Goodwill Before Christmas

This past weekend we had a daybed gave to my daughter. She's been wanting one of these for a while so we drove to a town an hour away to pick it up. While there we stopped at their local Goodwill store. I'm always amazed by how much cheaper their Goodwill is than the one we have in our town. The prices at the Goodwill store in our town are double what theirs is. I found the kids some shoes and clothes but I also found these . . .

We were some of the first people in the door when they opened and I made a mad dash for this Santa. I've been wanting one of these for a while and he looks great sitting by my front door. He's missing his light but still makes a great door greeter.

These two cute little reindeer were in a basket full of Christmas ornaments. They had .39 stickers on them. I thought they were both so cute and can't wait to add them to my Christmas decor. We have to go back there again next weekend to pick up an antique drop leaf table that the same couple that gave us the bed are selling us for $50. I still can't believe it myself - it's so pretty and I can't wait to share photos. While there I might see if I can sweet talk DH into letting us stop at their Goodwill again. Until next time . . . ThriftyAnnabella

My Last Goodwill Trip

Participating in the following parties this week . . .

Thrift Share Monday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Lately DH and I have made a couple of trips to Goodwill. We don't like to visit our Goodwill stores around here too often because the prices are so high. After our last trip Saturday we both decided to hold off on anymore trips to Goodwill since Garage Sale season is about to start around here and we can get a lot better prices at them.

On our trip to the smaller Goodwill store in our area I found a cart full of Home Interior pictures. I picked up these two since they go best with my decor. One was $9.99 and the other $6.99




Saturday we visited the bigger Goodwill in our town and there wasn't much to choose from. I did find these great juice pitchers for $1.99 each. They had four of them but I decided two would probably be plenty.



I don't know about everyone else but I am so ready for Garage Sales to kick into high gear around here now that the weather is pretty and can't wait to see everyone else's finds.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Garage Sales, Goodwill and Remodeling

Happy 2012 everyone. Things have been busy around here lately since the start of the year. We're in the process of remodeling one room while working on others in our home. I've officially declared my house a disaster until we're finished and warn everyone before they enter of the chaos inside.

Under three layers of flooring in DS's room we found these great natural hardwood floors. I was so excited because I wasn't particularly looking forward to linoleum floors in his room which is what we had first decided on.



During all this work though, I have managed to squeeze in a couple trips to Goodwill and have attending my first garage sale of the season. Last weekend we went to a storage sale at DH's cousins house. She has these usually once a month during the year. This time the pickings were slim and my only buys were a Ralph Lauren shirt and a Cato jean jacket.

Things haven't been too great at Goodwill lately either. I did find this Hannah Montana guitar hanger for DD's room. We're redecorating her room and we're going to hang it for her as soon as we finish painting her bedroom. $3.99



Also I found this goblet for .99 - I eventually hope to have a whole set of these but for now this one will do.



My only other purchase was this Tommy Hilfiger purse for $3.99. It didn't have tags on it but looked brand new.



I had to get creative with my picture taking today to try not to show off my big mess. However, I can't wait to show pictures of everything once it's finished.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Goodwill before Christmas

Christmas has had us very busy, but not too busy for a stop by Goodwill. I walked all over the store and except for finding 3 shirts for myself - one which didn't fit after I got home - I had given up on finding anything that day when DH walked up to me holding an old box. Normally, this is something that I wouldn't have given a second glance but DH is a lot more curious than me and found something great inside.



I tried to find out more about this interesting mosaic ornament on eBay but so far haven't found anything that looks like it yet.

While walking back to the rear of the store to return something we had picked up earlier but decided not to buy we saw something new that had just been brought in from the back. DH quickly grabbed it and ran to the register to check out.



I've seen these chair on eBay and other blogs before but have never been fortunate enough to come across one at a decent price - until now. For $9.99 DH made a great buy.

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Goodwill 50% day

Today while dropping off a box of items at Goodwill we noticed they had a sign that said 50%

Unfortunately, it was only 50% green tag items and everything we found didn't have a green tag. We left with a couple items for the kids.



DD found this great dress for $6.99



DS insisted he needed this pajama top to stay warm this winter - $1.99



My only item of the day was this great Valentine M&M mug - perfect for hot chocolate - .99

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Has It Really?

Has it really been that long since I posted? Life has been kind of crazy lately but is starting to get back to normal. Another fire hit close to home again this time setting the woods and field behind our house on fire. This was two days after the last fire I blogged about. Thankfully our house has finally aired out and doesn't smell like smoke anymore.



I managed to snap a photo of a couple of the fire trucks. All of the others were back behind the trees fighting the flames.



Thankfully, a few days later we got some much needed rain to put out all the fires in the area.





