It’s been a while since I shared some of our frugal doings and thrifty finds. Instead of having garage sales we’ve been donating our stuff to Goodwill and of course, I have to run in while my husband drops stuff off. At least we’re donating waaay more than I’m buying! 🙂 Here are some recent thrift store finds.
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I found this fabulous rooster print for $3.93! It says French Roosters, 1 in a series of 2 and its from Target. I don’t ever remember seeing these at Target?
We found a pasta maker! Can’t wait to try this out.
Look at this fabulous yellow pepper mill! It’s a Davis and Waddell and retails for around $30 I paid $1.91!
We also got a Weider Workout Bench for $8 (it’s too dark in the garage to photo graph it).
Here are a few money stretching ideas that we did:
– greens are going strong in the garden so we haven’t had to buy any lettuce or kale (although if it gets any hotter my lettuce will bolt)
– after getting an estimate of $1300 to pressure wash and stain our deck (not including the screened porch floors), we bit the bullet and did it ourselves. Maintenance people…if we hadn’t let the deck go for as long as we did it would have been a much easier job!
– we started unplugging our washer and dryer when not in use. Our outlets are behind our units so it’s easy for us to do. The first bill that we got after implementing this was for a few weeks was 775 kWh used down from 877 kWh used the previous month and we had already turned the ac on a few times.
Frugal fail – I had read that people were putting their deep freezers on timers and having them cycle on 12 hours off 12 hours. We tried 6 hours to begin with and experienced no problems in the first few days and then I noticed that some things we’re feeling a bit soft in our freezer. So we discontinued using a timer on our deep freezer. It might have been our timer (it was an old one) or our freezer (it’s old too) or something else. I know other people had great success reducing their electric bill with no issues by having their freezers cycle on and off. So you may want to test it for yourself.
Found anything great at the thrift store lately? Have any frugal tips you’d like to share?
You found some great things at the thrift store, Manuela! That pasta maker looks brand new. I’ve dropped some stuff off at Goodwill but haven’t bought anything lately. I do have a couple of things in mind to look for and I probably should go in next time.
Your lettuce looks great. I tend to eat more salad as the weather warms up and it would be nice to just pop outside and get some. I remember growing lettuce when we had our one and only vegetable garden years ago and mine did bolt!
I only really like to eat lettuce when it warms up, but once it gets hot it’s very hard to grow lettuce here. The heat makes it bolt or makes the leaves bitter. I’m always trying to find ways to grow lettuce in the summer. This year I’m going to grow some in a container that I can bring inside for the hottest part of the day and I think I’m going to try growing some inside a bean tunnel.
Way to go! That pepper mill is fun. Doing your deck yourself was smart – hard work I’m sure. We are about to restain our wood fence to maintain it. That freezer idea sounds really risky to me.
Thanks Stacey! That’s why I didn’t do it 12 hours on/off. But the other people who did it didn’t have a problem so I’m think maybe there was something wrong with my timer.
Most of the time, our GW is an epic fail for me. I have better luck at my Habitat ReStore. I wish we had better quality and quantity of thrifting closer than a one hour drive. Bugs me.
As for the deck, we need to do ours too. We are doing some MAJOR and long overdue work on the rest of the house, though, so the deck is just going to have to wait until it’s done. It is going to look like a big old eye sore when the rest is finished and it’s still a hot mess, though.
You did find some wonderful things! I haven’t been thrifting in quite a while.
I have not been to thrift stores in a couple weeks but earlier this spring, I bought 3 beautiful Ethan Allen pieces and a dining trestle table and lots of grandchildren summer play clothes.
I still smile when I see my furniture, they are perfect for us and we got them so cheap.
I’ve heard of unplugging vampire electronics but doing the freezer scares me, that meat inside was so expensive! I hope you can keep finding some savings,.
Our weather is wacky, mostly it is mild and we are not needing either the ac or heat, but it was 40ish this morning so the heat ran a few cycles and last weekend it was in the 90s so the ac ran a good bit.
Nice finds! GW stores around here are not all that great, and when I donate I just go thru the drive thru. I have often wondered where all the “good stuff” donated around here ends up. I no longer have a separate freezer, but don’t think I would risk putting it on a timer if I did.
I don’t know about where you’re at, but a lot of “the good stuff” at our thrift stores goes home with the employees 🙁
I’d never put a deep freeze on a timer. The reason being my frost free freezer doesn’t keep food that great itself!
I wonder about that…but both of my Goodwill stores are good. The Rooster print actually came from one in another town over, Austell which usually isn’t that great. But they had lots of good things the day I went including furniture. Just good timing I guess 🙂
Love your rooster print and pepper mill! Like you, I’ve been donating a lot and not bringing much home. I’m also not going shopping (resale) as much as I used to. I did stop by Goodwill today since it was their scratch-off coupon day (I only got 10% off, but better than nothing) but only spent $6 on a few things. We need to wash and stain our little front deck, too. On the spring/summer to-do list!
