Five Thrift Store Christmas Present Ideas for Preschoolers

                                                                     

Yep, this is a post about buying thrift store Christmas presents . . . posted at the beginning of October. If you want to have an affordable Christmas, you absolutely cannot wait until December to start buying gifts! There are lots of really nice new and nearly new items to be had for young children at thrift stores. You'll save a lot of money while still being able to get your child/children lovely items they will be thrilled to have.

Five Thrift Store Christmas Present Ideas for Preschoolers

1. Create a dress up box.        

My little guy in all his glory as Spiderman!
(Notice that he is standing in front of the markdown
shelf at our favorite grocery store, which is my first
stop on every shopping trip)

                             

Recently I was in a thrift store looking for a Halloween costume for myself to wear on Halloween, when I noticed most of the little kid costumes were priced at $2.99 each! Bells went off in this gal's head  and I started snapping up costumes for my little guy. I am making him a costume box for Christmas. I purchased a Buzz Lightyear costume (splurged $7.99 on this one), an Iron Man costume, a Transformers costume, and a Captain America costume, each of which cost $2.99. I am going to spend $10.00 more to add an Iron Man mask, and hopefully a Transformers mask to round out the costumes. I wouldn't be able to create this super hero dress up box as inexpensively at any other time of the year, so this is why I am sharing this gem of an idea now. You can easily create any type of themed dress up box during the Halloween season sales.

2. Make a Lego, Duplo, or other building block set

In just about every thrift store I visit, I notice small bags of building blocks- Lego, Duplo, etc. Start now to pull together a nice set of building blocks for your preschooler. Many thrift stores have sales on certain items or certain color tagged items and these sales often change daily. Check your favorite store's Facebook page or website for info on what is on special. If toys are half price, you better plan on going to that thrift store that day! In the past, I have made a Marbleworks set, an oversized "Lego" set for a toddler, and other building sets, simply by knowing what my kids really liked and going to the various thrift stores frequently. I also purchase a large plastic tub to use as the container for the thrifted building sets, again, at the thrift store if at all possible!

3. Give books

I paid $3.00 for this set of eight board books! 

Books are usually plentiful at thrift stores and many are in new or excellent condition. If your child likes a certain character (Spiderman, Barbie, Harry Potter), it is relatively easy to gather a good sized bunch of books in great condition from your favorite thrift store. One of my daughters liked the Babysitter Club books and one son liked the Animorphs. I buy books when they are on sale at half price and can give my kids a huge collection of their desired series of books.

4. Give puzzles and games

Every thrift store I visit has puzzles and games. I watch for sales on these items and stock up on high quality wooden puzzles, floor puzzles, and games of all kinds. I focus on wooden puzzles and floor puzzles because these two types are a bit more special than a simple cardboard tray puzzle and at retail price these are also quite expensive. Little kids love games but can lose interest in them quickly, so I would much rather buy them as inexpensively as possible. If the games or puzzles have beat up boxes, simply purchase a plastic box from the dollar store and print a photo of the game or puzzle to decorate the box.

5.  Give art supplies

You can't go wrong with these popular children's character
coloring books priced at only 25 cents each! 

Thrift stores often have construction paper, stickers, coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, paint sets, sidewalk chalk, stencils, etc. When I can purchase coloring books for 25 cents each or 12 cents during a half price book sale at my favorite thrift store, this is a fantastic gift item to be able to give. I look for new or nearly new coloring books and carefully remove used pages to create a pristine book.

These coloring books were new and unused throughout!

I encourage you to think thrift store when doing your
Christmas shopping for young kids this year. Your  money will go so much farther and you won't be paying for Christmas gifts long after the holiday season has passed.

I would love to hear how your shopping goes and what you found! Please share in the comments section!

Christmas is coming- Ready or Not!

Tomorrow is December 1. Let that sink in a minute, folks. Yep, only 24 days until Christmas according to Christmas Clock. Are you feeling a bit frantic? Last year I wrote a post about this topic called Are You Ready for Christmas? where I explored ideas to pay for Christmas without cutting into one's regular budget.

So, here we are again and I am getting together my Christmas funds. Here is what I have done to earn Christmas money this year.

1. Swagbucks- by using the Swagbucks search engine, watching videos, and taking the daily polls, I have earned enough points to get $45.00 in Amazon e-gift cards. You can do this too. It is easy!  Sign up under my link  and help us both to keep earning Swagbucks.

