THRILLS

Today was the last possible yard sale day for 2010—and it rained. Going out not with a bang but a dribble! But a rainy morning is the perfect time to look back over the year’s purchases and see how I did.

I did good.

As you may know, I keep a spreadsheet with all my garaging purchases noted.

Date	Item	Paid	Est. Value	Category	Notes
1/9/2010	toy	0.25	8.00	decoration	gund classic piglet
1/9/2010	toy	0.50	5.00	decoration	another wooden manikin
1/9/2010	quilt	3.00	25.00	household	pink and green twin vintage quilt
1/16/2010	soap	0.50	10.00	household	Gardeners Therapies liquid soap
1/16/2010	gift	0.50	25.00	gift	gap overalls for Emily
1/16/2010	craft item	0.50	60.00	craft	Chico's red embroidered shirt

I can’t recommend keeping a record too highly! It really give you a great picture of just how much bang you’re getting for your bucks. I like the feeling of control I have from know where my money goes. And as I’ve mentioned before, if you resell, you need a record for tax purposes.

But really, I do it for the thrill of the bottom line. This year’s bottom line? I spend $440.47 on driveways during the year, and brought home an estimated (conservatively estimated!) $10,510 worth of stuff. Woo hoo! I feel like a lottery winner this morning.

Of course, the bottom line means nothing if the stuff you bring home doesn’t prove useful and/or make you happy. I’m glad to be able to say I have a healthy bottom line in that regard as well. Let’s do the annual round-up by category, starting with clothes and accessories. Spent $5 on 10 accessories, including a darling vintage acorn circle pin.

Bought 31 pieces of clothing for $18.50, including a couple of twenty-five cent cashmere sweaters. I estimate the value in this category was about $1150.

Crafts: Didn’t spend much, though I still bought several sweaters to felt. Spent $3.85 on 8 items that would have been close to $100 in stores. The fave: my angora bed socks made from a felted sweater. I love having warm feet at night!

 

Decor: Pretty frugal here—$23 for 14 items, and my vintage wire Christmas tree was more than half of the total! Yeah, a big blowout for me, but I love it. In spite of our decision not to decorate the house this year, my husband snuck up to the attic and grabbed a box of ornaments and surprised me yesterday.

It looks adorable. Wish my photography skills were equal to the task of showing it off!

I really scored in the entertainment category: 17 books, 29 CDs, 65 magazines, and 62 DVDs for less than a hundred bucks. Wow. No wonder I’ve never been tempted to spend dime on cable!

Reselling: I’m waiting for the economy to recover, but I did spend $12 in this category. Had a total of $180 in eBay sales, so I came out ahead.

Yard: my biggest spend of the year on a single item was for the yard.

 

Thirty dollars for a gazebo. I can live with that.

Work: wow, bought 74 items worth about $800 for $53.75! Door prizes for children’s librarians, prizes in the staff summer reading program, toys for a grant project. Remember the Smencils back in March?

And the most hilarity was caused by the Winnie the Pooh wine glasses. Kind of wish I had kept these!

Household: this is always a biggie because I stuff a lot of things under this category, including dishes, fabric, furniture, linens and office supplies. But our furniture finds were especially exciting, since I’ve been watching for mid-century items for the retirement house. I still get a thrill from these:

the atomic era lamps

MCM bedside tables

vintage bar stools

Heywood Wakefield vanity

Ingmar Relling Siesta chair

  Hans Olsen chairs

  and the Poul Hundevad credenza and hutch.

I can’t help wondering what MCM marvels I missed in previous years just because I wasn’t looking for it! But I love what I found, and the fact that all of these pieces set me back a total of…are you ready?

$87.

My oh my, I do love to shop on driveways.