The Mon. After a Lovely Wkend!

Another wkend - NIce it was a long one, as I visited my kindly shrink in Ojai on Friday afternoon & thus had an excuse todo my Ojai rounds.  Visited 2 of the local thrift shops - & got some nice patent ballet flats for $1 (which I can see wearing everywhere) & some grey knit Liz Claiborne pants which go very nicely with a black and grey woven jacket I have! 
 

And some miscellany - some clip earrings at the other church thrift shop - a $.50 felt pirate hat and a $.10 kids tamborine (more about that later) - even some tools! Then to the library shop for mysteries for $.25 apieces & Bart's Books for their $.50 old books.  Also picked up an Xmas present in a small antique shop -

Then a friend of ours was playing at a local wine shop which has a tasting area/bar in the back.  The pirate hat came in handy, as George the musician hadn't brought anything costumy, even tho it was Halloween, so we put it on his head & Mark got a drum out of the car & I provided rhythm on the 10 cent tamborine, which sounded remarkable good for the price! (Even contributed some harmonic vocals).I made a point of drumming up tips for George, as I know he needs the $ - and you know, if you are playing for tips, I think you have a right to wave the tip container around a bit.  Probably made twice as much as he would have otherwise....We had beer and their pizza appetizers, quite inexpensively, which did us for dinner & a good time was had by all!

Then on Saturday after the rain I went to Lassen's Health Food Store to get my tea tree oil toothpicks (I swear they have helped my gums A LOT.) And, of course, to snag their generous free samples! (Lotions, a liniment of sorts, and various supplements.)

We then went to the local 99 Cent Store down the road to stock up on staples like sauces and salad dressings, etc.  Great deals there for that.  Even got some fish oil to last until the next payday when we can buy the big bottle - and a pocket calendar book for 2009 for me (last year's was from Barnes & Noble - nice, but really too BIG).- and some bagels - (we put them in the freezer.) Another old ladies' charitable thrift shop is a few blocks away & Mark splurged on a lovely framed old sailboat print for his brother for Xmas (1/2 off) - and I found some brand new fisherman sandals in a nice cocoa for fall for $5! ($48 new...) And I also picked up little holiday pins, ornaments, etc. - because I plan just to put little tokens in Xmas cards for many ceremonial Xmas presents this year! (The secretaries at Mark's office, and so on....) Everything goes into the Xmas bag....

We had dinner using my Whale's Tail coupon for a free entree up in the pub area, which I like best - and saved $10  -  and on Sunday Mark used another coupon for Carl's Jr Breakfast sandwiches, which were a little spicy - but quite good. Mark also got some money on a deal he was doing with recycling the fittings of the boat he stripped last weekend - some more $ in our pockets.

So it was a getaway with more frills than at home - Oh, the boat is lovely even when it RAINS!.  But we did find ourselves cutting corners all over the place, and now that my husband is also on the bargain beam, we did manage to keep expenses down.

Reading articles in the L.A. Times and elsewhere talking about how old customs are coming back into favor - Like layaway, which they had declared "dead in the 80's" and using pawn shops for small secured loans.  I did that for for YEARS at a friendly local artsy-craftsy pawnshop Brother Collateral.  They are old musicians themselves and there is a lively trade in instruments, as well as jewelry, and so on.  I myself have gotten some percussion instruments there and gotten very good deals. They lend $ on all SORTS of stuff.  A friend of mine has even brought his antiques in there. 

You have to know about pawnshops that they only give you about 10% of the value upfront, and they make their $ when the loan defaults, as many do - So GET your STUFF out of THERE and MARK the DATES on your CALENDAR.  But I have had instruments in "protective custody" as I have called it & really they were probably safer there all locked up for the moment than they would have been at my place.  Another way to look at it.  A safety deposit box with benefits!

In the old days ladies would always look to their jewelry as their only personal wealth - and it's something to think about, too.  Silver, which was quite common when I was young, has gone up and now has more value than ever....And you can even find it lying around unnoticed in thrift shops.  I got a great silver cuff bracelet for $1 because it was so tarnished and black they didn't know it was silver - but silver oxide has a particular smell I seem to be able to recognize so I got it for a song and went home and polished it UP.

There are even companies which will pay you for your junk gold  if you send it in - so save that old dental gold, and your broken gold jewelry, it's WORTH something!

Caught up on my freebies - going to collect some for Xmas giving - like giving the lady next door shampoo  - so I am gettting almost EVERYTHING. 

I am just going to tell myself that on Monday I go back to work like everyone else, except that I am at home in front of my computer. I hope that looking at it as a workday will help me shift my overall perspective.  Even the freebie hunting is part of my "work." Remember that those samples COST money when you BUY the sample sizes at the drug store for a trip - so you ARE making/saving about $1 each sample - that figures in the income, doesn't it?  Besides, it's fun...I love getting things in the post - like a little kid getting their own mail!

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