Five Frugal Things -- Cheap Sandals & My Coat Has Returned!

1) I stopped into the Goodwill that's near Winco Foods for a quick browse. Per usual, I looked up twenty items and bought just one.

I'm going to give an example of the above hand painted Italian salt and pepper set. I looked it up because it was obviously not mass produced.

This is the first eBay listing that showed up for me:

You'd think it would be a no brainer to grab it, since the Goodwill one was priced at just $12.99, right?

Wrong. It's important to check both listed prices and "Completed Listings" when doing eBay searches as a reseller. Sellers can whatever put pie in the sky number they want on their listings, but how much something actually sells for is the only amount that matters.

These are all completed listings for the same brand, (a crossed out number means the seller accepted a lower offer) and I couldn't find a single sold set that sold for more than $50. That's too much of a gamble for me at $12.99, so I left it for someone else.

2) What did I buy? This pair of Keen "Elle backstrap sandals" that sell new for $95. I'm on the tall side and as such wear a women's size ten, which makes it challenging to thrift for footwear. People . . . these were a size ten!

I've been looking for a pair of comfortable walking sandals all year, which makes this pair that much more exciting! Sure, they're a bit grubby, but nothing that a quick scrub won't remedy in under ten minutes.

They're even the exact style I'd been looking for!

3) I then drove the couple blocks down to Winco for a quick grocery shop.

One of the items on my list was onions, which I always keep on hand. Note that the cheapest onions were 68¢ per pound.

Luckily I shop this Winco frequently enough to know they have bagged onions a couple aisles over that end up cheaper per pound.

68¢ X 3 = $2.04

So I'm saving 6¢, hardly worth writing home about. However, there's always more than three pounds in these bags, so I pulled a three or four bags and bought the one that felt the heaviest.

4) Here's everything that I bought. (Almost -- as I did buy six or seven dates from the bulk bins and snacked on them while driving home.) I spent $51.83, which isn't terrible as the yogurt and gluten-free flour were both pricey items.

I do enjoy that my Barkeeper's Friend cleanser rang up as "Friend Cleanser." Perhaps I need to invite a friend over for an abrasive spa session!

I just now noticed that I was charged for "hazelnuts," when what I bought were actually almonds. I'll have to check on my next visit to see if I was charged extra or got an accidental bargain.

5) The last frugal thing is my favorite, as I finally (finally!!!) found my beloved Land's End coat! (Missing for at least a year and a half!) I tore my house apart trying to find it and was super annoyed that I'd lost my coat!

I wrote about that frustration is this blog post.

It turns out to have been hiding in my mother's coat closet this whole time, which may sound like an obvious place to have checked, but she never uses this closet and the door was actually stuck closed for years at one point! I actually assumed it was stuck.

Either way, I'm finally back in business and ready for winter weather!

Not that you asked, but this coat:

• Fits me perfectly. Zips across my chest without straining, (an issue with all my shirts, sweaters and coats.) yet isn't too loose at the waist.
• Is long enough to warm my derrière.
• Has an adjustable hood.
• Is waterproof for inevitable rain.
• Has a very thin fleece lining, which keep me warm without getting too hot.
• Cost around $1.50, as it's from the Goodwill bins.

So happy to have it back in my life!

Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley 

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."

Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Instagram.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.