Category: Thrifty Finds

Quick Tip: Cereal Bags

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Last week I told you guys what I do with just a handful of leftover cereal, and this week I wanted to show you what I do with the leftover cereal bags.  About ten years ago, I found a brand new box of wax paper sheets at a yard sale for a $0.25.  A quarter, you guys!  It had over 1,000 sheets in the box.  I just ran out of them this year.  It was a sad, sad day at my house.

The main reason that I used those sheets, was to separate my hamburger patties when I put them into freezer bags each time I had extras.  They won’t stick together and create a huge clump of raw hamburger meat this way.  Otherwise, what was the point of spending all that time patty-ing them out?

Every time I empty one of our cereal boxes, I save the liner. 

I just open the entire thing up….

Like so.

Cut it in half……

Again, and again, and again, until I get the size I want.

They make perfect separators for my hamburger patties.  And they are FREE.   Which is one of my favorite words.

Quick Tip: Cereal

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At our house I buy cereal for snacks.  We don’t eat it as a breakfast food, because it just doesn’t sustain anyone at my house.  But a sweet snack?  Yep.

Inevitably there is always just a handful of cereal left at the bottom of the box.  Every.Single.Time.

Instead of putting that last handful of cereal down the garbage disposal – because NO ONE wants to eat just a handful of cereal with milk, that would just make everyone grumpy – I stick it into a baggy and put it in someones lunchbox for a sweet treat.

Now there is nothing thrown away, and someone will get a sweet surprise at lunch time.

Yard Sale! We found a Blue Boy!

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It’s yard sale season in my part of the world.  Yay!  Can you tell I’m happy about it?

Liv and I headed out to the grocery store on Saturday morning and we found three yard sales on the way.  Here are all of the things that we decided actually needed to come and live at our house.

A bookcase for $5.00.  I was so pleased to find this.  It’s solid wood and so sturdy.  Which is a must in a bookshelf.  Even Denton was impressed.

This was my favorite find of the day though.  It’s a Hazel Atlas glass chopper and it’s perfect.  I paid a whopping $0.25 for it.  Woohoo!  It originally came with a metal chopper, but I truly don’t mind that it’s missing, because I love the way it looks without it.  I didn’t know any of this when I found it at the yard sale, I just love useful, beautiful things.  Especially when they cost a quarter.

Liv hit the mother-load on clothes for $0.50 each.  She has a very eclectic style at the moment, and I tell her to go for it.  A Talbot’s flamingo skirt and a 100% silk New York Company camisole. 

A Thakoon shirt that she loves.  I’ve never heard of this brand, but she loved the crowns.  Apparently it’s quite expensive.  I suppose I should get out more, but I would rather shop for clothes at 50 cent yard sales instead, lol.

Two DC Comic Raglan t-shirts.  Yay!

A Gap t-shirt for me, and a $78.00 Ann Taylor blouse for Liv with the tags still on it.

Another of my favorite finds is this cast iron Lodge cornbread skillet for $2.00.  I can’t wait to use it.  I’ve also heard great things about this book.  I’ll add it to my growing list of need to read books.  I discovered a love for rash guard shirts this summer at the beach.  I’ll let you in on a secret.  If you wear one of these, you don’t have to spend 3 hours putting on sunscreen.  Seriously.  I LOVE them.  I may look like someone’s elderly grandma, but I DON’T CARE.  Sorry about the shouting, I felt it was needed here.

A Christmas Story Raglan t-shirt for me!  I love this.  Denton was not as impressed with my find.  He also does not love the movie either, but he can be forgiven.   Maybe.  It’s one of my favorites.  Now I need to go watch the movie.

We are finally to Olivia’s favorite find of the day.  As soon as she spied this across the way, she turned to me and said “I want that”.  And from 30 feet away, I was like “Oh cool, Blue Boy!, sure.  Find out how much he is”.  And then, we got close enough to actually see him and I said “Liv has psycho eyes, NO WAY”.  And she replied, “I like his eyes”.  Sigh.  He was $1.00.  Obviously.  Because who would pay more than that for the poor guy.  I have hope that she will come to her senses and paint this poor fellow some lovely eyes someday.  In the meantime, Psycho Blue Boy lives at our house.

We also ran into our Salvation Army and Goodwill while we were out and about and found this lovely number.  I am slowly replacing all of our luggage and this little beauty was $5.99.  It’s brand new with the tags still on it.  IT Luggage rolling backpack in black suede with leather details.  I love it when I find useful things, for excellent prices.

