Thrift Store Deals..

Every once in a while I like to post about great deals that I find at thrift stores. Personally I think they have even better deals than shopping resale stores, but it takes more patience. One thing to remember is that you are probably not going to walk into a thrift store and pick everything that you need right off the rack that day like Target. Instead you have to focus on buying things that you need as you come across them and I even buy ahead for the next size up. I only buy things that are in great condition, never things that are stained, badly pilled or ripped. If you get home and find a small stain that you didn't see, it's OK because you didn't pay that much for it.

Today was black Friday and I only hit one retail store and the rest was thrift stores. Some of the stores had 25% off or buy one get one free type of sales. Right now we have to buy clothes for 5 children, soon to be 6. I don't have room in the budget to buy everything new, and besides, why would you when you can get so much nice stuff for so little? Plus it's very eco-friendly to "recycle" clothing buy using it again. Americans waste so much including clothing so don't think that it's all pilled and faded junk like it was years ago. You would be surprised how many items still have tags on them.

Everything that I purchased today came to $16.00 at one store and $22.00 at the second store for a total of $38.00 for five skirts, three pairs of pants, three boys shirts, one jogging suit and 7 girls shirts.

Shown here is two girl shirts, two boy shirts and one dress pants. The plaid shirt is Izod, the dress pants are Old Navy, the pink shirt is Kohl's brand and blue one is Old Navy.

Same clothes as above except showing a purple skirt and jeans from The Limited Too.

Same clothes as above except showing a pink Arizona brand suit for Savanna.

My children (at least for now) don't care about what brand something is, they only care about how it looks and the girls like "girly" clothes. I am highlighting brand names because I know that it's an issue for a lot of people. Notice above the shirts are from Candies (Kohl's), Tommy Hilfiger, Old Navy, The Children's Place and The Limited Too....

These four skirts are Gasoline, The Children's Place, Old Navy and Talbot's Kids...

Overview of some of the clothes.

Olivia's favorite is the jean skirt with the colored buttons and this pink shirt with lace.

Ziploc Baggie Alternatives....

Happy-Sacks for snacks and goodies or anything!

My tip for this week is for cutting down on plastic bag use. I found these bags that were so cute.

My latest great find......I came across these adorable little bags at Green Island this weekend while shopping in Traverse City. We have a cottage near Big Rapids and I love to make the trip to Traverse which is a little more than an hour away. I have been searching for an alternative for baggies for a long time. Now granted, they don't actually "seal" so you can't use them for everything, but for sandwiches, snacks, popcorn, carrots etc. it's really a great thing. I love the way that the velcro is set low enough down so that it actually makes a fold to keep things inside better. I paid $8.50 and $6.50 for each of the two smallest sizes. I think if you do the math they are worth the investment because they can be used over and over. They can go in the washer/dryer or just wipe clean. They are organic on the outside cotton & bamboo and nylon on the inside. I think you could probably use them for transporting mama cloth as well. I'll let you know how that works in a later post. Visit the website here. For more great tips and recipes visit Tammy's Recipes here.

View of the bags open.

More resources for plastic bag alternatives here and here.