THE QUEEN OF LESS THAN FIFTY CENTS!

Looks like I won't be able to go out to yard sales this Saturday. Have to do something for work that starts at 10 a.m. I thought maybe I could go out for an hour or two but feeling pressed for time takes a lot of the joy out of it. So I'll probably spend a leisurely Saturday morning, instead of a harried one running around.

But I wanted to post something in here, and got to wondering about how many fun things I find that cost less than fifty cents. The thought was triggered by hanging out laundry the other day. My clothes pins came from yard sales (of course!) and include these that I bought for a dime.

That’s a dime for each card of 12—the proverbial dime a dozen! Every time I use them, I feel the same satisfaction as when I bought them—which is one of the reasons we all keep thrifting, right? I suppose it's possible to have that feeling for something you bought at retail, but I bet it's a lot rarer. In any case, my clips made me start wondering about how many things I've gotten for less than fifty cents. And because I’ve kept a spreadsheet of my finds for the past four years it was easy to find out!

The first thing that struck me was how many free things I've been given. Only a handful came from a free box. Many were items to pass along to my children’s librarians, including puppets, toys, and a fetching dolphin hat.


Lots of free magazines too. Who cares if Martha is current?
My memory told me that a dime is the least I ever pay for anything, but the spreadsheets tell another story. On a good day, on a good driveway, a nickel might bring you a silver plated lasagna server…
…a vintage tablecloth…
…or a lantern—complete with a new candle!
When you’re willing to spend ten cents, it's amazing what you’ll find. It could be a trivet with shells and acorns…
…or a sea otter magnet…
…or cute little toys…

…or vintage clothing…

…or even a magnificent bowl of cobalt cut glass.
Step up to a quarter, and now we’re in the big time. As I wrote back in January, my personal basic monetary unit is the twenty-five cent cashmere sweater. At the time I'd only found one of those, but earlier this month I found two more.


A quarter can buy a variety of mice…


…or a gift for a friend…
…earrings…
… a variety of vintage needlework…


…or even a moose!
So what’s at the other end of the spectrum? Apparently ten bucks is almost always my outer limit; only 7 times in five years have I gone over that for a single item. Most expensive was the $40 electric lawn mower, but hey, my husband was just about to buy a new one for five times that, and it came with a hedge trimmer and 150 feet of extension cord!
Thanks for strolling down memory lane with me. Of course, besides the knowledge of getting so much for so little, I've had the privilege of the stories that came with the bargains. The woman whose elderly cat was taken by a coyote in the middle of a Huntington Beach suburb; the guy who gave me the dolphin hat behind his wife’s back; the seller who told me with great intensity, “You do not know what you have here. Thees ees alpaca from Peru. Thees ees a wonderful sweater. Very expensive. You are stealing it, stealing it!”

Have fun this Saturday. Hope you find some steals!