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Bargain Shoppers and Thrifty Finds


Virginia

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Don't think there's a topic on this subject so here ya go!

 

I know when I find a good bargain it thrills me to NO end! What about you guys? Did you find any good deals this month, weekend?

 

I did! I went to a local thrift store and found that they were having a sale on children's clothing. What luck! I went in and found about 10 pairs of pants (Levi's, Nautica and Old Navy) and about the same amount of shirts, sweaters and jackets, ALL in excellent condition. I spent a total of $20 on the lot. Can you believe it? The kids are now just about fitted out for autumn and winter. I also found myself three pairs of really nice pants for work and a great scare.

 

 

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I love finding a great bargain! That is pretty awesome, so many clothes for that kind of money.

 

I don't buy clothing second hand though as I always want to try it on (unless it's a T-shirt) and you can't do that in a charity shop (is that what a thrift store is?). Though I do buy a shirt on the market occasionally, holding it in front of me to see if it would fit. But otherwise I don't, for trousers I really need to try them on because they might not fit.

 

Since last year we've had less money to spend, the two of us living off my disability benefits, so we try to look for bargains and cheaper things. I really like our local charity shop, usually when I go in I usually return with something (okay, that's probably not totally good for my wallet :giggle2:). We've been learning which supermarket products are cheaper where and what brands and such. I realise this information isn't any good for anyone internationally, but it really helps us. Admittedly we could probably do even better by buying less food and such (ie. eating bread for dinner or something but well who wants that), but I'm pretty satisfied. We get our vegetables at the local market, which isn't only the best fruit & vegetable market of the Netherlands but it's also much nicer and cheaper than what you can find in most supermarkets.

 

I don't think I've found any bargains in the past few days. Well, I found my deodorant in a shop for BOGOF (buy one get one free, or as we say in Dutch '2e gratis' (2nd one free)), that was pretty good as I needed deodorant so it was lucky to be on sale at the same time. We found some great bargains for DVDs and a couple of Blu-rays in CEX last week, that was brilliant.

 

I like this idea for a thread :)!

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I understand what you mean about the trying on thing. I'm pretty much true to size so I can look at an outfit and know whether it will fit or not. The kids are the same so it makes it pretty easy. Then its home to a good wash and fabric softener. I actually like my clothes kind of broken in, its less irritating to my skin and to the children's skin. What I like most about thrift stores is that you're sure to find original items, not mass produced. 

 

I love to shop local for produce also. I think I'm headed to the farmers market this weekend. There's a market on Main Street, where I work but its really congested.They have a stall where you can buy any produce (fill the box up) for $10. I'd love to do that but the line is always so long and trying to keep up with the kids while standing stationary is a nightmare I'm not ready to experience as yet, lol!

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That's great, that you have a 'true to size' size. I'm allergic to fabric softener and any washing liquid that isn't parfume- and scent- free. That is true, you can find original items in such shops :).

 

I hope you can go to the farmers' market. Lol, that makes sense!

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Quite a lot of the charity shops near me have a changing cubicle in them, which is handy (not all of them, though). I get quite a lot of lovely stuff for the kids from them - when my cousin got married a year past February, I got a little suit jacket for Xan that still had the tags on - it'd never been worn - for a couple of quid. He looked very smart in it. Managed to get him a little tie that was on an elastic too - he was chuffed to ribbons! I'm always finding stuff from the likes of Next and places like that in our charity shops - stuff that I would usually think, "Do I really have the money spare to get that right now? Or could I spend a little less?" especially for the kids. I don't tend to get many clothes for myself from charity shops at the moment, because I'm still a larger size and it can be difficult finding anything, but I'm getting slimmer and it won't be long before I'll be picking up pretty dresses at a snip!

For school uniforms, I go to Asda. We get a few tops and a jumper with the school logo on from the official local supplier, but the plain tops, spare jumper, shorts, jogging bottoms, trousers and shoes we get from Asda - decent quality and good price. We got Xan's new school shoes there the other day for £15 (and they're good, sturdy leather ones).

I'm always looking out for bargains food-wise too - a family of four with two growing lads who would eat me out of house and home has meant escalating grocery bills, but we have a Premier Meats local to us and they have fantastic quality meat at very low prices - I can get 908g of extra lean beef mince (only 2-3% fat!) for a fiver! Padded out with veg, that's a good three meals for four of us (yup, that's 12 servings for a fiver!), and as I often cook in bulk, I often eke an extra serving or two out of it to freeze too! They have massive chicken breasts (with no water or air pumped into them) and lean diced steak at a great price too. I got a massive bag of diced steak for £6 that is enough for four of us to eat at two meals - yup, £6 for enough beef to make 8 servings!

 

Once my allotment is up and producing, I'll be saving a fortune on fruit and veg too. In the meantime, I'm enjoying picking wild blackberries which grow rampant locally, and are absolutely free! :)

 

I also tend to go for the supermarket basic brand for store cupboard staples. Things like tinned tomatoes, passata, pasta, rice, kidney beans, etc, are all the same, so there's no point in paying through the nose when you can get them for pence rather than pounds. My store cupboards are always kept as fully stocked as possible with those things, so I can always throw a meal together.

And if you can, make friends with someone who keeps their own chickens (if you can't keep them yourself!). My hubby is a postie, and one of his customers keeps chickens, so every couple of weeks he comes home with a dozen organic free range eggs from them - they have so many they just gift them to him! They are some of the tastiest eggs we've ever had, with lovely big orange-gold yolks often double-yolkers too!).

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It's great to hear how you do things, Kell :). I had no idea charity shops could have changing rooms, I guess my local one is just not big enough for that.

 

The Premier Meats sounds good!

 

We have our own chicken, it's great to have our own eggs. It's good you say "make friends with" though, as the chickenfood costs a lot here (my parents pay for that). I think the eggs taste a lot better though that might be just me being biased. We have had double yolks too!

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I went into a charity shop at the weekend and got three books (Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Strings of Murder by Oscar De Muriel and a hardback copy of The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton) for £3.50, they were all in excellent condition too so I was very happy with that :smile:  

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when my cousin got married a year past February, I got a little suit jacket for Xan that still had the tags on - it'd never been worn - for a couple of quid. He looked very smart in it. Managed to get him a little tie that was on an elastic too - he was chuffed to ribbons!

Aww that sounds so cute :)

 

I'm enjoying picking wild blackberries which grow rampant locally, and are absolutely free! :)

 

I always swipe a few blackberries when I'm out on my walks. Totally free snack!!

And if you can, make friends with someone who keeps their own chickens (if you can't keep them yourself!). My hubby is a postie, and one of his customers keeps chickens, so every couple of weeks he comes home with a dozen organic free range eggs from them - they have so many they just gift them to him! They are some of the tastiest eggs we've ever had, with lovely big orange-gold yolks often double-yolkers too!).

Wow that sounds amazing. How nice to get free eggs like that!

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