Friday, July 16, 2010

Frugality pays off!!

change jar
I LOVE  am addicted to  Thrift Shops! It is very hard for me to go a week without scouring their shelves in search of great books to add to our ever growing collection. Really, I have to pray about it because it can be a problem if I don’t control it!
BUT I will have to say that the Lord has always blessed and I’ve always been able to find books for awesome prices! Whether it’s in my favorite 2nd hand shops or at library sales or less frequently, yard sales (I’m not an early riser-I admit it!!). I’m always on the search for books and He’s always led me to some great penny-pinching finds.
Take today for example, the reason for my mid-day post. I had to take Littlest and Brother out to a Doctor’s appointment and all week I have been planning to swing by St. Michael’s Thrift Shop. It’s only a couple of miles from the Dr. Office and they sell their books very cheaply. So, after their appointment the kiddos and I headed straight for the store. Now the kids are very patient with me when it comes to my thrift shopping because it always takes me so long in those stores. This particular thrift shop always has a couple of bins full of little odds and ends that the kids can choose from for free! Most of the time it’s junky (but I let it go because they endure my trips so often) but every now and then we find some great things in those bins.
Once Big Sis was wanting an automatic ATM bank machine like Biggest’s that we had picked up at a Used Book sale for homeschoolers. I really didn’t want to pay full price because they are expensive but I had thought about getting one for her b-day. Well not long after she began asking we made a trip to St. Michaels and low and behold there was a smaller version sitting in their free bins. She was SOOOOOOOO thrilled! The Lord gave her the desire of her little heart! That was a great moment!
So, things like that happen to us often but today, gotta tell you about today. Here is the list of books that I found at St. Michael’s Thrift Shop today:
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1. Jamberry-Bruce Degan
2. Sand Cake-Frank Asch
3. Blaze Finds the Trail-C.W. Anderson
4. Sounds My Feet Make-Arlene Blanchard (great for Littlest, thick pages!!)
5. Thomas the Train
DSCN2900 6. The Mitten-Jan Brett
7. A Tree is Nice-Janice May Udry
8. Harvey’s Hideout-Russel Hoban
9. Madeline in London-Ludwig Bemelmans
10. Madeline’s Rescue-Ludwig Bemelmans (They are the  two big blue books in the back.)
11. Encyclopedia Brown Tracks Them Down-Donald Sobol
12. DOGS-Luis M. Henderson
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13. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble-William Steig
14. Noah’s Ark- Peter Spier
15. If you Traveled on The Underground Railroad-Ellen Levine (love these books!!)
16. The Boxcar Children-Gertrude ChandlerWarner
17. Stuart Little-E.B. White
18.Trains- Gail Gibbons
19. Wee Sing Around the World DSCN2903
20.-22. A set of three Christmas at Home books-Barbour books
23.Glitter Greeting Cards (a craft book)
And finally...DSCN290424. A Set of Cheerios flashcards from Briar Patch
Lots of books huh? Are you ready for the grand total? I paid a whopping $2.60!!! Yes, $2.60!! They sell their children’s books for $.10 a piece!!! I know!!!
Now as you can see not all are in great condition (although some surely are!) But with young children reading these things I don’t want to worry about them ruining them so this makes it easier for me to not be so crazy about how they handle them. (Though we do teach them to handle them well.)
Some are ex-library books, others have writing from previous owners, some even scribble marks here and there and some torn in a few places but all still highly useable!!
Oh, and in the free bin I found these wonderful vinyl ABC’s. They are neat aren’t they? Not sure what I’m going to do with them just yet but one can never have too many letters huh?!!
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What a huge blessing for this frugal-minded Mama!! What frugal finds have you come across lately? Tell me about your inexpensive book buying excursions!!

Lovin' Learnin'

1 comment:

  1. Hey... how long will it take me to drive to YOUR thrift store from here? ok.. forget it right! You got some great finds. Enjoy

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