Garage Sale Results & More

Note to self:
Canada Day Long weekends, when the stat falls on a Tuesday therefore 99% of employers give the employees the Monday off as well, making it a 4 day weekend, are not good weekends to hold garage sales or any other sort of event requiring the attendance of people who are more than likely headed out of town.

I cannot believe we didn't realize this when we decided on a day to host the garage sale.

Attendance was sporadic - we did get customers of course, but I think had we chosen a better weekend, we would have had more than we got.

My sister picked me up at 6:30am and we started setting up right away - what a lot of work! Up and down the stairs at my parent's place, hauling boxes of books, or dishes, or clothes...then setting the items up in a pleasing fashion - yikes.

I was so tired yesterday afternoon, after the sale and cleanup had been completed. I'm still tired!

We only made about $250.00 all together, and had a lot of things left over. I'm attributing our poor earnings and leftovers to the lack of attendance - we contemplated saving everything and re doing the sale either next weekend or the weekend after but we were so tired after hauling it all outside once that the thought of packing it all up and having to set it up again another time was just too daunting.

So who made what?

My brother, with all of his Gap and American Eagle clothing (like new!), made a whopping $73.50.
My sister, who had a dog kennel and a bicycle for sale, made an impressive $67.25.
Mom made about $65 (I had forgotten to write down her exact total so this was our best guesstimate without re counting all the change). She had a jack all and a scroll saw of my Dad's that made her total so high.
And I made a pittance - $31.75. This is partially because I was selling my items exceptionally cheaply - for example, a complete bedding set (comforter, bedskirt, flat and fitted sheets, 2 pillowcases) that was like new (I'd never used, came with the bed we were given), was priced at $5. My sister sold it for $2.50. So I sold a lot of things, but I didn't make as much as I would have liked.

Our total costs were $26.00 (newspaper ad, signage materials and Timbits) which we split evenly at $5.50 each.

All in all, it was a good day. Baby Bear behaved incredibly well - we were all so surprised at his contentment to play in his playpen outside with us, as well as a few cuddles from one of us. It was fun, and it was nice to spend a better part of the day with my family - but I'm glad it's over.

It's been so hot the past few days! I'm not complaining about the sunny weather, quite the opposite in fact - it's just that it's been so so hot in our apartment!

Tonight we have a family BBQ to attend at my Aunt's, thankfully the yard is totally shaded with big trees. We're having farmer sausage, Greek and Caesar salads, brown beans and various snack fare. It's going to be great! We don't get to see my extended family very often so it will be nice to see all my cousins and their kids.

Tomorrow is grocery shopping - and that's it, thank goodness. Hopefully we can get it done earlier in the morning, before the heat of the day sets in.

How about a picture of Baby Bear?


Last night I was attempting to catch up on some of the blogs I read, and one of the posts really rung true for me - I just had to share it with you!

Chocolate & Zucchini's Clothilde does a bit of 'green proselytization' by sharing with us her views on reusable shopping bags - if you have the time, read the comments as well!

Her post most definitely converted me, and I was inspired to purchase the 'flip and tumble' bag to keep in my purse - it will be well used in future trips to the produce store, convenience store and more. The bag was only $12, and is available in 5 colors (I chose the raspberry). It rolls up like you'd roll up a pair of socks, and becomes about the size of a peach - that would fit into most purses without trouble. See, you have no excuse!

I've also decided that I'll be taking my reusable grocery bags to Walmart from now on - I know I'll get weird looks from the cashiers, and it might be a bit of an uphill battle, but I don't really care. Plastic bags are sacking the environment!!

Two other things that reading the comments inspired me to change were what type of eggs I'm buying as well as the container they are packaged in:

I normally just grab a carton of eggs, the cheapest I can find, without thinking about the origins of them.

This is the life of a chicken destined for it's flesh or eggs. Viewer discretion advised. Watch it anyway - our jaded and desensitized society needs the shock value to get off our asses and change our selfish lives.

Read this article, and then this one.

Of course, PETA's web page is very biased, and the only suggestion they offer as to what they consider valid, is to go vegetarian.

Papa Bear and I are not going vegetarian.

So I need to do further research on purchasing eggs that have been laid by happy chickens - I'm thinking somewhere local but further investigation is necessary. This has also led me to ponder my meat sources - happy aminals (misspelling intentional) make better meat.


The second inspiration came from the containers eggs are packaged in. Obviously, if I am going to be buying my eggs from a local source or what have you, I'll need this item anyway - remember these??


I do!! My Mom had the typical yellow one in our camping gear. I'm going to be picking one up one our grocery shopping trip tomorrow.

They are washable, reusable and totally awesome!! Not to mention cheap - Coleman's web site advertises them priced at under $4.00. I can't wait to see if I can find a yellow one - but to be even more environmentally friendly, I'm Facebooking my Mom right now, asking if she still has hers, so that I don't have to purchase one new!

Egads, I've turned this post into quite the epic novel here, haven't I. When you've got the passion for something though, you just can't stop.

Have a great day and we'll meet again tomorrow!