Category Archives: Thrift Shops / Yard Sales

Recent Thrift Shop Finds

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on February 17, 2013 None comments

My life has been a little less hectic lately so I’ve been able to go thrifting on a couple different days. I love thrifting because I often find things that I would have paid full price for but instead I pay quarters. Here are some of my favorite recent finds.

I loved the shoes in the above picture and they were actually in my sometimes hard to find size. They were only $2.25

We are going on vacation soon and I realized that my brand new suitcase was too big for the plane (it’s the black suitcase in the background). I was upset because I wanted to take my brand new suitcase on the trip without paying a $75 oversized luggage fee. However, I realized that this wasn’t going to happen and I was really excited when I came across this slightly smaller, red, rolling suitcase. It does have some marks on the outside (I believe from a plane flight conveyer belt) that is would have probably gotten from our flight anyways so I wasn’t concerned about that. The inside however, is very clean which is what really matters in my book. And it was only $9.99 which is $50 less than I thought I was going to have to spend.

I also picked up some really cute tea cups and a wooden holder $.49 for all 5 items, reusable baking cups that are usually really expensive for $.99, and an Orlando Magic noise maker $.49 (Go Magic!!!).

I also got really lucky today when it came to clothes. I got a pair of Pac Sun jeans for work for only $1.99, a pair of new looking black pants for $1.99, a wet suit shirt for $.99 and a Little Bo Peep halloween costume for $1.99.

I was really happy to find these books out of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series. I rented them from the library to read them but they were really good so I wanted my own copies. I knew I would find them at a thrift shop sooner or later and today there they were for $.25 cents each!

How I got a Bread Maker for FREE

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on January 19, 2013 None comments

I have been looking for a Bread Maker at different thrift shops for a while now but I was hesitant to buy one because I wasn’t sure how many pieces they came with or if they were going to work. I was inspecting a used one at one of my favorite thrift shops when a woman came up to me and told me that it wasn’t a very nice one. We started a small conversation and before the end of it she told me that she had an almost new, really nice bread maker with the instruction book that she wanted to get rid of. I was a little hesitant but she drove home and got it to give to me. I offered to pay her for it but she didn’t want anything for it. And that’s how I ended up with this fabulous Bread Maker for free. It was spotlessly clean and didn’t look like it had ever been used, even though she told me she used to use it a lot. That very night I used it to knead the dough for the pizza we made in the picture below. I can’t wait to try making a loaf of bread in it. I will write an update once I have tried it for a while to let everyone know if it actually saves me money or not, but I know that homemade bread is fantastic.

Recent Thrift Shop Finds

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on January 19, 2013 None comments

It has been a while since I have been thrift shopping so I was really excited to go thrifting with my mom. I was very happy with my finds and it reminds me why it is worth it for me to go thrift shopping. When I don’t find clothes for $1 or $2 I end up buying them for much more in regular stores. When I don’t buy kitchen utensils like the potato peeler I bought for $.25 I end up buying them for $10 at regular stores. I also love the fact that my money goes to good causes such as Habitat for Humanity or the Salvation Army and that I am saving something from ending up in a landfill.

These were my finds-

– An Electric Fondue Pot w/ the sticks and instructions (my non electric fondue pot burns everything)- $4

– A Gianni Bini Purse in like new condition for $5

– An Ann Taylor shirt for $.99

– An Express dress shirt for $1.99

– Another nice purse for $2.99

– Potato Peeler $.25 (I tried doing without by just using a knife but I think this is wasteful because I cut off too much potato)

Save a Page or Getting the Most from Your Newspapers

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on August 5, 2012 None comments

I buy or get delivered 4 Sunday Newspapers every week. I hate the amount of paper that goes to waste when I recycle them so I try to come up with as many ways as possible to use them. I give away at least one paper (minus coupons) ever week, more if anyone else wants one. Closer to Christmas I will save the comics for wrapping paper (see the cute wrapping paper here). We are about to have a yard sale and my mom pointed out to me that I should also be saving the yellow flyer ads because they are blank on the back and we can use them as smaller yard sale signs. I love frugal / green ideas 🙂

My Sister’s New Pull Out Couch for $39.95

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on June 14, 2012 None comments

Although my quick camera phone picture doesn’t do it justice, this is my sister’s new couch. My sister and her fiance are moving into a new 1 bedroom apt in a week and they needed a new couch. I had mentioned that if they were able to buy a pull out couch they would have somewhere for people to stay if they were staying over. The next day my mother and I found this adorable little sleeper sofa at one of our favorite thrift shops for $39.95. My sister went back and bought it and the store was even kind enough to hold it for her until the day they move so they will have the Uhaul to transport it. It even matches the pattern on their dining room chairs.

I highly recommend that anyone looking for furniture at least browse their local thrift / resale shops before spending a lot of money. A lot of older pieces are really well made and have a lot of character or can be refinished.

5-31-12 Thrift Shopping Trip

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on June 1, 2012 None comments

I love thrift shops and yard sales probably because I grew up going to them. It’s so much fun to find something that would cost an arm and a leg new at a thrift shop for coin change. It’s eco-friendly and saves money. Yesterday, I was really excited because one of my favorite thrift shops that sells clothes for .25¢ and .50¢ had a bunch of Hollister, American Eagle, Aeropostale, Roxy, Vans, etc. clothes in my size that I actually liked. I spent about $7 and got all of the stuff in these pictures with the exception of the suit jacket which is Isaac Mizrahi and I got it for .80¢ at another thrift shop but I wanted to put it in the picture. Just one of these shirts would usually cost at least $20 new so I probably got about $300 worth of clothes for $7.

