Thriving Thrifts

This past weekend I went to visit my future sister-in-law to go to the Jurassic Park concert at the Baltimore Symphony. The concert was my first and it was absolutely amazing! I can't wait to go to the next one! Before the concert, we stopped by this place that sells Healthy Blue Bags for $8. The program fills a huge bag full of vegetables and fruit. If not sold, the food would go to waste because it is surplus food from markets, its too ugly to sell, or close to expiring. It is insane how much food you get for just $8. Ally and I decided to get a bag to take home with us for lunch food. Here is what we got for a total of $16.  Our huge bags... except they are never actually blue.  All of our food!!! It filled the entire dining room table. We ended up getting eggplant, bananas, celery, fava beans, snap peas, onions, Brussels sprouts, bananas, cherry tomatoes, potatoes oranges, cabbage, salsa, vegetable mix, thyme, lemons, melons, and mushrooms. Keep ...

That time of the year is here! The weather is getting cooler and garage sales are beginning to cease. But have no fear, thrifting is here! I know, I know, corny but I had to. On a serious note, I am going to talk about my 10 tips to thrifting that I believe will help anyone become a true bargain shopper. Of course, there are tons of thrifting tips but these are my go to tips to anyone trying to utilize their second hand stores. Tip #1: Make a list of what you need. Don't get me wrong, there are days when I just want to step into a thrift store just to browse and there is nothing wrong with that; sometimes that is when you find the most amazing deals. However, having a list can keep you focused and can make you plan for certain deals in your areas. Example, my Goodwill does $2 Tuesday on clothes so when I am looking for clothes items I tend to try to go on those days. Tip #2: Do the research in advance! Check out your local thrift store deals and coupons. Check out the weekly co...

Here is to forgetting to post this garage sale haul... oops! This haul was from a few weeks ago. I honestly couldn't even tell you when because that is how forgetful I have been the last couple months. Being busy and getting old makes you forget. What can I say!  $5 for dog back pack!  $3 for the bucket filled with what we will use as dog toys. Charlie loves the soccer ball and has really good footwork for a dog.  $2 woven basket that we are currently using in the kitchen to organize and hide our lunch box Tupperware.  $5 car racks that fit nicely on our Honda HRV. These will be used to lug around our kayaks.  $5 for science posters, science lesson plan books, 5 metal paper holders/organizers, and a rock lamp for Ally's class.  $5 for more weights for my bench I got at another yard sale!  $5 for a heat lamp that will be used for Jingles and Pep (our lizards). Last but not least, 50 Cent small bookbag pocketbook that I love!

While I lived in Florida, Ally's dad had a trash pile and in it I found these older metal light up letters. Most were broken but some were salvageable. I had this idea pop into my head so when we moved I made sure to bring some with me. I grabbed two T's, an S, an C, and a P. I cleaned them up and began the project. I chose to work on the letter T for "Thriving Thrifts" and because in case I messed up it would be mine. Here are the steps I took, short, sweet, and to the point. 1. Clean and take out hardware           2. Spray Paint... many times   3. Glue in foam   4. Arrange and glue but don't be like me and burn myself. Who knew, Crafting is Dangerous!      

Another haul from multiple places over the labor day weekend that I am going to combine into one. As we walked into the door of Walmart they had a table of clearance items. Everything was 50 cents. We picked up a ton of things for the wedding and wedding shower such as a guest book pen, gold center piece mats, chalk tags, and balloons. We only found a few items at the goodwill and salvation army. There wasn't that many good deals but it was a rainy day and we needed something to do. Here is what we ended up getting:

For the long holiday weekend, Ally and I headed to West Virginia and Baltimore. I am going to post about our labor day sale first because it was just so massive! Ally and I walked into Value Village and the line was already long but we were in desperate need of work clothes still. We weren't having much luck at other places. This was my first time stepping into a value village and it was huge!!! I was very excited but then we were saw some prices of dress shirts. Some were 6 or 7 dollars which was out of my price range. Ally was only going to get a few things but then we heard the announcement. Everything that day and Monday (Labor day) was 50% off! So we doubled back and got so many things! Our total cost was $51.00 which sounds like a lot but look at all we got! Just keep on scrolling. Everything was less than $3.00! I did have one regret that day. I am a preschool teacher starting off in a new classroom and in much need of starting my own collection of furniture and play toys....