Adventures of a Dealaholic

I absolutely LOVE thrift stores and finding good deals. I love finding things new or barely used (especially clothes) for which I paid only a fraction of the price. My husband doesn't understand my fascination but he does like saving money. It's like a sport or a great urban adventure.

The trick to any thrift store shopping is to find a thrift store in a good area or close to a wealthy neighborhood. The Goodwill I frequent to find new treasures is in Cherry Creek and only 5-minutes fromt the Cherry Creek mall. Talk about a good neighborhood. I have gotten practically new Calvin Klein, Nine West, and Tommy Hillfigure. After a nice washing to remove any germs, no one could tell the difference and I looked like a million bucks!

Another excellent place to shop is the Goodwill online store. This online store operates like ebay and pools items from Goodwills across the nation. I got a brand new, with the tags, Saks Fifth Avenue dress for $16. It was pretty...

So, driving home yesterday I felt that I should drop into Goodwill and case the joint for some good finds. I was blessed with an apothecary style vase and two ceramic bowls for my cat. All for $3.20.

Here they are! The apothecary jar was $2 and each bowl was $0.49.

Here are our cat's bowls before. These worked with tacky linoleum but now they don't look very good with the beautiful tile.

So much better!!! Now our cat is stylish.

I had no practical need for this jar. But, as soon as I saw it, I fell madly in love! I was thinking that it would look cute with a pretty candle in it but then I discovered a much more practical use:

It is now our very functional receipt jar. Every month Andrew and I record our expenses in an excel spreadsheet (the expenses that can fluctuate such as food and entertainment and gas expenses). This helps us to stay in budget and save a portion of our income every month. After tiling the kitchen there were several receipts to fill the jar. We really need to get these into our spreadsheet so that they can be thrown away...lol. 

So, there you have it; my most recent finds. For those looking to set out right away to the local thrift store, here is some advice.

1. Choose your thrift store wisely (keeping in mind location and the type of donations that would be made)
2. Be very very picky. Do not fall prey to the hysteria of having to find something amazing. Keep your standards and don't be suckered into buying something that isn't up to those standards. Don't see a name brand and instantly assume that it is awesome. Make sure it looks awesome and is your style
3. Don't come in with an already conceived notion of what you are looking to buy. Chances have it, you won't find anything and you may miss out on a lot of other treasures. If you are looking for anything in particular, be willing to be disappointed and to find something else that you didn't anticipate

Good luck adventurers and may you be blessed with an abundance of treasures!