thrift stores

A DIY Bike Cargo Area

March 29, 2012

My husband recently spruced up his bike to make it easier to carry stuff, and I thought I’d share his cool DIY design.  In the past, he always used a backpack to haul stuff on his bike, or he put stuff in next to our son if he was hauling the kid-trailer.  But now he [...]

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Starting On Our Basement

January 20, 2011

We’ve been in our home for more than a year and a half now, and have finally decided to tackle the basement.  We kept going back and forth on whether we wanted to put money into the basement now, or wait until we have the mortgage paid off.  Eventually we decided that it would be [...]

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Does My Credit Card Issuer Care That All My Clothes Come From Goodwill?

November 10, 2010

This article is a year old, but I just came across it today and thought it was worth sharing.  It’s hard to know how much this sort of thing was really going on at credit card companies, and how much the credit card reform laws have changed things.  But I find it particularly interesting that [...]

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Focused Thrift Store Shopping

October 19, 2010

Last week, the wallet that I’ve had for years finally gave out.  The zipper that holds it shut broke, and my options were to either get a new wallet, or to start holding my wallet shut with a rubber band.  I opted for a new wallet.  So for the first time since last spring, I [...]

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No More Clothes This Year

July 2, 2010

Don’t worry… I will still be wearing clothes!  They will just come from my closet rather than the thrift store. Last week when I went to town, my husband asked me to see if I could find a pair of overalls and a flannel shirt at a thrift store to dress a scarecrow he’s welding. [...]

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Smart Thrifting And A Good Harvest

June 12, 2010

I just got back from running a bunch of errands in town, and I’m feeling very good about my thrift store shopping excursion.  I had a whole carload of stuff to drop off, which I’ve been doing quite a lot lately.  This was the first time I had gone inside the store in about six [...]

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My Six Favorite Ways To Keep Expenses To A Minimum

May 10, 2010

I believe that for most people, cutting expenses is the most important key to reaching financial goals as quickly as possible.  Basically, the idea is to make the difference between what you earn and what you spend as large as possible in order to put the difference towards your goals (paying off debt, buying a [...]

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A Great Thrift Store Find

March 16, 2010

On Sunday, I headed to a couple of my favorite thrift stores.  I was looking for a carpet steamer, which I didn’t find (there’s always next time – I know I’ll find one soon).  But I did find one of these.  For six dollars.  We had been on the lookout for a new keyboard for [...]

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Mini Living Room Makeover

March 12, 2010

A couple months ago, my husband’s aunt got new living room furniture and offered us her old stuff.  It was 10 or 15 years old, but we liked it better than our own mis-matched pieces, so we happily accepted.  We now have a couch, chair, loveseat, and footrest – all matching! What didn’t match was [...]

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My Latest Goodwill Finds

February 4, 2010

Last month, I decided to see how long I could go without grocery shopping, just by using up the stuff I already had on hand in our cupboards and freezer.  I hadn’t been stockpiling anything and we didn’t have a huge amount of food stored, but it was 15 days between shopping trips, as opposed [...]

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