Thursday, October 9, 2014

The Church Auction

We attend a local small church auction every Fall.
This year's was held last Saturday.

We ended up spending $400 at last year's event but we only spent $315 this year on our winnings.

Items offered include goods and services to local businesses as well as "things", both new and used, donated by church members.
Sometimes items when offered up don't garner bids so they add other more desirable goods to the pot.

This is why/how I ended up with a set of hair rollers(lolz), a used George Foreman grill, as well as this set of items........


A large pair of ceramic Staffordshire dogs.


Not something I want but the $50 of pet boarding and $20 in McDonald's certificates that came bundled with it was well worth my winning bid of $15.

These items they "throw into a deal" that aren't something we want or can use will be offered to family or then sent to Salvation Army as donations if no one else wants them.
And the SA donations we get to write off our taxes at the end of the year so it's just a win/win for us.

Here is what I ended up bringing home......

1 large jarred Yankee Candle
1 Fall décor tchotchke
$12 GC local Italian restaurant
$12 GC another Italian restaurant
5 x $10 GC McDonald's
$20 GC local bar/inn
1 Free Oil Change local garage
$20 GC local sub/pizza place
$25 GC Price Chopper grocery store
6 x Discount cards for Domino's Pizza
$20 GC Sonic
$20 GC Bonanza steakhouse
$20 GC Sheetz gas
1 George Foreman grill(used)
1 pair ceramic dogs
$100 GC  local pet boarding
$20 GC Red Robin
$25 GC Sweet Frog frozen yogurt
1 pie pumpkin
1 living room designer lamp
1 concrete Welcome statue w/puppies
1 free pizza local pizza restaurant
1 free haircut local barber shop
$50 GC local pet boarding
$25 GC Advance Auto stores
$10 GC local Greek restaurant

 
I figure the total value is about $605 for all this.
I paid $315.

                             
All the gift certificates except for 3 Hubs is holding onto.

A few of the deals were not so great.
I should know better than to do some of them since I go to this every. single. year.

The problem with the gift certificates is that you can't see what the actual "deal" is when you bid.
The give you the $ value of the item and where it's from.
Not until you win and you open the envelope do you see what you actually got.

One year I bid on a $40 value from a local restaurant and when I opened the envelope it wasn't just a GC worth $40.  It was 5 coupons for a free appetizer, each valued at $8.  This meant we'd get an $8 appetizer when we bought a meal, meaning we had to spend A LOT of money before seeing that $8 benefit. grrrrr.
 Not the deal I thought I was getting of a certificate worth $40 off your dining bill. lolz

Last year I bid on 2 different Domino's deals, worth $20 each, and won both.
One envelope held 2 $10 off gift cards.
The other envelope held 2 punch cards with 16 punches for a BOGO free pizza. 
These cards weree fundraising cards that could be purchased for $10 each(so $20 value). 

Now getting $10 or $20 off a pizza purchase is good, getting the opportunity to purchase 32 pizzas and then getting 32 pizzas free is NOT such a good deal.
Unless of course you eat A LOT of pizza on a regular basis. ;-)

Well stupid me bid on a $20 value Domino's envelope this year and won it.
Instead of OPENING the envelope and finding out that it was 2 of those stupid punch cards I didn't want I didn't THINK to check it before they offered more $20 Domino's envelopes up for bids.

I ended up winning THREE envelopes of Domino's punch cards for a total of 6!
Ugh.


Domino's had only given the church punch cards this year.......




So now I have until June 2015 to buy 192 pizzas and get 96 of them free.
That's 13+ weeks(THREE + MONTHS!) of eating nothing but pizza for dinner every night of the week.
Or if I spread it out over the whole stretch from now until the end of June 2015, that's a pizza for dinner about every 2.65 days.....or pizza about 3 times a week.

I.
Am.
An.
Idiot.

So I'll be offering some of these punch cards to my 2 oldest kids and maybe put one in the next giveaway box because we can't possibly eat that much pizza.

Well we COULD eat that much pizza but it wouldn't be a prudent thing to do....... ;-)

I did bid on and win 1 "thing" I wanted.
A lamp for the living room as we are still gathering items to furnish it.


A new lamp with a green base.  Won it for $15.
My new living room is slowing turning into the "Green Room"....... lolz

The only other regret on my bidding at the auctions that I had was that I didn't win that purple slow cooker!
I really didn't NEED it and the bids when to $26 which was too high for me.
But the freaking thing was PURPLE!

Sigh......


Sluggy


 

15 comments:

  1. Woah! That's a lot of pizza. Can you give those cards as gifts, say like to the mailman or other people you may tip during the holidays? Nice lamp! And a purple slow cooker? Get out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought of that but it would be like giving someone a bunch of coupons for a gift....and I don't think everyone appreciates coupons as much as I do. lol

      I'll give 1 or 2 to each of my oldest kids and maybe one to the BIL and that should get us down to only having 1 or 2 for Hubs and I. And the Hubs could eat pizza 3 x a week if I let him so we're all good. 8-)

      Delete
    2. If the coupons were for free pizza or whatever, yes, they would make good gifts. I could eat pizza every day! But, I love rather plain pizzas.

      Delete
  2. We have gotten similar "free with lots of purchases" items at fundraising auctions before. We finally figured out we were better off to just donate them to our church's youth group. They order pizza for the kids weekly and it really helped them out. We just took the purchase price as donation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bless you and ALL of your pizzas. I laughed really hard at that deal. But knowing you maybe you can find a way to come out ahead. With making money not weight gain from ALL THE CARBS!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't laugh too hard because you might just open your mail one day cousin and find one of those BOGOFree cards in it! lolz

      Delete
  4. I read your auction deals to exbf. That is a lot of pizzas to eat, but giving most of them away sounds like a better thing to do than trying to consume them. I got a booklet like that and was really bummed at $1 off each purchase.

    Now, you will have to have a purple crock pot. I've never seen one that color. That price was near purchase price. That room will really be green!...and stylish.

    You did get some great deals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know where they got the crock pot so I'll just wait for them to go on sale....not that I NEED one...lol

      Delete
  5. Awesome! I'd SO try and get the purple crock pot but that is probably too high. You were probably smart...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The sticker of the store where they got the purple crock pot was on the box. I could go and buy one for the bid it went for at the auction so if I ever want one bad enough, I know where to get that itch scratched. ;-)

      Delete
  6. That's a lot of pizzas :) Can you offer those on classifieds? There might be somebody who does it a lot of pizzas who would be interested. It's a long shot but who knows...

    ReplyDelete
  7. College kids love pizzas! So do the senior citizens. Maybe do something as the church or group function. Pizzas make great donations and many people smile.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh wow, those dogs were a steal counting the add ons! Love the lamp, it should really go well with your green chair. I still like that chair the most. Poor purple slow cooker, hopefully it went to a really good home.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It sounds like you got some good bargains. And helped out the church at the same time.

    ReplyDelete

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