Normally, on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, Jack and I have a mom son date to our 3 favorite thrift stores. We haven’t been able to go lately, so since the kids were off from school today, we decided to make it a day. Donny was off today too so he decided to tag along with us.
The biggest find I found today were 4 chairs. Do I need dining room chairs? No. But they were so comfortable and I really liked the look of them. They were also only $5 a piece. That sounded like a deal to me so I had one of the workers take them up to the front. When I paid for them, they ended up only costing $10 for all four.
Now these chairs are rusted on the base, but I knew that I could fix that. So that’s what I started on when we got home.
Here are the chairs.
They just need a little (a lot) of love.
For being 20 years old, they aren’t too bad.
I took the seat off of the base and started sanding. I was surprised how easy the rust came off.
I can’t wait to see them finished. It will definitely be a labor of love.
We had a little bit of time to kill the first day in Dallas, so we decided to check out the Goodwill outlet a.k.a. The Bins. I forget how long it actually takes to get anywhere in the DFW metroplex.
If you have never heard of the bins, it’s a giant warehouse with row after row of bins that you just dig through. When we got there they were bringing out new bins. Everyone has to stand behind a red line and after they put them out they say “GO” and the race is on. People run and grab. I had no idea what to expect, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Even Donny and Hannah were having fun looking through everything. There are no prices, you just pay by the pound. I think clothing was $1.49.
These were the “older” bins.
It’s such a crazy fun experience. Well, if you like thrifting that is.
This is what we came away with.
A pair of Levi cropped jeans and an Old Navy dress
Donny found the Bob Seger Tshirt for me because I absolutely love Bob Seger. I found this Johnny Cash shirt.
Hannah found an H&M dress, hoodie and some Pink yoga pants. I also found her some Seven jeans that aren’t pictured. It was a pretty good haul for the short time we were there. I wish we had something like this here.
The next day, on the way home, Jack asked if we could go to one of his favorite stores. Well, of course!
We made it inside before a torrential downpour. We decided to have lunch in their cafeteria and to our surprise most everything was half off. Jack and I weren’t really hungry so we shared chicken strips and fries. They were only $4.49. Hannah had the salmon and Donny had what we had. They always have such good food. The Daim Bar cake is Hannah’s very favorite.
Here’s what we bought.
Both of the kids got these stuffies. Jack’s was a cat astronaut that he took the suit off of and put on the alien. Apparently, these stuffies are popular with the teenagers. Who knew? I got two candles that were on sale. Pillowcases, also on sale. Veg peelers and kitchen scrubbers. I love their light bulbs, so I picked up 2 boxes. Jack needed a new charging cable and I found this awesome collander that stretches across the sink, also on sale.
For more than 25 years there has been a 392 mile garage sale than runs down old Hwy 80 from Texas to Georgia. People bring their trailers and just set up shop in parking lots and on the side of the road.
It happens twice a year, once in the spring and again in the Fall. I needed to run to Aldi today so I thought I’d take the back way down Hwy 80 aka Marshall Ave. The first one I saw were two very sweet ladies who told me that a lot of the vendors had packed up and left the day before because of the heavy storms. I’m glad I stopped because they had some cool stuff for sale. I ended up with a Buddha head and a cute little plant all for $2.00.
A little ways down the road I saw a whole parking lot filled with different vendors. There I found a lampshade, curling iron and a pretty summery blouse by Indigo Soul. I spent a whopping $9.00 there.
The lampshade worked pretty good on the lamp I was wanting it for. I like the fact that when you turn it on it looks like glowing little moon.
The Buddha head works well next to the stereo with my other brass objects.
I specifically got the plant for a flower pot that I had picked up several months ago.
When Donny got home from work we needed to run to the grocery. He’s been itching to find a plant for the rooster he got me for my birthday. It has been sitting in our living room and has now found its place outside. Please excuse the dead circles, we have moved a lot of pots to the backyard. It’s some kind of palm. I just know it works well in shade or sun.
