Today’s Garage sale Haul:

Five smaller gifts $2.00

Manual chopper .10

Popsicle molds .10

Potholder (silicon) .25

Crazy light bulb .25

5 CDs 10.00

Colander .25

Tortilla shell molds 1.00

Raspberry Bar .50

That’s $2 gifts, $11.95 household, and 50 cents entertainment.

The CDs were the big expense; otherwise it would have come under $5. However, I feel like a good used CD, in a case with inserts, is not a bad deal at $2 each (they were 2.50 each, 5 for $10). I got The Best of Eric Clapton, Tori Amos- Little Earthquakes, Rolling Stones-Stripped, Neil Young-Harvest, and Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits.

I tried to find a picture of the light bulb online and was unsuccessful searching for novelty bulbs. It’s an incandescent, regular bulb shape. But it has silicone “spikes” on it, in a pattern, in three different colors. A little odd, but it spoke to me. It’s not exactly my style, but we have a bare bulb fixture in the laundry room so I put it in there.

The five smaller gifts include a nice bunch of candles for one of the women who periodically brings me gorgeous cardigans. My gifts stash, or either person specific or good general gifts, is growing nicely.

For the household items, My Guy was really excited by the Tortilla mold set; I figured he’d be which was why I was willing to spend a dollar. It came with instructions, and we hope to bake some molds soon. I love the idea of the tortilla shell for a salad being low-fat baked instead of fried. The chopper also excited him, as he plans to use it for onions. The colander is a nice sleek metal thing which will replace the battered melted plastic one we had. I’d kept my eye out for months for one at a low enough price.

If you ever hold a garage sale, consider hanging the clothes. I’ll bet you sell at least three times as much. At a few places, since I don’t need any clothes except fancier work stuff, I’d take one look at a piled high table and pass. It was even worse when the stuff was piled on sheets or tarps on the ground. Maybe there were excellent items in those piles, but I wasn’t up to looking, whereas I’ll always flip through any hung clothing.

The popsicle molds excited me; not sure how soon I’ll play with it yet. I have lots of ideas re: gelatin, yogurt, jams, iced tea, juice, canned fruit, canned fruit juices, etc.

I had a bunch of clothes that I took in to be exchanged. These were bought pre-Challenge, so I wasn’t sure how to handle the money aspect of it. I could have gotten cash back but I certainly wouldn’t have counted it as income. I exchanged for 3 items, and spent less than I exchanged for. (I used the rest of the credit to pants for My Guy for which he’ll reimburse me). I got two $10.99 dresses and a $12.99 skirt. I wasn’t going to count these an expense on The Challenge because I didn’t put any money out, and if I didn’t have exchange credit there’s no way I would have ever bought them. If anyone has an issue with this, I can reconsider posting it as an expense. I have some work events coming up that are going to require that I bump it up a tad; I know that to some an $11.99 dress is cheap, but to me it seemed quite high end.

I forgot to conclude the Clear Lake story (driving down to help my dad’s wife with a piece of property a couple weeks ago). As far as gas (3 hour drive), D paid to fill up my tank, and I almost worried about it, except for two reasons. First, My Guy and I went down there to perform manual labor to help her. Second, sometimes when I feel generous and give someone something or treat them, it can be a small frustration when they say “oh no, you shouldn’t,” or act embarrassed, when I truly want to be generous. So I figured that it’s good to learn to graciously receive if you want to give a lot. On that note I also accepted when she took us out to eat, at a nice little Mexican restaurant with very reasonable prices. As an extra bonus, I got a little travel kit that she wasn’t using-a facial scrub, cleanser, lotions, etc. It was awfully nice seeing D, and I was a little jealous of My Guy who went later in the week to get some more done.