Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope the new year is everything you hope it to be!

Im also linking to a nesting place http://www.thenester.com/?


*Check out my older post of my redone dump chair
http://thriftygoddess1.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

I love after Xmas Sales!

Christmas at the Danforth household was wonderful. Our basement was finished just in time to have both of our families over for Christmas. (Basement photos to come later). Being a school teacher I am lucky enough to have the entire week off, so I went out to Rite Aid, and Christmas Tree Shop Today to take advantage of their 50% off christmas items. The dollar tree was also having a 50% off all christmas decor (which is fabulous, because already cheap stuff is marked down to dirt cheap). I mean you can't even buy a coffee for .$50.
So for $20.00 this is what I got:

Christmas Tree Shop

• Super Cute Cake Stand
• Three Small Nesting Bowls
• 2 packages of cupcake decals

Dollar Tree

• Felt Xmas Tree Centerpiece
• 2 Packages of Napkins
• 2 Plastic Tablecloths
• Dish Towel
• Xmas Socks
• 2 Rolls of Scotch Tape
• 2 Rolls of Ribbon

Rite Aid

• Reed/Oil Defuser
• How the Grinch Stole Xmas DVD

Everything was 50% off what a great deal!

A close up of the santa cake stand I think he is soo cute, I had my eye on him before the holidays and was so glad he went on sale.

I think I convinced hubby that next year we should exchange our gifts after the holidays.

Happy Holidays

Ashley 1 Black Friday 0

So let me tell you I did my fair share of black friday shopping there was to be done. Hubby and I rolled our butts out of bed at the 3:00am and found some fabulous deals

Here is what we bought:

Front Loading Washer and Dryer $588 for the pair

Elliptical Machine I think it was around $450.00

32inch flat screen tv $250.00

After we were done shopping at 5:00am Ron and I went back home and went to bed!! Great deals though, and we're getting some awesome rebates so for about $1000.00 we got a bunch of great stuff!

When you hit rock bottom there is no where to go but up

Sorry I haven't written in a while

Life has been extremely... well lets tell it like it is... AWFUL at the Danforth household!

Hubby and I woke up Monday morning to the sounds of a waterfall, (sounds beautiful right?)Well.. that waterfall was coming from our water heater which in turn was creating an indoor pool in our finished basement. So we immediately had to haul out all of our furniture on to the lawn (this includes 3 ton of pellets, a lot of storage, and 3 couches... among other pieces of large furniture) So we have had two days of non stop clean up and dealing with plumbers, insurance, and service master.

On top of all of this my Uncle Richard passed away suddenly this morning. My heart goes out to my poor aunt and cousins.

So that is why I love the saying from my mother: "When you hit rock bottom there is really no where to go but up"

Thrifting Question For All....

So I had a nice weekend. I spent some time with the Conway gals on Friday night, went thrifting with my mother Saturday morning, and spent some time with our friends having cocktails on Saturday night.

For some reason talk of my thrifting adventures came up a lot this weekend. A lot of our close friends read my blog and im always excited to share my finds and strategies.

A talk of thrifting ethics came up and I began pondering these questions:

• When you receive many items for free from stores (whether it be from cash back, or register rewards, or coupons & Sales) should you donate these items to charity ? (for instance I have many tubes of free toothpaste under my sink, and I understand that an individual does not need to have 5 tubes of toothpaste at one time, but you can always use toothpaste).

• Should people who are fortunate enough to be able to buy brand new clothes shop at rummage sales or thrift stores? Or should thrift stores and rummage sales be only for people who cannot afford to buy new clothing for themselves and their family?

I've been thinking a lot about these conversations this weekend, but I would like to know what do you think?

Side Note: Hubby and I are extremely lucky to have such wonderful friends who are able to discuss diverse points of view on so many topics.

Free Stuff In My Mailbox

I came home to a sweet surprise in our mailbox today. I love getting things other than bills and junk mail.

