Decorative Paper Party Napkins for a Fraction of Original Cost

I love using decorative paper napkins for celebrations. But I don't love their retail prices. So in spring and summer I check neighborhood garage sales for unopened packages of these fancy napkins. I will pay up to 50 cents for an unopened package, but also find them priced at 25 cents. I only buy what I truly love and will use in the next year or two, which usually means I will buy 3 or 4 packages each garage sale season.

I found these really pretty napkins, above, in pink and blue with a hydrangea pattern and this other lovely floral border pattern with the black accents for 50 cents a package, unopened, at a neighbor's garage sale in early May. 

These Christmas napkins were just 25 cents for an unopened package, found at another garage sale a different weekend.

The hydrangea napkins were originally priced at $3.00, and the black border napkins were originally $5.00. The price sticker on the Peace Christmas napkins has been removed.

We used the hydrangea napkins for our Mother's Day brunch and plan on using the black floral border napkins for Father's Day. It's probably obvious that the Peace napkins will be used at Christmastime.

I imagine some folks buy these napkins at retail, expecting to use them some time and then forget or have too many others to use. Or perhaps they received them as a hostess or other small gift. In any case, I get to be the lucky beneficiary of their paper napkin abundance.

Getting my pretties without breaking the bank.

Saving Hundreds of Dollars on Our Homeowner's Insurance Policy

We replaced the roof on our home last month. This morning, I called the insurance agent and inquired about an adjustment to our homeowner's insurance premium (due in just a couple of weeks) because of this new roof. 

I needed to submit proof of the new roof. So I went downtown to bring the required paperwork. The agent contacted a central office while I waited. She will be able to give me a final dollar amount of savings for this year's renewal in a day or two. 

Replacing an aging roof with a new one can save anywhere from 5% to 35% off of one's homeowner's premium. In my case, we went from a cedar shake roof to an asphalt roof. Wood roofs are typically more expensive to insure than asphalt. I'm hoping for a sizable reduction.

While I was with the agent, we discussed increasing our deductible. A higher deductible suits my husband's and my style of dealing with insurance. We tend to pay out-of-pocket for smaller repairs and not deal with the insurer, whether for our home or car. We save our insurance for catastrophic loss. So, we increased our deductible amount. That right there will save us a few hundred dollars per year. The caveat -- with a higher deductible, we are assuming a larger share of the risk of loss with our home than previously. But we are fine with that. In the 29 years that we've lived in this house we've only used our homeowner's policy once.

With insurance rates skyrocketing in our area, any savings is very appreciated.