Thrifty Finds

Today dear hubby and I went thrifting. This can be fun or not, depending on how fast he gets hungry and tired. I agreed to stop for breakfast before we began, so it turned out to be a fairly good day, especially because I got some great bargains.

At our first thrift stop I got some napkins in fall colors. They appear to be brand new and were only $1.00 each. We hit the jackpot at our next thrift store though. I found a beautiful basket, which I think is handmade.

I also got this cute little pumpkin.

But the real find of the day was this old sewing box full of vintage goodies. Look what I found inside. (These photos show only a fraction of the contents.)

There are vintage scissors which will be beautiful for decorating.....

And wonderful old thimbles.....

I also found buttons inside. Loose buttons......

And buttons on cards......

There are many cards of old hooks and eyes......

And snazzy old snaps.....

I found lots of thread on spools and cones.....

The sewing basket contained a box of bobbins.....

I also found rolls of ribbon, packages of needles, and boxes of vintage Singer sewing machine attachments! There was even a roll of litmus paper included in case I need to do any scientific experiments. (Don't you just wonder what that was doing in there.)

The most amazing thing is that all this sewing goodness only cost me $2.50. My total for the sewing box, pumpkin, and handmade basket was only $4.18 including tax. On the way to the car my husband asked me if I shouldn't go back and just hand over more cash to the store because he thought buying that much stuff for such a low price might be immoral.


I was feeling so good about my new treasures that I didn't really even mind what happened next. I asked hubby to drive us to the other Goodwill store in town. We made our way through traffic and headed to the GW. All of a sudden my husband flipped on his blinker and headed to the turn lane. I started yelling at him that this wasn't the way to the thrift store. He sheepishly grinned and apologized, admitting that he had forgotten about the GW when he saw the meat market and thought about all that meat inside there. "Not yet", I scolded him. "We have to finish finding the bargains. Then you can buy some beef." What is it with men and food! I can thrift store shop all day long and never once stop to eat. That just slows me down and might make me miss a bargain.

So my husband drove on to the last thrift store. We found a few things there including a pottery bowl for $1.49 and a new book of children's stories for $1.00. While we were shopping I overheard another married couple having a heated conversation. The wife was trying to explain to her husband that thrift stores were not like garage sales and you couldn't negotiate the price with the cashiers.

I snickered and got in line to check out. The wife got in line behind me. Just when I reached the register, the husband comes racing up to the register and cuts me off. He asks the cashier to ring him up. I just looked at the cashier and smiled indicating that I didn't care that he had cut in front of me. But then the man wouldn't give the cashier the merchandise. He just wanted to hold up the stuff and tell her how much he thought it should cost. She nicely took the merchandise from the man, rang it up and bagged it. When she gets done and tells the man the total, it turns out he doesn't have any money. He turns to his wife, who is politely waiting behind me in line and yells out, "Honey, come up here. They need to ring up your stuff too, and you need to pay for everything." Now his wife is really mad, because now everyone knows she is with him. She rips into him about being a line cutter and not paying attention to anyone around him . It was seriously all I could do not to laugh out loud. I told the lady to just go ahead of me and not worry because I wasn't in that big of a hurry anyway. I looked at my husband, and he just smiled because he knew we were on our way to buy beef soon.

That poor man was clearly a novice thrifter. He still has lots to learn. I wish his wife good luck and lots of patience. I wondered though, should I tell her that in the future a hot donut and the promise of some red meat can make the day much better for both husband and wife.

Blessings to you and happy thrifting.