Thrifty Christmas Dress Shopping

I have two daughters, 3 years apart.  Sometimes they can be a pain, like all kids can be.  They fight alot and just plain get on each others nerves.  BUT they can SHARE everything.  They like the same toys so they can be passed down, but mostly what they can share are CLOTHES!

This really only benefits the younger one, obviously, and being only 3 she doesn't tend to mind yet because it all seems new to her.  Plus, I have had really good luck finding nice school clothes for my oldest at garage sales in my neighborhood.

But, Christmas is fast approaching, and of course my younger girl has a lovely dress that was worn only once or twice by her sister, but I didn't have a dress for my oldest, and a new Christmas dress was certainly NOT in the budget!  And it's been too cold for garage sales, so I was wondering whatever I would do!

Earlier this week when my husband was home sick, I was able to escape and go grocery shopping by myself, and when I got to the store I recalled that there was a very nice thrift store in the same shopping center, so I decided to run in and have a look around.  I was very pleased with what I found!  It is black velvet at the top and red silky shiny material at the bottom, and in near perfect condition!

The dress itself was a size 7 (just what I needed!), but sleeveless, marked half off of its original price for $4.54.  I did a little bit more looking around for a black or red shirt to go under it, but instead I found the velvet sweater cover up in the exact same shade of black velvet!  It looked like it was made to go together, except I knew it wasn't since the sleeve part was a size 6 (a little short maybe but they look like 3/4 sleeves so its all good!).  And it was marked half off as well, for only $0.99.

My total, including tax, came out to $5.99, and it fit her perfectly, if not a little on the large side, so she should be able to wear it for a while!  She has even already begged me if she can wear it to her school party next Friday!  

What have you bought second hand lately that has filled a need that you had?

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Garage Sale Shopping 11/5

I stopped by a garage sale just around the corner from my house today and I found some really great clothes for my kids.

I spent just $6 on all of this, and my daughter spend $1 of her money on the Rapunzel Barbie doll.

I got my older daughter two nice pairs of jeans for $1 each, and a very nice pink top for $1 and a long sleeve purple top and blue jean skirt for $0.50 each.  I got my younger daughter a nice black shirt for $0.50 and a purple sweatsuit for $1.

I also had to pick up the little chihuahua shown for $0.50, because my mother in law is visiting me right now, and it had an uncanny resemblance to her dog Nola Grace:

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Fun Friday At The Farmer's Market And Free Cat Food

I meant to do some grocery shopping today, but as I sat outside this morning looking through the various ads once more and watching my daughter run around the back yard, I decided that there really wasn't anything on sale that we desperately needed.

I did want to get out of the house, however, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day today, so I decided that we should take a ride down to the Farmer's Market.  I found the produce there a bit pricey today, but as always we had fun strolling around and sampling the fruits and veggies that were shoved at us from nearly every stand.  I'm pretty sure my two year old was covered from head to toe with orange juice when I strapped her back into her carseat.

There was one thing that I did purchase while we were there.  It was a large basket full of yellow squash.

I learned a trick at the farmer's market last summer.  The baskets they put at eye level are the "freshest" of the items, and also the higher priced.  Sometimes, when they have some that maybe didn't sale the previous day, there will be a larger basket below the table, down at ankle level.  These are sooo much cheaper, and plenty fresh enough!

For the small basket of yellow squash at eye level that contained 4-5 squash, they were asking $4.  For this basket, containing 17 squash (and larger ones at that), they wanted just $6!  (We've already eaten some, and they were delicious!  I'm also about to try an experiment with freezing cooked squash, so I'll let you know how that turns out.)

On the way home, I realized that the main reason I was needing to go shopping today was because we had run completely out of cat food.  I had no coupons with me and I had not researched who had the best prices on cat food, but I recalled that I still had a $25 credit saved on my Kroger card from transferring a prescription.  Kroger was on the way home, so we stopped by there and grabbed a large bag of their store brand cat food, which cost $11.75.  When I checked out, she asked if I wanted to use my credit, and there was absolutely no charge.  My receipt shows the remainder of my credit that I can use next time I go.

