Skip to main content

Thrifty Trio

During our travels at the end of summer we visited a few brick and mortar thrift stores. Often I find things that I want but I'm unwilling to buy new at these, with the bonus of being able to examine them in person.

Here's one little haul: a brand-new-looking mini muffin tin for $2.75 (this exact one is $10.00 at Wal-Mart); a low-carb cookbook from 2005 for $1.00 (new it runs about $8.00; the cheapest I could find it used online was $1.92), and a two-sided plastic container stuffed with interesting ribbons and trims for $6.99 (really a steal; the case is $9.99 new and there's about $50.00 worth of supplies in this.)

While I show you the cool ribbons in the case, which opens on both sides, let's do the math. Paying retail for everything would cost over seventy dollars. I spent $10.74, which went to Goodwill and a hospice center thrift store.

I still pay retail for other things. Example: I spent forty dollars on new books at Writer's Block in Winter Garden yesterday. Yes, I prefer used (like the cookbook up there) but I also like to support independent booksellers whenever I can. While at Goodwill we looked at a used food processor for $8.99 (the one I have at home broke) but ultimately passed on it. While I'd rather not pay fifty bucks for a new food processor, one that was previously owned will probably have dulled blades and other issues. I just bought new thread at JoAnn last week and paid retail, but got them on a B3G3 sale, so they were 50% off.

Thrifting is not just about being frugal. If these items hadn't been donated to the thrift stores, they probably would have ended up in the trash. Now they'll have a second life with me, and after I'm gone I hope they make their way to another thrifter and have a third life and so on. That's how we can best help reduce waste.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to
Post a Comment
Read more

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.
Post a Comment
Read more

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more