Thirty Days of Thrifting - Day Four

Houston, we have a problem.

There's a reason malls build elaborate play structures and groceries have loss leader sales and big box stores have grand openings with bands and raffles. It's not because they appreciate you, and it's not because they want to give harried moms a break and let the kids play. It's because they know that the closer they get you to their stuff, the more likely you are to buy it. A free play structure in the air conditioned mall is a great idea, until you see all the stuff.

You had no idea you needed a quesadilla maker in the shape of a chile pepper or handcrafted paper bead necklaces from Ecuador until you saw them in the store, right?

I certainly had no idea I needed a 3-foot strip of fur, a bottle in the shape of a maple leaf, an Igloo cooler that fits 14 cans but is only 6 inches wide, and bracelets made from fair-trade tagua nuts until I went garage sale shopping.

For the record, I know it's just an old syrup container, but I thought it would make a nice bottle for my homemade vanilla since the vodka bottle doesn't fit on the shelf where I keep all the other baking supplies.

Thankfully, I went garage sale shopping with Joe, so out of that list I only actually bought the strip of fur. For $2. It's destined to become a "tug & calm" toy for the dogs.

We hit four sales after Nose Work class, in other words, as they were winding down. One was billed as a "four-family sale," one was an estate sale, one was a generic garage sale with super-friendly sellers, and one was a basic sale at a house near ours.

The four family sale was comprised of people who really didn't want to let go of their stuff. Everything was overpriced, and they weren't interested in negotiating. The tagua nut jewelery made by one of the women was pretty, though.

The generic garage sale had one thing I was really interested in:

It wasn't for sale.

They did have plenty of cute crafty things that I was also interested in, but only because I wanted to make them with my class.

I asked a simple question about them, and the friendly seller immediately and enthusiastically explained exactly how to make them and where to buy the supplies. She was very nice, and I wanted to buy something from her just because she was so nice.

Finally, we hit a sale on our way home, and I picked up one Dick Francis book that I haven’t even read yet (how did that happen?) and three books for my class. More problems: I’ve purchased 6 books that I specifically said I wasn’t going to purchase except at Goodwill on sale day. In my defense, they were comparably priced to Goodwill sale day.

Tomorrow: Goodwill again