All in all we spent $19.24 for everything, including Psycho Blue Boy.  I’m happy with everything we brought home.

What have you found at a yard sale lately that made the cut list to come home with you?

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DIY Project: Back Porch Light Fixture

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NOTE:  I am NOT an electrician.  I’m sure there is an electrician somewhere on earth reading this right now and cringing.  I just like to do things myself.  If you do not feel comfortable working with electricity – don’t.

I love when I find things at yard sales or thrift stores for a great price.

I found this beauty at my local goodwill for $4.99.  In 2016.  Good grief.

See the date above the price?  Do you want to know how long it took me to change out the fixture?  Three minutes.  Or it would have taken me three minutes if the stupid mounting plate that was in the original fixture matched the new one. So in actuality, it took me twelve minutes to completely change the mounting plate and the fixture.  This is another example of my brain convincing me that “that’s going to take forever“.  Light fixtures are easy people!

Here’s what we started with.  I know.  That’s gross and disgusting and I should clean it.  There was nothing wrong with it other than the fact that it is 23 years old – I just don’t like it.

I do like this, however.  Isn’t it pretty? 

Like I said, light fixtures are easy.  First things first.  Before you begin dismantling your original light fixture, make sure that your breaker is off. Even if you know you turned off the correct breaker, test it out by trying to turn the light on. This is usually a quick way to make sure you turned off the correct breaker. However, for safety’s sake, you should still use a voltmeter to test the wires when you remove your original fixture before you touch them.

Then assess if your original fixture plate will fit the new fixture.  Mine didn’t.  To remove it, unscrew the two screws holding it to the wall.  Easy.  Screw the new plate to the wall in the exact same place and run the wires through and connect like with like.

I always connect the ground wires together first and wrap it around the ground screw.  It’s that odd greenish blue screw.

Next, connect the white wires.

Finally the black wires. Place the new fixture over the protruding screws and screw them down.

Lastly, hunt down the Deep Woods Off spray so that you can sit outside and admire your new light fixture.  Mosquitoes love me, unfortunately. 

You can see all of my other DIY projects with the link below.  Go change a light fixture!

All of my  other DIY Projects

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All the Things. 04.14.18

Published on by Tracie3 Comments

As always, you can click on the photos to take you to items like these!

It’s finally yard sale season in my part of the universe again!  Woohoo!

You know the post I did yesterday about all the stuff that I took out of our house to the Salvation Army?  Yeah.  This isn’t that kind of post.  This is a post where I show you NEW to me stuff that I brought home with me!  Just keep in mind that I took 150 things away from our house yesterday and then count the number of things that I brought back in.

Justification.  Isn’t it great?  Here are the treasures I found.

Clothes are not my thing.  But, I do love my purses.  I constantly fall in love with a new one – all the time.  It’s a good thing I love yard sales or Denton would have to get another job to support my love of purses.  My brother told me once that he doesn’t want to wear anyone else’s name on his clothes.  I totally get that.  But, since Tommy Hilfiger trademarked my initials, I figure that I’ll let this one slide.  I found this one for $1.00.  Yay!

My love for candles is still going strong even though we have jumped on the diffuser bandwagon with the rest of the world.  Batman’s propensity to set himself on fire though has tremendously cut back on candle burning in our house.  I love these.  They are the battery powered flickering wax candles.  I really liked this pattern.  They were $2.00 for both.

Love them!

I stopped at a church yard sale where I found these little beauties.

Liv really loves stones and crystals of any kind.  I believe that these may be jade.  I am guestimating, but I think there may be a couple of hundred in this bag.