On top of that, when I picked my daughter up from school, we passed by a garage sale, and I found a booster seat for the car for just $2.

I think that was a pretty good day!  For $8 total, I got 17 squash, a large bag of cat food, and an extra booster seat for my 5 year old (to have one in daddy's jeep.)

Earlier this week, I spent $8.16 at Tom Thumb (69% Savings).

That was all the shopping I've done this week since my trip to CVS (where they paid me for diapers) and my large Aldi haul on Sunday.

How did your shopping go this week?  Link up or leave a comment below.

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Saturday Garage Sale Finds

This morning after my daughter's very first rec ballet class (it was a surprise...she was soooooo excited), we saw a few signs for garage sales on the way home.  We always love to drive by and see what we can find.  I'm always on the look out for cheap clothes for my girls, even if it's to grow into.

We stopped by a couple with no luck, so we headed toward home.  When we turned down our road, I saw two signs advertising sales on the next street down, so I drove on to check them out and I'm so very glad that I did.

At the first I found a blue jean skirt ($2) for myself, and at the second, a mere two houses down the street, there was a ton of clothes my oldest daughter's size for sale.  Of course, she started shopping on the other side of the lawn, and before we'd been there 30 seconds she had rounded up a whole herd of My Little Ponies.  They happen to be her new obsession, as well as our dogs preferred chew toy...so at 10 cents a piece I said she could get them all.

Here are the things we got.  The girls jeans were 50 cents each (they are a size too big, so I won't be caught off guard when she has a growth spurt), and the shirts were 25 cents each (these should fit her now).  I paid $5.50 total for everything pictured.

There were only 7 ponies we bought today but somehow one of her own got into the picture....the white one with purple hair....well it started off as a unicorn (her other obsession, along with ballet....) but the dog chewed its horn off. =(  She's been given strict orders not to leave these on the floor!  Her Princess Celestia from McDonalds got her whole face chewed off....


Did you go to any garage sales this week?  If so, did you find anything?  What is the one thing you are always on the lookout for?

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Friday Garage Sale Finds

This summer I have been hitting the library on Fridays and usually going to Kroger or Albertsons, but this week I've been so overwhelmed with unpacking (as well as all of the extra coupons I brought home that my family saved for me) that I have not been able to get my shopping lists made yet.  Plus, it looks like there will be some more coupons to go with the current sales in Sunday's paper, so my plan is to get my act together and go grocery shopping on Monday.

Today, we left a little bit too early, and the library was not open yet, so I drove a little bit farther down the road and found a garage sale.  I started to not stop, but I spied some shirts hanging up that appeared to be my husband's size and style preference.  I have been searching high and low for him some pants in his size, and I was smart to stop because the clothes were just the size I needed.

I got him a pair of black dress slacks, a pair of blue jeans, and three shirts.

I also found a cute pair of shoes for my daughter.

I paid only $7 for all of this!


What's your best garage sale find?

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Shopping Trip 6/24: Groceries and a Garage Sale

Friday's have been my shopping day lately, and also library day, so since my husband didn't have summer school today I planned to go out with my older girl to the library and hit a couple stores, but she woke up with the virus her sister has been fighting since Tuesday night.  I ended up shopping by myself and had a really good outing.

Pay day isn't until tomorrow, so when I left the house I had $24 and a bunch of change in my purse.  My first stop was going to be the library, where I had to pay a fine of $1.20 for a few 1 day overdue books (because I had forgotten he went on a Thursday a few weeks back).  On the way out though, I found a garage sale just around the corner from my house.  I stopped because I have been in search of some pants in my husband's size.  Instead, I found clothes in my oldest daughter's size that were in great shape and priced at $0.25 each (even dress-up clothes).

Here's what I left the garage sale with for $2.50 total:

From there I went to the library, and then on to Kroger.  We will be going on vacation next Friday to visit some family, so I've been shopping with this long car trip in mind.  I was mainly going to Kroger for the Goldfish crackers for car snack.  We were also out of frozen veggies, and they had them on sale for $0.88, which is cheaper than Aldi ($0.95) so I grabbed a few to get us through the week until we leave.  Plus, I just love raspberries. ;)

Total Shelf Price:  $23.58
Total Sale Price:   $11.52    --Already  51% Savings
Price Paid After Coupons:   $8.42        64% Savings

After this I went to Albertsons.  They had some AWESOME sale prices this week.  I probably could have found more things to get, but I only had time to throw my trip together quickly last night.  

