I love using decorative paper napkins for celebrations. But I don't love their retail prices. So in spring and summer I check neighborhood garage sales for unopened packages of these fancy napkins. I will pay up to 50 cents for an unopened package, but also find them priced at 25 cents. I only buy what I truly love and will use in the next year or two, which usually means I will buy 3 or 4 packages each garage sale season.
I found these really pretty napkins, above, in pink and blue with a hydrangea pattern and this other lovely floral border pattern with the black accents for 50 cents a package, unopened, at a neighbor's garage sale in early May.
These Christmas napkins were just 25 cents for an unopened package, found at another garage sale a different weekend.
The hydrangea napkins were originally priced at $3.00, and the black border napkins were originally $5.00. The price sticker on the Peace Christmas napkins has been removed.
We used the hydrangea napkins for our Mother's Day brunch and plan on using the black floral border napkins for Father's Day. It's probably obvious that the Peace napkins will be used at Christmastime.
I imagine some folks buy these napkins at retail, expecting to use them some time and then forget or have too many others to use. Or perhaps they received them as a hostess or other small gift. In any case, I get to be the lucky beneficiary of their paper napkin abundance.
Getting my pretties without breaking the bank.
Napkins can be expensive, especially if you buy them at a place like a Hallmark store. I have gotten some good deals at Ollies (a buyout store) and was lucky to get a box of ones for various holidays that a neighbor was getting rid of. If I need a lot of napkins, I will mix plain ones of various colors in with the patterned ones. The overall effect is good and I don't think most people really care what they look like.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteOllies sounds like a great shopping resource for your area. And how fortunate to receive a box of napkins from your neighbor! Sounds like you're set for several holidays.
For my daughters' graduation parties, we used a combination of various patterned napkins mixed with plain yellow napkins from Dollar Tree. The look was pretty and festive, and a lot more reasonable cost-wise than buying all patterned napkins.
The fancy napkins actually work nicely when wrapping a small gift like jewelry that is.in a whitebox. Also, they are great for decopauge.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda,
DeleteI love that idea to use a pretty napkin as gift wrap. That's such a great idea! Thank you.
I love pretty napkins! Dollar Tree generally has pretty ones in the time frame leading up to Mother's Day. The napkins I used for my daughter's decoupaged pots for her graduation were leftover from a purchase I made several years ago at Dollar Tree. I didn't think about garage sales as an option. We have an Ollies--I was there once and didn't really care for it, but I wasn't looking at paper goods at the time. Maybe I should try again.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteThat's good to know about Dollar Tree and napkins in the weeks before Mother's Day. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you!