2. Writing opportunities- I wrote a review of a product recently for THSC Review and earned $100.00 that I earmarked for my Christmas fund. ; )

3. The aluminum cans I have been saving up are about to get smashed and redeemed. I think I have at least $20.00 worth amassed. I am hoping it ends up being more and I will have to update y'all on the total once I get them turned in to the recycling center.

4. I have a big bank full of change that I have collected for at least a year that I am going to put towards Christmas. I will have to report on that total once it is counted.

5. I will be receiving a stipend from my college for providing notes to a person in my English class. I think I will be receiving $50.00.

So, there you have it. Without doing anything too drastic, I will have at least $250.00 for Christmas.

We are very frugal shoppers and that little amount will go a long way. My husband has been doing Listia and has accumulated a lot of points there which we will also be using to purchase Christmas gifts. I also do Listia (click to sign up) and if you join under me, you and I both get credits to use to shop there AND clear out our homes of no longer needed items.

How do you fund your Christmas purchases each year? Let me know in the comments. All respondents will be entered in a drawing for a Pampered Chef Season's Best Fall/Winter 2002 cookbook. I will draw for the winner on December 7 and announce the winner right here on my blog!

Recent Victories in Thrifty Living

I like to encourage and entertain myself by turning necessary activities like bargain shopping into a game. When I do well at my self-imposed game, I feel quite victorious and smart.

Here are some of my recent little victories in the money saving game I enjoy playing:

KOHL'S CASH DEALS

Just a few weeks ago, I declared to my husband that I was badly in need of some new pants. Kohl's was nice enough to send me a postcard good for $10.00 savings on a purchase so off I went to paw through their clearance racks in hopes of scoring something to fill the gap in my wardrobe. Not only did I find a cute pair of petite sized Capri jeans for myself, I also found a gift for someone in my family for Christmas (I cannot reveal what exactly I found because that person sometimes reads this blog).

I ended up spending a total of $5.94 and saving $61.50! I make sure that I go to Kohl's every time I get one of those $10.00 Kohl's cards in the mail. I have gotten all kinds of amazing deals for my family, home, and myself this way. As I write this, I have another $10.00 card in my purse that has to be used by August 31 and since my grandson has a birthday coming up, I may be able to snag him a cool present using nothing more than my time and a bit of cash out of pocket.

Healthy Breakfast for Pennies a Serving

Whenever I shop, I make it a practice to check the clearance items in each department of the grocery store. I stroll through the produce section, meat department, and the miscellaneous clearance rack in the back of the store. Recently I found a dented box of oatmeal with added oat bran marked to just $1.00 from its normal price of $1.69.

My grandson loves oatmeal and we used to buy the pre-made packets of oatmeal. Each box has 10 servings at $1.69 per box. So, 17 cents per serving. Not bad, except he eats two packets each breakfast, so the cost is actually 34 cents per breakfast. I decided to just buy rolled oats and flavor it myself with various ingredients we have on hand. Some days, Liam gets apple brown sugar cinnamon oatmeal (if I have unsweetened applesauce on hand), other days he gets strawberries and cream oatmeal if I have strawberry jam on hand.

I'd say he enjoyed his oatmeal!

The oatmeal I purchased on markdown has 11 servings so it cost 9 cents per bowl of oatmeal.  The cost of the add-ins is negligible because those items were all purchased for other  purposes and the amount added to flavor his oatmeal is fairly small. Creating flavored oatmeal at  home doesn't take much time at all. It is just a moment or two to measure out a spoonful of strawberry jam or to sprinkle cinnamon on the oatmeal before popping it into the microwave.

Once the oatmeal is gone, we may switch to some other breakfast item that I purchased on a clearance or coupon deal. We stay flexible on what we eat so that we are always spending the least we have to spend. When I find a great deal, I buy as much as I can afford to lock in that deal for as long as possible.

 Going Bananas

When I go to the produce section looking for good deals, I always look for a big bag of marked down bananas. The bananas are still fresh enough to eat out of hand for a couple days and I have a lot of uses for them as they ripen. I happened upon a large paper sack of bananas recently weighing about 20 pounds that was marked down to $1.50 for the whole bag! That is 7 cents a pound folks!

 This go-round I made grain-free banana pancakes and dairy-free banana ice cream. The beauty of these recipes is how they can be customized for the consumer. I spent some time cutting up bananas for our "ice cream" and freezing them so they would be ready when the desire for a cold, creamy dessert hit.

My grandson and I are both dairy-free so regular ice cream is out of the question. We love our banana "ice cream" and so do the dairy eaters in our home. Another plus on this tasty treat is that it is friendly to those of us watching our waistlines. And, finally, it is very inexpensive!

