The Shed – Part I

We have had plans to have a shed built for some time and that day is here. We had a concrete pad poured.

Let me start by saying that we had a small shed previously that came with the house. We dismantled it to get rid of some critters. It had particle board sub floor that wasn’t working well with mother nature and the critters.

Now back to the concrete slab that will work much better and the new and improved large shed that will make my husband so happy in his backyard and give me back more of the garage! :)

I also got to try out my new paint sprayer that I bought for all of my projects. It took less than 10 minutes to paint my first wall on my first attempt to use this great toy! Wow, so much quicker than rolling!

Voila…

Then the trim…. and you have this beauty.

Next project, organization inside and window box with cute little shutters on the outside!

Backyard – Part I

Summer brings more backyard time and oh how I love what we have done and where we are going.

First, I must warn you that my excitement is because everything we have is from working hard and fighting back from a bad contractor that not only took our money several years ago, but also made our yard a sad, sad mess.

The koi pond is doing great this year with the new addition of the bird net. Yes, I have to rescue a few birdies from time to time, but that darn Blue Heron is no longer has $100 meals of koi. :)

The water lillies are beautiful.

We had to do some improvements and cleaning out of the plants around the pond.

The hubby loves purple flowers. So beautiful delphinium and salvia were added!

A little sanding of the flagstone and fresh mulch make things look brand new each year or two.

The shed is beautiful and I will be doing a separate post about that as you can see I still need to paint.

One area left to finish, but we are off to a good start with the swing pergola built.

Stay tuned as I will no doubt do more posts about the progress, additions, and finishing touches that we continue to do with the backyard :)

Is there such a thing as FREE?

I have always heard that NOTHING is free in this world. Well, I think the lesson was that of responsibility for actions…cause there is such a thing as FREE.

I admit that I like to watch Oprah and always have. It is great that during the summer they air re-runs so that I can see a well liked show again or catch a show that I may have missed. Well, yesterday they aired a show about freegans. Who knew there was a name? Many people were interviewed from thrifty to dumpster divers. It was interesting! You can read more here about freeganism on Wikipedia. Basically it states that freegans believe that we consume too much and waste too much. TRASH! Got my attention, my kind of story. There are many main stream people including a physician and engineer that were interviewed that find the majority of there groceries from dumpsters. Sounds gross, doesn’t it?

Well actually the eye opening part is that perfectly good food is in the trash. I am not talking about eating what someone scrapped off of there plate into the trash can like you may do at home. Grocery stores and restaurants throw away perfectly good packaged foods that can be pulled from the garbage that are not unsafe. Of course they recommend washing fruit and vegetables at home before consuming, but entire packages of baked goods were thrown away because of “rules” and “it is easier”. (I suppose easier than sorting and marking down or donating to a shelter for good use?)

All of this made me thinking about the recent find that I have had as well as the challenge that it had created for me.

Can I feed my baby for free?

Now wait, I am not talking about dumpster diving for my child. I also am not talking about breastfeeding that is much more acceptable. I am talking about formula for my child that is free and not from any type of assistance program.

Just wanted to get some of the misconceptions out of the way :)

For the love of CRAIG……Craigslist that is!

My baby is eating free. I am not needy, but thrifty and the formula companies always send out samples.

Many people who get these samples though do not have needs for them and list them for free. Of course, I will only use formula that is unopened and originally packaged.

Look what I have for FREE

That is cutting $21 from the grocery bill every week, for several weeks. Together retail this formulas would cost $66. Can you believe that they are sending out full size samples?

They also come with the can for lactose intolerant or sensitive fussy formula. I take those as part of the package deal and then relist them for free to pass the help along.

Everyone that I have received the formula from states that they don’t have a need for it and that if not taken would become TRASH!!!

As I stated before, I am going to challenge myself to see if from now until we are done with formula in the next few months how much $$ I can save by rescuing another’s trash to feed the baby.

Best of eBay Week 3

Okay, so I took several (many) weeks off as the summer was starting because of family vacations and change of routine. But enough is enough and it is time to get back to what I love. Finding trash that someone will pay cash for. It still is unbelievable the quality items at the thrift store that can be resold.

