Wkend Spending/or NOT

It's on the weekends that I am OUT and spending, I realize - but this weekend, I hope, is the start of a new trend.  We went up to the boat - and Saturday participated in the Marina's Boater's Swap Meet.

My husband sold off an engine he just hated - and I sat next to a marine buddy with my pile of paperbacks.  I flogged the books off  for $.25 each or 5 for $1 -  with some $1 hardbacks and got rid of 30 or so books, making a little pin money in the meantime.  And I had an excuse to sit in the lovely beach sunshine and drink in the clear ocean air. 

Then my husband heard of a chance to strip a boat that was headed for the junk heap - and took all sorts of stuff off of it - a heater, hotplates, a variety of stainless steel boat hardware (he told me that some of those pieces are worth $25 each) - an extra sail, some emergency equipment, a clockradio/CD player, new dock lines (again worth $20 each) - some anchor line, 2 anchors, anchor chain - and heavens knows what else...Some he will keep and some sell off...

We then were so beat that we spent a quiet night on the boat - Mark playing his guitar and me reading one of my library books. We spent Sunday as usual - walked down to the Farmer's Market and listened to the music, talking with friends. Used a few dollars of the $ I made on Sat. to make a political contribution.  I bought a varnished boat flag pole to put our extra toilet paper on in the bathroom - (any stick will due - I had decided against an old oar because of space restrictions, altho I love the idea...)

And then off to my Sunday gig - on  the way we both got FREE small cappuchinos at Starbucks with an online coupon (good until 10/31).  Boy, did I need that coffee and it was a very nice treat.   Then for dinner we had Arby's big sandwiches, drawn by a coupon for 2 for $5 - but they were having a special anyway, so we saved the coupon for an other day.

In the end, I made more $ than I spent!  Hoorah! Not a big return, by any means, but it justified sitting there in the sun all afternoon.  I am recovering from a horrible cold, so that was very nice.  And putting together the bags of books was easy and cleared out the bedroom of its book clutter at the same time.  Bits of $ are very motivating to me.

Then I came home find in the mail a Fiber One creal sample and bar, some free magazines, and a card for a free Proventil inhaler.  (We use those.) Oh, and some silly goodies for a friend's Xmas present....

There may be another sale in town next weekend - I am told books don't sell - Well, perhaps not BIG - but it does offset the (used) book budget, at least.  We are getting used to the new pared-down budget.  For me it's just back to the olden days before I got married again!

One last note - a degree of hoarding can be a downside to bargain collecting.  I realize that I have back stores of lots of items - especially in the skin care category, what with all my samples!  So I am going to make a point of using up what I have accumulated.  That goes with my wardrobe, too.  I am going to unearth what I ahve that I haven't worn for a while and see what I can do before much indulging in anything else! (Of course, I broke that rule the weekend before last - but I got a bag of stuff for $10, which included a green velvet jacket, a blue cotton jacket, white pants, an acqua tunic, a brown blouse, a yellow beaded headband, a red and black silk hat, lip gloss, and other stuff -all very nice, too...so I don't feel too bad about it!)

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