Early Out/Early In

It's July and feels like it...hot, steamy, and, did I mention hot?! This is why yard sales start early in the South. There were 3 sales listed at 6am and I finished my "shopping" by 8:30. Just before the temps really started to rise. Whew! I was glad to get back in the AC, sipping my hot coffee (insert shrug here).


The hunt began dismally. There were not many sales listed: only 10 on my list (found on Craigslist and the newspaper) and only a handful of pop-ups. After walking back to my car empty handed for most of the morning or driving past a pitiful blanket spread out on a lawn, I thought I had wasted my time and gas. Still I had 2 more on my list as I headed back towards home.


No, wait, I did get more books for Grandma's library at one early sale.I enjoy Mercer Mayer books and no child's library would be complete without Where The Wild Things Are. (RIP Maurice Sendak). But still, only 3 books to show for my efforts?!

Books: 50 cents each

On my way I spotted a pop-up (my term for unadvertised sale) and pulled around to check it out. There I found several items and they came home with me.

The boxes below contain pens advertising a prescription. Nice pens, I don't care about the allergy meds. Our youth group always can use pens and for $1 for all of these (25 in a pack), I thought it was a good deal. The new with tags baby towel goes in "Grandma's stash" for grandson Nate visits.

Baby bath towel: 50 cents. Two boxes of pens $1

The outfit below, new without tags complete with hat, mitts and booties from FAO Schwartz in the pouch with the tag, was 75 cents. Nate will be sporting that but not for long as it is a size 1 month.

No, the lamp is not for me! I really bought it thinking of Brenna, my daughter. She had bought a smaller version of this style for Nate's nursery in a lime green. Asking price was $3 and I said yes. It is medium in height and I think would look nice in a different color but it would go with the color of the other lamps in her living room.

The lopper was $5. I wasn't sure, and was trying to check to see if the blades weren't warped from cutting a limb too thick. So when the seller saw me trying to see their condition, he offered to demonstrate and snipped off a branch of his shrub! Nice cut! Sold! Then he showed me the handles extend as well. So I think I got a good deal.

Having purchased my bargains, I moved on to the last sale on my list. Here were 2 college students with piles of stuff in the carport. Thank goodness for shade because the temps were starting to heat up. I spotted the cooler immediately and hearing $3 price I said yes and started my pile. Steve and I had bought (gasp, yes, retail!) one identical to this in NY a couple of weeks ago and paid $24. But it kept our food cold all day in 90 degree plus in direct sunlight, with ice cubes still intact. It is a medium size, very handy.

Next I put the box fan in the "pile" for $2 taking her word that it worked. I have already delivered that to my brother's home and the guest room where I stay. I do like fans when I sleep. They had so much stuff there, a mix of nice and ho hum. Then I spotted an air mattress with a built in pump. Holding it up it looked like a full size. The pump was battery operated and of course when we tried to turn it on, nothing happened. We agreed on a price of $3 since the pump couldn't be proved to work and then if it did, was there a leak (?).

I would like to have a full size air mattress at the family summer home for extra guests.

I paid up and as I drove off, I heard a weird noise in the back. It was the pump to the mattress! So I know it works but I had to turn it off quickly before the mattress inflated in my car!

I hope to test it out first chance I get. Will keep you posted on the condition!

When I spoke to Brenna and described the lamp she was very interested and reminded me of the second shade I purchased last weekend. Remember, 2 identical shades for $1? So I tried the shade on this lamp and it looks great. It has a new home at Brenna's and I don't know yet if it will remain the same color or will be spray painted. But for $3.50 she has a lamp and shade.

I called it a day and though not too many treasures were found, there were enough to make me happy. I headed to Morehead City to spend the weekend with my brother Sonny taking my "new" fan and the cooler with dinner prep in it. Perfect size for my needs. I love when yard sale finds get used immediately! The fan really came in handy that night since the AC upstairs where I sleep wasn't functioning very well.

