Thrift finds and more great economics.

The snow is starting to melt here in the northeast. The mile high mounds of snow and the ice formed on the roofs are causing flooding and leaking all over the place. To escape on Saturday after all the errands were done we stopped at a thrift store. Findings were slim, but our wants have become slim. We narrowed it down to what we can use.

My daughter makes the purchases and she is addicted to fabric, but so am I and we found a few we could use. There was a gray and green bed sheet, an aqua floral sheet, tan and purple corduroy, a vintage red tone stripe and best of all for the grand total of $1.99 a bed skirt with some wonderful off white 100% cotton. 

We found a deep wire basket that once attached to the back of a door with Command Hooks will hold light weight winter hats and mitten. Also found were two more canning jars at $.29 each, a bag with four boxes of new magic birthday candles, several mini metal buckets that will help with my garden and 20 spools of 100% Egyptian cotton thread. There were several books added this week also. Gardening books we always took out of the library, but now they are growing on the shelf and books to make us more knowledgeable about the little things we can do.

We had two more $10 off a $10 purchase coupons this week. Scott bath tissue is $12.99 for the 20 roll package and combined with a $1 manufacturer's coupon I got it for $1.99 and tax. The second coupon we put towards a $13 package of packing tape so we had it for shipping and packing things up. Lastly a york peppermint pattie free from Savingstar.com last weekend. Not a bad haul for a little bit of work.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful week. 

Thrift finds and some freebies.

We have a favorite place we like to visit when we need sewing or craft supplies but we don't go to often because it can get quite costly with all the wonderful finds. It's called Craft Bits 'n Pieces and it's in Fairport NY. We went on a recent Saturday because we had things we wished to donate. This is a second hand shop where people donate their unused craft supplies and they resell them to the public to support their senior citizens. Well, they couldn't take our donations because we were unaware that you now needed to make an appointment because they don't have enough volunteers to accept them and run the store. If I lived closer I would volunteer, but I am to far away to help.

This is a very very small amount to leave there with. We usually find so many pieces of fabric that we fill a bag, but we've been very selective about what we are buying. Yes, my daughter even found a new hair clip and at .25 for a package of double fold bias tape we got those too.

Besides going to make a donation the most important reason was to see what we could get for thread. This is what we found and the prices were .25 to .50 a spool. We usually select specific colors, but this time we took whatever we thought we would use. The thread rack in the back was purchased at Savers for $1.99 after we shopped at Craft bits. We had the donations in the trunk and needed to unload them somewhere and we got a discount card for making the donations.

For thrift finds there were crocheted coasters (Craft bits), canning jars ranging in price from .29 to .99 and amazingly two pillar candles for .99 each. They always seem to mark them at $3 to $4 each.

We found this brand new Kay Dee linen owl print towel, a lime green Pyrex pie plate, along with an aqua coffee mug and vintage towels and linens. The vintage deer with her fawns is plastic but looks so nice on our shelf.

Part one of our freebie economics, my daughter has been cutting down fabrics and sewing, creating lots of extra pieces and scraps. She has a friend at work who also loves to sew and she takes these scraps to her to use and enjoy. Well one day a week ago she took a bag to her and we've been excited to get a little more out to be used and shared, but the universe on the very same day showed up. Another co worker arrived in her office with a large box of fabric. This is the bundle she brought home, but she shared about one third of it with the other co worker. We were happy because they were solids and not prints so we could use it to back sewing projects. 

The freebies from grocery apps included two boxes of baking soda and two boxes of brown sugar. Due to the weather and not needing to many of the offers this is all we've done lately. I'm sure there will be lots more in the future to share.

Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Thrift finds and "freebie economics".

Not a lot of thrift shopping and picking going on here. We look mostly for things that are actually needed and it has to be special for us to want it. We have set a goal to re home in the next few months so my daughter is setting aside as much as possible to achieve that venture. We went out once for a day with a friend and my sister-in-law between Thanksgiving and Christmas and had a wonderful day. We found a few good deals. It's getting easier to hunt and pick just what you can get the most out of.

At one thrift store we found a package of orange ornaments that adorned our tree this past holiday season, an almost new pair of LL Bean low cut hiking boots for $5.99 that fit just right, a pair of mens Clark's saddle shoes that only needed the white laces changed out, one 1/2 pint canning jar and a darling leprechaun.

This pile of goodies was so cheap. I believe a couple dollars for it all. There was a Vera scarf, 18 tart pans, a resin bird, miniature Christmas ornaments a Kokeshi doll and a package of bristle brush Christmas trees. The resin bird went here:

We found a set of four glass spice jars and a beautiful vintage orange and gold floral table cloth and we are always getting orange and yellow towels for our retro bathroom.

After Christmas we dropped off donations and looked around the thrift store and found two sets of these wonderful floral sheets and the only other purchase we made was for this lovely Ben Seibel sugar bowl size vintage covered dish. 

Some of the purchases will be kept and some have been or will be added to the store inventory but all in all we just wanted to get out and have a great day with friends and family. Thrifting is more fun when you're in a group.

My quest to keep going with as many free items as I can has become more fun than challenging and this pile of goodies (a 20 roll package of Scott bath tissue, two large Folgers coffee, three movie boxes of M&M's and one lollipop) came to a total of $1.50 which was mostly tax. I was armed with coupons for free merchandise and rewards vouchers and I couldn't have been more satisfied. I will continue shopping this way until policies change or they just don't let me any more. Twice now I've used my rewards for this kind of shopping.

In the mail I received a free sample of Dove hair oil treatment and on Savingstar the freebies this week were corn muffin mix and hot cocoa.

Also received free this week were these metal display stands. Five are heavy metal stands and adjust in height and one is a sign stand. They nicely come apart for easy storage and my daughter will use these when she does her craft shows. A few more items out of the landfill. Being green and using "freebie economics" to help the budget has proven to be a positive change for us. I hope you all are doing as well as we are and thanks for stopping by.