Here is what I got (the limit on the Jello was 2, but I forgot and picked up 4.  She voided two off and offered for me to go to customer service and buy the other two there in a separate transaction, so I took her up on that!):

Total Shelf Price:  $41.87
Total Sale Price:   $16.32   --Already  61% Savings
Price Paid After Coupons:  $5.87     86% Savings


By this time, it was already 1:15 and I was starving and my family had already had lunch.  I decided to grab a burger and a Diet Coke from Sonic, and just that cost me $3.98.  I sat there waiting for my lunch thinking about how I could feed my whole family dinner for less than that!  I felt guilty, but sometimes you just need a break and a small splurge.

Even after all of this, I came home with 3 $1 bills in my purse.  Tomorrow will be pay day, and I will have some more shopping to do at Aldi, but I didn't think that was too bad for today!

How did your shopping go this week?  I'd love to hear about it.

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Friday Fun: Free Breakfast and Garage Sales

This morning I woke up incredibly early.  I won't say I was full of energy, because I had been up incredibly late. But, I did feel like getting out of the house (and ignoring the mess therein).  Late last night I had read on facebook about a free breakfast taco deal at Taco Cabana in Texas.  I shared it on my facebook wall, so some of you may have seen it.  

Since we were all up and rearing to go, I decided to go get free breakfast.  They had posted a coupon on their wall, instructed us to take a picture on our phone and show it in the store.  I was expecting long lines, but the place was nearly deserted.  I had a bit of an issue with the location I was at wanting to honor the wording on the coupon, which clearly stated "one per person not per transaction", but after asking his manager and rolling his eyes at me, he finally handed over two for my girls.  I was nice, though.  I even bought a second for myself and a coffee, so it wasn't like I was getting out of there totally free!  The tacos were even a lot bigger than I expected, and I did not end up eating the extra I bought for myself.  On the way out of the parking lot there was a homeless man on the corner, so I rolled down the window and handed it over to him.  Hey, I fought hard for that extra taco, and it shouldn't go to waste, which it likely would have in my fridge.

After that, my 5 year old was whining that she didn't want to go home, and honestly I didn't either.  I had seen some garage sale signs on the way out of our neighborhood, so we took the scenic route home and stopped by a few.

There were some good finds today.  I shopped at 3 sales, and for a total of $7.50 I got all this stuff:

The first place had the little hammer toy in really good condition.  It was $2, which I felt was a bit much, but both my girls were having a ball playing with it and we have never owned a toy like this so I went for it.

The second place we shopped had a whole rack full of nice clothes in my daughter's size.  I spent $5 on the long shorts that she will be able to wear to school this fall, the jeans with the pink glittery stars on the back pockets (she fell in love), and the adorable dress that she just cannot wait to wear to church on Sunday.

This is her modeling it for me.  She even did her own hair. ;)

Then, at the last place we stopped, it would have been worth it even had we not found anything, because they had 3 baby chihuahua puppies that they let my girls pet.  They were both ecstatic.  I actually did find a nice board game there.  I had never heard of it before but it sounded pretty interesting, and for $0.50 I figured it might be fun.

It was an adult game, but my daughter was begging to play it, so after reading the instructions, I decided to modify it a bit for her and discovered it was a great learning game, too!  Score!

It is called Last Word, and there are letter cards and description cards, and you have to come up with something that starts with that letter and fits the description (very quickly for the true version).  Some were much too hard for her, like "U.S. State Capitals."  (That one might even be too hard for me....)  But others worked out great, and she had fun thinking of things.

Even after a bit of frustration at Taco Cabana this morning, I think we had a nice morning.  We got free breakfast, helped a hungry man, and found some great new-to-us clothes and toys.  

How did you guys spend your Friday?

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