Thrifty

A friend at work collects old lunch boxes, everyday he has a different lunch box. The lunch box thing got me thinking, I should buy a couple old lunch boxes and repaint them! So I started the hunt today at the Christian Thrift store by my home. I did not see any lunch boxes unfortunately, but I did find something! Super Mario All Stars for Super Nintendo! The game generally goes for $20.00 on Ebay, and I picked it up for $3.00. I was pretty stoked, this has four Super Mario games on one cartridge.
Looking around the thrift shop made me think about how easily we toss things out, and buy new junk, just to toss that out as well. There were many nice and functional things there. I saw a French Press for $3.00! It looked brand new, and those generally go for $20.00 at Target or other stores. I may go back and pick it up for a friend. They had many bags as well. I'm thinking of going on a trip this summer or spring, I'll definitely be heading to a thrift store for a bag to pack my stuff, why pay $50.00+ for something new in a chain store, when I can spend a quarter of that in a charity based store.

I think a lot about how much I spend, and how in the past I burned through cash on ridiculous things. Nowadays, I buy my books either used, marked down, or with a coupon from Borders. I buy my graphic novels either used from The Comic Shop, or I buy several at a time through instocktrades.com, which has free shipping on $50.00+ purchases, no tax, and generally a markdown of 30%. I rarely eat at fast food these days, preferring to buy from the grocery store and spend a couple extra minutes to prepare something.

I'm sure others are feeling the effects of our current economy, the dollar really doesn't go as far as we'd like these days. I'm not trying to be preachy or anything, I'm just trying to share the ways I am being frugal.