You Can Find All Kinds of Things at Thrift Stores
Every now and then I like to poke around thrift stores. (Usually right after I’ve dropped a bunch of stuff off at one.) In this case though, I went to a thrift store looking for some inexpensive jeans, and I came home with a 15 inch R2-D2 for $15. It even included the batteries.
He dances! (among quite a few other things)
I feel a little ridiculous shouting “Hey R2!” at him, but it makes me laugh so it’s worth it. It also cracks me up because sometimes he’s obstinate and refuses to do what you tell him.
(If you didn’t know I was a geek already, you do now.)
What’s the best deal you’ve ever found, at a thrift store or otherwise?
Jeans. I got a new (tags still on) pair for $1.63 with tax — they’d been marked at $2.99 and that particular tag color was half-off the day I went shopping.
A clock radio. I paid 99 cents plus tax at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store five years ago. It wakes me up every morning with classical music. No idea how old it is, but it has those numbers that flip over on little cards so I’m guessing maybe 1970s vintage? Also from the St. Vincent’s I got a pretty ceramic toothbrush holder for 35 cents plux tax.
Canning jars. I get them for 19 to 29 cents. (Check the rims closely to make sure they aren’t chipped.) Sometimes I find canning-jar lids at thrift stores, which fills me with delight because they’re usually about one-fourth of the price if I were buying retail. Note that yard and rummage sales are also good places to look for jars/lids.
Books and puzzles. Hardbacks and trade paperbacks that look new make good gifts. I once bought an elaborate, still shrink-wrapped puzzle for a relative’s Christmas present for only 35 cents.
Yesterday my daughter Abby (blogger at I Pick Up Pennies) took me to a Goodwill in Phoenix that was having a 50%-off sale and I bought two short-sleeved tops for about $2 each — and a 24-piece puzzle of, I swear to God, a couple of Peeps chicks in a sailboat. The box had never been opened so I know the pieces are all there, and my 3-year-old nephew, who’s fascinated by puzzles, will love putting it together. Thrift stores rule! (And who knew that marshmallow confections had a life outside of the store?)
That’s a great deal on the jeans! Wish we had found some that cheap — the ones we bought were about $7 each, which I still thought was pretty decent compared to retail, but nothing like the deal you got.
That’s funny about the sailing peeps :)
Of course it makes me wonder what the accompanying after-they-fell-overboard puzzle might look like.
Sweetmarymotherofgod, if I lived near you, I’d break in to steal that R2! It plays the music from the bar scene! So. jealous. it. hurts.
In other news, I got a bunch of furniture from a Habitat for Humanity ReStore when I worked there eons ago uber cheap. I still have most of it. I got an armoir, a GAWGEOUS carved wood screen, 2 lovely wood trash bins, an overstuffed chair (gone now), a tall lamp, a down comforter (did I mention that all the furniture matched and was “new” aka floor samples from a major distributor?) and a set of sheets for $200 about 9 years ago. All beautiful stuff. I have everything but the chair in my apartment!
CF, that’s quite a haul! Very impressive. (Hides R2)
I want your R2.
My favorite thrift store purchase is the blouse I bought for work for $4 that has been going strong for 3 years. The fabric falls just right and the colors don’t fade. Yay Goodwill!
Budgeting, a non-fading blouse sounds very nice :)
lol what a find. I love it. That music is directly off the starwars cd. Very cool stuff. The geek in me had to say “Hi R2-D2” as well. :)
Richard, R2 says hi back :)