THE JOY AND FUN OF GARAGE SALES LOOKING FOR TREASURES

I love garage sales and with our short summer here in Minnesota that fun is short lived. Yesterday was beautiful. Warm and sunny but not to hot. Before leaving home I filled a small cooler with water and my wallet with some twenties and off we went.
We are on the hunt for items to resell and a couple of items for our selves. First stop was an estate sale run by the family. I love those, you can visit with the family and get items at reasonable prices. First find was a true treasure a paint by number nautical scene. It was painted by her uncle Art and since my dear daddy's name was Art it had to be mine. A while back I saw a room decorated with paint by number nautical scenes. I can not remembe if I saw this on the Internet or in a magazine, but it stuck with me. I know have the start of a collection. I may never find another reasonable paint by number but I have at least one. And I only paid $1.00 for this art piece.

At the same sale I found a vintage brown Samsonite suit case and it matches my travel case that I told you about a few days ago. These will be priced and put in the antique store. This suit case was also only $1.00, what a buy. I found a styrfoam head for 50 cents. Just what I wanted to display my hair bonnet from a vintage hair dryer. I had bought this great vintage GE hairdryer the night before in a box lot for $1.00. It is now up for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $9.99. Mint green in color and with its original box it should sell.

I found so many great items yesterday but it is time to wrap this up and get out of my home to go hunting again. I will share more later. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.. Grace

PS please do not tell my sons I have started another collection ( vintage paint by number).



WALLET FRIENDLY WEDNESDAY Finding Fun Free Entertainment

Our entertainment does not always need to mean spending alot of  money. Rather than going to the movies or any other entertainment that costs money there are fun things to do that cost nothing or very little.
Just going to the park and watching people or reading can be fun. Maybe bring a picnic lunch and feed not only your self but a few of the birds.
I like to wander down to the beach with my chair and read for awhile.
Many cities have free summer concerts, check this out before the summer disappears.
Ok you like wandering the mall it also can be Free or inexpensive entertainment. We like to wander into Barnes and Noble and read magazines for 30 minutes or so. Walking the mall can be good excercise. The secret is to not make spur of the minute purchases.
I noticed today that there is a vintage boat show this weekend over in Superior Wisconsin and it is FREE. Hubby loves boats so we will attempt to stop over at the boat show after garage sales.
Hope that all of your are enjoying your summer. Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together.. Grace

TIGHTWAD TUESDAY ~ THRIFT STORES AND SHARING A HAMBURGER AT A DIVE

Today is Tuesday and that means it is senior day at many of the thrift stores. After a round of errands this morning at the antique store ( stocking the shelfs with new finds from last night's auction), going to post office to mail off eBay sales and then to another auction house to pick up a check it was time to hit the thrift stores.
By this time it is after 1 and we are getting hungry. Since we were heading to a near by town to go thrifting lunch was at a real " dive " of a bar. It is a dive and they are proud to say that. This little bar was even part of drive ins, dives and diners. They have a largecheeseburger that is so huge hubby and I share it and share an order of fries. Add two sodas and lunch is $9.00 before tip. Hamburger is fresh and very tasty.
Next stop is the thrift stores. We find a total of 3 books to resell, two for hubby and one for me. The next thrift store hubby found a collectible Hallmark of 3 train cars to resell either on eBay or at the antique store.
The last thrift store gave me a vintage Samsonite traveling case for only $2.99 minus my senior discount of 20 percent. This also will be resold some where.
So we had a busy day but full of treasure hunting. Hope that your day was full of treasures also.
Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together .. Grace

I LOVE COOKBOOKS READING THEM AND SELLING THEM ON eBay

I love cookbooks. I love to buy and sell cookbooks. I love to read cookbooks and once in a while I even love to try out a new recipe.
Every time I go to an estate sale, thrift store, garage sale or auction one of the things I look for is cookbooks.

 Recently at an auction I bought a box of cook books for $3.00. Now of course I knew that in this one box was 3 Barefoot Contessa and 1 Baking with Julia ( Childs) and that all were sellable. That $3.00 purchase brought in over $30.00 from eBay auctions. I had a group of Taste food magazines up for sale on eBay last week. Some sold some did not. They will be relisted tomorrow and hopefully will sell second time around.

At another recent auction I bought a large box full of small cooking recipe booklets. It is full I have not even started to count how many I have.
Some of the oldest ones are Recipe Book by the St. Paul Daily News Home Economics Department priced at 25 cents when new. I see no date but I am guessing the 1940's by the picture of the stove.
Then there is a copy of A Primer of Modern Cooking by the Home Institute The Duluth Herald. This is copyrighted 1934.
The third one is The War Time Cookbook 500 Recipes, Victory Substitutes and Economical Suggestions for Nutritious Wartime Meals. It is copyrighted 1942.
Another one is one I have had in the past. Aunt Sammys Radio Recipes Revised by the Bureau of Home Economics. Issued May 1931 for the price of 15 cents.
There has to be over 100 little recipe books. Cookies Galore, Kerr Home Canning Guide, 20 Famous Cranberry Dishes and even one for Famous Maple Recipes from the Vermont Hills.
Hours of reading and money to be made on eBay. Next time you a box of old recipe booklets take a peek you may just find a treasure. If you have a minute take a look and maybe even bookmark my eBay auctions and store items. You may find a treasure now or in the future.
Come back soon and see what else I found at same auction that is sellable on eBay and this box is not cookbooks.

Thanks for stopping by to visit... Grace

MEAL PLANNING FOR THE WEEK 7/24/11

Hello every one, hope that your day is going great. We are having a much cooler day and I am spending it unpacking and looking out the window at our beautiful Lake Superior.
Sunday afternoon and time for me to plan our meals for the next week. With the move money is extra tight and just waiting to see when landlord will meet with us for the walk through so we can get our rent deposit back from old apartment. That money needs to go back into the savings account for upcoming bills. Will be happy when it is sitting there. There is always the fear she will see something wrong and not give it all to us. We also paid a non refundable pet deposit of $300. We moved in to that apartment the beginning of last August and our darling Spooky the cat passed away beginning of October. I shared this with her when giving noticed and asked her to consider returning some of the pet deposit. Time will tell. On top of all that we are waiting to see if we will be charged cancellation charge at the past cable company. We can not have a dish here since there is no balcony or patio to put it on. If we are not charged that fee we will be ahead $250. That would be a great help for sure.
So with all of this going on we will have a frugal meal week using what is in the house and buying no more groceries than necessary.
Tonight ( Sunday ) will be left over hamburger warmed up in brown gravy with a handful of mixed vegetables added. This will be served over mash potatoes
Monday we will go to the auction so will have tuna salad with toast when we return home

Tuesday tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and potato chips
Wednesday Fried chicken, potato salad and beans
Thursday left over tuna salad since we will probably go to another auction that night
Friday Pizza night at home will use a frozen pizza that I bought last week
Saturday left overs
With this menu I will have to buy very little food. We need to pick up the fried chicken, potato salad and some beans. Other than that we should be fairly good for the week.
I will be sharing this over at Monday Menu.

Thanks for stopping by .. lets keep saving together Grace