The next day we used the cooler on the boat to keep the hotdogs in the buns warm for our lunch. Trick I learned helping out working concessions. You cook the hotdogs, put them in the buns and then put them back in the bun bag, closing it up and keep in a cooler. The dogs stay nice and hot with the steam inside the bag. This cooler was a great size for 2 bags of hotdogs in the buns and that way we kept them hot and seperate from the cooler for cold drinks. Again, so satisfying using a $3 item!

Had a wonderful weekend with my brother Sonny and was able to go out on a boat both days I was there. JOY!!! Even better was spending time with my niece and nephew and their families out on the water and at my brother's home at dinner. Yes, the temps were hot but that ocean breeze wind kept us very comfortable and made me wish I could bring it home to Greenville. Not much wind blowing there!

Kelley and Hugh now 2 years old!

Jon and Lindsey and little Beau

Ok, maybe Beau isn't so little! hasn't he grown! Almost 7 months old.

What a great way to spend a weekend and end a week! I feel very blessed with my family and extended family. Will have to wait until next month to visit again.

Hope you all have a great week and maybe found some trash treasures of your own! Until next week.

Thrifty Christy

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Hot Time in July

I am still in the glow of "grandma-hood". My grandson Nate was born this past Monday, June 25th; it has been a fun and wonderful week! I have been able to spend nights at my daughter Brenna and son-in-law, Robbie's home since I have been off from work having cut our vacation time to come back for Nate's arrival. Nate and I hang out while Mom and Dad get some much needed sleep in the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately for me, Nate was quick to go back to sleep last night and I didn't find it hard to get up and get on the road at 5:45 to make the first of 3 6am yard sales.

My daughter Ellie had planned on "trying" to come along with me since she is moving into a rental house this week and wanted to find some furniture. But the early bird was me and she slept in.  It is hard to get up on a Saturday morning when you work all week. I was on my own.

Last year I noticed the umbrella stroller at the Merriewold summer house was hard to push my great niece on the rocky dirt roads. Did I file that away and look for a suitable stroller at yard sales during this year to take up with me? No. Only when I arrived and saw the old one did it click. So yesterday I spotted this nice on and picked it up for $7. Funny thing is it is the same brand and model I bought earlier this year for my Grandma stash for Nate visits. Mine came with a shade, this one is missing that. I paid $5 for mine. But this will do nicely and we will replace the older model with this. Just needs a quick wash and will be ready for little one. Or so I thought! When I showed it to Brenna, she asked to buy it from me for Robbie's mom to use at her house. So the two grandmothers have matching strollers! How funny is that! Now the hunt continues for a replacement stroller for up north.

I also picked up another pack and play at the same sale for my sister Cee. She has given me funds for a friend's daughter who needs some baby items. Still looking for a jogging stroller and a high chair. I didn't take a picture of the pack and play. It was $15 without a zippered cover but in great condition. Nothing fancy, just functional.

I bought 2 of these shades for $1...total! That's 50cents a shade! I know I have a shade "problem" but just couldn't help myself.

The pattern is not swirly like the picture above. The picture below is much better. The flash at night made this one kind of swirly.

I felt much better about the shade purchase when I showed them to Brenna. She immediately expressed an interest. I replaced the shade she and Robbie didn't like on the lamp below with one of my purchases and voila! Looks great. Old shade goes to Goodwill and the extra one???? Hmmm, not sure about that one. Will probably stash in the attic with the others. #I'msobad!

Still building my Grandmother library so I bought these for 50cnts each. All but the Petunia book are board books and interactive. I think Petunia is a hoot and felt compelled to add her to my collection

I like cardigan sweaters and when you make it blue paisley....love it! It was $1, fits, and was brand new. 

Washed it when I came home and now I have to wait for the 100 degree temps to subside.

 It is very light weight but not enough for summertime use! Bonus is the brand. Jones New York has proved to me a good quality brand.

The glass below is one of 6 I purchased for 50cents each. I should have bought the rest, 8 total but didn't. The glasses are a nice ice tea size (for us Southerners reference) and a heavy weight. I immediately pulled my mismatched ones oout of the cabinet and will be doing a Goodwill run tomorrow. I like 'em! 

