Somebody stop me, take away my wallet..please.

Okay, so we've all covered how I like deals and how I like to share said deals. 

Well, we hit the whopper of a good deal today.  Today was the local used toy and clothing sale where parents (let's face it, usually moms) rent a table for $15.00 and can then flog all their kid crap that's been taking up way too much space in their house.  Sounds like a good idea, right?  Of course it is.  I'm just too lazy to organize myself and haul my cr.. er stuff down the street. Cause we like literally live 5 blocks away from this thing. 

So my husband cuts me loose around 9:00 a.m.  He has been known in the past to conveniently let me over sleep these sale days.  They're held 2x a year.  

So I arrive at the community hall, toss in my loonie entrance fee and start to prowl around the deals.  What hit me the most was suddenly how many women I knew there.  In the past, I'd be lucky to run into maybe one familiar face.  Mainly because I've been somewhat antisocial in the past, neglecting to join those "mommy groups".  Since E is in kindergarten though, suddenly I know tons of other mommies.  

Anyways....  I hit this last table and see an instruction booklet for a bed with $60.00 posted on it. Now... let's make it perfectly clear that I was not looking for a bed.  E has a double bed my mom gave us and J is in a toddler bed and O is in a crib and not going to be sprung from said crib for as long as humanly possible.  

But still... $60.00.  It was a captain's bed.  A bed with three large drawers underneath and a headboard with shelves for books etc.  We had originally tried to get E one of these but then the bed came from my mom's house. 

So I deke out of the hall and discreetly call hubby.  He's like $60.00.  Wow, good deal.  Better buy it.  Hooyah.  So I go back in hand the lady $60.00 when she asks me.. "which one do you want?"  Huh?   "Oh, well there's two beds.  The headboards are a little different so which one do you want?"  I pick one, pay for it and go back into the hallway, discreetly call hubby again and tell him there are two beds.  He says buy the other one too.  So I go back and buy the 2nd bed, much to the astonished lady's delight.  They sold both their beds within a 1/2 hour of setting up. 

I got two captain's bed for the girls for $120.00.  When we were last pricing these out, we could not find one under $350.00.   $350.00 for one.   So I got a pretty good deal wouldn't you say.

So I tell these people we'll be back later to pick it up and head off shopping where I managed to pick up some more goodies.  I finally had to say get me out of here before I spend all my money. I head off to the grocery store (we still hadn't bought milk as mentioned in yesterday's post) when it struck me.... we had no mattresses for these beds.  How stupid are we? 

I call hubby again, should I check out the local mattress shop. Yeah.  I head to the mattress shop, which apparently is having a no tax sale because sales are so slow for February.  Still, I'm looking at the price of these mattresses... $299.00 on sale.  Ouch.  I had to buy 2.  They only had one in stock but would sell me the floor model.  I ask how much even though I already read the tag.  He says "$169.00 each including taxes."    I tell him I'll get back to him.. I go outside call Hubby, he quickly searches mattresses at Sears and finds one for $20.00 cheaper but that's before taxes so with my deal it works out the same.  Plus I'm supporting a local business.  So I went back in.  SOLD. 

I head home.  I have to drive the kids and hubby to the truck rental place (we're shifting our storage locker tomorrow) and then race back to the toy sale to pick up our beds.  Then we race back home because the moving van has no lock and hubby's afraid our new beds will get stolen while he's working the concession (I volunteered him to help run the concession stand as a fundraiser for J's preschool).  The he and E go back while I look after the little ones. O goes for a nap. 

O wakes up, Daddy comes home, we set up beds.  We're missing two locking bolt thingies.  I know they have a technical name, I just don't know what it is.  We're scouring the floor, the driveway, even driving to the hall parking lot to look.  We call the people, fortunately she gave us their number.  They call back, they found one.  Great.  It surprised me because this lady was so organized and had everything in little baggies itemized etc.  What happened, I think, is that dear old Hubby (as in her husband) didn't bother taking those bolt thingies out, you have to bang em out and so they just fell out somewhere along the way. 

So we have only one bed up.  Of course, the girls are absolutely dying to try out their new beds. I raced to the hardware store (stopped at the bank too), found out they don't carry those kind of bolt thingies, its a specialized part and picked up pizza for dinner.  By time I got home, gobbled down two slices, I had to leave for work.  I was glad to go to work... I could stop racing around. 

So when I left, hubby was going to try and jimmy something up and worse case scenario is we will have to contact Ikea and get a part replacement.  Because bolt or no bolt, it was still worth $60.00.  They look great and are in great condition.  

I will post photos up of the beds tomorrow.  Phew that was rather long winded.