Wednesday, August 31, 2011

...sometimes, the best things in life are FREE

Up early Saturday morning, J and I were on a mission... to visit 'Borders Bookstore' one final time, and hit some sales of a 'Community Wide' Sale enroute.
A beautiful, sunny, cool, morning, yet the 'saling' was pretty much a bust. Few sale. The ones that we did come upon were full of bright colored plastic toys and kids clothes - NOPE. NO USE for them. NOT EVEN STOPPING. Then one caught my eye! Old farm house out on a back road. Close to the road sat an old hardsided suitcase amongst other 'old stuff' - STOP! Upon inspection of the suitcase, it was dusty but pristine inside. It sat amongst a pile of vintage board games, an old heavy metal ceiling light fixtures, strands of old xmas light bulbs... but none of it was priced - then I noticed, I had been gawking at the 'FREE' pile. Sorry folks, but I have a strict policy that I will not take from somebody's free pile without buying from them. So I HAD to find stuff to buy!! On to see what they were selling... Doesn't it figure, Young family w/ kids buys old house - tosses 'junk' they find in attic and sells their Home Interiors ~ Target ~ Little Tyke stuff at the garage sale!! F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. I find a new snow brush for the Blazer and a couple of unopened bottles of Bath & Body Works lotions to buy so that I can snag the freebies!!
My saling urge was quenched.
~ONTO BORDERS BOOKSTORE~
ALL BOOKS are 50% off - DANGER! DANGER!
I behaved 'fairly well', bought mostly Xmas presents, until an announcement came over the PA system that for the next 1/2 hr everything in their Cafe', including fixtures, would be included in the 50% off sale - WoHoo! So, we added to our shopping basket: a case of new recessed lightbulbs for our kitchen($12), a BIG bag of Coffee Espresso Beans ($7), and a fun red post with hooks about 2' tall - no clue what to do with it, but it was only a $1!
Leisurely journey home, stopped by a few markets... made one purchase.
SweaterClip 2011#9 - $1
(Hey, averaging about one a month - not bad!!)

6 comments:

ROBBIN (with 2 b's) said...

If you need someone to sort those scrabble tiles, just let me know and we could arrange a "work session" for C & A.

Shara said...

I never take from the Free Pile without buying either. Once I had a sale and a lady pulled up in her car, opened the door, grabbed the FREE box - literally the box and all the contents - threw it in the passenger seat and took off all without ever coming to a complete stop. I had just used half a marker making the FREE sign and really wished she wouldn't have taken it.

Vintage Christine said...

A free pile? I have never, ever, EVER seen one at any yard sale I've gone to down here--EVERYTHING has a price even if it's just a quarter. There are so many obnoxious people that I've run into at the sales that it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see someone like Shara described doing the same thing! That is so sad about Borders.

Vintage Christine said...

PS--I just read over my comment and I really didn't mean to make it sound like SHARA would do that!

Shara said...

:O)

Anonymous said...

Yaay for free stuff! Speaking of free stuff... You were the only one to enter my giveaway (shows how much I promote my blog right?) It turns out I didnt read the sponsors fine print. I had to have a certain number of entries to qualify. Bummer right? Well you are still a winner in my book!! Email me your address and I will send you a box of goodies from my personal goodie stash! They will be much better than a stack of some dumb labels I assure you ;)