After a busy day, I didn’t really feel like making a big messy meal. A shrimp boil is one of the easiest meals to make with very little to clean up. Right now shrimp is on sale here.
Growing up on the coast in Corpus Christi, we would go down to the T-heads when the shrimp boats came in a buy shrimp fresh off the boats. This is definitely not the same, but it will do in a pinch.
I like to use the bagged shrimp boil, but when did it start coming in the plastic pouches and not the net ones? So strange.
I also like to throw in a healthy dose of Old Bay seasoning.
I make a pretty simple boil. Fill a big pot with water. Add seasoning and red potatoes. Boil until they are tender. Add sausage and corn on the cob. Boil for 5 minutes. Add shrimp and boil for 3 minutes. You’re done.
I use a big commercial kitchen pot. I worked at a catering company and the owner gave me this pot so I’d always have one big enough to do this, gumbo, etc. Using it reminded me of the fun, hectic, sometimes stressful time I worked there. He has since passed away so it’s pretty sentimental.
And that’s it. My son doesn’t like shrimp so I made him some boudin and cut up some pineapple. Easy peasy meal.
We woke up to a terrible thunderstorm with rain so heavy you could hardly see across the street. That’s unfortunate because it is the weekend of the Old Hwy 80 garage sale that stretches for 392 miles. Hopefully there are places that are getting to still have it.
Anyway, yesterday I was making one of our favorite breakfasts, the BOB aka Breakfast on a Bun. We used to get them all the time at Whataburger. When my husband and I were both working, we never really thought about spending money on fast food or eating out. Now that we are living with one income, I watch the finances much more closely.
If you purchase a BOB and hashbrown sticks at Whataburger it will set you back $6.05. That seemed like a lot to me so I did a breakdown of how much it actually costs to make it yourself at home. My go to grocery is Aldi, so this is where I have gotten the prices for what I use.
Hamburger buns – $1.45 (8 count) .18 per serving
Sausage patties – $9.45 (20 Patties) .47 per serving
Cheese – $1.89 (11 slices) .17 per serving
Eggs – $2.29 (1 dozen) .19 per serving
Hashbrowns – $6.05 (20 count) .30 per serving
That totals $1.31. Plus you get actual cheese and not the American rubber cheese. That is such a huge savings. I know a lot of people just like the convenience of a drive thru and I get that, but you are saving $4.74. If you are getting this for a family of 4, it’s a savings of $18.96. That’s a nice chunk of change for just a little bit of effort.
And because I like to save money anywhere I can, we needed more than the 20 hot rollers I had for Hannah’s hair. Some of you may cringe, but I ran to the thrift store down the street and found a nice set for $3.50. Even though they looked like they had been barely used, I still sanitized them with my spray.
I always have to look through the artwork to see if there is something handmade. Discarded handmade art just makes me sad, so I was very happy when I found this sweet cross stitch for only $1.
I also found this cute little owl that was only $3.00. I had needed something to fill in on the window shelves in the kitchen since I moved one of the plants outside.
Such a cutie!
Hopefully, the rain will stop by tomorrow and the kids and I can hit the Hwy 80 sale. I’ll let ya know.
My son, Jack, and I like to go thrifting. We have 2 shops that are our regulars. Saturday before I had to take Hannah to work he asked if we could go. I didn’t find anything at the first stop, but Jack picked up some sing-a-things.
I lucked out at the second one and found two amazing cookbooks. All of their hardback books are only 50 cents.
This one is very old. I just love vintage cookbooks. I prefer using cookbooks to using the internet to find recipes. I just don’t like all of the ads and how you have to read and read until you actually get to the recipe.
This cookbook is huge and heavy. I’ve never really been into Italian cuisine, but i looked through this while at the store and I saw many recipes that caught my eye. Plus the photographs are just gorgeous.
I also found this cute cropped longsleeve shirt by Another Love that is the perfect color for one of my maxi skirts.
And I cannot forget this little embroidered picture because I just love handmade things.
Donny called me this morning and asked if I could run by a thrift store and find some Christmas CDs because they needed them at work. Why yes, of course I can.
