It was a busy week around here with the garage sale, family in from out of town and — of course! — working on finishing up the book manuscript.
The garage sale ended up being our best sale we’ve ever had; the traffic was amazing! I’m not sure what to attribute it to. We usually have great sales, but this was fantastic. We are blessed to have a good location, the weather was great and we had a lot of great stuff to sell between the six families who contributed stuff. We also followed all the tips I shared last year for having a successful garage sale.
Truth be told, I only probably spent half a day all combined helping to run the sale, since everyone else pitched in, too. (One of the blessings of having a multi-family sale is that there are lots of hands to help out!) I’m so thrilled to have the clutter cleaned out of my house and love the motivation a garage sale always gives me to clear it out!
In book news, God brought an incredible literary agent to me last week (it’s a long story how that all came to be!). Sarah was willing to take me on as her client this late in the game and it’s been a huge blessing to me. She has years of professional editing experience with large publishing houses and she’s been helping me revamp my manuscript to make it ten times better than I could have made it on my own.
I’m beyond grateful to her and all the hours she’s putting in to make this manuscript the best that it can be before I turn it into the publisher. I’m learning so much through the process and am indebted to her help. By the way, if anyone needs a good literary agent, I’d be glad to hook you up! 🙂
As far as grocery shopping, we bought lots of fruit at Aldi and bread at Dollar Tree and that was it. We’re continuing to eat up our extras from the freezer and pantry and stick with simple meals. So far, it’s working well!
Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.
Here are my shopping trips:
Target
Olay Foaming Face Wash 2 @ 4.99 = $9.98
less 2 $2.00 manufacturer coupons
less 1 $1.00 target coupon
Paid 5.33 with a Target Gift Card
Got $5.00 Target Gift Card
Net .33 cents
Shoprite (triple coupons up to .99 – this shoprite gave overage others don’t)
1 Minute Rice Ready Rice 1.66 (gave .55 coupon but wouldn’t scan so manager used a .75 given to cashier previously) (.75 tripled to 2.25)
1 Egg Beaters 3.79 (free coupon)
3 Gortons Grilled Fillets 2.49 ($2.00 off when you buy 3) (.75 tripled to 2.25 each)
3 Farm Rich Mozzarella Sticks $3.00 (.75 tripled to 2.25 each)
1 Breyers Blast Ice Cream $2.50 (.75 tripled to 2.25)
2 Best Life Buttery Spread $1.29 (1.00 coupons)
Total Paid $1.22
As per Receipt Total Savings $43.17
97% Savings
I made my first attempt at saving a buncha money a few days ago with some inspiration from this blog. I made a post about it on my personal blog that you can read here: http://www.paulcarl.com/2011/04/how-i-saved-a-lot-of-money-at-the-grocery-store/
I shopped at Wegmans, probably one of the best grocery stores on the planet, and got a lot of organic food. My total was about $65 but after coupon savings of about $36 I was able to get 55% off of everything! I’m excited to try doing the Walgreens/CVS/Rite Aid tricks next (in conjunction with what I did at Wegmans of course!)
Thanks for keeping up such a good blog, Crystal. I’ve been reading off and on for about 4-6 months now and I’m glad I finally got myself into action thanks to you!
Congrats on a successful garage sale! My location is about as bad as it can get for a garage sale so I pair up with a friend!
Crystal,
I’m curious, do you have a lot of local people who read your blog coming to your sale? Have you met anyone who treats you like a celebrity? When I read how many people followed your blog, my jaw dropped! As your book is released you will get even more notoriety. Is that something you are looking forward to?
Some of our friends from church and the community showed up, as well as a few people I’ve met through my blog. Mostly, though, it was just lots of complete strangers as well as people in our neighborhood. I think the humongous neon signs my mom made and put in very well-trafficked locations were a big part of the crowd draw!
I always love the opportunity to get to meet readers, but I’m as normal as they come and would feel completely weird with someone treating me as anything else. My hope in writing the book is that it can be a blessing and help to many, many people — and, in turn, help feed and clothe many needy children through Compassion International (where I’m donating my profits to)!
I cannot wait to read your book! I actually started freelance writing this year. One of my projects is a book as well. I would love to get with you about contact her. My email is april (dot) patel (at) gmail (dot) com
Thank you!
I love how God brings everything into place in his time! Blessings to you, as you continue working with your agent on your book.
Great job! We can’t find bargains like those around my town, but we try to do our best.
Wow, you sounds like you did great!
How do you find a literary agent? My husband has been working on a children’s book, and I would love to know!
She actually found me. She was exactly what I was looking for — and so much more! And I’m thrilled to be working with her.
Feel free to email me and I’ll be happy to share her contact info. She said she’s willing to consider manuscripts from new writers or she can put you in a touch with another agent.
We are gearing up for a garage sale sometime pretty soon as well. Moving overseas=need to get rid of lots of stuff!
So what are your simple meals?? I am just curious!
Do you have photos of the actual sale? It would be fun to see how you set it up.
No, I don’t, unfortunately.
I’m so glad your garage sale was so successful, Crystal! That’s great! They can be a tremendous amount of work…but, I always have so much fun meeting all sorts of new people during the sale!
Thanks for the link up!
Congrats on the great yard sale! It seems like the harder I try, the worse mine do. I’ve given up on them for now – maybe after we move, we’ll be in a better location for them.
Crystal, only YOU would have a garage sale while finishing your first book, running one of the top blogs on the Internet and homeschooling/caring for three kids. Go ahead — claim one more time that you’re not Supermom!
Thank you for sharing the process of your book with us. I’ll email you with some questions about your agent because I am thinking about getting one too.
Hehehe, I had a similar thought. Crystal, can you tell us again about your messy house, how your kids haven’t had a bath in 9 days, or something else to make us feel better ;-)? Just kidding. But if this is the kind of schedule that is possible after reading “Tell Your Time”…. I’m thinking more and more about reading that myself!
I’m so excited to hear about you book! It’s nice to see how God is working in your life. Thanks for sharing!
So thrilled for you on the literary agent. I know what a wonderful blessing that is, and how much a trustworthy one can make such a difference.
You are truly a blessed woman! I can tell that God’s grace had been poured out on you so much. I pray that the works of your hand will continue to prosper and bring glory to God. I’m excited that things are going well with the book! Kudos on the garage sale too!
Love my target trips!