The $10 Thrift Challenge

I went to my local Goodwill store yesterday, as I often do before going to work on my illustration in Starbucks. I usually do some working at home in the morning, mostly emailing and organizing, then I like to get out and work in a coffee shop - partly to get out of the house and partly to prevent myself from being distracted by the potential for crafts projects all around me.

So anyway, as I was walking along enjoying the beautiful spring weather we've been having (which we attribute to Bradley's recent purchase of a MEC Gortex rain jacket - I've never seen anyone so disappointed by no rain), I decided it would be fun to set a $10 limit and see what I could find with that budget. It's a good idea to set a limit in any case because it stops you from picking up things you don't really want/need. I have too good of an imagination so when I look at things I can think of all kinds of things to do with them. Ie. This skirt is too big/small, but I could use the fabric to sew a cute little tote.

The first thing I found was the beautiful tablecloth in the background of the picture. It's pale yellow with grey and white flowers in a border and in the middle. It was a lovely heavy soft fabric, and it was $2.99. I also found a pink pillowcase to use for fabric - that was $0.99.

After that I found this cool red-patterned handbag. Now I really don't need another handbag but the fabric was just so great. That was $2.99 as well. So the total came to $7.53. The back of the bag is black, and the inside is dark red with a pocket on one side. When the handles click they sound like knitting needles.
Later on I met up with Bradley and he wanted to go look at second-hand books, so I suggested we go back to Goodwill since I was at the coffee shop around the corner. That's when I found the Martha Stewart Kids I missed the first time around - that was $0.49. As I mentioned before they're no longer going to be putting out Kids so I want to collect them all. Incidentally they sent me a card to tell me that they were going to finish out my Kids subscription by substituting Everyday Food. At first I was disappointed but then I had a look through it in the supermarket and it's actually very nice. It's a small format magazine, which I like, and the photography is beautiful (as usual). No, I am not getting a kickback from Martha Stewart but I'm starting to feel like I should. Anyway, this brings me to a total of $8.02.

Now you might think that I should be done with the $10 Thrift Challenge, and I came in under budget, but I kind of wanted to get closer. So in the evening we went out to see a movie, Friends with Money (which was really good), and stopped off at BMV books on the way. There I found a Martha Stewart magazine for $1.99. They had a few, I picked one with an article about quilts. They charged me $2 no tax, so the grand total was $10.02. And that's my $10 thrift challenge. It was fun, so I recommend you try it yourself!