Wow… I have been trying to thrift store shop lately and haven’t had any luck. You found some amazing items. I especially like the rooster print! Good stuff!
Thank you Sarah! I love chicken and rooster stuff!
At least we’re not alone with our GW being punky. The prices are atrocious and not much to buy. The furniture pieces are not real nice and what is there is so high, no thanks. I feel like going up to the boss and saying, “this is supposed to be a THRIFT store not Walmart” for Pete’s sake. I think many of the good items are snagged by employees first. They have to pay but they get first choice. If it wasn’t so far from our house I’d go volunteer.
Our local thrift store about 6 miles away has gone up so much. The volunteers get first pick. They go thru all the stuff newly donated on Monday and Tuesday. I wouldn’t mind volunteering there but one lady is a real dictator, not nice at all, my tolerance of bossy is not too good anymore. Worked with too many people like that when I had to work. Might try it tho now that yard sale season is on so I can maybe score some goodies. My hearing isn’t good at all anymore so I’ll just pretend I don’t hear her, how’s that sound? I mean she is really snotty, nasty. Have a great weekend
Oh dear, well she sounds like an unpleasant character. I have to say my Goodwills are really good. I have a new one close by. I think it’s because they are all close to TJMaxx/Pier 1/Target etc and get donations.
That woman sounds like some of the volunteers at the thrift shop closest to me. I suppose these places cannot be too picky when it comes to getting volunteers. And conversely, these volunteers have the attitude of “I’m a volunteer, you can’t fire me!!” My son’s verbally and emotionally abusive hockey coach two seasons ago had the same attitude. It is frightening what people get away with under the banner of “volunteerism”.
I’m so sorry, I forgot to comment on all your awesome thrift finds. You found some real prizes. My favorite is the rooster pic. I have chickens in kitchen. I love your tablecloth under lettuce bowl. I can usually spot the vintage cloths by how fabric and graphics look. I need to get some of my vintage cloths out again. We don’t have a table/or eating area so I use them for curtains and making table runners/pillow covers if they have bad spots to work around.
Your lettuce looks so good, makes me hungry for a big salad for dinner. Are you growing your own tomatoes?
Hope you and yours have great weekend Manuela.
I need to get back to my art projects. Painted 3 square canvases really light aqua to put shells on. Hubs going to make frames around them like a shadow box, will paint those white. Our living room is starting to come together, got shutter shelf hung today. The shutter and metal brackets are white, shelf is same light aqua, looks pretty on the gray wall. I’ve waited long time to be able to do this, almost 8 yrs since we bought this place. Sounds like you and your hubs will working pretty hard this summer. Hope you can take time to enjoy some of the summer.
Your shutter shelf sounds awesome! Yes, I’m growing tomatoes. I’m not doing as much as I normally do since I hope this house sells by the end of summer and I’ll have to leave all the veggies.
Love the Rooster! But I especially love the deck color, I used to paint our deck every year with a Redwood Stain. I have a patio now, but there is just something about a wood deck that I just love.
Thanks Rena! That was a lucky find – it was sitting on a couch. I think someone was going to get it and then changed their minds.
Love the print! I never saw it at Target either.
Brenda
Wow! I had no idea about the washer/dryer trick. Too bad my outlets are on the floor behind the dryer. And we have plenty of areas that could be pressure washed too, did you rent or buy one? As always, it looks so nice at your house 🙂
Thanks Andrea! We rented one from Home Depot. We did our deck, concrete patio, and front porch and walk way. We had thought about buying one but we really don’t need to pressure wash often so it was just as easy to rent one (plus the ones you rent are very powerful).
Like you, we are donating a LOT these days, but I still have to ‘take a look’ at what they have. Goodwill here is hit and miss, mostly miss, and their prices are high. The best places for furniture are moving sales IMO.
The pasta maker looks new. That’s the kind of thing I would have bought too…just not sure if I’d ever use it! lol
That is very interesting about unplugging the washer and dryer. I had not realized that it was a big deal. I am hoping to replace our freezer soon since ours is really old and I am sure it uses a lot of juice.
Oh yes, all these phantom electrical things draw electricity when not in use.
Thanks for stopping by!
Love the rooster and pepper mill, great finds! Just this last week I found curtains for my dining room. I ruined mine (forgot to turn down the dryer). Hubby said I would need to replace them with my thrift store shopping. No problem! I just had to wait a few months but found some that work great for only $4. I will be doing a post on them next week. Stopping by from Thrifting Thursdays.