Buying Clothing At A Thrift Store ~ Balancing Your Budget Shop Used Rather Than New

I have decided to add selling good used clothing to my eBay store. So off to the thrift store I went.
We were on a small road trip to spend time with some of the family and on the way there are 6 different thrift stores.
This is some of the tips I will share with you.
1. If they have a frequent customer card get one and remember to get it punched when shopping. This month I have received $20.00 in free merchandise at two different stores.
2. Most of the store will have a certain color tag on sale, look for clothes with that tag to save you money.
3. Be sure to check out the clothing carefully before buying. Stains , holes and it does not go into my shopping card.
4. If you are going to resell on the Internet research it is important to learn what brands are worth buying and what you should pay to make a profit. I only buy what is on sale unless it is a treasure.
I am just starting this new niche to sell on eBay and have joined a face book group to learn from those who have been doing clothing for some time. And as a bonus I am finding out about other treasures that can be found that can be worth some nice money.

Here are a few of the items I have found this last weekend.
Jesse James work shirt great condition. Ralph Lauren and last is Tommy Bahama  ladies Hawaiian style blouse.


Great treasures can be found for a few dollars. Give your budget a break and check out your local thrift store to see what is waiting for you.
Thanks for stopping by. Grace

EASY DROP DANISH USING BISQUICK SO YUMMY AND EASY

Change of pace from normal egg on toast for breakfast. Made Easy Drop Danish with Bisquick and orange marmalade. Did not have enough marmalade so hubby loves peanut butter so tried that in a few. He said okay but won't use again.
2 Cups Original Bisquick, 1/4 cup butter or margarine soften, 3 T sugar, 2/3 cup milk, 1/4 cup of preserves of your choice.
Glaze is 2/3 cups powdered sugar, 1 T warm water , 1/4 t vanilla ( I did not have vanilla so substituted maple syrup.)
1. Heat oven 450 , lightly grease cookie sheet. Stir bisquick , margarine and sugar in medium bowl until crumbly. Stir in milk until dough forms; beat 15 strokes.
2. Drop dough rounded Tablespoonful about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Make shallow well in center of each with back of spoon; fill with 1 t of the preserves.
3. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. While warm drizzle with glaze. Makes 12 Danish each 175 calories.

 

 

Grocery Shopping and Meal Plans 4/18/13

Snowing again and feeling the desire to just cook, read and stay warm.  Prepared grocery list, found coupons and headed to grocery store.  Made one small trip yesterday for eggs, milk, butter and ice cream . Today did the main shopping trip at Cub foods.
Got all of this for $91.24 saving 24 percent.

 

Largest dollar amount was meat. We have a pot roast that will give us several meals, buy one get one free chicken breasts, 3 pounds of ground beef and bacon to top of the meat purchases.

We will put a pot roast in the crock pot tomorrow morning. From this we will get dinner and have left overs for hot beef sandwiches, maybe some fiestas and if anything left will turn into barb q beef sandwiches.
Hamburger will make meat loaf with left over being used for hash for breakfast. Beef and Bean enchiladas and calico bean hot dish.  Chicken will give us at least 4 meals, planning on chicken and vegetables for one meal and planning on trying a new recipe with some of the chicken.
Breakfast will be eggs and toast with bacon, pancakes and maybe French toast. Lunch is sandwiches and soup or left overs.
Most of what I bought should last over a week with only needing some milk, eggs and fruit to round of our meals

MEAL PLANNING FOR THE BUSY FAMILY

Do you ever get bogged down with trying to come up with ideas for dinner. Dinner does not need to be take out or frozen packaged food from the grocery store.
 Make a list of about 20 favorite recipes. Write this list on a piece of paper out of a note book
or on the computer and print out. Post this on your refrigerator.
Decide which of these would be good for double batches to freeze when a quick easy dinner is needed.
Make a list of ingredients you need for these meal ideas.
Check your pantry and refrigerator for what you all ready have.
Plan the weeks menu around this list, what is in the pantry and what is on sale at the grocery store.

