On Wednesday's Noah has Coyote Club which is sort of a kids nature group that meets at a local park. He loves it and I am quite keen on the activity since I am a much bigger fan of trees than sports. What this means for me is that I need to find a way to occupy the girls for and hour and a half since it isn't really worth it to drive home, nor is it enough time to do any serious errand running like grocery shopping. So today we took a quick trip to Agway to pick up chicken supplies, stopped in at the vets to pick up medicine for George, the hot mess puppy bulldog, and then went to our most coveted place - the thrift store. Ah, those two little words set my heart a flutter. My affinity for thrift stores and their many Eco (logical and nomic) benefits will be the subject of many a post here, but for today I will sum up my $5 score.
After scanning my usual hot spots, shoes for Noah and me and pants for the boy giant, I let the girls hit the Toy Room and I went over to check CD's and books. No "new" music of interest. I think I hit my high in that department when I found a copy of "Ill Communication" to replace my scratched one. Who the hell gives away a Beastie Boys CD? Hello, inheritance? On to books. I quickly found a hardcover for me that looks completely untouched. Then one that screamed "Buy me for Mom". Then one for my sister. All in beautiful condition. When I had finished scanning the shelves and surveyed my pile I had a total of eight - four gifts and four for me. Prices? 50cents for hardcover and 25cents for soft. Total = $3.00.
Back to the toy room to pick up the girls and I discover two very girly cases filled with never-used art supplies. A buck a piece. I am always on the hunt for two-of-something to avoid "She won't SHARE it with me!!!". So that's a couple things that will balance out Christmas a bit. I checkout with a total of six future Christmas presents, plus four new reads for me. Not that I will get through them anytime soon, but most of them are reference anyway.
So some might say that I did not need to spend that five dollars. But come December when everyone else is frantically throwing their money at anything that looks like something they can pawn off as a thoughtful gift, I will be at home making wrapping paper out of brown bags and bragging to David about how cheaply I acquired this bounty and resting in the knowledge that my generosity is recycled and still full of love. See you next week Thrift Store!
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I love that! I HATE spending $$$ on Christmas presents. I will definetly have to hit the thrift stores this year for the holidays. I too use the brown bags for wrapping. And I make stamps and I stamp the hell out of them to make them look festive. Love your blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! We also like to stamp our brown paper wrapping. What do you use to make your stamps? We have tried sponges with OK success and potato stamps work alright, but are usually too small to fill large areas. For individual gift wrapping (like presents for kid birthday parties) I usually wrap the gift in the paper and then let the kids go to town with markers. Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteI have a lovely photo of you from years ago and guess where you are? In the aisle at TJ Maxx. Or possible the Salvation army in Salem, but Tj is standing out in my mind. ahh i miss our thrifting outings.
ReplyDeleteFor Christmas presents around here I check out the Local Smartwool sample sale extravaganza- their amazing socks that are normally $15-25 a pair are only $4 a pair...which seems like a lot for socks but these are the socks to beat all socks. And regardless of how awesome they are I could never spend $20 on a pair of socks.
Also the Australia Steamboat sale which basically sells all their cosmetic (full size) samples for a buck a piece, and various odds and ends that make lovely stocking stuffers for the nieces and nephews for very little cheddar. My mom and I spent $40 between us and got plenty of gifts for about 6 kids, a few things for the sisters, and some fun stuff for ourselves.
I still hone in on clearance racks and shelves in every store i go into like I am a sniper of the sale.
I miss our Salvation Army days! I still wear clothes that were bought there some 15+ years ago. I don't have as much luck there now and usually the small thrift stores are my best bet. I'm about to assess my loot from yesterday and I am preparing to go to the mother of all rummage sales on Friday.
ReplyDeleteYou can buy a block that you can carve with a knife, I'm not sure what it's made out of, maybe Linoleum or something? Anyways, it cuts like Butta(no pun intended)! You can buy them at your local craft store. I've also actually heard of people using Linoleum tiles, if you have an extra lying around.....
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