The garaging momentum is really building. Last week, spent a
buck and a half. This week we were up to $3.25! One way and another, All This
has probably saved me quite a bit of money. I didn’t buy gas for two months, or
go out to eat (still haven’t had any restaurant meals that cost more than four
bucks…yay, Taco Bell takeout), and so far this year I've only spent $72
garaging. Last year this time that figure was $183, and two years ago it was
over $550!
I was definitely on the prowl for some heavy cotton t-shirts
to use for making masks; I've read they make a pretty good filter. So I was
pleased to pull a bright green one out of a free box, and found a dark gray 50₵ one further down the road.
Green and gray turned out to be the day’s color scheme. For a
quarter, I brought home a fun wine bottle stopper.
And maybe it can do double duty as a Christmas ornament?
Another free box yielded two quite nice potholders. I can always
use another decent potholder.
It was a good day for free stuff. Found a favorite childhood
book at my first stop.
Splurged a couple of bucks on a bunch o’ magazines, some
gardening and sewing, and all of last year’s Martha Stewarts.
My last stop was another 25₵
buy – a dog shedding tool I decided to try. For that price, why not? Apparently
the resident Australian shepherd had disliked it. Fannie was okay with it, and
clearly it did some de-shedding.
But I still like my Furminator better. If you need a really
good, sturdy dog grooming tool, it’s the one I’d recommend. But they don't end
up on driveways – at driveway prices – very often. It's actually something I bought
in a store, but only after a lady at a garage sale was telling me what a great
tool it is. So it has garaging roots! I’ll be donating this new one to the
humane society thrift store, so I’m sure it will get a good home.
As I left the sale, one of the ladies in charge was crossing
the street to her house, and I admired some of her flowers, She asked if I knew
the name of them, which I did (echinops, or globe thistle) and she was so happy
to finally be able to recall the name that she cut some for me to bring home!
When I got home, I started a load of laundry that included
the t-shirts and the potholders. And somewhere between the laundry basket of
dirty clothes and the folding of clean things out of the dryer – the gray
potholder disappeared! In the two–plus years I've been in this house, I don't think
my dryer has eaten anything. Not a single sock has disappeared. And now it
seems to have gobbled up a potholder. And dang it, I used the green one this
morning, and it's a really good potholder!
I'm still hopeful it will reappear
as mysteriously as it left. Perhaps in the company of socks I never noticed
were gone.
Posts
All the lists of materials i have looked at have t-shirts low on the list of acceptable materials. Small things go up sleeves and pant legs. You will find it yet. I have spent so little at yard sales this year.
ReplyDeleteInside the shirts, I find stuff inside my son's shirts all the time. I miss going to yard sales, maybe next year.
ReplyDeleteHobby Horse Hill! I have that book too. I haven't read it because I only bought it like 5 years ago (also from a garage sale, actually), but now I'm more excited for whenever I do get to it.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's a really cool use for those T-shirts, especially the branded one, which probably didn't stand much chance of being worn as a shirt after its first owner anyway.