YARD SALES!
Ok, I totally love yardsaling. Yes, I know, that's technically not a word, but it should be. With everyone's focus on saving money, yardsales are a great way to live on less. I love getting a great deal on something, and I have to confess, I was born to haggle. I think it's a gift. I get some kind of high out of negotiating the best price.
It used to embarass my husband. He sees a price on something, he thinks, that's what it costs. If you want it, that's what you pay. Nah-uh. That's just a reference point from which to begin the negotiations. Once, I saw a particular item I wanted. The price said $50. For that? Nope. I whispered to my husband that I would buy it, but that I had no intention of paying more than $35. "The price says $50," he whispered back. "I'm going to try to get it for $35," I stubbornly replied. I turned to the man selling the item and offered him 30 bucks. I could see my husband's mouth about to open and I knew the words that would issue forth, I thought you said you'd pay $35, but thankfully the dear man kept his thoughts to himself. The man whose item I was trying to buy paused a moment, the wheels in his head whirring rapidly as he considered my offer. "How about $35?" I nodded thoughtfully and with feigned reluctance, agreed. Now my husband sets his embarassment aside and is thankful that his thrifty-minded self married a woman of like mind. He's even haggled a little himself on occassion.
I take yardsaling seriously. Therefore, I plan ahead to make sure I don't miss the perfect deal.
Here's my strategy:
1. Check Classified section of local papers online and on Craigslist for yardsales in my area.
2. Use the search engine on each website to search for those items I'm most interested in finding. This helps me weed through a sometimes lengthy list of yardsales. That way I know which ones are most likely worth my time.
3. Write down the addresses of all the yardsales I want to attend and the times they start.
4. Day of yardsales - get out my handy GPS and type in the address of the first yardsale I want to check out. I never thought I'd be a GPS kind of girl, but seriously, I'm not sure how I lived without it.
5. Continue to navigate from yardsale to yardsale using the GPS. Just type in the address of the next yardsale (from your prepared list, of course) and off you go.
6. When haggeling, I always offer a little lower than what I'm willing to pay. Then I hope that the other person is willing to negotiate and offers a price close to what I want to pay. Also, I don't haggle the small stuff. If they're asking a reasonable price on a small item, and it's within my price range, I pay it. Save your superb negotiation skills for those higher priced items where you'll really save a few bucks.
I've already found some great items this year. The other week I bought an antique Louis Vuitton trunk for $5! It's in pretty rough condition, so I'm not sure that's it's really worth much, but it'll make a neat coffee table at least and I'm thinking it's probably worth more than five bucks.
Do you yardsale? If so, do you have a story about a special "find" or "deal" of which you are particularly proud?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
New Title, New Job
Ok, so I'm rather proud of my creativity in renaming this blog. Tete-a-tete is a French phrase, meaning a face to face conversation. I remember seeing it used in many of the classics and came across it again recently while I was rereading Pride and Prejudice. I thought this would be a perfect title for my blog because, while we're hardly face to face, I hope to create that same type of friendship with my readers.
Today is also the first day of my new job, or rather lack thereof. After much prayer and discussion, my husband and I decided it was finally time for me to resign from my day job and stay at home full-time, at least for the time being. One day into this new challenge, and so far I'm loving it. My house is clean, a homemade dinner is in the oven, and I'm hoping to have more time to work on my writing.
I'm going to make a point of trying to blog at least once a week. So check back often and leave me a comment to let me know what's going on in your life.
Happy Monday everyone!
Today is also the first day of my new job, or rather lack thereof. After much prayer and discussion, my husband and I decided it was finally time for me to resign from my day job and stay at home full-time, at least for the time being. One day into this new challenge, and so far I'm loving it. My house is clean, a homemade dinner is in the oven, and I'm hoping to have more time to work on my writing.
I'm going to make a point of trying to blog at least once a week. So check back often and leave me a comment to let me know what's going on in your life.
Happy Monday everyone!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Where I've Been
Ok, here's the brief update of where I've been the last few months, and why I haven't been blogging.
After I came home from the ACFW conference in September, my husband began to develop a cold and ear infection that just wouldn't go away. Numerous antibiotics later he still wasn't any better and finally started to get much worse very quickly. A week and a half before Christmas, we finally went back to the doctor determined to get the right medicine to make him well, and several tests later, left the doctor being told that they thought he had cancer and that it was already spreading throughout his body. Of course we got the whole "be positive" speech and "they're doing some really great new things in treatment," but the general impression we were given by our doctors that day, was that his days were numbered.
