Epic Garage Sale

Do you want to see what 70 years of accumlated stuff looks like?

I am in Athens this weekend because my sister and I are having a tag sale. There was just a ridiculous amount of stuff in the house. Because it was so much, we are having the sale in the church fellowship hall.

We have eight tables of stuff, plus a counter of holiday decorations and three counters of books. We have so much stuff that we rented a cargo van and a recent high school grad to carry it over there.

So, if you are in Athens tomorrow morning and are looking for pretty much anything, we probably have it. Come by and say hi.

Red, White and Blueberry Trifle

My sister-in-law and her husband host a family dinner every Sunday night, and because my mother would die of embarrassment if I showed up for dinner empty handed, I make dessert.

Jim and I are both trying to lose a little weight and strawberries and blueberries were on sale this week, so it was the perfect opportunity to make this Red, White and Blueberry trifle from Skinny Taste. I first found Gina's blog on a chat board on The Nest and I cook from it at least twice a week.

I love a trifle. They are so pretty and they look much more involved than the actually are. I had this whole dessert put together in a half an hour. I modified the recipe slightly, so my calories and points may be just a bit higher. My store didn't have the white chocolate pudding (boo) so I used regular vanilla sugar-free. Also, I prefer the lite Cool Whip over the fat-free, so I made that substitution.

Six Flags America

We redeemed a bunch of My Coke Rewards points and got two free tickets to Six Flags America that we used today. I love roller coasters and we rode all four of the steel coasters at the park. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day; it was sunny and not nearly as hot as it could have been here in July. Here's a look at the coasters that can be checked off of my master list.

Joker's Jinx
(from themeparkreview.com)

Superman: Ride of Steel: This is a point of view video of what it looks like to ride this in the front car.

Batwing

(from Coasterimage.com)
It's important that you see that you are laying flat when you ride this.

The Mind Eraser
(from themeparkreview.com)
This is a classic suspended coaster

We rode several of the classic rides - the carousel, flying swings & tea cups. We also rode one water ride that is closing this weekend, Skull Island that is a combination of a roller coaster and log ride. It was really a great day, with the exception of one wicked sun burn.

Extreme Couponing

Have you watched this show on TLC? I alternate between being fascinated that these folks can leave the grocery story with $1000 of stuff that they only paid $10 for and thinking that they are totally insane. I mean, seriously, what are you going to do with 75 bottles of mustard? I use one, maybe two bottles of mustard a year.

Anyway, I can't stop watching and because I like to get stuff for free, I try to score a good deal. We get a lot of our drug store stuff at CVS. We like the CVS because it is one of the few places where your loyalty card actually gets you something. You earn 2% back on every purchase and $1 for every 2 prescriptions you fill and they give you a coupon at the end of each quarter that you can use on anything in the store.

Second quarter Extra Care bucks came out on July 1 and I earned $4.50. I took this to the store on Saturday, the last day of that week's sale paper. For last week, you could get a box of tampons on sale for $6.79 and they would print a coupon for $6.79 in Extra Care bucks on your receipt. I also had a $1.00 coupon for these tampons. This sale was $6.79 - $1 coupon - $4.50 in second quarter Extra Care bucks = $1.29, plus I got another $6.79 in Extra Care bucks.

For my second purchase, I bought toothpaste. I could get three tubes of Crest on sale for $9.00. I had a coupon for $1 off of two. On that sale, I got three toothpastes for $9.00 - $1.00 coupon - $6.79 in Extra Care bucks = $1.21.

My total was $2.50 for a box of tampons and three tubes of toothpaste. I say that was a successful shopping trip!