I Love Freebies!!

Earlier this week, a friend told me about a $10 OFF coupon that the store Pier One was giving away through Facebook.

I immediately clicked on the link and printed out my coupon!!! YAY!! All you had to do was make a $10 purchase and you got $10 off!! It was as simple as that!

So, before the coupon expired.... I stopped by the store to see what I could find to purchase.

Pier One has SOOOO many pretty things!!

I was really hoping to find something to use for my tablescaping.

I looked and looked. And looked some more!! Everything that I liked would have ended up costing me MORE than my $10! --- I think that was their plan!!

I really liked these ----

My pictures didn't turn out so good, since I took them with my phone.... but the light aqua color was SO PRETTY on these dishes! The first picture shows some chargers that were a very light aqua color!! These caught my eye first. Then, I turned the corner and saw this table setting!! LOVED IT!!! But, none of it was in my little $10 budget, unfortunately. WELL.... I "could" have just bought ONE of something! But, how much fun would that have been??

After going around and around the store, many times.... I kept going back to these beautiful acrylic goblet glasses. They are my favorite color and will be fun to use out by my pool!

They were on clearance for $4.98 each. (Regularly $6.50)

Of course.... they didn't quite total up to $10.... so.... I had to purchase something else!!

I ended up with a pair of earrings that I kept going back to. They were $6.50!! Haha! Oh well! At least I got the glasses for free!! **Smile**

(I forgot to take a picture of the earrings. Sorry about that!)

A Fun Day of Thrifting!

Georgia and I had a fun time yesterday. I am SO GLAD that we got together! I don't know why we don't see each other more often.

She arrived at my house about 9:30am. We hung around my house, catching up for a bit and talking about decorating and couponing. She didn't know anything about TABLESCAPING, so I had to tell her all about how I fell IN LOVE with it! She loved my 4th of July Tablescape. **Smile**

I am pretty sure that I taught her a good bit about COUPONING. She had seen those shows on TV called "Extreme Couponing" and wanted to know how to be able to do it like THAT. I told her that I haven't gotten to that point and don't plan to. My goal is just to at least cut my grocery bill in HALF each week. We agreed that to be able to save ANY amount of money on groceries each week would be helpful.

We left my house about 10:30 and headed into town. First, I had to stop at the drug store to renew my RLS medication. We were there longer than expected, but it gave us a little more time to chit-chat. I found out that she also has RLS, but not as bad as I do. (LUCKY!) Her brother & Father also have it.

After that, we headed to the south side of Columbus, which isn't a good part of town... but, I really wanted to go and visit Gina's Junk Thrift & Antique Store!!

Here's a photo that I took ---

I am SO glad that we went!! It was the neatest place!!

First, we checked out the "junk" in the yard. Gina had lots of outdoor furniture and "yard art". Lots of vintage pieces, too. There were several iron tables that I liked and a shelf that would be perfect for my screened-in porch!! I may have to go back for that one!

Next, we ventured inside to see what we could find. Georgia was looking for things for her granddaughter's "Madeline" birthday party that she plans to do for her in October. So, we were looking for things that looked like PARIS. She also wants to build her granddaughter a doll house for her birthday. So, she was looking for "minature" things that could go into the doll house. As for me, I was looking at the antique furniture and for things that I could use for my August tablescape.

We wondered thru each room of the old house. The prices were GREAT! I saw LOTS of pieces of furniture that I would LOVE to have!! I saw lots of vintage linens that I would love to have had, too. There were many things that I would have loved to have bought, but decided not to. (I was on a VERY tight budget!) Georgia only bought a set of salt & pepper shakers. They were very tiny and very cute!

Gina, the shop owner, was very nice and quite funny! Georgia's S&P shakers had two prices on them, but each was marked out with a red "slash". Georgia asked Gina how much they were. Gina said... "Anything with a red "X" thru the price, means that it is half-off." Then, she looked at the pricetag on Georgia's S&P shakers and said... "Well, that's a half-a** 'X', isn't it?" LOL!! (Because it was only a "slash") It was so funny!

We left Gina's glad that we had made the trip, and headed towards downtown Columbus. I was driving and we were on a road that I knew where it dead-ended, but I didn't know the area that we were traveling very well. As we were headed into town, we came to a train that was crossing the road. We stopped, along with the rest of the traffic. The train was almost done crossing... when.... it started BACKING UP!!!! So.... we didn't know what to do! Finally, I realized that people were starting to make their way to the road on the right. So... I did the same and thankfully, we were able to go "around" the train with no problem and get back on our same road! Whew!

We arrived in downtown Columbus. I decided to take Georgia to one of my favorite restaraunts there. It is called The Cannon Brew Pub. Yes, it is a "Pub". But, it is also a restaraunt. I love their Southwestern Wrap sandwich! YUM! The atmosphere is fun, too.

After lunch, we headed to my very favorite Thrift Mall - Joey's!! Georgia LOVED IT, as I knew she would! We went from booth to booth, checking everything out. We put things in our shopping cart to "think" about as we shopped.

Georgia's best find of the day was a Madeline Doll that was in perfect condition!!! It was only $5.95!!!! YAY!! It was PERFECT for her granddaughter's birthday party! She also bought a cute shirt for only a $1.00!