The most horrible three days of my life followed. I could go on and on about the emotions that took place during the long nights where I barely slept, and tried not to think about my likely future as a twenty-five year old widow, or how I might have to watch my husband suffer in the months ahead.
After three days of this anxiety and torture, we saw a specialist who gave us much better news. He said he did not think it was cancer, but a rare auto immune disorder which could explain all his various symptoms of the last few months. With proper treatment (which we were able to start a few weeks later), he could get back to normal.
It's been almost three months now since he was first diagnosed and he is doing fantastic. We've been going to Johns Hopkins for his appointments (which is such a blessing in and of itself, to have the best of the best so close to where we live and covered by our insurance) and at our last appointment there the doctor said "I see patients like you every day, and you're going to be fine." What a relief to hear those words!
Through all of this, he's only missed about two or three days of work besides what he's needed to take off to go to appointments. What a trooper! Now that he's feeling better, he's his old self again and is almost ready to finish his MCSA Certification (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator). The drama of the last few months make that an even bigger accomplishment. I'm so proud of my wonderful husband.
So many of you have been praying for us right from that first scary diagnosis, and we really appreciate it. I can't believe we went from thinking we were going to soon lose him to being able to look forward to a future together again, pretty much the same as we had before. The only prayer requests we really have now are that he would continue to respond well to treatment and that there would be no long-term side affects from the medication he's taking. We praise the Lord for a speedy diagnosis and a wonderful response to treatment.
So, that's where I've been the last few months. No, it hasn't taken every waking moment of my life by any means, and we're now down to just a once a month check-up. But I'm, how shall I say it... Emotional and a huge worrier. And being all worked up makes me not feel like writing, blogging, or doing much of anything beyond the basics of my life. But I feel like now I'm starting to calm down from all we've been through and feel like getting back to the writing. I've done major revisions on the first three chapters of my manuscript and am hoping to send it to the publisher who asked to see it back at ACFW, hopefully before Easter.
Again, thank you to everyone who has remembered us in prayer. We've seen the Lord work in amazing ways and are praying for that to continue.
After I came home from the ACFW conference in September, my husband began to develop a cold and ear infection that just wouldn't go away. Numerous antibiotics later he still wasn't any better and finally started to get much worse very quickly. A week and a half before Christmas, we finally went back to the doctor determined to get the right medicine to make him well, and several tests later, left the doctor being told that they thought he had cancer and that it was already spreading throughout his body. Of course we got the whole "be positive" speech and "they're doing some really great new things in treatment," but the general impression we were given by our doctors that day, was that his days were numbered.
The most horrible three days of my life followed. I could go on and on about the emotions that took place during the long nights where I barely slept, and tried not to think about my likely future as a twenty-five year old widow, or how I might have to watch my husband suffer in the months ahead.
After three days of this anxiety and torture, we saw a specialist who gave us much better news. He said he did not think it was cancer, but a rare auto immune disorder which could explain all his various symptoms of the last few months. With proper treatment (which we were able to start a few weeks later), he could get back to normal.
It's been almost three months now since he was first diagnosed and he is doing fantastic. We've been going to Johns Hopkins for his appointments (which is such a blessing in and of itself, to have the best of the best so close to where we live and covered by our insurance) and at our last appointment there the doctor said "I see patients like you every day, and you're going to be fine." What a relief to hear those words!
Through all of this, he's only missed about two or three days of work besides what he's needed to take off to go to appointments. What a trooper! Now that he's feeling better, he's his old self again and is almost ready to finish his MCSA Certification (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator). The drama of the last few months make that an even bigger accomplishment. I'm so proud of my wonderful husband.
So many of you have been praying for us right from that first scary diagnosis, and we really appreciate it. I can't believe we went from thinking we were going to soon lose him to being able to look forward to a future together again, pretty much the same as we had before. The only prayer requests we really have now are that he would continue to respond well to treatment and that there would be no long-term side affects from the medication he's taking. We praise the Lord for a speedy diagnosis and a wonderful response to treatment.
So, that's where I've been the last few months. No, it hasn't taken every waking moment of my life by any means, and we're now down to just a once a month check-up. But I'm, how shall I say it... Emotional and a huge worrier. And being all worked up makes me not feel like writing, blogging, or doing much of anything beyond the basics of my life. But I feel like now I'm starting to calm down from all we've been through and feel like getting back to the writing. I've done major revisions on the first three chapters of my manuscript and am hoping to send it to the publisher who asked to see it back at ACFW, hopefully before Easter.
Again, thank you to everyone who has remembered us in prayer. We've seen the Lord work in amazing ways and are praying for that to continue.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