Should have bought 8 instead of six....what was I thinking?

Same sale I purchased a queen sheet set for $3. The photo below is not great, the colors are brighter than this. I had just taken the sheets out of the dryer and decided not to take a pic of the whole set. These will go to the Merriewold summer house. I have added so many layers of memory foam to the downstairs mattress, the old set can't go over the mattress now! These have deeper pockets so should accomidate the pad issue.

Queen sheet, part of the set for $3

Brenna called me Sunday morning to tell me about a yard sale posted on Facebook and the ad had mentioned a jogging stroller. That is an item on my list from Cee. I skedaddled (literally) accross town to get to the sale only to find the stroller was priced $50.00. No way. and it doesn't fold. So no thank you to the stroller but yes to the storage cube with brown canvas box on the top shelf for $4. Ellie needs something like this for her house and after I called to verify yes, she wants it, I put it in the car.

The seller had lots of baby boy things, nice yes, but prices were waaayy too high for a yard sale. As in, $5 for a name brand onesie. But I did purchase this bag containing 2 cute hats and mitts for gulp, $1.50. Well, I had come that far and Nate could use some mitts. Colors were so cute, couldn't resist.

Enjoying finding Nate stuff!

Tile cutter


Why did I buy a tile cutter? Maybe I am compulsive and couldn't resist the $2 price. And also because 

I would like to tile the backsplash in my kitchen and this may come in handy. 

We shall see. For $2, hopefully I will be glad I bought it.

And folks that concludes this past weekend's finds. Will be out again next weekend hunting. Hope you found some bargain treasures of your own. Have a great week.

Thrifty Christy

with Blogsy

Husband on Board

It has been a wild, wonderful couple of weeks! So busy, I have had no time to blog but I have taken the time to find some yard sales. As I mentioned in my last post, my husband Steve and I left for the Catskills area of New York on June 16th for our annual vacation at the Logan family summer house in Forestburg, NY. Well, actually the house is located in a private park called Merriewold, with dirt roads and nestled amid the woods. We love it.

So it takes a day for us to travel there from NC cause we like to stop and take breaks as well as getting off interstates when we are able. We prefer a scenic route to say the least. The following Saturday, June 24th, Steve accompanied me for the first time in YEARS in search of yard sales. I was delighted to have the company and he was hoping to find hockey gear in this northern location. We had fun but no hockey equipment was found that Saturday.

I did mention the secluded nature of the summer house, right? Well, yard sales are somewhat hard to find around there so we headed to a larger town, Middletown, in hopes of finding more sales and maybe sales in small towns along the way.

We stopped in a quaint little town called Wurtsboro and found 2 sales there. Steve found 5 movies on vhs for $1 each (I wouldn't have paid that much but...)and he was happy with his selections. I forgot to take pics of them and they were left behind in Merriewold for next year's viewing. We did watch one, Woody Allen's Hannah and her Sisters that night. Love that movie! We moved on to Middletown and found several sales there. Since there is no printer at the Merriewold house I didn't copy/paste and have a list of sales. We were "freestyling" as they call it on American Pickers.

I found these vintage 3 inch Santa face mugs for $2. I don't know why, I just think they are cute and will be fun to use decorating for the Christmas holiday.

One on the left is plastic. The other two are porcelain

At the same sale, I found this choker style necklace. I was admiring it when I opened the case when the seller came over and told me it was a freshwater seed pearl necklace and she had it for many years. I counted the strands later and there are 12 single strands. It is lovely. It was late in the morning and she was eager to unload her wares; said earlier she had been asking $25 but now would sell for $10. I didn't hesitate!! The clasp is a little discolored on the bottom but it is a sturdy clasp, the length is perfect and I like the cloth case that folds up around it. Obviously not real gold.

The picture below was taken at a different time of day, so the color is off.

