I spent $97.58 at thrift stores in January. Here’s what I found!
First . . . something I didn’t buy, but totally would have when I was twelve. And entire row of Sweet Dreams romance books. They were the precursor to Sweet Valley High, and I ate these things up in the 80s. I resisted them now, though.
Okay, on to what I did actually buy. I actually bought a ton this month. There were half-off sales for Martin Luther King’s birthday, and I was looking for one thing in particular, a paper cutter, so I went into shops three times.
I’m on a mission to revamp my wardrobe. I spent a lot of years wearing an outlier clothing size. I basically would buy ANYTHING, if it fit on my body. Since I’ve lost weight, I have far more choices, but I’ve found that I’ve struggled to change my mindset about clothes. I’m working on it.
Specifically, I’m working on replacing clothes that I have but don’t wear, or that I wear but don’t love, or are cheap and not what I really want, with clothes that are A) high quality, B) just exactly what I want to wear, and C) fit me perfectly.
First, I found several sweaters.
I don’t usually wear white well. It washes me out. But this sweater lets enough of the color of whatever I wear under it show through that it actually works. I love the oversize fit, too, and the open weave, which gives it a kind of retro look. It’s from Old Navy, made of cotton, and cost $3.
I have a love affair going on with cashmere. Most of the time, I find cashmere sweaters in the men’s department and they’re like the ultimate boyfriend sweater. And that’s fine. I’m tall and I like the look of mens wear sometimes. But sometimes? Sometimes I want something girlie. I rarely, rarely find a cashmere sweater designed for women in my size, so I was super excited to find this pretty robin’s egg blue cardigan from Talbots. It’s super fine, light as a feather, super soft, in perfect condition. And it cost $5. (Cashmere sweaters run $150 to $190 on Talbot’s website. This is why I love thrift shopping!)
And here’s an example of a men’s cashmere sweater. I was excited to find one in navy, which is one of my favorite colors to wear. I have a theory that men receive beautiful sweaters as gifts, never wear then, then eventually donate them. This one cost me $7.
And one more men’s sweater. This one is a kelly green cotton v-neck Polo pullover with an orange logo. I love the colors and the preppy boyfriend fit. It cost $4. (Similar sweaters sell for between $45 and $70)
And a cardigan. This one is a silky soft wool cardigan in a kind of unusual bright olive (as opposed to drab olive, which isn’t a color that suits me very well.) It’s made by Pure Jill, which is a J. Jill label. It cost $4.
I also found this Anne Taylor blouse. It’s a creamy color with navy blue horses all over. Again, white isn’t my color, but the navy off-sets it enough to let me wear it. It’s a tiny bit too small. I don’t normally buy clothes for ten-pounds-from-now or whatever, but it only cost $1 (a similar blouse sells for $69) and I can tell from how it does fit that it will fit perfectly eventually and I love the pattern. So, I went for it.
This is a pretty wool scarf–it’ll be nice during spring soccer games when I feel like I might freeze to death. It cost $3.
And I found a couple of t-shirts. Both are cotton. Both are just comfy, fit me well, and each one cost $1.50.
I also hit some kind of bonanza on office supplies. Starting with a vintage Lisa Frank pencil box. Cute! It cost 40 cents (!!!) These sell on Etsy for about $30.
And one more pencil case. I swear I don’t seek these things out! But this one cost 50 cents. I’m a sucker for this kind of a container with all kinds of little pockets and compartments. This exact case sells for $7.49 on Amazon.
This is a pretty pink faux-leather Rolodex notebook cover. It actually came with a notebook inside, which had someone’s meeting notes. The notes kind of cracked me up, because they started nice and neat and got progressively more incoherent until at the end they’re just scribbles. But I bought it because it fits my Erin Condren Monthly Planner perfectly. It cost $1.50. Amazon has the exact cover, only in letter size (instead of this A5 size) for $20.
I also found a couple of notebooks to replace cheapies I had been using. One is a A6 sized (so quarter sheet) 6-ring binder. I’d been using just a plastic one that’s probably 30 years old and falling apart. This one is nicer–faux leather with a pen holder and pockets and a button snap and everything. I’ll get rid of the planner pages, but I can reuse the tabs. It cost $2.19
And a full-size 8.5X11 three-ring made by Cambridge. It’s an oldie–the calendar it came with is 15 years old . But it’s in beautiful condition. It’s faux-leather. It cost $2.19 as well (Goodwill has such weird pricing.)
I’m a little obsessed lately with using business card holders as an organization tool for my writing. When I saw this little 24-card holder for 49 cents, even though it’s nothing special and just has a plastic cover, I couldn’t resist.
I’ve been working on building a Commonplace Book (like Ryan Holliday’s) and I was so excited when I found this neat vintage metal card box. It had a ton of cards and 50 tabs in the back, all labeled with the names of the US states. I wish I knew what project the previous owner was working on. It cost $3.
Then, on the last day of the month I found a matching 5X8 index box at Goodwill for 49 cents! I rather like the industrial feel of both of them.