Remember when I talked about my hoard of magazines?  I showed you my copy of Uncle John’s bathroom reader.  Well, Denton comes down the hall the other day and asks me where I got that awesome book in the bathroom.  He loves it.  It’s been in our bathroom since last October and he just now noticed.  Anyway, I found this one for $0.50 and it’s going in his Christmas stocking this year.  Don’t worry, I guarantee he won’t read this, so I’m safe.Has your GPS ever gotten you lost?  Ours has.  We got off the interstate one day to have lunch and it decided to recalibrate its brain and that was that.  So.  I have decided that every single car we own will have one of these beauties.  I will always trust an atlas over a computer gadget any day.  $1.00 from our library.Dishes.  If it’s not books taking over my house it’s dishes and glassware.  I love these.  I have quite a bit of Princess House, but I don’t think that’s what these are.  I’ll have to ask Denton’s Mama.  She could curate for the Smithsonian, she is that knowledgable.  But, it doesn’t matter to me if they are real or not.   I love them.  And I will use them.  $1.20 for ALL of them!After I finished with the yard sales I stopped in my library to grab a few books and what did I find?  More beads and things.  I found YARDS of silk cording, clasps, beading needles, and all sorts of beautiful beads for me and Liv to play with.  When he added it all up it came to around $14.00, but he said since I bought so much they were giving out discounts and only charged me $10.00!  I think that we will give it about a week to see if anyone else wants to buy any of it, and then I’ll go back and buy the rest.  I never want to deprive anyone else of trying something new, so I’ll wait and see!

That’s it for our first real weekend of yard sales.  I am so pleased with what I found.  That’s the thing with yard sales, you never know what kind of treasure you will find.  Did you find anything cool at a yard sale yet this year?  I would love to hear about it!

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Can I Have a High Five?

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When Hayden and I go into the city there are a few thrift stores that I like to go into.  By the way, why do all of my weird, dramatic stories take place in thrift stores?  Anyway, one of the stores I go into is a Goodwill Outlet that Liv and Hayden both refuse to go into.  That’s fine, because there is a normal Goodwill attached next door.

Let me set the scene for you.

Yesterday, Hayden and I were perusing the books in the normal side for about half an hour before I quickly ran into the outlet to see if there was anything I  wanted to fight someone over needed.  Seriously, these people mean business.  Keep your hands to yourself and DO NOT take a purse into one of these stores.  The rules are completely different here.  If you get a buggy, DO NOT remove your hands from it or take your eyes off of it or you are going to end up in a fist fight over the contents.  I’m not joking!

While we were in the normal side looking at the books, no less than six times someone came over the loudspeaker and said, “Assistance needed at the outlet cashier please”.  I didn’t really think anything about it.  I knew in the back of my mind that it was unusual.  Think about how many times you hear someone calling for assistance in a store.  This was on repeat.

After we bought the books we were getting, Hayden took them to the car and I quickly ran into the outlet to check out the purse section and the books.  While I was looking at the purse and bag bins, I heard twice more someone asking for assistance at the cashier.  I found a 31 cooler in a nice pattern and a very nice Vera Bradley Night and Day black and white crossbody purse and hung them both securely over my arms.  I quickly went through the section with the book bins and didn’t see anything I needed, and made my way to the cashier.

As I’m standing there in line, I’m just patiently waiting my turn and people watching.  There are two groups of people in line in front of me.  The first group finishes up their purchases and leaves.  The woman in front of me steps up and places her items in the bin to be weighed.  The cashier, I notice is standing there staring after the people who are leaving with something in his hand.  And he just keeps standing there staring after them, fretting and muttering under his breath.

The lady in front of me asked him to please ring up her stuff and he gets very flustered and eventually tells her that her items are $1.14.  She tries to hand him $1.14 and he tells her she only owes him $0.53 because he had a slight miscalculation with the previous customer and they left him with extra change which he had applied to HER purchase price.  She just stared at him and tries to hand him the $1.14 which makes him very agitated, and he explained to her again, that she now only owes him $0.53 because he applied the leftover change from the previous customer.  She finally threw up her hands, gave him the $0.53, grabbed her stuff and left.

Now its my turn.  I now have an inkling of why there were repeated calls for help at the cashier station.  I say hello, because that’s my default, I always speak to everyone if they make eye contact with me.  He looks startled for a second and says hello back.  He rings up my two bags and tells me my total is $0.96.  Score!  I hand him a dollar bill…..  I am not making this up…..

He starts chanting under his breath, please work this time, please work this time, please work this time, as he punches in the amount to get my change.  I knew better than to leave him with the four cents.  Heaven help all of the people in line behind me if I did.  Chaching, the cash register opens and he sticks both arms into the air and yells, “YES!” like he’s at a ball game.  He’s dancing in place and says, “Can I have a high five”!?!  He’s already got his arm across the checkout counter waiting, so I said of course and we high fived with six people waiting in line behind me.  He was so, so happy to make change for a dollar and have nothing go wrong.