I was going back and looking at my posts recently and realized that I don’t post my thrift shop / yard sale finds as often as I thought I was so I’m going to start posting them more often because I have found a lot of fun stuff recently.

How I Got a Treadmill for $30!

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on March 24, 2012 2 comments

This week I was very excited when I got a great surprise. I have been wanting to buy a treadmill for months now. When I lived at my old, old apartment complex they had a small gym where I would go, usually being the only person there, and watch tv while I ran on the treadmill. However, since I moved out of that apartment complex I haven’t had access to a gym. Although we have been creative with exercising, including running in our neighborhood and playing tennis at the park on our street, I often want to exercise when I’m home alone. We live in a decent neighborhood, but I don’t think it’s safe in general for a woman to go jogging alone frequently. I reached my savings goal a month ago and gave myself a budget of $200 for a treadmill but then a financial setback meant that it wouldn’t be wise to spend the money on a non-necessity.

So imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from a local thrift store that I had asked if they would call me if they got in a treadmill. The nice gentleman who works there told me, “Well we’ll try. If we remember we’ll call.” I figured it never hurts to ask but I wasn’t expecting to hear from them anytime soon. Then, not only did they call me, but they were also saving the treadmill for me and only wanted $29.95! I said, “I’ll take it!” My family cautioned me that I shouldn’t agree to buy something before I saw it, but I had a great feeling about it.

The treadmill is in great condition (although I know you can’t tell from my poor quality picture). It has a working electronic screen, a ski function (how you use it I have no idea), it inclines, plus it’s really, really fast! It’s exactly what I wanted and for $170 less than I was willing to pay too!

Great Thrift Shop Finds $1 DVD Player B1G1 TVs and More

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on February 13, 2012 None comments

I went Thrift Shopping with my Mom recently and we had some really great finds. Here are some of them below.

This DVD player with it’s remote was only $1!

These two TVs were marked $15 each but they were on sale for B1G1 Free. They even lowered the price to $10 for 2. I didn’t need 2 TVs but they wouldn’t sell me one for $5. So two TVs it was. I’m going to give away the 2nd one or yard sale it.

I got this box of books for $1. Some are for us to read and some are to sell/trade.

We also filled this bag for $2 with all sorts of random stuff including clothes and kitchen items.

I grew up thrift shopping with my mother and it has saved me thousands of dollars over the years. I love knowing that I am being eco-friendly by preventing useful things from ending up in landfills. I also love knowing that the money goes to the great causes such as Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army that run the shops.

12-16-11 Frugal Reflections- Yard Sale, Hermit Crabs and Oranges

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on December 18, 2011 2 comments

Today was an especially frugal day! I have been dumping stuff that I don’t want in my garage since the day we moved into our house and I finally had a yard sale. We had very few big ticket items, most of the items in my sale were priced at .25 cents. I didn’t spend a penny to have the sale. I advertised on Craig’s list and other yard sale websites, used hand me down or homemade signs and price tags that my family already had. I didn’t have a lot of expectations because I wasn’t sure how good our neighborhood was for yard sales since I had never had one here. I figured if I made a few dollars and got rid of some stuff that was good enough for me.

We actually made $44 and we were very happy with that! We also got rid of a lot of stuff both from the sale and from me cleaning /organizing the rest of the garage while we were having the sale. It was a fun day with my mom, we made a little money, met some nice people, got rid of some stuff and got a little exercise.

After the sale I finally set up our hermit crab, Jeffery’s new tank which has been sitting in the garage and he was sooo happy he climbed to the top of his new log. I had no idea hermit crabs liked to climb. I had bought the tank at a thrift store for CHEAP and used sand from our back yard (FREE) as well at some of his hermit crab sand.

Then we went in the backyard and picked oranges off of one of our trees. They are the ugly kind of Fl oranges that taste so sweet. There is nothing better than getting FREE fruit from our backyard. Overall, a busy fun and frugal day.

Saturday 10¢ Thrift Shopping

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on September 25, 2011 3 comments

I have recently moved closer to my home town from a much larger city. I grew up visiting thrift shops with my mom and Saturday I was excited to continue our tradition by going thrifting. Ten cents seemed to be the theme of the day; we had a lot of fun and got some great deals. Here are some pictures of what we got.

One thrift shop was selling books for 10¢ each and I was excited to look through all of them. A very nice man offered to let me fill a box of books for $1. I filled 2 boxes and got all of these books (and a few more I already gave away) for ONLY $2! I probably bought around 45 books and 1 book on CD.

I am currently experimenting with alternative revenue sources. When I was younger I used to sell books on ebay and did well doing it. I know that the market is tougher for that now because of more sites that sell books like half.com but I’m going to see if there is still an opportunity to make some extra cash this way. I’ve already gotten back more in value than the $2 I spent by counting the books that I will keep or give away, so for a very little investment I’m going to see if I can make a profit.

I got all of these XBOX games for my boyfriend’s XBOX for 10¢ each! New XBOX games retail for $60 each.

These magazines and old art books were also only 10¢ each.

I needed a new purse and I found one for $1

I found this Brita faucet filter for my sister who needed one at her house for $4 in the package.

I also got this decorative ship which I paid $2 for. We still need more decorations for our new house.

There are a lot of things that I love about thrifting. It’s green, it saves money and the money you spend usually goes toward the nonprofit organization that runs the thrift shop. No one will ever know (except for everyone who reads this blog 😛 ) that most of the valuable items in my house were bought second hand.