Here's a picture of Georgia with her Madeline Doll. She was SO happy!!  ---

My big find for the day was a board game all about Columbus, GA!! It is from 1980. It's not "real" old, but it is unique, and since I am from Columbus and I now live and work here.... it was special to me and I HAD TO HAVE IT! I put back a few other things that I had in the cart in order to buy this game. It was $10.00. I thought that was fairly reasonable. The only other thing that I bought was a large package of Post-it notes (unopened) for $2.00. I use Post-it notes all the time, so these will come in handy!

Here's a pic of me with my game and one of my Post-it notes --

Here's some pics of my game after I got home and opened it up ---

We headed back to my house around 4:00pm so that Georgia could be back home in time to pick up her daughter from work. Poor Georgia was on the phone throughout our day dealing with the car dealership that was trying to fix her daughter's car. I sure hope that they can figure out what the problem is without it costing them too much more money!

I talked to David throughout the day. (He's in Indianapolis, remember?) He was delayed in Atlanta due to the plane that he was supposed to fly out on, having mechanical trouble. (Glad they found it!!!) I can't remember what time he finally got to Indianapolis, but he DID make it there. He texted me later in the day and said that his company was taking them all on a tour of the Indianapolis Speedway!!! He was excited, but wished that he had brought a camera. He did take a few pics with his phone.

I didn't talk to him again until about 9:00pm. He had been to dinner with the group and was EXHAUSTED!!! So, we didn't talk long. As I write this... he is most likely in the middle of the competition that he is in!! I sure hope that he is doing well and isn't too nervous. I hope that he is able to have fun with it. Knowing him, tho.... he is an anxious MESS!!! LOL! (I probably would be, too!)

Today, I am staying at home. .... Well, I do have a meeting at church tonight for Stephen Ministry.... But, other than that, I will be at home. I need to go see my mom since I haven't been over there this week, but I am also trying to limit my driving so that I only put gas in my car once a week. UGH!! I can't wait to start getting a paycheck again!!! I miss having money!!

Here's a few more pics of things that we saw at Joey's ---

You just might see this as part of my August Tablescape!

This was a new booth that I hadn't seen before!! I LOVED all of the blue & white!! I am a huge fan of it!

These vintage glasses were BEAUTIFUL!! But, they were a little pricey and there were only five. They would go so great with my Winter Tablescape for January, tho!

Button Bouquets!!! I had never seen these before!! LOVE THEM!! I can see all kinds of projects with these!

We loved this vintage Pin Cushion Doll!! Very pretty!!

I'm linking up to the Thrifty Things Friday Party over on The Thrifty Grove. Be sure to visit me over there and all of the other "thrifty" blogging friends!

Tryin' to Catch the Coupon Bug

Have any of you seen the show Extreme-Couponing on the cable channel, TLC??

Well, this show intrigues me so very much! I have never been a big "coupon-er", but with the rising cost of just about EVERYTHING... I am seeking ways to save money.

The people that are featured on this show are like the title says... "extreme"! They have the art of "couponing" down to a science, and are apparently able to buy hundreds of dollars worth of groceries and walk out of the store, only paying a few dollars!!

From what I gather... these thrifty shoppers collect coupons from any and every resource that they can. They then organize them in binders such as this ---

Most of the people that are featured on the show have storage rooms where they stock-pile their purchases for future use. Many share their items with other family members or friends. Others donate a lot of their "extra" items.

As for me.... I just want to save money!!

Yesterday, I decided that I would give this "couponing thing" a try. Just so you know... I have no skills or prior knowledge of "how" the couponing system works. I was just "winging it"! **Smile**

I went through our local newspaper and cut out all the coupons that interested me. I then went to a coupon website that a friend had told me about -- Couponmom.com. From this site, I printed out a few others that I would use.

I also went to the Publix website and looked at their current sales ad so that I could see what the Buy-one / Get-one (BOGO) items were. I also looked at the sales ads for a couple of the drug stores in my area.

From the coupons that I had, and from the BOGO items... I made my grocery list.

I went to FOUR different stores in order to purchase my items, but they were all pretty close together, so wasting gas was not really an issue.

Here's where I went and how much I saved!!

Walgreen's -- I spent $2.15 and saved $9.49
  - Here, I had a BOGO coupon and the items that I wanted to purchase were BOGO in the store!

Walmart ----- I spent $35.47 and saved $3.60
  - Here, I used 3 coupons that were $1.00 off and one for .60

CVS --------- I spent $13.27 and saved $13.36
  - Here, I used 1 coupon for $1.00 off and I saved on the other items by using my CVS Customer Card. I also got $3.00 in "extra bucks" that I can use when I go again!

Publix ------- I spent $22.07 and saved $28.14
  - Here, most of the items that I bought were BOGO items. I only bought one of each, which meant that I only paid half the price for the one item! I also used one or two small coupons, and I had a coupon for a FREE carton of Publix ice cream!!

TOTAL Spent -- $72.96
TOTAL Saved -- $54.59!!!!!

This coming Sunday, my church is sponsoring a class on "couponing". I am excited about it and hope to learn more about this money-saving hobby! I'll have to keep you updated on what I learn!