I smiled and told him to have a great day – he’s still dancing around in place – and smiled at the guy behind me, who actually smiled back!  It seemed to make the cashiers day that I would high five him, smile and say have a great day.  If I had to guess, I may have been the only person to be even slightly pleasant to him that day from his reaction.

The moral of this slightly bizarre tale is to be the good.  Just be the good, people.  You don’t have to ask anyone to high five you, but smile.  Even if you don’t want too.  It might make someone else smile too.

I completely forgot to put the two bags I found at the outlet in my list of thrifty things I found in this post, so hopefully I’ll remember to do it next time.  Have a great rest of the weekend and smile.  And high five someone if you think they won’t punch you in the face instead.

All the Things. 11.18.17

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Hayden and I went into the city yesterday.  We found lots of things, but we didn’t buy almost any of them.  But the books.  Ahhhh, the books.  Those we bought with abandon.  When you can get a book you’ve had on your need to buy list for a dollar, yes please!

Here’s what we found.

Any time we go into the city, we always make a stop at the Aldi there.  This was sitting there just waiting for me to take it home.  So I did.  It says it’s a Pacific Pink Blooming Jade plant.  Cross your fingers that I don’t kill it.  The price on the little beauty was $11.98, but I’m considering it my very own Christmas present to myself.  I don’t know how thrifty this one is but, I wanted to include it.

And this!  I have successfully kept my own Christmas Cactus alive for ten years now. I bought it from a little old lady at a yard sale for $0.50 the first summer we lived in our tiny town.  But, it’s never bloomed.  They had these in all kinds of colors, but I have a longing for these white ones with some slight color to them.  And it has blossoms ready to bloom!  And it was $3.99!!

The books. (I’ll link all of the books we found yesterday at the bottom of this post, if you are interested.)  At our house we have a running list of books we want to add to our collection that we don’t have yet.  Yes, I know I could just go buy them at Amazon or Barnes and Nobles.  That would take all of the fun away from the hunt.  Hayden and I have been actively looking for a trade paperback version of The Girl Who Played with Fire for over a year now.  It got to the point that it was a game.  In all that time, we only found ONE other copy of this book in all of our hunts, and it was just a regular paperback that absolutely reeked.  I found this so very weird.  We’ve found more than fifty copies of the other books in that series, but not this one.

Have you read The Handmaid’s Tale?  I started it earlier this year, but lost interest part-way through.  I’ll pick it up again when I have a minute.

Hayden was absolutely enthralled with The Photography Book.  It’s a book with famous and not so famous photos from the past hundred years.  It does have some great photos.  My only complaint is that the book is small, therefore the photos are small.  I may try to find a larger version for a Christmas present.  He liked it that much.

I didn’t know that Neil Gaiman wrote Coraline until we found this book.

I’ve never read Beloved, but have heard it’s a must read, so when we found this one for $1.00 I brought it home.

Olivia read The Color Purple for the first time this year at school.  I don’t know what happened to our original version, I may have let someone borrow it, but I haven’t been able to find if for months now, so I got this one for $0.50.

Here are a couple of things we DIDN’T buy.  Bear rugs.  I thought they were awesome.  Hayden just stared at me and said “No”.   Someone is getting a great deal though.  They were $14.99 each.  When I checked the online price, I was amazed.  Those things are expensive!

And his brother.

I found this beautiful thing earlier in the week.  It looks like a hammered bowl, but it’s glass.  I have no idea how they do that, do you?  It’s almost 12 inches across and six inches deep.  It has a gold rim and I love it.  I left it on the shelf twice, which in a thrift store is unbelievable that it was still there when I went back.  $4.99!

                                                                         

Did you find anything awesome in your wanderings?

Want to see what else I’ve found?  You can find all of the goodies here.

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DIY: A New to Me, Vintage Chair.

Published on by Tracie4 Comments

NOTE:  Every single time I finish up a project another one rears its ugly head.  See:  That red wall.  It has to go, but I HATE painting.  Moving on!

I found this little beauty at my local Salvation Army a few weeks ago.  It was $2.00.  Seriously.  As soon as I saw it I started dragging it towards the checkout counter.  Just look at those lines.  The beautiful curved wood.  Love.  I love it.  The original upholstery……No, I did not love it.  But it passed the smell test, from three feet away and then incrementally closer until I had my nose plastered against it.  If it had reeked of cigarette smoke or other smelly things you don’t even want to consider, I would never have bought it – no matter how little they were asking for it.

