Discount Thrift Stores? That Almost Sounds Too Good to Be True!

94 cents plus tax

So where does a frugal woman go for shopping when she's on a super tight budget? How about a discount thrift shop? Yes, there is such a thing in my area. It's where surplus thrift store merchandise is sold at a steep discount.

I had been vaguely aware of the Goodwill outlet for a while, but I assumed it was too far or inconvenient to get to from my house. Then one of my daughters heard from a co-worker that we had one in the town to the north of us. Still thinking this was a bit far, I asked my daughter to google map it for me. It turns out that our local Goodwill outlet is even closer to our home than the regular Goodwill store.

Okay, so how does the Goodwill outlet work, you may wonder. The merchandise is primarily clothing, but they also have some small hard goods and a section full of furniture. Nothing is on racks or shelves, but it is all contained in huge, wheeled bins. Clothing is not sorted in any way, all sizes and genders mixed together. It is piled high, and you have to dig through the piles to search. There is no way a person could see it all. That may sound like a bad thing. However, it means that some "good stuff" will still be there, undiscovered. Just an example, in my own search, I came across two 100% cashmere sweaters in great condition and in my size after a bunch of people had plowed through that bin. As the bins get picked over, the employees wheel them out to the warehouse and replace them with freshly-stocked bins. There are no dressing rooms. However, they do provide a power strip for testing small electric appliances. It's a bit noisy and chaotic. However, I found the other shoppers to be very courteous.

When you've found what you want, you take it to the cash register and your items are weighed by category. There's a large white board at the registers that indicates the price per pound for the various categories of merchandise. Everything is sold by the pound; any tags are irrelevant, merely reminders of where items were previously for sale. Shoes were selling for $1.15 per pound yesterday. Clothing and linens were selling for $1.59 per pound. And small electronics were 59 cents per pound.

75 cents plus tax

So, what did we buy? I carried around a pile of clothing for a while. At the end, I sorted it all and tried on what I could. I had dressed in leggings and a slim-fitting long-sleeved knit shirt, so I could slip items on over my clothes. There were no mirrors, so my daughter used her phone to show me how I looked in the garments. (If you have a smartphone, do you do that? Use your phone as a mirror?) Anyway, after discarding about half of my pile, I settled on one dress for myself and three items for my husband. In between looking through the clothing bins, I checked out the hard goods. I came across a handheld mixer to replace our broken hand mixer. It was missing it's beaters, but it was still in working condition. I have found that for the most part, the beaters for American brand hand mixers are interchangeable from one brand to the next. I have 2 sets of beaters leftover from hand mixers that have died. And both sets fit this new-to-me mixer.

The old Goodwill price tag on the mixer said $5.99, but I paid 94 cents. The dress that I bought is a Calvin Klein. I found the exact same style listed on ebay for $29 as a previously-owned dress. I paid 75 cents for it. I have my summer dress, now, and it barely put a dent in our budget.

The prices were fantastic -- I can easily see us going back and searching the bins again. In fact, the next opportunity I get, I'm going back to find a white cardigan or jacket to throw over this dress.

Does Goodwill have an outlet in your city? To find out, check this Goodwill outlet locator page.  Happy thrifting!

Getting Ready for Easter

I've got the table mostly set. I pulled out all of the nice things that have been given or handed down to me, which normally stay tucked away in a cupboard. I still need to iron the napkins.

I've made a variety of little gifts for all of my family members. Here's how I wrapped up the egg-shaped soaps. I cut a single slot/hole from a cardboard egg tray, stuffed it with some shredded paper, placed the egg-shaped soap inside, then wrapped with clear cellophane and tied with lavender ribbon. All of the wrapping materials were scavenged from what I have: the egg tray from a 5-dozen egg box, the shredded paper from a Christmas package, the cellophane cut from a gift bag received at Christmas, and the ribbon came on packaging many years ago.

I made the chocolate bunnies and bird's nests. This year, I made both white and brown bunnies, as I purchased both white and chocolate dipping candy on clearance right after Christmas.

However, I went with all chocolate nests as I was making a whole batch at one time.

To wrap the bunnies, I had more of the Easter cellophane bags that I used last year. But to wrap the egg nests, I cut up a cellophane wrap that came on a bunch of flowers. After cutting open the cone-shaped cellophane, I wiped it off with dish soap and then rinsed in water. I allowed it to dry, then cut into squares for wrapping the nests.

The supplies for 3-oz chocolate bunnies cost me about 35 cents each, and the 1-oz chocolate and coconut nests about 15 cents each.

The molds were purchased about 15 to 20 years ago, for about $16 total. These are tin-lined copper molds that I also use as spring decor in the kitchen on the hutch where we keep our dishes. But if I factor in the cost of the molds, after 15 to 20 years of annual use, each year's cost is $1 or less. Making a minimum of 4 bunnies per year, each bunny has a mold-cost of at most 25 cents. So, even adding 25 cents to the 35 cents for chocolate, my candy bunnies cost 60 cents each, still quite a bit less than any dollar store bunny. My cost for mold-use will continue to decline with each year of use. I imagine that I will be using these same molds for special Easter treats for grandchildren, or they could be resold at a garage sale for $5 to $7 dollars each, and recoup most of my original cost.

The nest are simple to make and don't require special molds. They are made with 1 ounce of chocolate and a heaping tablespoon of coconut per nest. I melt the chocolate in the microwave, then stir in the coconut. Next, I make a bunch of nest-shaped mounds and add the jelly bean eggs. Super simple and at least half the price of similar candy nests sold in stores. Lacking the dipping chocolate, chocolate chips with a bit of Crisco shortening can be substituted.

I planted all of the tea-stained hollow eggs with violets from the front yard. As I had thought, the violets on the north side of the house were about 10 days behind the violets in the backyard. The blossoms are just beginning to open. They are now sitting in a window until Easter morning, when I'll place each at a spot of the table for individual floral decorations, using napkin rings as stands.

This morning, I'll be heading out to buy our ham. Several stores have great deals on ham this week. Tomorrow, I'll make the pie pastry. I make a 5-crust batch of pastry, then freeze in individual patties. Having the pie pastry ready to roll out simplifies pie-baking for me.

And . . . today is my birthday. What does a frugal woman do for fun on her birthday? My daughters both took today off from work and their activities, and the 3 of us are going thrift-shopping/treasure-hunting. I'll be back tomorrow!