Thrift Store Bargains

It's getting chillier here, and Amelia is growing like a weed. Her little belly is showing (which I think is cute, but it's not very warm) on her long sleeved shirts. So I zipped into the thrift store the other day to look for some "new" clothes for her.

I spent a whopping $4.00 and picked up 16 items - all the children's clothes were 25 cents! Amazing! I found some good play clothes, nothing fancy, and some shoes in sizes 2T to 4T. I would say about 6 items she can wear now over the winter (shirts, a playjacket, 1 pair of play shoes) and the rest over the next year or two. But the other sizes were in such good condition that for a quarter I couldn't pass them up.

I love thrift stores, especially the ones that have a mission (like hospice, or CAPA, etc). I don't go in them very often, but I have picked up some needed things for Amelia at bargain prices. I have even found toys with a few pieces missing, or loved on, or something small broken, and picked them up. Mostly because with kids, they suffer wear and tear anyway. Although Amelia is actually really good with her toys and hasn't messed up anything yet; it is usually the other kids that come to play here that I have to worry about. One time I bought one of those play xylophones that was missing its "drumstick" that attaches to it on a string. It just had a poor lonely string. I bought it for $2 and went home and gave her some of her old baby spoons with the soft rubber coating to use as drumsticks. It worked great and she loved it! I've found puzzles and books that same way. I figure, if she was the 4th kid, she'd be getting hand me downs and torn toys anyway, so no reason to spend top dollar every time to get a perfect toy. Not to say that I have anything against perfect toys, but at this age....