But apparently, they thought no one would buy it because it was so, so ugly, hence the wonderful price.  Yay, for me!

Lovely, bendy wood arms.

Filthy, but not for long.

Even more stunning from the back.  Just ignore the hideous upholstery. 

Okay.  First things first.  If you look closely at photo three, you’ll see that this chair is attached with two bolts on each side.  There were another three  3 1/2 inch screws on the front of the chair that attached it to the base.   That’s it.  Awesome.

I got out our trusty allen wrench set and got to work.  Easy peasy.  The screws took longer, but I mastered those bad boys.  Even if I had to rest between each one.

Then I started ripping off 942 year old upholstery.  Gross.  Seriously gross stuff.  Even if it doesn’t smell.  Old upholstery is just gross.  Good thing it was going away.

More ripping and tearing.

Ahhh, the loveliness.  If you read my post from earlier last week, you’ll remember that I got this bolt of material for $2.50!!  Yay, for thrift stores.

Just compare…..

Nope, there is no comparison.

After I removed most of the sections of old material, I measured out what I would need to replace it with on the back of my new material…… (ignore my sewing machine, it was out for yet another project I’m working on)

I placed the new material over the wooden bones of the chair……

Got out my trusty staple gun and went to town.  Stretch and staple in place, stretch and staple in place.  Rinse and repeat all the way around the back.

Then I scoured my pillow collection for an unredeemable one to sacrifice for the open bottom of the chair.

Slice it open and rip…….

These contraptions are for the back of the chair that you can see in the fourth photo from the top.  I ended up throwing the cardboard one on the left away and just stapling that top portion in place from the underside, but the two metal pieces are gold.

I wrapped the right side edge around and pressed the sharp as hades points through…..

Ditto for the left side…..Then started hammering the right side into place.  Did the same thing on the left side.  Denton came through at one point and asked why I was using his framing hammer.  Because, I couldn’t find MY hammer.  And in my world a hammer is a hammer.  Please don’t send me emails explaining the difference.

I measured out my repurposed pillowcase to the underside of the chair and stapled it in place.  (this took the place of the nasty black felt that was on the original, that you can see in photo 5)

Flipped it back over and put the three screws and four bolts back into place and ….. Tada!

I am so pleased with how it turned out.

It’s soft as a cloud.

And it looks like a baby lamb.

Don’t you love those wood angles?

Love it.  I love it.

I want to display it like this so everyone can see the marvelous back.

Exquisite.  I love it, did I mention that to you yet?  The moral of this story is, don’t let ugly, outdated upholstery stop you from buying something that you find lovely.  All you need is an afternoon, a $2.50 bolt of material from your thrift store and your own trusty staple gun,  allen wrench and framing hammer.

You can do it!

P.S.  Here are the tools I used on this project, just in case you need to build your own collection.

BOSTITCH 51-855 20oz Steel Hammer Rip Claw

Craftsman 9-47139 Phillips Screwdriver Set, 5 Piece

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All the Things. 10.18.17

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

Note:  As always if you see something you like and can’t wait to find it at your own thrift store, click on the photos and it will take you to like items.   This post may contain affiliate links.  Check out what that means to you here.

I have been super careful about what I bring into our house lately.  As you will see by the photos.  Or maybe I just haven’t found more things that I love.  😉

Either way, all the things that I’ve brought home in the last few weeks is a LOT smaller than the things that I’m taking away to be enjoyed by another family.  But, these are some great things.

Here’s what I’ve found lately.

Matching set of pillowcases.  I don’t know why sheet sets come with only two pillowcases.  I have four pillows on our bed that we I use while reading in bed.  Granted, neither of us sleep with more than one, but when I’m reading in bed, always, I want to stack pillows up so I’m comfortable.  Anywho, I love it when I find lovely, super soft pillowcases for $0.25! each.

I have learned to be careful about buying your poor dead great, great grandma’s pillowcases though.  Things need to be durable at my house.  I bought a beautiful vintage pillowcase that felt like silk (it wasn’t), was paper thin and felt amazing on the pillow.  It didn’t make it through the second wash with all of the other normal sheets and pillowcases.  Poor thing.  I’m not using them for pillow fights, but they do need to be able to go through the normal wash cycle without coming apart.  Sigh.

By the way, just a random thought, how DO you wash a silk pillowcase?  I’ve read that they are best for the skin on your face, but how do you wash them?  Does silk get thrown into the gentle cycle and come out fine?  Inquiring minds want to know.  I’ll update you if I find out on Youtube.

