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.
