Frugal Friday with Marsha 5/16/14

This week has been spending a lot of time in the garage attempting to prepare for a garage sale that starts tonight then goes tomorrow.
A task that I should have been working on for a month!
I have had 2 aunts die in the last year and we put my mother-in-law into a home. This means that I brought stuff home from both my Aunt Donna's and my Aunt Thersea's and hubby has busily been bringing stuff home from his mom's house since her house is now sold.
What a mess!!

I really feel the need to put an ad in the newspaper to advertise our sale. I don't feel the need to pay the $26.25 that they want to only say Multi-family garage sale, our address and the day and time! That is highway robbery, as my mom says.
We don't have high ticket items to sell and usually I would be lucky to make $20 at a sale, if even that!

I've put the ad on craigslist. I've posted it to my status in facebook as well as to the local garage sale group. We also have a local buy, sell and trade facebook group. They co-own a website called BST Exchange. I've put the ad on the exchange and then posted the ad to that group too.
My mom is calling in to the local radio talk show this morning to advertise.
We then have a few signs made up to hang on some corners. Will it be enough? I can only hope and pray that it will.

Garage sales are so much work for such little turn over, at least for us they are.
I need to look through what is left of my couponing stash....I know I have some toothpaste and shave gel in excess and that generally will sell.


Last week I bought groceries at Walmart and spent $40 ($39.19 to be exact) on what seems like so little.
I bought:
16 lb bag of cat food
bagels
whipped cream cheese
8 pack of frozen burritos
sour cream
bag of salad
taco sauce
2 cup bag of shredded cheese
Carnation Instant Breakfast
.98 box of mini chewy sweetarts
gallon of milk

I've found myself wishing I had shopped at Aldi instead. In fact, when I get $40 again to spend I'm going to go to Aldi and experiment.
I know I can't get the sweetarts, but I can find some other sort of candy. They also don't sell my breakfast drink so I will have to know to take off $5 for that. I will be sure to post my results once I do.

Groceries are horribly priced these days! I'm working towards catching up with cutting and sorting my coupons once again. It's a must that I start paying attention to what is on sale and price matching and matching coupons as well. $40 a week for groceries is about my limit on what I can spend. As you can see from my list that $40 only really covered 1 meal and breakfasts, plus feeding the cats.
I could only do that last week because of the meats I got on markdown the week before.
It all works out in the end, but I'm missing my bargain coupon shopping.

How has your frugal week been?

An InLinkz Link-up

Frugal Friday With Marsha--Estate Sale

First thing this morning I went out to an estate sale.  Estate sales are my favorite.  You seem to find the better deals at them.  I like how you can buy a box full of something.

This sale was advertised as Ladies Only estate sale---Crafts, quilting, fabrics, etc.  You know I had to go!  I told my husband it could be dangerous.  After all, really, I have enough supplies in my craft room to keep me busy for the next 4 or 5 years at least, and that is if I work everyday on things.

Here is what I purchased:

 Breakdown:
Paper doilies .25  (Always use these making home made Valentine's)
Bells .25   ( I put these inside baby blocks that I make with plastic canvas)
Miniature tea set  .50  (just for fun for one of my granddaughters that I have over every other weekend by herself.)
Teddy Bear corduroy  $3
Maroon soft fabric  $3  (these 2 items will become a blanket for my new grandson on the way)
Green netting  .25  (I make dish scrubbies with this)
Crocss Stitch kit  .50   (I will give this to my sister in law)
Blue Christmas print and border (I hope to make 2 wall hanging out of this)  .50
Watermelon Apron print fabric $1 (hope to make myself an apron)
Thread spool holder $1  (I just thought this was cool to put my thread spools on)
Sunflower print fabric   .50 (I hope to make a wall hanging with this)
Bag of Misc trims  .50 (I have some projects I have idea for)
Box of plastic canvas sheets  $1  (I make cross magnets, the baby blocks and coasters with this---sad part is that I had actually run out and just yesterday used some of my amazon earnings to order some!  Don't you hate when that happens?  Oh well, I do have plenty now!)
3 bandanas  .75  (I am in hopes of making a dress with these for my oldest granddaughter)

Total:  $13     I didn't think this was bad at all!  I was just gathering things without adding.

It's yard sale season starting........do you go and look for bargains?
Another type of garage sale I look for are the ones that are held at churches.  They also tend to have the lower pricing.    And....how about those neighborhood sales??  Wow!

However, how many times are you guilty of buying things that you don't really need?  I would say more often than not.    I don't know anyone who is not guilty of this!
I do tend to look specifically for items like I bought today----craft items.  

I remember last year hitting one of the neighborhood sales.  This was blocks and blocks of sales.  I only spent $30 total at over 50 sales, but most of what I bought, I just did not need.  Well.....did I need ANY of it?  Yeah, probably not.  I did end up with fabrics and other craft items, most of which I have used now.  I also bought a small tv with built in DVD player for my daughters room.  (I figured that alone was worth the $30 total that I spent)  I think I bought 20 VHS movies.  I bought books and toys and candles and more.  Yes, I got far more than my money's worth!!  One thing I bought is the binder that I use for my coupons---paid just .50 for it---seen the exact same binder at Walmart on markdown for $7.    I picked up what I thought was 2 ink cartridges for my printer--got home and found they were empty cartridges.  However, the people had given the cartridges to me, so all was good---and I mailed in them in to the Lexmark exchange program towards free ink.

Do you have any garage sale stories to tell?

I look forward to your link ups this week. 

Shop Hop Saturday 7/16/11

It's Saturday again already.  Days just string together anymore and I always stay busy.
This past week I didn't complete any new crafts to list in my etsy store.  I worked on some, but nothing completed.
Tuesday was our sewing club at church where I learned a new quilting technique.  I haven't had my sewing machine back out since that day.

I have been working on orders that have come in.  It's such a great feeling to get orders!  I'm waiting for materials to come in to complete one order of fabric bags, but half of her order has already been shipped.  I had an order for dish scrubbies that I completed and mailed out.  And, the order I am currently working on is for 12 washcloths.

We are having another garage sale today--once again with no other advertising except signs hung up around town.  Last time all I sold was 2 dish scrubbies, so while I was already making them for an order, I made some more to put in my big jar on my craft table.  I did try to call in for an ad in the newspaper but I called 30 minutes past the deadline.  With highs in the triple digits, it is too hot to sit outside, and most definately if we don't have lots of customers and actually make some money.

Ok, back to business.  I did manage to get a few new items created in my zazzle store.   I will share those today.   I still have trouble with trying to design there.  I did a couple of t-shirts but I can't get my pics to be as large on the t-shirts as I want.  I was trying to make a bag as well, same problem.  If I make it to fit the product then I get the warning about the photo will be pixeled.  I printed out the help on what size photos should be.  Hopefully I can keep my goal and get a few new items in my store each week.

Sunflower with Flag Postage Stamps

Sunflower with Flag Poster

Kansas Postcard

5 Little Kittens T-Shirt

Sunflower with Flag T-shirt

I hope you will click the button below and join us this week on the Shop Hop!