Goodwill, Badwill, Questionable-will -- Selfie Edition
Today's Non-Consumer Advocate blog post is going to be a little bit different. Instead of a normal "Five Frugal Things" blog post, please enjoy photos of me posing with various Goodwill items.
First off is the glorious day when I thrifted six vintage Cathrine Holm enamel bowls for $9.99. I quickly sold them on eBay for between $65 and $95 and it gave me my one and only viral Instagram reel. Sadly, before I was monetized.
It wasn't as good of a find as these two projectile point/arrowhead framed pieces. I made a couple thousand dollars selling them on eBay! I think Goodwill priced them at $12.99 apiece.
I always pick up vintage lighting globes, as there's a local store that hands me cash for them every single time! Easy money.
Of course, not everything is for resale. I paid $39.99 for our enormous hand-knotted wool rug, which still sits in our living room.
I grabbed this hand painted Columbia Gorge landscape a few years ago and it now lives in our dining room. $4.99?
You might recognize this beauty. "Goldie Fawn" now hangs outside our house and welcomes us home each and every day. I think I paid $3.99.
Of course, this "Playboy" bins sweater is a favorite, as I embroidered red noses on every single bunny and sold her for $50 on eBay as a "Christmas sweater!"
Some Goodwill items exist solely to be documented, never brought home. I wouldn't want to curse my house with this art piece. Although perhaps I'm now regretting not bringing her (him?) home. Certainly would've been a conversation starter!
Of course every amazing Goodwill find in an outlier among the shelves of crap random items, but that's what makes it fun. The thrill of the hunt!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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My frugalness today was going to the AQHA world finals for youth. Free admission/parking and great seeing the kids and their horses compete.
Then my friend in and popped in to the Cafe at Mathis Brothers Furniture for my $20 free monthly lunch.
Beat the thunderstorm home.
Ugh. Goodwill envy. I swear I have never found a quality item on our shelves. Usable things, yes. Nice things, yes. But ka-ching? No. Not unless I have been blind, which is possible.
I made the promised run to the mailbox this morning, starting a load of laundry on my way out (our laundry is in the building's basement). Because I wanted to stay out for a half hour, so I could switch the laundry to a dryer before climbing the steps again, I made a detour to Walgreens, where I bought some bleach that was on sale. I also made friends with a cocker named Keaton, picked up a penny, and a Kate Morton novel from a LFL. I stopped in the park to rest and cool off, and spotted a mug under a bench, heavy stoneware, Lexington Coffee Company logo. It needs a good scrubbing but it's in good shape. I'll clean it up and donate, or sell if it seems worth it.
I got $22 in a class action settlement from Beyond Meat.
I made a grilled ham and Swiss for lunch. I still have quite a bit of sliced deli ham to use up, so I need to get creative. I want to use the Swiss in a quiche, and maybe that's where the ham will go as well. At least some of it.
Garage sale day volume VIII, 02
Bought a new pair of men's crocs for my favorite mechanic cousin still in package $10. I bought a used not running self propelled Honda lawn mower for $20. Cousin picked it up, did mechanic voodoo and got it running in 20 minutes. It has an easy pull start! So happy!
Liked Katy's moms jeans jacket, so I bought a Wrangler one for $2.
A personal evaporative cooler fan for $4. Already using it.
Bought a gorgeous rose pink hydrangea in a 5 gal pot for $10.
Brand new in box queen linen sheets from Ireland $10. Yes, please.
Vase for hydrangea bouquet for party tomorrow.
Ugh that last photo, Katy!!! Giving off Weird Al vibes, in not a good way.
1. I woke early (for me, Lol..) and took advantage of the 'extra' awake time to get two Katy Special jugs of blackberries picked. I was able to stand in one spot and pick 2 or 3 cups worth of berries before moving a foot over for the next 2-3 cups.... That patch hasn't been touched by anyone as far as I can tell.
I transferred the tray of berries that was in the freezer into bags (frugal fail, the bags I got at the dollar store are those perforated produce bags, argh! Had to use other bags that are smaller). Then refilled the tray with my two jugs of Blackberries, and got it all back into the freezer. It is going to be tight in there when the pies are picked up later, lots of fruit and berries have been saved!
2. BB came by with her husband when they were out doing errands and going for a hike. I didn't see them but they moved the shelving unit from my barn to the road. Her husband had dropped it by my place as we are a better 'free pile' driveby spot, but I thought one of my kids might have wanted it, so he first left it by the barn. I was supposed to ask my kids to help me move it out to the road but totally forgot. They were driving by so did the deed.
There was a broken skate-board (longboard?) as well, from their house, which they also moved to the road. The longboard disappeared immediately. The shelving unit also disappeared fast - as it is good plywood. Frugal for someone!
3. I got the dill pickles made with my discount snacking cucumbers. Sadly, one jar broke. Boo. I think the jar was my Mom's and it might even have been HER Mom's, so not a huge surprise.
