Your bank account's best friend

Although we are only constrained to purchasing clothing for our year-long challenge (which is more than half-way over, by the way), the sweetness of the never-ending cheap finds at our neighborhood thrifty haunts has inevitably caused thrifting to spill over into almost every area of our lives. Other than groceries and underthings, thrift stores are now our first stop shop, and we think that if you follow the tips and tricks to thrifting listed in this blog, you can make them your first stop too. Seriously, why, in this economy, (which will probably only start to get worse since the U.S. is now over 14 trillion dollars in debt), would you waste precious money by paying full retail price that you could otherwise be *hopefully* using to quickly pay down any personal debt you have? We know we kinda indirectly say this a lot, but to be more clear: thrift stores are located all over America and are your bank account's best friend, so utilize them! 

We try to list most of the items that we find on this blog, but the fact is, we now buy so many of our day-to-day items second hand that we really doubted you wanted to hear about the ironing boards, candles, wrapping paper, random cups etc etc.... that we pick up as we need. We have become so used to thrifting that we now find ourselves in the Wal-Mart turning down $10 lamps and such because we think "I can probably find something just like this for $2 at SalVal." The best part is, we usually can.

So, here are some more of the useful and trendy things we regularly find:

Three pretty medium sized tins, each $0.50 from a garage sale and Salvation Army.

$2.00 Fossil brand crossbody purse at Salvation Army in absolute brand new condition.

Huge purses are really in right now, and this $4.99 lilac (no brand) bag from
 GoodWill  was a pretty fashionable find. 

Super cute black purse with roses, can we say "date night?"- $4.99 (no brand) at GoodWill



I wish I could get a better picture- the fabric is diaphanous and oh so pretty. Oh, I'm also
wearing a White and Black brand shirt I paid $8.49 for at G.W. Boutique.

 

Brand new Minnetonka sandals- super comfy and only $14.99 at a local consignment shoppe

This has since been played with, but when found at Salvation Army for $3.99, it was in
its original shrink-wrap!



Mr. Coffee 4 cup coffee maker- $3.50 at Salvation Army. Picture is proof that it works!
Cute little cups- $0.99 each at GoodWill.

Antique Bavarian teacups!

It's always the times when I (Sarah Jane) am out thrifting just for fun, not looking for anything specific, when I run across the most amazing treasures. A couple of weeks ago I was at the GoodWill in the "bric-a-brac" section when a gleam of  gold caught my eye. In the corner of one of the shelves sat several antique-looking teacups and matching saucers, just calling out to be admired. Upon a delicate closer inspection, I found that they were indeed from Bavaria, gold-gilded, and each one was different from the other. Being a tea lover, antique lover, and general lover of the thrill of finding something that is probably worth a lot more than the $0.49 per teacup price tag, I bought the seven oldest-looking and prettiest cup and saucer sets and four biscuit plates. All in all I paid about $8 for the whole lot. I have not yet decided what to do with them all, and if I weren't living in a small apartment, I would buy a pretty wooden shelf and display them in my dining room. I wish I owned a little tea shoppe, they would be perfect as decoration there. I might just use them myself- anyone want to have a tea party? The brands on the bottom are Thomas Ivory, Bavaria; AL-KA Kunst Kronach, Bavaria; Eschenbach, Bavaria; and Johann Haviland, Bavaria. Here are a few pictures I took of them. Aren't they just darling? 

The teacup was $0.49, the saucer was $0.49, and the biscuit plate/lunch plate was just $0.69. See what beautiful condition they are in too? I just love when I find things like this!

Here are all seven of the teacups and their matching saucers.

The four plates with the GoodWill price tags still on as proof :)

You just never know what you're going to find!