The grain-free banana pancakes were amazing. With nothing more than mashed banana, eggs, and some seasonings, I made pancakes! They were tasty, gluten-free, dairy-free, inexpensive, and easy! I encourage you to give them a try! Everyone in the house who tried them, liked them.

Here they are just about ready to flip. 

I have found that being willing to try different foods and recipes is one of the keys to the biggest savings in a grocery budget.


Well, it has been a very busy week. School began for me and my youngest son on Tuesday. I have a bunch of homework and since I want to make A's, I will sign off now and get to studying.

If you decide to try the banana "ice cream" or banana pancakes, please let me know what you think of them.

I will be back soon with more tips, tricks, and encouragement to help you to thrive instead of just survive on a tight budget. And please, share your tips and tricks with me!

Better Living Through Conservation of Funds or Thrift Store Success!

Son (aka Sawyer) to mother, "I need some new clothes and shoes!"

Mother (aka me), "I do not have that much money for clothes...let's go see what the thrift store might have."

Son, "Oh, they never have anything good."

Off we went to my favorite thrift store. When we arrived, I asked the clerk what the daily special was and nearly fell over when she said it was 50% off EVERYTHING! I was excited and sad at the same time because there were only twenty minutes left before the store closed. We would have arrived earlier but my son was balking about going! The thrift store is a gold mine people! Shopping there allows you to live BIG on a little money. Read my previous post, Tighten Your Living, Not Your Spending for more on this school of thought.

We went over to men's shoes but didn't find anything that was what my son wanted. A check of men's belts also proved disappointing, but when we went to the pants rack we found a nice pair of GAP navy blue pin-striped slacks in his size. They were priced at $5.00 but due to the sale we only paid $2.50.

The pants are quite nice AND are
machine washable! Deals aren't deals if
dry cleaning is involved, IMO. 

Son (aka Sawyer) likes dress
clothes but is a poor college
student with poor parents. 

He also found three Van Heusen fitted dress shirts that were priced at $4.50 but thanks to 50% off, we paid $2.25 each. The shirts retail new for $25.00 each and these shirts were in excellent condition.

Two Van Heusen fitted white shirts
for under $5.00!

I also found some wonderful items that will be Christmas gifts for some of my family members. A lovely set of brand new Norman Rockwell playing cards in a gift tin that cost $1.00 for my father-in-law who plays cards everyday. A really cute bobble head figure for someone whom I can't name because they may be reading this blog but it was only $1.00! Another item I purchased was a very nice, new in box spa item for $1.50 that will make another family member quite happy at Christmas.

Some folks think that thrift store equals old, broken, out-of-date, junky, stinky, and so on. To me, thrift store equals fiscal responsibility, resourcefulness, dollar stretching, and ingenuity.

If I had gotten the three shirts and slacks new for my son, I would have spent around $100.00! Instead, I spent $9.00. I can't even sew clothes for those prices. Now, I don't often shop retail, but on this shopping day, Sawyer and I went to Ross because he also needed a belt and shoes. We saw the exact same Van Heusen shirts at Ross for $14.99 and the price tag noted that retail for the shirt was $25.00 so I know for certain that I could have spent $75.00 to buy those shirts brand new elsewhere.

As it is, because I opt to check thrift stores first, I didn't spend $91.00 that I could have if I had not checked the thrift store. Today, I took that $91.00 and spent it to pay my water bill, my trash collection bill, and a payment on a medical bill that I am chipping away at bit by bit.

By shopping creatively, I don't have to resort to using credit cards to pay for necessities or to seek out payday loans to cover my needs.

So, do you shop the thrift store? How do you save in one area to free up funds for another?
Sound off in the comments below!

Did Christmas Wreck Your Budget? Ten Ways to Do Better Next Year

Christmas 2013 has now come and gone. We had a very nice celebration and I hope you did too. We have five children, three of whom have significant others, and we have two grandchildren. We get gifts for all of them as well as for my husband's parents, my three younger sisters, some nieces and nephews, a few co-workers, and we pay cash for everything.


We don't have a big budget with which to purchase all these gifts and we don't generally purchase big ticket items but everyone is usually pretty happy with what they receive. Let me share some of my tips and techniques that I have used to accomplish this feat each year.

• Keep a gift notebook. I use a plain old spiral notebook but you might like to set up something in your phone or computer. I allot a page to each family member and I pay close attention to anything they say that they would like to get. I write this info on their page and keep my eyes open all year for these items to give to them for Christmas or birthday gifts. 