In the end I got 9 quarts of dills, which pleases me immensely. I had tonnes of dill, and lots of little garlic bulbs, but couldn't find my alum nor my pickle crisp (and there was none at my local grocery). I did find in my stores another product purported to be for the same purpose... I also added a couple of grape leaves to each jar, having heard that they can help keep pickles crisp. We will see in a month!
I am always kind to myself the first few times I get the canning machine going in my kitchen, trying for ease rather than speed. This time I made a point of getting the cucumbers washed, pricked and soaking in cold water with a frozen vinegar bottle of water to keep them cool. Then I had a lot of grace time to get the jars washed, garlic peeled, salt and vinegar sorted out, and dill and grape leaves picked, before I began the hot part of the process. Other than the broken jar, (and a couple of gem jar lids that snuck into the mix to confuse me) all went smoothly, if perhaps not as swiftly as it will later in the season.
4. I've also made 14 jars of applesauce from the bags of frozen apples in my overstuffed freezer. The 'kids' (DD 25 and #2 Son 27) both have informed me that they LOVE applesauce, so with them and my GS there are lots of folk who will eat it if I make it. I need to get lots of apples out of my big freezer so a) I can put pies in there and b) I can put this year's harvest in. Somehow we filled it with apples when #2 son was going to make crumble, I think he forgot about them after a while. So Sauce it shall be! ONWARD!
Grape leaves are the secret ingredient in my recipe from the 1870's that we are still using. Only added flipping the quarts on their heads While the jars cool. I follow the directions as I've never ever had a bad pickle using this recipe.
We have always used the grape leaves, too, for years on the top of homemade pickles. Good neighbors that let us raid their vineyard for them.
Wow, that painting really is creepy and badly done!
1. We finished off the leftover pasta salad from our block party contribution except for a smidgeon of pasta. I don't feel bad about composting that as the whole dish was frugal.
2. I've go 2 Dr. appts scheduled for the week ahead and feel good about taking care of my health which is frugal long term.
3. I've decided to create a small collection of free things that could be used to make a collage and try that activity next time we have our older granddaughter over. I would just need to get some better glue - anyone know what works best?
Beyond that just the usual routine.
I remember many of these! The one I'd like to forget is the portrait with the teeth and hair. I think it looks just like Tiny Tim, the high pitched singer and ukulele player from the 60s. Bless him but looks were not his strong point.
My favorite find of yours is Goldie Fawn. In the days before GPS, you could have instructed first time visitors to your house using her as a navigation point.
I agree with you (and Fru-gal Lisa, below) about the portrait, Christine. And I notice that those of us who were probably tweens or young teens when Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In was all the rage (TT was a frequent Laugh-In guest) had no trouble recognizing him!
Definitely Tiny Tim!
Have you had an nibbles on your Broyhill Brasilia chairs? (I might have missed it). That, to me, has been one of your best finds!
Boy, you can hang that portrait on your door next Halloween and scare off all the Trick or Treaters! My guess: it's either Alice Cooper or Tiny Tim (of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" fame, not the Dickens character.).
We have a second-hand refrigerator from Salvation Army and did not hookup the automatic ice maker, as they didn't know whether it was in someone's dirty garage or not. When I had my dental surgery, I bought a bag of crushed ice and it helped me through the pain. Used up all the crushed ice, so I got all my ice cube trays back out again. (We have 8 or 10 of them.) Filled 'em and froze 'em twice and both times emptied them into the ice bin. We now have a huge pile of ice cubes that'll last several weeks. Once again we have free ice, and plenty of it! From
now on, will only have to freeze a couple of trays at a time when it starts running low.
Ordered a pkg of men's tube socks that'll work as heavy knee socks for me this winter. Why now? It's tax free weekend here in Texas. So I don't pay sales tax. Clothes and shoes under $100 and school supplies are tax exempt through Monday. (Saying a prayer for those poor beleaguered Wallyworld employees who are no doubt dealing with a mob scene second only to Black Friday.....)
Took advantage of our terrible
100-degree heat and washed the thick, heavy mattress protector that's on the king-sized bed. Dried it on some drying racks out in the garage. Surprisingly it came out of the washer fairly unwrinkled and not surprisingly, it air-dried in record time. Didn't need to fire up the clothes dryer, thus saving on the electric bill.
Researched less expensive ways to fix up the kitchen. Has anyone heard of a company called Garvee?It seems to have a more inexpensive built in oven but I never heard of them. Has anyone dealt with
Garvee before ?
Update: I looked on Trust pilot and Garvee reviews were, shall we say, somewhat less than stellar. So I will look elsewhere for a good 24-inch wide wall oven that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg.
Ha! I’m pretty sure you would’ve made good money selling that picture as a “creepy Halloween decoration “