FEBRUARY 2014 - Cheap Thrills

Sorry for it being late! Good Luck

first I have miss all of you .
one thing is I found a lovely complete bed set for our bed at the church store .. it in my new bedroom colors which is rose red and white .

We miss you too, gayla!!

I scored at the Goodwill store on Saturday. I needed T-shirts for summer for work. They were $3.00 apiece but one of them was 50% off.

Hubby starts his new job today! Been almost 1 year exactly from when he was laid off!All last week was orientation and tonight is official first shift for 3rd shift. Very big thrill in our home! This job is paying him more than he did from the job that laid him off!

That's great, Donna. Congratulations to your DH.

Donna that is wonderful news

I dropped a bag of donations at the local thrift shop last week and bought two 'new to me' tops which looked like new.

**Drum roll** I finally got my robotic vacuum cleaner (really a glorified floor sweeper) and I LOVE it. I didn't want to pay for it from incoming wages or savings so I waited until I had enough after selling no longer needed items around the house. I even had money left over because although I had narrowed the choice down to two models (after pouring over online reviews) DH swayed me towards the cheaper one which had a two year warranty as opposed to the other with one year. The dogs have gotten used to it pretty quickly and it has picked up lots of dog hair each time. I really enjoyed letting it loose in my bedroom one day when I got home from work, I lay on the bed drinking a coffee and that little vac zipped in and out under the bed gobbling up dust-bunnies

Awesome! I think those are so cool!

Congrats, Skin and good for you to taking time to relax while the robot does the work. Cheers!

Thanks ladies, put it to work again today in the main living areas when I got home from work. Best thing since sliced bread

great new Donna!
Skin..what model did you end up with? Are you happy with it? I hate vacuuming.

Carrie we bought an LG Roboking Model# VR5906LM but we didn't pay anywhere near the recommended retail price! The choice was between that and one of the iRobot Roomba models (only a couple in the series are available in Australia), we chose the LG because of the  2 year warranty.  Vacuuming is also my least favourite household job, it was supposed to be DS's once-a-week job but it was like pulling teeth trying to get him to do it! Now he has to cut the grass instead.  So far I'm very happy with it, it has a camera and sensors and maps out the floor plan to become more efficient and I'm surprised it's not as loud as I was expecting although other brands are louder I believe. It has a robotic voice which lets you know what it's doing i.e. starting to clean, finished cleaning, heading back to homebase (charger) or even if it gets stuck on something and needs help. The only issue it has had is in the kitchen where one piece of kickboard still needs to be fitted so it keeps trying to go underneath and occasionally has caught itself on the dishwasher hose, as soon as DH fixes that it will be all good :)It also senses the top of the stairs and backs up rather than proceeding over the edge (so fun to watch). We have all wooden and tile floors which is what they are best at although they're supposed to be able to clean short-pile carpets and rugs, we do have one thick shagpile rug in the living area which it cannot climb onto but I don't mind. It's been very good and picking up all the dog hair which can be a lot with two indoor/outdoor dogs. It came with a mopping plate also but we haven't tried that out yet.

Great thrills everyone!

Thanks for the info Skin. It sounds really cool.

Skin, that sounds like a dream. We have all carpeting in our house, so one of those wouldn't work. Maybe in the next house......

Oh it is just like a dream come true Sissy. lol

I had kind of a cheap thrill today, although it was also an expense. We will have more visitors than beds come July this year but I had an offer in the mail for a local furniture store offering 50% discount on all floor stock. I've been toying with the idea of switching out the sofa downstairs for a sofa-bed in case we need to put up unexpected guests and had been pricing around new and preloved. I ended up only paying a little more for a new one at half the recommended retail price than I would've paid for a suitable preloved one plus I'm going to sell the sofa from downstairs now. That solves one dilemma that needed to be resolved. I'd also considered buying second-hand bunkbeds to resell on afterwards but now I won't need the added hassle. Now we will have enough sleeping accommodation for everyone. Phew!

Great shopping, Skin. You really did a lot of thinking to get that resolved.

Well, it's not a huge thrill, but.... I found on pinterest how to get rid of those tiny little black gnats that are on some of my houseplants. Office Max had their brown paper bag special and I stopped over today before work. I bought a piece of poster board 22" x 28" and used my 20% off. I got it for $1.27. Like I said not a huge thrill, but now I can get rid of those nasty bugs.

I hope you have success getting rid of the bugs Sissy.

DS bought me a kindle for my b/day and his g/f gave me a gift certificate for Amazon. I'm still learning how to use it but DS put a couple of free books on it for me this evening. It's smaller than I thought they'd be and so thin and lightweight   

What a great b/d gift Skin. I love my Kindle. DH bought himself a Kindle fire, but I don't need anything with that many bells and whistles on it.

I went to the Goodwill store on Saturday hoping that the sheer curtains were still there and they were. I bought two panels - each 58" wide by 83" long for a total of $6.00. I washed them up yesterday and they washed up beautifully. I have to cut them down and re-hem them to be the right length for my two living room windows. I also went to the hardware store and bought two bunge cords for about $5.00 to hang the sheers from. I got two more potholders at the Dollar store for $1.00 and sewed up two more towels to hang on my oven handle.

Glad you were able to find those curtains again Sissy, luck was on your side

My first read on the Kindle is The Railway Man, I thought I'd find it strange compared to an actual book but it's fine. I've discovered loads of free kindle books on amazon.com.au, all classics so will probably grab some of those

I love the classics. I'm reading Catch 22 right now, but not on the kindle.

I took my American flag and 9/11 flag to the cleaners the other day. I knew the American Flag would be cleaned for free, but the cleaners are cleaning the 9/11 flag for free, also.

That's great Sissy, it's not often you get something for nothing.

I bought a coat originally $250.00 on clearance for $65.00, but it's heavier than I thought it would be. It's a beautiful coat. I'm going to take the w/e and decide if I want to keep it or not.

What a great savings!

I bought morning glory seeds at the Dollar Store for 25 cents.