One dinner idea in our home is meat loaf. I can have two meals out of one meat loaf since there are only two of us. Bake some potatoes with the meat loaf. Later in the week add potatoes to the meat loaf and you have home made hash. Double recipe if you have more than two in your household.

I HAVE BEEN BITTEN BY THE TRAVEL BUG ~ DREAMING OF ROUTE 66

 Hubby and I love to travel, to see new  places and  visit with people we have never met. We have traveled most of the US in the past years.  Traveled in a van with blow up mattress and owned a motor home for a few years. We have been to California and back more than once. Seen places that I did not think I would see.
The dream of travel is with me again. Yesterday hubby and I went and looked at a used motor home and two new trailers.  We sat with finance guy and got pricing options and walked away with information and brochure.
Okay so what can we do to make our dream come true and what is the real dream. Is it to have a small home base and travel some. Or is the dream to sell unneeded items and put other items in storage and travel for a year.
Decisions to be made but the important thing is to think it through. Check out all our options and find out what is the best idea for us.
We are leaning towards one of the new trailers should we decide to buy one. Used 2004 motor home is nice and only 37,000 miles but payments are higher than we want and just does not feel like a good deal.
The two trailers are not all that big and would sleep up to 4 if needed. Easy to pull and affordable payment wise if we make some adjustments in living quarters.
We could find a smaller apartment and do just fine. Our apartment is two bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths with spectacular views of Lake Superior. The decision is do we down size and travel more often or stay where we are and save money to travel as we can afford it.
We visited Las Vegas for a few days last month. This was our first trip in 5 years.  We did our trip there on a budget and even came home with money not spent. We put that money right back into our travel fund and planning a trip to New York this summer.
So the travel bug has got us but we are saving money for our travel and now deciding on whether to buy a travel trailer or not.
The more we can put down on this trailer the better it would be. Do you have the travel bug or a dream of something you are willing to save for.

BRRR ~ It Is REALLY Cold Out There This Week ~ Whats Happening In My World

Boy is it cold out there this week, right now it is 17 below. I have no idea what the wind chill is and really do not want to know.
Schools are closed and they are encouraging every one to be safe. We are going out some during the day to warm the car and do errands. Otherwise we are staying close to home.
Was so cold we decided to stay home last night rather than go to the auction.
If you are in the cold areas of the country be safe and if you live where it is warm I really do not want to hear it is 59 degrees and I was walking my dogs in a short sleeve shirt.
I am wearing long johns, winter coat, a hat and gloves plus my boots to take the trash out.
Grace

2012 Books I Read and What I am Reading January 2013

2012 is gone and I did not read as many books as I would of liked to have but I did read some good books.

For a reading club I read The Immortal Life of  Henrietta Lacks 

Other nonfiction books I read
The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower by Robert Graysmith  




Some of the fiction books I read this past year were
 I'll Walk Alone by  Mary Higgins Clark  


Brian Freeman's Immoral,
 Stripped  
 and Stalked

by Harlan Coben I read Gone For Good



John Sandford Buried Prey 

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron


I will add to what I read in 2012 as I recall my books.

Watch for my posting on Books Read 2013
I am starting off January with The Great Partenship by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks for a book club on religion and science
and for fiction I am reading Rough Country by John Sandford.   




What are you reading this year? To see what others are reading check at Family Your Way

Menu Plan Monday ~ Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup On The Menu

Time to make up my menu for this coming week. I am feeling like home made chicken noodle soup.

Monday night will be ham salad sandwiches with chips, we have an auction to go to that evening

Tuesday Chicken with Rice, peas and crescent rolls

Wednesday Homemade Chicken Noodle soup with left over rolls

Thursday Hamburger hotdish, homemade bread and corn

Friday pizza

Saturday left over chicken noodle soup with peanut butter sandwiches and crackers

Sunday left over buffet of anything left over from the week