2024 in Thrifting

About a year ago I wrote a post here about my new direction with thrifting, and what I had learned while transitioning for just thrifting now and then to attempting to thrift more.

This year I stuck to that path and tried to thrift everything I needed, like some purses to replace my fifteen-year-old purses, which were falling apart. Here you can see the lot of beautiful Vera Bradley bags I got for $9.99.

When I needed some new socks, I thrifted a huge lot of them (including lots of other things) for $9.99. Nine months later, I still haven't worn them all.

These brand new Fila sneakers were at steal at $9.99. I got them in the original box with Kohl's $59.99 price tag. I found the purchase receipt in the box, too; the sneakers had been marked down to $29.99. The paper stuffing was still in the toes; evidently the original owner bought but never wore them.

My thrift of the year was winning these gorgeous mint condition $80.00 Nike sneakers for my guy at auction but only paying $12.99 for them. I'm pretty sure they were a store display pair as they had only one tiny scuff on the sole. He has been paying $50 to $60 for his sneakers, but the reason this is my thrift of the year is that I wanted to prove that I could thrift new shoes for my guy cheaper than he can buy them at the store.

Now my guy is thrifting right along with me, and even took me on a thrifting spree that he paid for, which included this beautiful bundle of fabric from our local thrift store for $14.99.

I think people are starting to discover that thrifting can save them big bucks, because the online auctions have gained more bidders now, and I see lots of folks shopping at the brick and mortar stores. Accordingly prices are going up, too.

There are still bargains to be had if you look for them, and always a treasure to discover, like this donated quilt rack in need of repair, which the thrift store allowed us to take for free. Just have fun with it, and see what you can find.

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Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

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.

Store Closing Haul

The mega Books-A-Million store over in Sanford is closing, and offered an extra 20% off on their current stock -- all sales final -- so I went over to do some shopping. Safely but sadly there was no one in the store but me the entire time I was there. The Holly Jackson novel is for Katherine, the Halloween board book is for Oliver, and the copy of Garden Spells is to keep on hand because I give that book to everyone. The rest of the books are for me. I love Anne Cleeves, and the Galbraith novel sounded interesting (the first couple weren't, but I'm willing to take another chance.) The Escape Room is by a new-to-me author, plus it was cheap. The GreenCraft mag is just a guilty pleasure. Hopefully the smaller BAM nearer to me won't close. I don't buy many books from brick-and-mortar stores these days, but that's really the last one within reasonable driving distance.

Valerean

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