There has only been one trip made to Goodwill since I last posted and unfortunately, it wasn't by me. My sweet hubby stopped by there on an outing with his parents and thought to bring me a few little surprise gifts.



So, how did he do?

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Goodwill and Forest Fires

Linking up for these two parties this week.



Pink Saturday



Thrifting hasn't gone quite as well as I would have wanted this week. I've been looking forward to a big storage sale that DH's cousin is hosting for a few weeks now. Unfortunately, I found out she's going to be hosting it in a small town about an hour away from our home. That's a little too far for me to travel for just one sale so I've decided to pass on it.

I did, however, make my first trip to Goodwill for the year. Along with three skirts, one of them being a Levi's denim skirt, I came home with these four beauties.



I didn't really look them over too good though, just put them in the cart and brought them home. However, when I got home and unwrapped them and took the $1.99 price tags off I noticed that they said on the bottom "Made Exclusively for Dollar Tree stores." Ugh, Goodwill did it to me again. I was a little frustrated that I had paid $1 more than what they originally cost brand new but since they're pretty I'll still enjoy them. I especially love the ones in the blue and purple dresses.

I don't know about anyone else but this is the second time I've had this happen to me. Once while at a flea market I bought two plates for $2 a piece to use in a wall hanging. I thought I had gotten a really good bargain, that is until I visited the Everything is $1 store and saw a huge stack of my plates selling for $1 a piece. Disappointment reigned that weekend.



On another note yesterday afternoon I got in my car and left to go get my kids from school. Upon getting down the driveway I noticed a huge mass of black smoke rising in the air from across the road. Since we live in the country we're pretty much surrounded by woods so I knew it probably wasn't someone's house. Apparently the fire in the woods got out of control fast. Before I made it down the road a little piece I was met by fire trucks coming from every direction. By the time I got the kids and tried to get back home all the highways were closed. We did manage to make it to our house and sat on the porch most of the afternoon watching fire trucks and cop cars flying up and down the highway. I wish I had had my camera with me to take a picture of the big mass of black smoke. I'm sure you could see it for miles. Unfortunately, last night all the smoke came down to ground level and we seriously thought we were going to have to leave our house and find somewhere to stay for the night. There was smoke so thick outside and it was coming in the house. So today I plan on trying to air the house out if the smoke lifts. This is what it looked like outside my house this morning - still smokey but not quite as thick as it was last night.

Until next time...

ThriftyAnnabella

Goodwill

Sorry all. I got a little trigger happy and realized I had deleted my blog. Thankfully, all is restored before it was too late.

I haven't made too many trips to garage sales lately because we've been so busy getting ready for back to school and such. However, I felt a trip to Goodwill was in store Wednesday. DD found plenty. However, I only found one thing. This Alf brings back lots of memories. Alf was one of my favorite shows growing up and he only cost 99 cents. He will now sit in my DVD cabinet.



I also have a trip planned for DH's cousin's monthly storage building sale next week so hopefully I will have more goodies to share.

DH brought home a friend from work the other day and we now have a new family member. His name is Fred after one of my favorite movies Smokey and the Bandit.



Until next time. . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Father's Day Weekend Sales

First thing I want to wish any daddy's reading this a Happy Father's Day.

This Saturday was a usual garage sale Saturday, nothing exciting. Most of the garage sales did have fair prices with the exception of one which was outrageous. At one garage sale we stopped at there was a couple selling their extensive DVD collection. There were bins full of DVD's - probably around 500 or more. Unfortunately, the prices on most of them was $5 a piece so I passed.

I found one thing for my front porch this weekend. This cute little mosaic table was $4.




Most of what we found this weekend was clothes for the kids.




However, I found this little Christmas cottage that lights up for $1. Also, I found this little bag of arts and crafts supplies for $1 for my Sunday School class.



After the garage sales we also made a stop at Goodwill. I found a lot of clothes for DS and DD which is a good thing because DS is growing like a weed and we can't keep him in pants that are long enough.



My total for this weekend $23

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Summer Goodwill Trips

Summer is my favorite season of the year. I love swimming outside, popsicles, lemonade, garage sales and everything else summer has to offer. One thing I don't like about summer.



Giant horseflies. This is the biggest one I've seen so far this year and he decided to visit my porch this morning.

Yesterday we had to run into town to take care of an errand and DH and I decided to check out the Goodwill store. I'm so glad we did. I've been wanting one of these Stainless Steel Hide and Step trash cans for years but couldn't bring myself to pay $50 or more for one. Yesterday I found one at GW brand new still in the box for $6.99. Happy Dance :)



The kids have been busy this morning drawing pictures of themselves and putting that along with their piggy bank money in their wallets they got yesterday at the GW. It's so cute! DS actually asked me this morning if he could have a credit card to put in the CC slot. I might have to make him a fake one. They are now garage sale ready as they call it and thankfully the rain chances have been lowered to 10% for Saturday so Garage sales here we come. Happy Dance #2 :)

DS also found a twin sheet at GW yesterday that matches his Spongebob Comforter that he found at a garage sale last year and DD found a brand new pair of tights for school next year. DH found himself a HBO glass. I'll never understand his fascination for picking up glasses that totally don't match anything else we have and are too big to store anywhere.



Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella

Goodwill Saturday

This Saturday was a sleep in late kind of day. After all the busyness of the past week I was exhausted and looked forward to sleeping in. So instead of garage sales we went to Goodwill instead since I had a box of things to donate. The kids picked up some new clothes and mommy found a few things myself.



The pair of shoes in the middle and on the left were both Goodwill purchases. Brand new Cato shoes with tags still on one pair of them. I never will understand Goodwill's prices though. One pair was $6.99 and one pair was $3.99. I was almost tempted not to get the pair for $6.99 because you can just about find them on clearance at Cato for the same price.

The pair on the right was a Wal-Mart purchase - only $5. I thought these were so adorable.



This little trinket box reminded me of a Wedgewood piece although I don't believe it is. I did a little research on ebay and it resembles an InColay piece more. However, I thought it was pretty and only cost $1.99.



This angel is actually a tree topper. I have a feeling that she's not going to fit on top of a tree too well though because she's pretty tall and heavy. For $1.98 though she'll be a welcome addition to my Christmas decor.



I don't know about anyone else but I love Minnie Mouse. This cup is just screaming hot chocolate.



Last but not least I found this great Rubbermaid container. I love picking these up at garage sales and thrift stores. They're great for storage or to keep your cereal from getting stale. My price - $3.99.

I will be hitting the garage sales again soon though. I love browsing Goodwill but they're prices around here are a bit high. Unfortunately, we don't have any half price days anymore either. Sometimes, as mentioned in an earlier post, I just don't understand Goodwill's prices. I noticed yesterday our Goodwill was trying to sell DVD's for $3.99 that were so horribly scratched up that I had my serious doubts that they would even play.

Until next time Happy Thrifting!!

ThriftyAnnabella

Scarecrow at Goodwill

A while back I posted some of my Goodwill finds and forgot to post my cute little friend. For only $1.99 he's going to be a great addition to my fall decor. I fell in love with the little crow on his head looking down at him (and unfortunately when taking the picture I chopped him off but trust me he's up there). My little scare-crow has been through a lot since coming home with me. While sitting on the dining room table DD accidentally knocked him to the floor breaking poor Mr. Crow right off of his head and into pieces. Thankfully, my dear,sweet DH searched high and low on the floor until he found all the pieces to Mr. Crow and thoughtfully glued him back together and back where he belongs. You can hardly tell he was ever broken.



Speaking of fall we finally have the majority of the leaves that fell this past year raked off the ground. I'm blessed to have two helpers who love to help mamma rake. I snapped off a few shots of them busy at work helping me.




Even Ms. Sugar had to get in on the fun playfully chasing leaves around the yard.



Until next time . . .

Pink Saturday 4/10

Pink Saturday

DD and I broke away from the guys the other day for some mother/daughter time. I had some stuff to drop off at Goodwill so we went in and took a peek. I didn't find anything, however, DD found a must have purchase for herself. How could I say no?



DD is into Barbie. Just when I think she's turning into a tomboy on me, climbing trees and such, out come the Barbie's. A girl after my own heart.

I did find something for myself - a solid wood desk. I would have loved to brought it home and sanded it down followed by a coat of white paint. However, $149 was way too steep for me. Goodwill can be ridiculous on their prices sometimes. Or maybe it's just me???

Tomorrow is a big community garage sale at a town about 10 minutes from where we live. This will be the 8th year they've had it and so far every year it's been great with lots of nice finds. Hopefully, I'll some interesting finds to share tomorrow evening.

Until next time. . .

Happy Easter!!!!

The past week has been wildly busy and right now my poor house looks like a herd of elephants ran through it. It will probably take me two days to get it back in order. Unfortunately, there has been little thrifty-ness this week. First thing that happened was that I sat in poor DH's recliner and it broke, never to be fixed. So I broke down and did something I've never done before. I bought a new sofa. I'm so excited because it's the first new couch I've ever owned. Now DH's recliner problem is solved and since it's got a recliner on both ends I have a place to prop my feet up also.



I did, however, make one trip to Goodwill this week but since it was Good Friday the place was a madhouse and the only thing I found is this. DH says "Oh, it would make a good candy dish." He knows me well.



From my family to yours I'm wishing you all a Happy Easter!!



Until next time . . .