A perfect Vera Bradley purse for $3.00.  I love my Vera Bradley wristlet that I use as my wallet.  But I’ve never been to keen on the purses.  They are very busy for my tastes, which run to straight black, brown, or red.  But I really like this print.  It’s owls.  Liv hasn’t seen it yet, she’ll probably steal it from me, which is fine, because I change my purses out like I do the sheets.  Which is weekly by the way.

I LOVE this fantastic find.  It’s a vintage rolling pin.  You can’t tell from this photo but it’s huge.  Here’s a better perspective.

I love it and can’t wait to try it out this weekend.  $1.98!

House of Marley headphones.  I really, really, really dislike ear buds.  The kids and Denton love them, but I can’t stand sticking them into my ears.  I found these last week for $0.99 and tried them on the spot.  They are awesome.  Now if I want to listen to a podcast while I’m walking, I won’t be the weirdo blasting Young House Love on the trail for everyone.  My beloved Milk Glass.  I am going to list these on Etsy this week.  They are absolutely beautiful.  But, I know that I won’t use them, and my house is being overrun, so they will go to live with someone else who has an affinity for milk glass!

Our Oreo.  Can you believe he’s 13 years old this year!?  That’s so crazy.  He’s such a sweetheart.  He is still grieving the loss of Sampson and it’s been a year and a half.  Some days he is completely unconsolable.   I honestly don’t think he’ll ever get over it.  We’ll just have to be the best substitutes he’s got.

Did you find anything awesome in your wanderings?

Want to see what else I’ve found?  You can find all of the goodies here.

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How I Balance Shopping with Donating.

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

I had someone ask me the other day:  Why do you keep buying things at thrift stores and yard sales only to take even more stuff to your local Salvation Army?  I was very surprised.  The answer is very simple in my mind.  Let me give you a couple of analogies to make it clearer.

To survive, everyone must go grocery shopping.  Unless you grow everything you eat yourself that is.  This comes with the responsibility of disposing of all of the accompanying refuse that comes with shopping – unless you are the Johnson family from Zero Waste Home , who I aspire to be like and will more than likely never accomplish.  You must then recycle the things that you can and trash what’s left or you will find yourself swimming in home filled with garbage and recycle.

We all like new things, yes?  I just prefer to find my new to me things at yard sales and thrift stores.  When Denton and I first married, it was a huge blessing to our family of two that I came with all of the inherited knowledge I had from my own mother about thrifting.  Way back in 1995 it was not a popular past time like it is now.

That first year, I worked for a bank in Old Town Alexandria in Virginia.  One day at work one of the other young women complimented me on my outfit and asked me where I got it.  Well, I had paid $2.00 for it at a yard sale earlier in the week on Route 1.  She was stunned.  She had never been to yard sale, heck, she had never been in a Wal-mart!  She was from New York and it would never have entered her mind to shop at a yard sale.  There’s nothing wrong with that either.  If you have the disposable income to buy your new outfit at Nordstrom’s, not even on clearance!, that is your prerogative.  For me though, I would rather find those gems at a yard sale for $2.00 and pocket the other $198.00 and put that towards our next adventure.

Here is a perfect example of something I bought earlier this year that is going away this weekend.  It’s a beautiful throw.  I love the color, and it is as soft as a cloud.  It is absolutely perfect and I gave $2.99 for it at my local Goodwill.  But, here is the problem I have with this particular throw.  When I washed and dried it, we ended up having to take the dryer APART.  This thing sheds like a baby alpaca in the dryer.  I am shocked that the dryer didn’t catch fire while it was drying.  The throw came out beautifully, but I cannot have things in my house that are that finicky and time consuming.  Now, it can go live with someone who doesn’t have three cats who make their home on everything and therefore cause things to be washed and dried in the dryer.

I am very glad that I only paid $2.99 for this throw, because even though I still love the color and softness, I don’t feel too terribly bad about sending it away.  Now, had I bought it at West Elm and given $160.00 for it, yes, that would have caused me to have heart palpitations.  And then, I might have kept in it my house when I truly didn’t want it anymore.  Which will not bring me joy.

I have had to learn over the years, that if I bring something home, something else may will have to leave.  So I use this as a balancing measure when I am out and about shopping at my lovely yard sales and thrift stores.

How do you balance shopping with donating?  Nosy people want to know!

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