• Use the Kohl's or other store gift cards that come in the mail to you. I received three $10.00 Kohl's gift cards in my mailbox. The first one I used to help purchase some lovely Melissa & Doug puzzles for my grandsons. Kohl's had the puzzles on sale at 20% off their regular price and I applied the $10.00 gift card to the purchase and got two nice wooden puzzles valued at $27.00 for a total of $11.50. The second $10.00 card was used to purchase a $56.00 sweater for my youngest son for only $11.99. The sweater was on sale for $21.99 and I applied the $10.00 card towards it, making it an amazing deal. My son was delighted with his sweater and wore it to his grandparents' house for Christmas. The third $10.00 gift card helped me to purchase $52.00 of items for only $17.99. I bought my older daughter a pair of Lauren Conrad leggings on sale for $9.99 (were $20.00) and I bought some very nice bath and body items for my son's girlfriend at 50% off the regular price, then applied the $10.00 card and went home very happy with my purchases. The young ladies were also very happy when they opened their gifts on Christmas Day. If you are keeping track, you will note that I purchased $135.00 of items for five people for only $41.48! That is nearly 70% off the original retail price of the items. Even on a very limited income, shopping this way allows me to stretch my precious dollars and bless my family.

• Watch for bargains all year: I have a spot in my closet where I store items I bought on clearance for future events such as birthdays and holidays. I purchased a plaque for my daughter's boyfriend that said Man Cave. It was on clearance at Target for $5.00 but was originally $12.00. Colin loves his man room so I knew this would be a fun addition to his room. I saw it and purchased it in March 2013 and held on to it until Christmas. When I see a sign that says “Clearance” or see those wonderful orange clearance tags, I make a beeline to that area and go through that section to see if there are any items that would make great gifts.

  

  I bought this after Christmas last
  year to save for my younger grandson.
  I only paid $5.00 but I count it as a
  $10.00 gift. 

•  Shop thrift stores: Yes, even for Christmas! Thrift stores are full of brand new and like new items. It is true that you cannot return the items that were purchased at thrift stores but don't let that discourage you from shopping there- you just need to know the person very well for whom you will be shopping to make this work. I have gotten many new items at my favorite thrift store that still have the retail tags attached. My thrift store runs a different daily special each day. A few weeks ago when I stopped in, the specials were: 50% off all books, puzzles, and bagged toys. I got six new condition board books for my younger grandson for $1.50, a new condition wooden puzzle for the same child for $1.00, and several amusing paperback books to tuck into stockings for 12 cents each! Earlier in the year, I bought a new 4-piece sushi serving set for $4.00 to give to my younger daughter.

4. 

   At retail price, these books would have
   cost me $13.00, but I paid 75 cents!

   
   

   

   What little boy or girl wouldn't love this
   puzzle for Christmas?
   
   

 

•  Purchase memberships to certain stores to get discounts all year long: my youngest son has a memberships to Game Stop which enables him to get a 10% discount on purchases. He allowed me to use his discount to purchase items for my daughter's boyfriend for Christmas. I bought one game brand new and one game previously owned and saved 10% on the whole purchase. 

• Many stores offer a bonus gift card for the purchase of a certain dollar amount of gift cards. Case in point: Half-Price books offered a $5.00 gift card good in January for each $25.00 gift card purchased in December. I had a lot of books on my list for Christmas gifts so when I went into the store, I bought gift cards, got my bonus gift cards to use in January, made my selections, and then used the gift cards I had just gotten to purchase my Christmas gifts. In January, I get to take $15.00 in bonus gift cards to go shopping for myself or get a head start on 2014 Christmas shopping.

I took $75.00 in gift cards and turned into
$90.00 worth of purchasing power

• Shop discount stores: I live in a fairly small, semi-rural town so shopping options were, until recently, quite limited. This year, just before Christmas, a Ross store opened in our town. My middle son wanted an electric shaver for Christmas and when I looked at Walmart and some other stores I felt that this item would be out of my means to get for him. While in Ross, I went to the men's section and noticed a Remington shaver with the specifications he wanted for under $25.00 dollars. This same razor was nearly $50.00 in other stores! Thank you, Ross, for making my son happy this Christmas.   

• Buy in bulk when you see a great item at a great price: a couple years ago, I walked into my local Walgreen's and saw that they had an end cap full of really nice jar candles originally priced at $9.99 marked down to $2.00. I bought five candles and gave them as Christmas gifts to folks with whom I worked. They got $10.00 gifts and I got to stay within my budget. I do this whenever I can as often as I can.

