Things have been a bit tricky these past few months. The good news is that my daughter continues to do more and more every day - take more independent steps, say many more words, thrive. So let's just go with that as my update, shall we?
I planned this particular thrifting trip to coincide with two sales - Value Village's monthly half-price sale and the Salvation Army's weekly sale (I wasn't sure what it was at this point - it's 25% off everything in the store every Wednesday). Unfortunately, VV just didn't give me fireworks and heart palpitations - it was picked over and crowded and crazy! But I'm glad I got it out of my system. We also went to two - TWO! - Goodwills and my favorite indie store. And as you'll see, my main goal was to find mugs to decorate - and I succeeded in hitting that goal. Also, I brought cash and with one small exception I only spent the cash I brought with me. Yes, I rolled my quarters as part of that, and yes, everyone was REALLY excited to have me pay in rolled coins. Saves the cashier a trip to the back room or even the bank!
For the few of you who are interested, here's some pictures!
First, Value Village:
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| Cute shirt for the kid. 75 cents. |
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| Unexciting shorts that I hope will fit her. $1.75. |
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| A rash guard that appeared to have never been worn. 75 cents. |
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| Annoying find of the day - the shirt, which is cute, was only 50 cents. When I took the tag off, it made two giant holes ON THE FRONT OF THE SHIRT. I've said it a million times - Value Village is TERRIBLE about this and I don't understand why they continue to staple tags - and staple them in ridiculous spots on clothing! I am washing it anyway to see if the holes get smaller, but it likely is bound for the trash. Boo. |
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| I wonder how much this Wicked shirt was when it was brand new. I paid $1.75 for it. I still haven't seen the musical, but I loved the book so much and I love the art. |
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| So this is a thing - Hello Kitty and KISS. I don't get it but I had to have it. $1.75 I think? |
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| First haul of mugs of the day! 20 cents each. Again with the Value Village ranting - most of their mugs cost 20 cents, but most of their mugs also were smashed up and scratched. But still, I scored these. |
Next up, the Salvation Army - a really nice, newer, very clean and organized store. However, as I've found in other SAs in the area, many items of clothing that made it to the floor were ripped or stained. Still, I found a few things...
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| More shorts for the kid. $1.50. They're Crazy 8 brand and they have sequins on them. Cute! |
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| NY and Company skirt for me. $4 I think? I really liked it. I also found another skirt that I really liked and I forced myself to put it back with a lot of hand wringing and sighing because it was simply impractical and ridiculous. This one had more potential as something I would actually wear. And that's how I know that a) money is tight and b) space is tight and c) I'm an adult now - I didn't buy the ridiculous skirt. |
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| Two Bodum black mugs to decorate. 75 cents each! |
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| This old-style clipboard is going to become either a place to hold my kid's art or a menu board. I haven't decided. 75 cents. |
Then a Goodwill *just* to look for mugs. And guess what - that's all I bought!
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| Three were 99 cents each, one was 55 cents. Yes! |
Then my favorite indie store where the prices are confusing and the deals are amazing! All money goes to a no kill shelter, if I haven't mentioned that before, and sometimes I just feel like I'm making a donation and then running out with an armful of clothing, and that's fine with me.
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| "Specially priced" shorts for the kid. They are almost new (and a relatively recent line) Gymboree shorts. Score! $2. Ooh, big spender - that's still cheaper than Goodwill! |
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| Jeans for the kid. 50 cents. |
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| Basic T-shirt for the kid. 50 cents. |
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| Basic long-sleeved shirt for the kid, 50 cents, I think? |
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| The cashier looked at this and said "Because of the brand name, this is $1.50" and then acted like I wouldn't pay that because it was too expensive. No, I assured him, that was fine! It's Hollister and it's cute. |
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| This Old Navy skirt doesn't look as cute on my floor, crumpled up, as it looks on me. $1. |
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| This skirt is by a brand called Roxy. It's labeled as a size 3 but I don't really understand what 3 that is because it's rather big. Anyway it's adorable and matches a shirt I got that you'll see below. I love buying outfits together (because I never do). |
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| Every Atlanta gal needs some Coca Cola gear in her wardrobe I suppose. It was 50 cents though there was a bit of drama about that price. But it was 50 cents. |
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| This shirt matches that skirt above. And it's Ann Taylor Loft and was 50 cents. |
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| Another very poorly photographed but very cute skirt. It's from the Limited and it's a wrap skirt. Normally I hate wrap skirts but this one seems like it won't blow wide open with every puff of wind. $1. |
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| Hanna Andersson! It was also "specially priced" at $2. It's too big for my kid and she doesn't really wear dresses - I'm probably going to try to resell it and get back some of the money I spent on everything else. |
And finally, as we were starting to run out of energy, we went to one last Goodwill for more mugs and (not shown) a present for the kid (a Backyardigans book for $1.50).
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| This may seem like a weird purchase, but my Silhouette can cut these and I was actually looking for something exactly like this for making boxes with windows in them. For $1 I took a chance on how many were in the taped-shut box - turns out there are about 8 transparencies in there, which is exactly enough. A full box costs something like $35 so I think I did well with this score. |
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| 75 cents with perfect illustrations to become pocket mirrors. |
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| And finally, just a few more mugs. Both are blue, though it's hard to see that the one on the right is blue. That one was something like 25 cents because it was a half-price color, and the other was only 55 cents. |
Phew! I also scored a really cheap GIANT CD wallet (I'm taking all of my CDs out of their jewel boxes, finally, and putting everything into storage) at Tuesday Morning for $8 and I tracked down some green straw cups at a random (but nice) Dollar Tree. And that...is that!
