The early bird gets the...

DEALS! Yes, the early bird gets the deals. It dawned on me the other day...I should be shopping year round for the various "drives" we have at work. There's always the food drives, sometimes a drive for the local BETA house, school supplies, and of course Toys for Tots. This year I was very last minute on my Toys for Tots shopping and I didn't get as much as I would have liked because well...it was expensive. So I've already started rounding things up for 2012.

Today I went to Beall's Outlet hoping to snag the remaining FL Gator flags, but alas...I snoozed and losed. No flags. But I snagged a cute sweater for myself - it was 50% off. I had to wander the clearance aisle of course - you just never know what might be there. Frankly, not a lot today. Then I saw the rack of kid stuff on clearance that didn't have a giant "Clearance" sign on it. Sweet!

I picked up a backpack for $3, 3 themed school supply sets for $1.25 each (Spiderman, Dora and Disney Princess), and a mesh bag full of sand toys for $1.79. In the Christmas clearance section I picked up a cute toddler book for Georgia next year. It's My Little Pony Christmas something or other and it has little tiny lights that light up and twinkle in the back. It was $1.49. Picked up a couple of other things for stocking stuffers.I figure I did well - I mean my sweater was originally $16.99...throw in the tax and you're at the $18 I paid for all of it. 


If you support Toys for Tots or pick Angels off the tree, or fill shoe boxes for the homeless or to send goodies overseas for our troops - I highly recommend peeking at what is in the clearance section of the stores you shop in - stores don't always clearance "junk" they clearance "last one" and "returns" and "making room for more new stuff" you just have to look thru the junk to find it - make some one's Christmas!

To all my readers...

Do you Freecycle?

Do you Freecycle? If you don't, the short version is - it's kind of like Craig's List - only everything is free. It's based in Yahoo Groups, you join the group in your area. Some kind souls are forum moderators who spend their free time granting requests to join, blocking people, deleting inappropriate posts, etc. For the most part, it's a people getting rid of more or less good stuff. Stuff they no longer need, but that isn't really ready for the landfill. Go green right?


I was on the Central Florida group for awhile, but the emails got overwhelming and frankly, I got tired of all the requests. Sure, it never hurts to ask, but really? You *need* a laptop, and it has to be new, with Windows 7. Really? I need one of those too...


On the flip side, I used it to give away a lot of stuff. If your house needs a good purge - go for it. It's like the FREE section of Craig's List.


At any rate, in the spirit of the season - and I know it's down to the wire, but I read this 'tidbit' and thought i'd bump my planned post for something that might just make someone else's holiday. 


Be a Freecycle Santa.


Read about it here. Freecycle Santa 


We all know the economy is so-so and lots of folks are without jobs. Maybe that old (still working) iPod in your desk drawer would make some kid happy. 


I'm not a good candidate for electronics. We don't have ANY game consoles. I have a 2nd generation iPod that I still use - it's bigger and heavier than my smart phone...it's also bigger than my external hard drive - funny since that's pretty much what it is. While my degrees are in IT, I no longer keep up with it. As you know, i'm a bargain shopper. $100 isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but $200 for an iPod (in 2004) was crazy and if Mr. Paisley hadn't bought it for me for my birthday, chances are I wouldn't own one period.   But since he spent the money on it, I use it and I enjoy it...and I will use it until it works no more...because i'm cheap and i'm not going to spend $100 on a nano or whatever the latest and greatest iPod is...this one works. Why does it need to be replaced? I know i'm not normal in that respect, I know lots of folks have last year's model tossed aside for the new one. Why not pass it along if that person is you? 


It's not just electronics - anything goes. Have a toddler quickly outgrowing clothes and shoes? There's probably a single mom near you that can't afford those things for her kids. Pass them on to someone who can use them. It'll make you feel good. It will make them feel good. 


It's Christmas time...

I finally got a Cricut...6 months ago.

Yep - you read that right! I finally got a Cricut. SIX months ago. I'm just shy of mortified to also say - it's still in the box. 

It's a funny story you see...after Christmas last year, my in-laws met us at the Cabin for our Christmas with Mr. Paisley's side of the family...or his parents anyway. So there we were (we, being my mother-in-law and I) meandering thru the aisles at Kroger (not really, we just ran in to grab a few things while the guys were next door at Lowe's). So the middle aisle is like extra wide - generally they have the seasonal crap decor, candy, whatever there with the big bins in the middle. What in the world - I stopped in my tracks as we were headed toward the dairy case in the back. Is that? What! 

Seriously? #1 in the grocery store...#2 $69.99! Sold. Into my cart it went. Let me tell you - at Christmas time, Kroger has the most random things in that aisle! 

As if getting it for $70 wasn't sweet enough, my mother-in-law bought it for me as another Christmas gift. I wonder if she remembered when we went shopping a couple of years before and found one on sale for $99 that she bought for her daughter for Christmas...when she asked me about it then, I said something along the lines of "I want one, but really don't think i'd use it"...of course as of right now, that's true! It is indeed still in the box. I can think of a million and one things i'd like to do with it, but I need to get my office in order so that I have room to set it up and actually USE it. Right now i'm still on the purge the house kick. Soon that yard sale is going to happen and once it does, I will be commissioning Mr. P to whip up my desk / storage, paint my office, refinish my office chairs and get down to business. Of course you know that once that happens it will be here for you to read about...eventually.