Jackson wanted to come with me and here’s a few things we found.
I like to collect art. I always feel bad when I see a art project that I know someone has worked hard on and then somehow it ends up at a thrift store. I found this small painting that, I think, looks like sailboats. Bonus that it’s yellow, my favorite color.
We found this guy. Is it a frog? Is it a monster? Who knows? It’s weird and funny and is now my spoon rest.
A house hippo is supposed to bring good luck to your home. I finally found one that I really liked.
And I found all the Christmas CDs, the only real thing I went for, plus a Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and Melissa Ethridge for me. Fifty cents a piece isn’t bad.
We also saw another balloon.
I have now officially finished all the Christmas decorations. I remembered I had picked up some Christmas albums at an estate sale several months ago.
Jamming to Perry Como puts me in the Christmas spirit. There’s nothing better than old Christmas music, especially playing on my 70’s stereo.
i had a little bit of time before I had to pick the kids up from school. If I go the back way, I go right by this place.
The last time I was there I saw several books by one of my favorite authors. I just finished the last one so I decided to stock up on a few more.
i only came for books. That’s it. Nothing more.
But these glass jar cups were so cute and Hannah can drink her iced coffee out of them.
i refuse to pay almost $10 for a pop socket, but finding one for a dollar, absolutely. I love Mexican blankets so, yep, this came home with me.
i did get the books and maybe a sealed ice pop maker. I’ve actually been looking for one to make yogurt pops.
This year our town actually has TWO Spirit Halloween stores. Hannah’s boyfriend was over so all the kids asked if we could go check one of them out. Yes please!
it’s where our Tuesday Morning used to be. R.I.P. Tuesday Morning, I’ll miss you.
There were a lot of creepy things like this monkey.
And this mask I used to have that was one of my most favorite costumes ever.
But my very favorite masks I saw were these.
I want then all!
Now I’m going to finish watching an episode of the Midnight Club. Not super scary, but really good
I love that Donny is off on Thursdays because our day dates generally consist of finding estate sales. If you like to also go to estate sales, I highly recommend checking out estatesales.net to find some in your area. Anyway, I saw that there was a multi family estate sale starting at 10 am on Thursday and to make it even sweeter, I saw that they had my VERY favorite game from when I was a very little girl. My parents hated me playing it because there were so many pieces and it was played in the dark, So most of the time it sat in the top of the hall closet. I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford it because I had checked online so many times to try to find one and they were hella expensive. I really just wanted to SEE it. We got there at 9:45 and they had already been letting people in. The first thing I saw when we walked in was this older gentleman at the checkout with the game. Of course I asked him if i could just see and explained how nostalgic it was for me. He is a vintage game collector and actually invited us over to his house to play it. I was honestly just happy that he loved it too (he had been outbid on it on two occasions online) and wasn’t a reseller. I really should have gotten his address but it seemed a little weird even for me.
Only the best game ever! Well, from my 5 year old memory anyway.
There were some really cool things. A wool rug that was threadbare in one spot that I really liked. It was only $5, but Donny asked the practical question of “where are you going to put that old thing?”. He was right. I am slightly a rug hoarder and honestly didn’t have a place for it.
Donny had a great idea so we bought something in this picture.
Next we headed to one of our favorite places.
Where we put to use the baby corral we bought
We’ve now added 4 baby chicks to our flock. Well the grown hens and homicidal rooster don’t know about them yet because they will be in our living room for 9 weeks until they are old enough to join them.
Today I ran by my favorite thrift store and found some cute halloween bits.
The soaps are brand new. The cat is sugared vanilla and the ghost is pumpkin eggnog. They were $2 each. The pumpkin tea light holders were $1 each and although the cross isn’t Halloween, it has a heavy silver edge and it was also a dollar so i couldn’t pass it up.
I also got my haircut because Desiree had an opening and she’s the only one that touches mine and Hannah’s hair. Nothing major just the ends trimmed and they layers shaped up but it still feels good when you get a fresh cut.
The Funky Frugalista 