Let’s take a look at some of the recent success on eBay.

J. Jill is not a brand that I was familiar with previously, but my bloggie friends at My Dear Trash have mentioned it many times. So why not try it? These 100% linen J. Jill tan capri pants size 12 were purchased for $3.99.

They were relisted a second week and sold for $8.99!

BCBG Max azaria is a similar story and after the success I heard others have had, I was thrilled to find this perfect condition shirt at the Goodwill that I visited in Colorado Springs. Yes, I love to visit thrift stores when I go somewhere else. So exciting to see what they have and how they are set up. I purchased this BCBG shirt for $4.99.

It sold the first week listed for $9.80!

Athletic wear was a first time venture for me these past few weeks and these orange Nike capri pants were purchased for $2.50 ($4.99 with 50% off).

They sold the second week listed for $8.99!

This teal North Face shirt was purchased for $1.75 ($3.49 with 50% off).

It sold the first week listed for $6.99!

Chico’s….Chico’s….Chico’s

Oh, for the love of Chico’s!!! This brand is one that always does well for me. I have found in the past that Chico’s pants size 2 (large) and 3 (x-large) have a following due to what I have heard is a great fit.

Well, this time I wondered if shirts would have the same success. The following four shirts are some of what I found and sold.

Collectively these four shirts cost me $7.75 and they all sold the first week listed collectively for $34.24!

View Full Album

Now here is the following that I am talking about.

I wasn’t going to pass these size 3 (x-large) Chico’s Platinum denim capri pants up even though they weren’t 50% off and I had to pay $5.99 for them.

They sold the second week listed for $20.50!

Can’t wait to find more Chico’s!

2010 Garden – Part I

Well, I can’t say that the garden started as a way to save money. We garden because we enjoy the satisfaction of watching something grow. I hope to share this with our little one in the years to come, but truthfully I don’t have to wait to have the pure excitement of a child. I still have it myself. I get so excited to see the fruits and vegetables and check the plants often yelling out to my husband, “You have to come see this. We have a ……” Well with the size of the garden and first yield of each plant that I am beginning to see, we are saving money this year also.

My husband just asked me tonight if I needed to open a vegetable stand this year :)

Tomatoes of many kinds. Big ones, little ones, round ones, pear shaped ones, red ones, and yellow ones.

Strawberries!!! Sweet, sweet, sweet!

And ohhhh so many cucumbers and zuchinnis…

For the first time this year we are growing beans!

Onions…

Broccoli, yeah!

Peppers, peppers, peppers of all types.

Big Jims, Anaheim, Red Bell Peppers, and Jalapenos….

*Not pictured, but honorably mentioned (to keep the garden gods happy and full of blessings for us) are pumpkin, spaghetti squash, apples, and plums.

One of the good things about the end of summer and beginning of fall will be our bounty!

Garage Sale 2010

It has to happen every year or two. You got it, turning my trash into cash and the leftovers into tax write offs!

I usually have a spot where I put things that I no longer need or want and then a cleaning out of the clothes lets me know if a garage sale is needed that year. This year was a YES! I wasn’t sure at first, then we decided to include a clean out of the garage and some of our camping things that we no longer need now that we have a camper.

Well, it became clear that this might be the biggest garage sale we have ever had.

The hubby, Mr. Greenthumb, got up early and helped set everything up before heading off to work and leaving me and the little one to run the show.

First let me tell you that I am sure I might receive favorable and not so favorable comments or thoughts about my tables, but I have done this for years and it works for us. I would love to have tables and probably could even find them for a great price used, but storing them is the issue. Space would be needed that I don’t want to part with at this time. So the thrifty person that I am calls for a creative solution. Saw horses and sheets of wood from the HD. Yes, we go buy 3 sheets of wood and then return them. Cost of my tables $0 and no storage issues. Check them out!

Well it was a great day, meeting some neighbors that have invited me to their sales coming up and spending time out of the usual routine with the little one at his first garage sale.

Oh, I almost forgot $300 and less trash!