• Use the discount coupons that various stores publish in the Sunday paper. We shopped at Hobby Lobby using 40% off coupons to purchase a hobby knife set and portfolio for our middle son. The items together would have retailed at $38.99 but using the coupons we only paid $24.00 which freed up our money to be used to purchase more gifts for more folks on our list. 

And finally my tenth way to do my gift giving affordably-

• Sell books to Amazon: I sell my college children's used textbooks to Amazon when I have items they are interested in buying. This year I only had one book that was on the list of items they wanted. This book brought me $11.44 in Amazon credit. I also earned a $10.00 Amazon credit for doing a survey for a company so I had $21.44 in credit with Amazon. I let whatever credits I earn just accrue until it is time to start Christmas shopping. The small amount I had was enough to purchase 12-month magazine subscriptions for four people for Christmas gifts. Note that I was able to give four gifts without spending a dollar out of pocket.

I hope these ideas will help you to enjoy shopping for the holidays regardless of the size of your budget. I would love to hear what you do and how you save on these types of purchases, too!

Super Saver Saturday

Even small savings can add up!

A few weeks ago I purchased a $10.00 Target gift card for only $5.00 on Groupon Mobile. So, I went to Target today armed with my gift card, coupons, and some time on my hands to see just what I could do there to stretch my hard-earned dollars.

I began by getting a large bag of Pedigree Healthy Weight dog food which is $12.99 at Target. I had a $1.00 off on it. I was just getting started though...

As I wandered around, I noticed an end cap loaded with lots of clearance items. One item that caught my eye was the Glade scented oil plug-ins. I really like these, but they can be expensive, so I don't purchase them very often. Target had a warmer with refill marked down from $4.99 to $4.24 and a four-pack refill down to $3.64. I had a coupon for $1.50 off the warmer with refill, a coupon for $1.00 off the refill pack, AND (icing on the cake!) a Target coupon for $1.00 off when purchasing ANY (love this wording) 2 Glade products. So, I got a total of $3.50 off these items! Many people don't know that coupons can be used on clearance items (some cashiers don't either so you have to nicely ask them to check with the manager at times) and more people don't know that BOTH a manufacturer's coupon and a Target coupon can be used together on the same item. Cha-ching! More savings for you!

I clip coupons when I wait on my son to get done at Kung Fu or while watching television.

I also found a cool plaque to give to my almost son-in-law for Christmas that was originally $10.00 but marked down to $3.00 (this counts as a $10.00 gift by the way).  I like to try to stock up on fun and cool items in advance of the Christmas shopping season. Snagging cool clearance deals like this is one way to do that.

I then grabbed a small can of cat food at 47 cents and $2.00 worth of items from the dollar spot and headed to the check out with coupons in hand, gift card pulled up on my phone, and a smile on my face!

My total before the clearance prices, gift card, and coupons would have been $34.46. I paid $12.45 out of pocket at the store plus the $5.00 I spent a few weeks ago to get the gift card.

If you aren't signed up for Groupon Mobile on your smartphone, I encourage you to give it a try. Every little bit of savings frees your money to go towards other expenses and who can't use that kind of help?

Super Saver Saturday

I have wanted to go to my favorite thrift store for a couple of weeks now and I finally got to go there today!

Sawyer (my 18-year- old son) needed a pair of gray slacks. We found a pair in his size that he liked. Because all long pants were on sale at half off we were able to get the pants for $2.00! Yes, you read that correctly-the original price was $4.00 and we only had to pay half today.

I also bought a lovely set of books for my 5-month-old grandson, Liam, for Easter. This Brimax board book set titled My First Prayers contains 8 very sweet books and is in a nice little case. It only cost $3.00! I am ecstatic over this find. Take a look at these hastily snapped photos and see if you don't agree.

I love these titles!

Isn't this adorable?

I also bought Liam a baby swimsuit and an adorable Onesie-type outfit for his Easter gifts from his Gigi and Grandpa. 

My son found a movie he really liked for only $4.00 and I purchased a beautiful copy of The Night Before Christmas that will surely find its way to a deserving niece or nephew this coming Christmas.

Some of you may remember my recent post on Valentine's Day where I had a mini-rant about people being unprepared for holidays and how despite a very limited income I manage to provide gifts to make the holidays special for my family. 

Thrifting is one of my best weapons in my quest to provide while living within my means. Try it, you might like it!

I would love to hear about your great deals so please share by commenting!