A few years ago I was at an estate sale with my daughter. I was admiring a tchotchke, saying how nice it would fit in my living room décor. She said, "You know, mom, if you buy that, I'll have to sell it at your estate sale." I didn't buy it.

Our new house rule is that P gets to go through any items sanctioned for donation prior to the act. I never thought to ask her before because she thought my clothes weren't hip, she was going through a Forever 21 phase, that was painful...suddenly, now everything in my closet is HER taste. It is saving me a ton of money!

He really enjoyed Goodwill, Salvation Army, VFW, other thrift stores. Liked noting how many expensive cars were in the parking lots.

I have almost no desire to acquire new things, although last week I did bought a yard sculpture, a giant snail made from an industrial chain of some kind. It's a whimsical delight, and I'm very glad I bought it.

But other kinds of knickknacks or dust collectors, no.

because an artist friend had hand painted them. I was happy to see them again in use.
I love thrift shops best finds and enjoy donating to them!

And it sold on ebay for $222.00

What song and artist?

Tornado by the Jiants . The original release on Claudra Records.

....my two proudest "steals" were a checkerboard cake set, with three pans and the insert, for $6. But the best was a brand new, in the box, Kitchenaid mixer, with the stainless steel bowl and the three beater attachments. New those mixers are at least $300. I gave it to my son when I got a new one. He couldn't take it with him when he moved from Austin to California. So he donated it to the.....you guessed it, thrift store!

I bought a box of Pyrex items at my local goodwill. I was looking for a nice pie pan and it was on top of the box so I bought the entire lot for $8. Turns out all the stuff underneath was very collectible. Pink Pyrex. I understand it is collectible, my daughter loves it and it will be hers when she moves on to college.

...a 7 seasons of The West Wing for $24. I had never seen it during it original run because we did not have HBO at the time.

...ROTFLMAO funny -

Although Dad was a professional engineer, he was in a very cyclical industry so his income varied wildly from year to year. To make sure we could make it over the lean years, my parents always budgeted for the lean years.

Mom knew the books that were most likely on our reading lists and watched for them at Goodwill. She kept track of our sizes and looked for clothes that would fit, not just right then but for the next six months. Anything else we wanted we had to make if we could budget for the cloth.

These days I still go to thrift stores - some of my favorite clothes for relaxing around the house came from some of them. In fact I am wearing a pair of jersey pants that I paid $3 for at one.

My sister is the thrift store queen, though. When she was working on her master's and teaching part time, she bought all her clothes at one near her house and visited them weekly. They knew her, her size, and her tastes so well, they would save things for her to try. Now that she is retired, she is finally sorting through all her clothes and donating most of them back to the same thrift store for them to resell!

I was with my mom at a thrift store. She picked up a book to look at it and two $100.00 bills fell out of it!!!

I love 'em.

I lost track of the number of DVD's I got from them.

Not to mention first tapes, then CD's.

That was around five years ago. She still uses that purse these days. She is very proud of that find.

coat that was 3 sizes to big and so warm. My mom hated it and kept trying to get me get rid of it but i loved it. Comfort over fashion. It was the thickest woven wool I have ever seen. She finally convinced me to throw it out after i quit smoking and I realized that is why i kept it so long. I had to smoke outside when I visited or saw my parents. Being oversized it trapped warm air really well. I could sit out on the back stoop for hours. And then I got harrased. Smoking and comfort became more important as i developed increasing ptsd. Years later when i took care of her when she got old I had quit smoking and it seemed silly to keep the coat. She bought me a new one with pleasure. Then she hated my fake fur hat.

My find was a quite unpretentious folding chair. Yesterday, while I was sitting in it, it folded when it wasn't supposed to, and I went crashing to the floor (no injury fortunately).

I think I bought it sometime in the early 1980s, and who knows how long it had been used before that. It's earned its retirement.

I decided to liquidate my possessions and travel. I packed the back of my pickup with a TV, stereo, a couple DVD players, speakers, computers, etc with the intent of donating them first thing the next morning.

03:00 that morning the sheriff woke me up notifying me that someone had gone on a car-prowling spree through the neighborhood and that my truck's cab dome light was on. I never keep anything in the front of my truck except an ink pen, tums and napkins, so I didn't really care.

After confirming for the deputy that nothing had been stolen from the cab, we both realized the theives had overlooked about $8000 in free-for-the-taking electronics 18 inches away from them in the bed.

Frankly, they coulda saved me some time.