monkeybox

Friday was the first day of school. I dropped off a tearful son then went to a few yard sales. One was a charity sale. It was their third sale. The first time I went nothing was priced and they said, "Make a pile" and then they quoted you a price. I gathered up a few toys, some Christmas decorations and a few other odds and ends. They quoted me a priced of $30.00 and said it was for Charity. I politely declined. The second time they had a sale, stuff was priced, but waaaay to high. This time stuff was priced, but they were down to the old margerine tubs and stained clothes. I bought a couple new Christmas ornaments for 25¢ each. I went to one other sale and bought three new with tag Beanie Babies for my son's ever-growing collection. I think he has over 300 now. When Beanie Babies first came out I thought it was such a scam - $1000.00 for a blue elephant - Puhleeze. Then bottom fell out and everyone started selling them off cheap or getting rid of them. That's when my sone decided to start buying them. He has gotten most of his for 50¢-$1.00 at sales. The Salvation Army sells them for $2.00 each, but he always thinks long and hard about those before he buys one at that price. He got 11 of them for 10¢ each once - that was his best deal.

Last night we went to a "Back to School Bash" that the PTSA put on. It was like a carnival and a lot of fun. There were games, cheap food ($1.00 hotdogs and sodas)and drawings for prizes. At each game you popped balloons with a dart or threw a football or tossed apples in a basket. It didn't matter if you "won" or not - you still got a prize. My son ended up with two pencils, two nice ink pens, a flashlight, a giant pixy stick, two t-shirts and a sack full of candy. They were doing drawings on the raffle tickets every 30 minutes. We thought we heard my husband's name so we went up front but they were saying another name by that time. You had to be present to win. A friend came over and said they had drawn his name but since we didn't hear it - we lost out. D@amn! Then they announced the winner of the gumball count- how many gumballs were in this big jug. My son had guessed 500 and there were 517. The closest guess was 502 but she was gone. So, the next highest guess was 500 - but they gave it to another kid that also guessed 500. D@mn! My son's shoulders were wilting! So, then they gave away a girls bike and a boys bike and these little kids were sooooo excited! They thanked everyone for coming and were about to walk off stage and somebody yelled - "What about the DVD player?" Oh yeah, they forgot to draw that one. So, who did they call but MY HUSBAND. Yeah! Our son was instantly revived and wanted to walk around carrying the box. It is a nice DVD/VCR all in one player. Not bad for $5.00 worth of raffle tickets and a couple hours of sweat!

Hint for the day: Yard sales yeild deals and buy a raffle ticket once in a while - you just might win. And if you don't - the charity still wins!