Saturday, February 26, 2011

It's all about the deal!

Well I am sure you may be wondering, what does a mom of 8 do for fun?  Well I wish I could answer with some off the wall tale of high flying adventures, skydiving, or rock climbing...but alas, late yesterday afternoon, my running partner picked me up at 4:30 PM and we drove to another friends house, loaded a cooler, and some chairs into the back of, yup you guessed it, a mini van, and headed off to New Cumberland (yes the adventure was in crossing the river in rush hour traffic) to a food auction.

Now... you see the fun part about the food auction, if all those in attendance understand the idea behind getting a good deal, is that you check in, get a bidder number, and then go and scope out what is on the auction block for the night. 

Chips, snack foods, breakfast foods, canned goods, candy ... but the big draw the FREEZER TRUCK!!

I know.. all  your hearts have just skipped a beat... what could possibly be on the freezer truck. Well unfortunately, we are not sure either.  That is the big adventure!

So we find our seats, get some empty boxes for our loot, and start wait... Oh but our adult ADD kicks in so we get up, and wander to the back of the seating area, and find dinner!  Now, please understand, dinner is homemade, and CHEAP!  My running partner was very graciously purchased three main courses, and three cans of soda, and still got change... sorta like McDondalds. 

Okay -- the excitement is building .. so close to the start, yet so far away...  so we pass the time by chatting about our kids, school and our hubbies...  Okay conversations stops as the auction starts! 

We let them get warmed up.  We throw our numbers up in the air a few times with little success... again hopeful that those in the room are going to play by our rules ---cheap cheap cheap deals...  Oh good deal, 5lbs of Oranges for $3.50 ! I just bought 3lbs for $5.99 at the grocery.   The deal is on.. 

Speaking honestly, there are times in the auction where you sit there thinking - "what am I doing here?" On this particular evening there was a great deal of candy - and while we sat through the piles and piles of candy and soda options, I texted pictures of my friend the auction virgin to her hubby, took a phone call from another friend.... purchased a drink... just killing time... the goal of successful auctioning is patience, and boy did my patience pay off last night!

So we are getting down to the end of the night - the auctioneer starts lumping odd combinations of food stuff together... mustard and sausage and clove gum...  and I am preparing to leave for the evening - and then all of a sudden the pile at the front of the room starts getting bigger and and bigger - they are throwing in things like whole cases of snack foods, chips, olive oil, so I start throwing up my number... well the total of items being bid on keeps getting larger, and of course the amount of money is getting larger - I am in for $30, $35 and they keep adding stuff - $50 (out comes a case -12 large frozen pizzas) $55 - more stuff -at one point I think I even bump up my own bid... cause now even though I am trying to play this cool...this is exciting!  Now they start adding other items - toilet paper, tissues, I am at $100 and the lady that is bidding against me drops out so, I think I have this deal... but alas a man in the back picks up the bidding $101.  Okay... ok... lets get some perspective on this ... Cereal, toilet paper, tissues, tons of snack foods, sausage, olive oil, pretzels, bags of chips (that retail for $3.99 a bag) dish soap, hand soap... this is all stuff that my family will use!  Okay $135 - $136 - I raise my hand and blurt out $150... do I hear $151...urg ..at this point I am ready to end this craziness ! $175 I say.  the man says $176...  this is just crazy.  Oranges - 30 lbs of them added to the bounty, 20lb of chocolate milk balls, another case of Pretzels...  more tissues, more toilet paper, room oder eaters, My final offer $200.... 

Auctioneer says $201.... $200 do I hear $201...  he looks at the men on the floor and asks if there is anything else to add to the pile , a few more small things are added...  $200.... going once, going twice...... last call do I hear $201 ... SOLD for $200... number 223!! Woo Hoo --- a cheer goes up from the crowd! 

Well we start packing all this stuff up and realize that we now have a major transportation issue ! Lucky for me I can avoid total stranger danger, (several men from the auction house are willing for a fee to take me and my stuff home ...) as my running partner has some friends from her church there and they are able to help by loading up my 30 boxes of food stuff into their van and they are able to give me a ride home!  Yea me ! and my peeps! 

Here is the listing of what I got - now keep in mind that throughout the evening I had purchased the following items prior to the mother load:
2 bottles of Palmolive dish soap
1 -10 lb pork roast
2 - 5lb bags of sausage topping
2 - 5 lb bags of oranges
7 - Tony's pepperoni pizzas
8 - Red Barron 2 pack snack pizzas
1 - extra virgin olive oil
4 - bags of potato chips
1 case - 39 individually packaged cheese curls
2 bags of popcorn snack packs
3 crocks of butter

Additionally -
22 boxes of facial tissue
4 dish soaps
+1 5lb bag of sausage topping
1 case of Dijorno self rising cheese pizzas (12)
7 - 4 packs of toilet paper
20 lbs of milk balls
16 little Debbie apple pies
24 little Debbie chocolate pies
9 boxes of little Debbie gingerbread cookies
1 case of sun chips
2 packs of AAA batteries
5 loaves of bread
1 5lb container of mustard
1 bag of white cheddar cheese curls
4 bags of utz chocolate covered pretzels
4 packs of stella dora bread sticks
2 boxes of chocolate protein bars
2 boxes of beef jerky
2 containers of hand soap
96 individually wrapped cheese curl snacks
2 5 lb bags of steak fries
16 cans of pork and beans
2 boxes of Fuel cereal
7 bags of Martins Sea Salt chips
10 tubes of Easter candy
5 Bags of tortilla chips
1 jar of ranch dressing
2 jars of barbq sauce
4 bags of BBQ chips (full size)
12 bags of thin pretzels
8 bags of sourdough pretzels
4 round tubs of wheat pretzels
9 boxes (8 to a box) peanut butter cracker packs
1 case (15 bags) of ranch flavored pretzel bites
2 cases of clove gum
2 large bags of double bubble gum and candy
2 boxes of cake mix
4 boxes of instant oatmeal
30 lbs of oranges

AND...  one large pink stuffed Easter Rabbit!

By my calculations - last night the Lord blessed the Lingle's with over $900 in groceries for under $300.00

$900 worth of groceries, for under $300
FUN time with my 40 something friends
No kids breaking my concentration
Ride with people that are no longer strangers
Sharing my oranges
and rejoicing in the fact that you just can't make this stuff up!

Please visit my other auction virgin friend's blog for an acount of this same food auction and the mechanics of participating in the fun of a food auction!