Last weekend, Alex and I went to the pre-festival Tulip festival in the Skagit Valley. Allegedly 75 percent of the nation’s tulip crop is produced here! It was like something out of a movie, sprawling fields of tulips, daffodils, and iris.
This is the kind of stuff that makes me feel alive. That, and spending the weekend with Alex while finding good deals. I’m very lucky to have found someone who is so patient with me, as sometimes on a Friday night I will aimlessly wonder around the grocery store “Cruising for deals” as I like to call it. I just have a hard time believing that many 26 year old men enjoy such a thing.
I was really embarrassed about this at first, and I would try to pretend like I just lost Alex by accident in the grocery store instead of me wandering off to see what items from my staple list were on sale. Amy’s soup, Myer’s Cleaning products, and endless others. Sometimes Alex catches me in the middle of the grocery store gazing at laundry detergent deciding weather 1 dollar off is a good enough deal to buy 4, and he’ll say “ Hey whatcha doin,” at the beginning stages of our relationship I would say“ Oh, nothing”, but finally after enough times being caught gazing at the same cleaning products, I finally confessed that “I was “cruising for deals”.”
Most men would not allow you to spend an extra hour or so at the store just wondering aimlessly, but I’m a very lucky lady to have found Alex. Now, if we spend less than 15 minutes at the grocery store, before we head to the cash register he says in his sweetest voice “Do you need to cruise for deals?”
Even better,this weekend, I realized that I’ve been forcing Alex to cruise for deals so long that he has finally started cruising for his own deals. It is really adorable, he has officially cemented his stamp on my heart. He was all over the deals this weekend.
He scored us free bread for the week, courtesy of the Chinook Book, spend 5 dollars at Grand Central Bakery and get a loaf of free bread, Alex bought our weekly Saturday morning treats of coffee/tea and croissants, and we got some delicious free bread.
Alex’s triumph of the weekend was a gently used Chop Saw from craigslist for 150 dollars off of retail price, we had to drive to Mt. Vernon to get it, but we were in the neighborhood looking at tulips anyway. He will be using the chop saw for a multitude of things including building our raised bed boxes for the vegetable gardens which we plan to fill with veggies this summer.
Alex, or “The Bookie Monster” as I have deemed him because of his book reading and buying habits, found several titles he’d been searching for, and I found the brand new Julie Powell book Cleaving in mint condition and paid only 6 dollars. Although not on sale, because it was a paperback, I also got Ruth Riechel’s first book Tender to the Bone it was used and cost only 6 dollars and fifty cents. Both books I’d wanted to pick up if I ever found them on sale, so I was very excited he brought me to this book store.
(I would, however, like to note that although these deals are good, the library is free, which is the best deal. However, for me having my own copy is important because I read books in the bath and drop them frequently, I also like to give my books away after reading them so that other people can drop them in the bath, spill coffee on them or whatever, but if you are not a mess like I am the library is the best option for a thrifty “Bookie Monster”)
Have you all found anything thrifty and wonderful lately? What are your favorite thrifting places? Craigslist, E-bay, Goodwill, Yard Sales? Do you have any tips for “cruising deals” ?
Just testing the comments, my mom thought it might not be working
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to post a commment, just testing to see if it works. The mom.
ReplyDeleteNow that we have the key to posting, we want to say that the tulips were beautiful, and that looked like a wonderful day trip. Do you get Alex to come to a screaching halt if a garage sale sign appears?
ReplyDeleteWe have done that here in AZ on our trips, some are very neat places. However, the one on the way to Wickenburg made me think that I had fallen into a mine shaft (dark, dusty, junk mostly). The owner was 100 years old, really!Ah,the wild West!
Hi - I just recently found your fun blog. Did you see that Mrs. Meyer's is 40% off at Fred Meyer this week? Has that ever happened before?
ReplyDeleteVicki, I did not know about the 40% off at Fred Meyers!! Thanks for the HOT tip! I work right accross the street, and I am going to go at lunch and stock up! Thank-you for checking out my blog!!
ReplyDeleteOh and NO I don't think that has ever happened before, but I am so glad that it did :-)
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