With case unfolded

At the same sale I saw several silverplated flatware pieces. Among them was a bundled set of 5 knives with a $5 price tag. Steve and I have been using his mom's old silverplate flatware with mismatched pieces since last year. We brought them home from the Merriewold house since they weren't being used and Steve remembered using them growing up in NJ. The knives in his Mom's set are pretty well worn out, lots of metal showing through the worn silverplate. I had been looking online at Ebay occasionally to see if I could find some cheap but nothing leaped out. So I picked up the set for $5 and they cleaned up very well, with not much wear showing.

Before cleaning

After cleaning!

Then I found this sweet kitchen timer for 75 cents. Didn't realize until after we returned home that Monticello Racetrack and Casino is printed on it. The Merriewold house is located approximately 7 miles from Monticello and the Racetrack. I bought it for the Merriewold house kitchen so there it stays.

Cluck cluck for 75 cents

At another Middletown sale the seller was offering "everything on the blankets is 50cts and all sets are $1. So I picked up a set of 4 of these plates for $1. I was thinking of mixing them in with the Spode plates I will someday hang on the wall. These are salad/dessert size. I like the yellow. They are Saxony French make, with 22k gold. Not valuable but old and pretty. I am happy with them.

Set of 4 for $1....cute!

At the same sale, Steve picked up a huge mug for 50cts. The coffee pot is nearly depleated when he fills it. He is so happy with that mug! It stays in Merriewold for consumption there. He used it several times with great satisfaction.

I picked up these two milk glass vases for 50cents. The larger one is about 18inches tall. The smaller one is around 6inches. I like old milk glass.

The last sale we hit on the way home near Port Jervis was a moving sale. Lady was leaving for Florida and taking only what she could fit in her car. So I picked up this large slow cooker, but it didn't have a lid. She ran back in the house and came out with the top you see here. It fit! Paid $2. I will give my other large cooker to my sister Cee who has expressed a desire for the older model cooker. Poor Steve thought I was buying it to leave at the Merriewold house and was not happy to find it in the car when we packed to go home later!

It works by the way! Used it this weekend.

We stopped at an estate sale in Middletown but didn't purchase anything. Most of what I would have been interested in was too large to carry home such as this desk. It called to me and Steve and admired it on our way in. It was on the front porch. Our little Civic can only hold so much! Strapping it on top of the car was not an option!

Down the road in Middletown we admired the old Victorian homes in the older neighborhood we drove through looking for yard sales. We stopped at a sale at this house. This is a side of the house I admired because of the stained glass windows in the bay window. It was in need of repair definitely, but we enjoyed looking at the architectual details.

Here is the front of the house. The sale was located in the driveway on the other side of the screened porch. I just love this house!

And as we headed to the driveway and the sale, we were greeted with this! How cool is that! No, again, we could only admire...no room in the car!

Didn't even ask the price, but coming from Pirate country, he would have made an impact on our front porch!

They had lots of items but nothing I wanted or could use. Nice set up and perfect driveway for a sale.

I had fun with Steve on our yard sale adventure and he was a good sport about the search, the hunt, and the traveling time. Hopefully next year we won't have to go so far to find sales. We will see if he comes again.

We were due to leave Merriewold on July 1st, which was our daughter Brenna's due date. Well, Sunday, June 24th we got a call at 4pm from Brenna that Nate was on the way. We quickly packed up and got on the road but didn't make in time for Nate's arrival at 2:30am on June 25th. We had only made it to Silver Springs, Va. and had to stop at 1:30am. Traffic was heavy and a storm was coming.

We met Nate later that day in the hospital. Brenna and Nate were just fine and Steve and I resolved then and there we would never put ourselves that far away so close to a grandchild's birth. 

Below is me with Nate. I have a new love in my life!

A wonderful outcome of cutting a two week vacation short is being able to have a whole week off from work to help out with the new family! I have been able to spend the night since they came home Tuesday to help with the nighttime feedings. Well, what I could do was get Nate to sleep while Brenna and Robbie went up early to catch some extra sleep. Some nights Nate just wasn't interested in sleeping after his meal so he and I had some wee early morning chats.

I really meant to post this much earlier. However, I will get it done and hope you enjoy. Take care and happy thrifting.

Thrifty Christy

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