Monday, April 19, 2010

Decluttering Last Week

Here's what I sent packing out of my life last Week......



Power Rangers Pajamas anyone?  New with tags.  These will make some kid real happy....



Various VHS movies, a dvd and a book.  I must say I will miss Frankenweenie and Galaxy Quest(that movie is funny as heck!)



Assorted crossword puzzle books, stamps and ink pads that I am never going to use.




5 new with tags sweaters.  Now WHY on EARTH did I even ever buy these?  Yes, they are cozy and soft and most people up here need them in the winter.  Notice I said 'most people'......'most people' is not ME!  I hardly even wear a coat in the winter and have been known to walk barefoot in snow(briefly)and not be pained in anyway by this.  I overheat easily.  I can't stand wearing sweaters!!!lol
I probably bought these because they were on clearance and the price was too low to pass up.
The bad thing is....I still have 4 sweaters in my room that I am not emotionally ready to give up yet.  Is this sick or what?lol

Hands-free phone thingy that DH donated to the cause.  It never worked right with his phone.  He hardly talks on it anyway so he just pulls over if he feels the urge to chat.

An old Avon Make-up case with plastic containers inside.  A big stack of TY Beanie Babie(yes, I can use the word BEANIE here because it's a ty thing)Sticker Cards.  Another of my stupid "why did I ever buy this?" purchases.  Confession time--I was a beanie baby addict 10 yrs. ago.  I drank the Kool-aid and even became obsessed with Beanie Cards.  All the while I told myself it was something I bought/did/collected with my kids....and to an extent we did share the whole beanie experience.  I do know I never would have started in on the beanies stuff if I didn't have kids who were interested.   I'm surprised my hubby didn't have me committed!lol


Diabetes Meters.  Another of my extreme couponing purchases from last year.  Diabetes Meters=free money.


This is what left my house last week.
37 Items.
Show us what left your house!


Sluggy

Johnson & Johnson $10 Rebate and a Mystery

So, remember that J&J $10 Skin Lotion/Care Rebate fiasco earlier this year, when people's Rebates were getting refused if their receipt total was under $10?

Well both BIL and myself got our $10 checks earlier this month.
Has anybody else gotten theirs yet?

Here's the mystery......I found this in my mailbox today from Johnson & Johnson.....
A note with a Coupon for a FREE item up to $10!
Huh??

All I can think is that I emailed Johnson & Johnson back in February asking/complaining about the way they were handling this whole $10 skin care Rebate deal.
Maybe this prompted them to send me a Free Item Q 2 months later.
Totally unexpected but a good thing in my book.

Speaking of books....my poor little Rebate Book is feeling neglected.  I have sent NO Rebates in this month.  Just nothing worth doing/nothing I want to do.  I'll be feeling it next month when the mailman won't have any checks for me.... 8-(
Even my Rite-Aid SCR check will be pitifully small.  I think I'm up to $8 or something this month.  Because of the bursitis, I haven't made a trip into Rite-Aid since April 3rd!

Sluggy

We Have A Winner!

Oh yeah....I almost forgot....

The winner of the Mead Binder is...............










ALEX M!

Congratulations Alex and please email me your shipping information.  You can find my contact email on my profile page. ;-)

And thank you to all who entered the Giveaway and I appreciate each and every one of you who check in here and read my Boring Old Blog!

I'll have another of my BORING BLOG BOX Giveaways  up and running later this week so stay tuned.....

Sluggy

Dumping the Contents of My Head



Yep, that's just my colorful way of saying this post is just a mish-mash of random things rattling around in my head.


eBay
RE:Mr China/NY/CA Guy--Not a peep heard from him on Sunday.  Oh, did I mention he is now unregistered?  Gee, I wonder why.......!lol  I filed on him and got my fees back on 1 of the items.  Now that eBay has unregistered him, I'll write them to try and get my fees back on the other item.

Mr. Didn't Pay Me $249 Yet--Still no payment.  He has been filed on too.

Ty Lawyer Bullies--I changed "beanie" to "beanbag" in the listing.  DH gave me a "look" when I suggested I play around with these snakes.....playing with snakes will just get you bitten so I'm just going to let it go.

I sold a couple of things over the weekend...yah!  Now I need to get more listed while I'm on a roll.

One of the items I sold was a massive Mega Bloks set.  I went to the storage unit Sunday to fetch it so I could prepare it for shipping.  Now this box is 4.5 FEET tall and 3 FEET long.  I asked DH to get it out of the car for me.  DH knows me....I usually have multiple boxes of stuff in my car at any given time.  So he asked me how he'd know which box I wanted him to carry in.  I said, "It's the big box."  He just looked at me and reinterated, "How will I know it's the right box?"  I gave him a "look over the top of my glasses look" and said, "Unless you are dumb as a mud fence, you WILL know!"
He got the correct box....and on the first try!
LOLOL

Food
My new favorite food--I Love a freshly grilled hamburger or beefalo-burger.  Just season it up well with sea salt and slap it medium rare on a plate with a little puddle of ketchup.  If you have to bun it, bun sea salt, burger and a slice of tomato...that's it!
No cheese.
No other condiments or onions or bacon or other gunk.
Just the salt to enhance the beefy/buffalo-ness and some tomatoness.
Simple and nothing better.

I have also discovered that no candy/junk is better tasting than Peanut M&Ms.....DARK CHOCOLATE Peanut M&Ms. I picked some up for free on one of my many Rite-Aid excursions and finally opened a bag to try.
Dark Chocolate heaven!!!

