We just finished taking pictures for Freecycle and will be most likely posting the free items tomorrow. We also mopped up the garage (gotta love melting snow), and put down a material barrier for our oil leaking van...

Today we sanded the upstairs room. It went faster then I thought it would. I also wanted to paint today, but DH didn't so we'll probably do it Wednesday or so.

I didn't want to post this, but DH said I should.... more stamps were bought today.... Then Spyros said I should illustrate the point of it always pays to shop around.

I won this auction of 123 stamps (many of them large, so they would easily go for $10-$15 in the store) for $152.50. With insurance, shipping and certified mail it came to $171. That comes out to $1.39 a stamp. As long as I use them, it's a heck of a deal...
There is an auction for a bit over 250 stamps on eBay right now with about 3 hours left. Right now the price is $1525. That makes it $5.50 per stamp. (that's appox. and we used 275 stamps)
It's definately not a bad price per stamp, but as shown by the auction I won with roughly half the stamps for 1/10 the price, you can do better.
I am not trying to brag, I just want to illustrate with patience and research a better price can be found.

eBay can be very addictive, so it's very important for me to have a set price that I will bid and not to go any higher. (The last 2 minutes of the auction I made DH feel my pulse because it was racing....) I also do my research thoroughly. There were many auctions with great stamps at good prices, put I kept focused and bid only when I felt it was an extraordinary price.

And there will be no more bidding on eBay until all the stamps come in and I have time to work with them. That way I will see which ones I like and if there is for example, 3 Happy Birthday stamps and I only like one of the styles I can resell the other two on eBay.

Once I get all the stamps I will total how many there are, the price paid (with and without insurance, etc...) and then do a comparison with actual retail prices. This may be of interest to any crafters out there (beginning or otherwise) to see how they can go about enjoying their hobby frugally.
When I post that information I will also post various storage ideas I have read about for craft items. Using wall mounted cassette/CD holders to keep your ink pads, is one of the many ideas.
So keep your eyes open in the next couple of weeks for this entry....

Frugal/Simple Thought of the Day: As illustrated and I have said numerous times - It pays to be patient and shop around!!!