't get a picture of the bag of Legos before its contents were dumped out. :-)

 
 I found something brand new to put away for Chirstmas too.

Diego Mega Bloks $3

There were several boxes of children's books priced just right (10 to 50 cents) so I grabbed an armful. Since we were feeling lucky we stopped at my other favorite source for cheap books, Goodwill. After some digging we found some popular titles: Harold and the Purple Crayon, Madeline, Don't Let the Pigeon... and a few others.

We were excited to check out our treasures when we got home. We dumped the big bag of Legos first and found not only LOTS of Duplo blocks but also several special pieces like people, animals, a boat and a mega bloks train. I can't wait to hear the boys' adventures during playtime. (After I clean the legos of course!)



The special items that hadn't disappered into the playroom yet.



I was inspired to get back to selling on eBay after reading some posts by Yard Sale Mommy. A few years ago my husband and I had some success ($1,000 in 6 weeks) selling new toys on eBay during Christmas time. Business is slow at work so I'm going to try my hand at selling used toys this year. My sister and I hit the yard sales on Saturday on the hunt for inventory. I only found one thing but it's a beauty.



Ryan's Room:  Home Sweet Home




3 floors of fun




Furniture included


As soon as I got home I searched the internet (using Swagbucks) to find out more about the dollhouse. It turns out it's called Home Sweet Home by Ryan's Room and it's discontinued. I've decided to wait to sell it closer to Christmas after reading this blog post.

My other finds were more inexpensive books for the boys. I was especially excited about the almost new phonics readers for 50cents per set!



Goodwill and Yard Sale book finds.



I'm looking forward to next weekend's treasure hunt.

I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl.