Shopping (Garage sales/Borders/Wal-Mart, etc.)!

So yesterday was pretty much a shopping day. It was nice and sunny, 70F (or 21 C). RR and I started our day cruising in our car around our neigborhood in search for garage sales. It was our chance to find some deals and get to know more of our neighbors. Also, it didn't hurt that our main goal was to find some dining chairs, fit for either our dining room or kitchen table. We found some chairs and other deals during our trip. One of them was a beautiful 1940's 12-piece dining set with flowery patterns (great for parties when we have one), a complete set of silver-plated cutlery (again, good for parties) some lawn furniture (a love seat, chair and a table for some taking breaks in the yard), and an antique school desk with a chair attached to it (this one was more RR's idea). Needless to say, this part of the day was productive - we met some more neighbors and got some great deals.

Our next stop was at the Borders that was closing at the Fashion Mall. We had come here before, but the discount back then was only for 40% off. It was now increased to 50-70% off and they were including the sales of their furnitures and fixtures. The main point was to see what sales we could get for the furnitures and fixtures. We ended up buying two sturdy cafe chairs (will serve as extras at our dining table), small filing cabinet, office chair, two huge bags of coffee beans (now we will need a coffee grinder) and two big bottles of hand lotion (we'll have clean hands!). I did not find many other sales, except for another Josh Groban CD and a couple of DVD's.

Since it was one of the few days when it was not raining, RR wanted to do yard work. I was therefore left to do the food shopping. The cheapest food shopping place for us is the super Wal-Mart near our house. Now I know of some people who refuse to shop there because they claim Wal-Mart to be pure evil. It may be evil, but we like to shop there because it is cheaper than the other grocery stores nears us (e.g. Kroegers and Marsh). I think the Wal-Mart prices here are comparable to No Frills and possibly some cheap Chinese supermarkets in Toronto.  Perhaps the only time that has made me think twice about shopping was when a woman was recently carjacked in broad daylight. Of course, this incident happened during a weekday when most people were at work - I usually shop on weekends when there are often more people around. The point is, after seeing how much food you have in your cart, you often estimate how much it would be. I am always amazed how much lower it really is.

Overall, it was a tiring but a happy and productive day. I would have written this blog yesterday, but I have been trying to get over a bad cold that started a couple of days ago. I do feel much better today, especially having drank some hot ginger tea and taking some cold medicine.