Clutter/House Stuff
Other than it looks like a bomb went off in the Den, I need to get more stuff out of here.  I've got another load in DH's car heading for Sallie's on Tuedays and I started another load on Sunday to put in his trunk as soon as he empties it in a couple of days.
The living room is a mess too with all the stuff I got listed while DH was out of town.  I need to pack it all into boxes now and wait for people to buy it so I can ship it out.

I had daughter help me bring up toys from the basement on Saturday.....I had forgotten I still had stuff down there.  I am trying to be ruthless as I go through it all on whether to keep to sell or donate this stuff.
So far I've decided to send about 75% of it to Sallie's.  I'm only keeping to sell the stuff that after fees/shipping will give me a profit of at least $5 over what I paid.
The eBay criteria now is to list stuff for a REALISTIC Price that it will sell at quickly.  If it doesn't in 30 days, relist for a bargain price and if that doesn't work, off it goes to Sallie's after the 2nd 30 days.  According to my CPA brother, if you can't recoup at least 60% of what you paid on something in cash, it's more financially prudent to donate and take the tax write-off.  Of course, if you really really NEED the CASH, that rule of thumb flies out the window and you take whatever Cash you can get for stuff.lol

Anything that is very pricey to ship, that is not rare or valuable, will also just get donated since buyers don't seem to want to pay for shipping.


I donate every year to the local volunteer fire dept.'s fundraising auction that's held in the fall.  But the woman who runs it won't accept my donates until the month of the auction(even though they do have space to store the stuff in the fire hall).  I'd love to donate some of what is going to her but she's totally rigid on this.  I'm not planning on having much if anything left that donate-able by Nov. so she's totally getting nothing from me this year.  Her loss....

I am addicted to 2 shows:the one on Sunday on TLC and the one on Monday on A&E.  Both are about Hoarding.
It's a fascinating subject to me because it hits close to home.  We have the hoarding 'gene' in my family and I believe this condition is partly to blame for my oldest brother's death...indirectly but still, it did contribute to his demise.  I've seen this stuff up close and personal and have helped a hoarder clean...if you can call it that.  Some nights I just want to reach through that tv screen and shake these people it's so frustrating that they just don't get it.  If only they could get out of their own heads and look at themselves.
agh....
Last night's episode they said the woman was an organized collector type of hoarder and that she had 60 bottles of shampoo, among a bazillion other things.
60 bottles of shampoo, huh?
Well don't look at me!lolol
I wonder if someone saw my hundreds of rolls of t.p. and my 50 bottles of shampoo if they would want to sign me up for this show?

I've rattled on long enough I guess.  Off to make a list for the food bank and get some stuff hauled up there.  Then it's back to going through eBay 'treasures'....oh joy!

So what is everyone else up to on this fine Monday?

Sluggy

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Saturday Shopping.....Just Say Cheese!

I made 2 quick runs to 2 grocery stores on Saturday afternoon.

First the local independent chain grocer....
3 x Green Giant Veggies on sale $1=$3.00--use $.60/3 ManuQ doubled to $1=$2.00 for 3
2 x Wisk Detergent on sale $2.98=$5.96--use 2 x $2/1 ManuQ=$1.96 for 2
5 x Mighty Dog dog food cans on sale $.60=$3.00--use $3/5 ManuQ=FREE 5 cans
1 x 2lb. Strawberries on sale=$3.99 for 2lbs./$2 a lb.
2 x Store Brand 1lb. bags Mozzarella Cheese on sale $2=$4.00 for 2lbs.
2 x 1lb. Butter on sale $1.49=$2.98 for 2

I wanted to pick up more of the cheese because it was the larger grate size and without all those anti-caking ingredients some pre-grated cheeses have.  But these were the last 2 package in the store.....serves me right for waiting until the last minute to get some.lol

Grand Total spent....$14.93+$.54 tax=$15.47
Value of items...$41.25
Savings....$26.32

Since I didn't get enough cheese, it was off to Weis.....
Forget Kraft cheese folks, go try the Sargento brand.  They have a Mozzarella/Provolone blend that is yummy!  Sargento runs more than Kraft but find it on sale and use coupons and it's just as cheap or cheaper than bland old Kraft.

8 x Sargento Cheese on sale $2/bag=$16.00--use 4 x $.55/2 ManuQ doubled to $1=$12.00 for 8 bags
1 x Turkey Pepperoni on sale=$2.00
1 x Ground Beef $1.99/lb. 2.03lbs=$4.08
2 x Pork Boneless Ribs @$5.29=$10.58-$4.46 markdown=$6.12--use 2 x $1.50 Instant Discount sticker=$3.12
SubTotal....$21.20
Used a $3 OYNO Catalina for a Grand Total of $18.20



That was suppose to be my total.  Going over my receipt now I see the cashier didn't ring up one of the Pork packages but did take off the $1.50 Instant Disc. sticker so....$18.20-$3.06(cost of pork)=$15.14 TOTAL.
This means I paid .06¢ for 2.5lbs. of pork. 8-)


 Total spent....$15.14
Value of items...$42.35
Savings....$21.15

Grand Total spent....$30.61(before tax)
Value of items....$83.60
Savings...$52.99
Percentage saved....65.4%

I am happy with this percentage of savings, especially because nothing I bought was 'junk'.  ;-)

$30.61 for....
5lbs. of meat
1.5 lbs. of veggies
2lbs. of fruit
2lbs. of butter
6lbs. of cheese
100 oz. of laundry detergent
5 cans of dog food

Sluggy