I actually haggled for this orangey-red leather tote bag. It’s leather, made by Buxton–the style is a Kelly Computer Bag. I work away from home sometimes and this will be nice for carrying my office with me. It was marked $10 and I talked it down to $8, because it’s going to need a little cleaning up. (It never hurts to ask!) Plus I had a 30 percent off coupon, so it was something like $5.75 total!
I’ve been looking for a notebook cover forever. I’d finally given up and actually had a new one in my cart on Amazon when I found this beauty. It’s an orange leather Franklin Covey classic-sized cover. It’s designed to hold their planners, but I’m using it as my everyday, carry-with-me notebook holder. (Plus, it matches my new tote bag!) Maybe I’ll do a walk-through of my notebook system later. This cover cost $3–similar ones retail for about $65!
I also came across this pretty Canvaslife laptop case that’s just the right size for my MacBook Pro. They aren’t expensive on Amazon, but it’s well-made and I love the look of it, and I got it for $3 instead of $11!
And I found a paper cutter, which was what I went in looking for all three times I shopped this month. I’ve been working on an A5-sized binder system and wanted one. This is a nice one by Fiskars–Amazon has a very similar one listed at $58. I picked it up for 30 percent off $6 or about $4.20!
I usually draw the line at buying water bottles at thrift stores. But I saw these two pretty glass ones and I had to have them. They’re small, which I love, and so, so lovely. They cost $1.19 each. Similar double-walled glass water bottles sell on Amazon for about $15.
This was something I (obviously) don’t need–but I couldn’t resist it. It’s an art deco vanity dish from the 1930s, made by a company called Hickok. It has a heavy glass base and a brass lid. It was about $3.50 and it’s so pretty. The brass lid has a really nice patina. I love thinking about some 1930s lady keeping her hair pins in it, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, too.
I found a couple of other vintage goodies. Including this 1960s overnight suitcase. It cost $5.99. These fabric suitcases are so fun–but the covers are often pretty messed up. this one is nice and clean. And yellow is my happy color!
And this cute set of mid-century yellow (happy color!) melamine coffee mugs in a wire rack. I love the yellow and spring green color combo. These cost $2.
A little set of 1950s brass seagulls for $6.
And a cute 1960s Timex alarm clock. I love how small it is. It cost $3.
And I picked up a pile of vintage books with cool covers. I have a project in mind for them. They cost $2 a piece or $8 total.
Lastly, I got a pile of books.
I have to read 50 books in the next five months for school. Trust me, that’s a lot of books. I have a couple of . . . I call them reading missions. I want to read every Newberry winner (there are 95 so far, one for every year from 1922 to 2017.) I want to read every Printz winner and honor book (there are significantly fewer, since the award started in 2000.) And I want to read books by authors I love, but have only read one or two of their most popular books. I found several books that fit into those goals.
These books cost between 25 cents and one dollar. I spent roughly $10 on them.
Summer Crossing is by Truman Capote (I’ve read and loved his two most famous books: In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.)
Jacob Have I Loved is by Katherine Paterson and won the 1981 Newberry medal.
These Happy Golden Years is by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was a 1945 Newberry honor book, not the winner. Also it was the only book in the series I don’t own.
Freak the Mighty is by Rodman Philbrick. It doesn’t fit into any of my missions, but I loved the movie and I’m looking forward to reading it this semester anyway.
The Littles is by John Peterson. Again, it doesn’t fit into any of my missions, but it was a favorite when I was a little girl and I’m looking forward to reading it this semester.
Madeline in London is by Ludwig Bemelmans and was bought for pure love of Madeline.
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle is by Hugh Lofting. It was the 1923 winner of the Newberry medal (the second ever.)
The Voyage of the Arctic Tern is by Hugh Montgomery. It doesn’t really fit into any of my missions–but it has an interesting publishing history (it was self-published, then picked up by a publisher after it was successful) and is a book in verse which is interesting to me. Plus when I was looking at it, the kid who worked at Savers stopped to tell me that it was a really good book.
Puck of Pook’s Hill is by Rudyard Kipling. I’ve read and loved The Jungle Book and Just So Stories, Kipling’s two most well-known works.
Paris in the Twentieth Century is by Jules Verne. I’ve only read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 days by Verne.
Lavinia is by Ursula K. Le Guin. I’ve only read her Earthsea series.
Hatchet is by Gary Paulsen. It doesn’t fit into any of my missions, exactly, but it was a Newberry honor book in 1987 and one I somehow missed when I was a kid. I’m always interested in children’s book that stands the test of time. Ruby and her friends love this book, so it’s in my TBR pile for this semester.
I also picked up this book of poetry and short stories that I’ve seen a million times, but never really looked at. It’s a sort of celebration and exploration of aging women. I didn’t think it would fit into my MFA reading–but when I started reading, I realized that a lot of the poems and stories are about young women (sometimes teenagers) considering their grandmothers or thinking about their own old age. I was sucked into it.
And this book about making books, just for fun.
Also a couple of picture books. One is Moses the Kitten by James Herriot and the other I might have actually squealed when I saw: The Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales. The art in that one is spectacular.