In my mail I found these free items:

• A FULL SIZED box of Betty Crocker Au Gratin potatoes with .50 off coupon
• Free any color panty coupon from Victoria Secret with no purchase necessary. (Im not a believer of credit cards but the Victoria Secret Credit Card has some awesome deals)
• Free Barenaked granola bar with 1.00 off coupon

*Many of these deals were found on Frugal Focus.com

More Dump Finds!

The dump has been crazy lately. Every time I go im found moving around a bunch of people whether it be at the dump store, the wood pile, leaf pile etc... My great find though that I did get my hands on before another lady was this stack of brand new greeting cards. This stack had everything from get well to happy birthday. This was perfect, and they all had the correct envelopes with them!

Shoes are a girls best friend

Our town has a new thrift store its called It's My Girlfriends. It is a very cute boutiquey looking store with some great stuff. I went in last weekend. I didn't have great luck in the clothing section but I did find some great shoes. These ladies had some great Ann Klein shoes in just my size! They were leather shoes and barely worn. I rarely shell out $15.00 for a pair of used shoes but since my mall episode (see previous blogs) I was happy to find something that i liked, was comfortable and stylish.

The bakery has a thirft store!

So hubby and I eat alot of bread products ( a low carb diet is not in our vocabulary). We both are irritated by the price of bread and rolls these days. Well... a few months ago we stumbled upon the Country Kitchen Bread Thrift Store. This store is only open a few days a week and has breads that their due date is only 5-7 days out (perfectly fine for two carbohydrate addicts). Well Ron and got a package of rolls and a loaf of bread for $2.00. Now that's $2.00 total not seperately. The prices on the bread and rolls were originally $3.29 and $3.79 for a total of $7.08. We saved $5.08 going to the bread thrift store where the sell the exact same products for less than half of the original price!! Amazing!

Halloween

So hubby and I went to a great halloween party hosted by our friends the Hellers on Saturday night. We won 2nd place in the funniest costume category with these costumes.....

Can you tell what we are..........

Im a gold digger and he is old money bags... This is even funnier if you knew us and our personalities... (Our friends kept saying Ron looked like George Bush with the baby powder in his hair ;) )

The mall is not all it's cracked up to be

Sooo every once in a while I decide to go to the mall and say to myself im going to spend some money and buy some "nice" clothes for work. Well let me tell you... I went to the Fox Run Mall with hubby last weekend and even with all the money in the world I would not have bought anything. None of the "in" fashions looked good on me (I swear leggings went out in the 80s for a reason) and everything was extremely overpriced ($65.00 for a cotton sweater.... with 3/4 length sleeves.. come on..) So feeling down and out I went to my favorite church thrift store and low and behold I found a ton of items for $6.00 that fit great

• Brand new wool green sweater vest from the limited
• Purple button down shirt from New York and Co.
• Gray long sleeve cotton shirt from old navy
• Blue long sleeve hooded cotton shirt from Gap
• And an ugly printed shirt from a boutique with all the tags on it (im going to sell it on ebay)
• Not pictured but also in the six dollars was a glass container that went in my bathroom to hold cotton balls.
• Also not pictured but in the $6.00 were black super cute steve madden flats but soo not my size (They were a 10 im a 6) so i passed them off to my friend amanda (who im trying to turn into a thrifter!)

So the mall is not all its cracked up to be!

Another Reason Why I love The Dump

(photo courtesy of google images)

Soo... I went to the dump with hubby today (he doesn't understand my obsession with the dump store).



I ran into the dump store and found a couple of good scores: (pictures to come later)

• Black metal multi candle center piece


• 2 books: How to survive after college without your parents money, and how to create and contract your own log cabin (looks brand new)


• 4 packages of brand new stainless steal silverware still in the packaging from walmart
  I didn't love the silverware so i figured what the heck maybe Walmart will take it back...

WELL... not only did they take it back they gave me $4.00 in cash for it.

So I explained to hubby I got paid $4.00 to shop at the dump today!

Coupon Clipper

So I am addicted to cutting coupons. I get a huge rise out of saving money on my food bill. I would love to have one of those days where I get $100.00 worth of groceries for $10.00. This woman is my new idol!

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/living/2009/04/28/dnt.coupon.lady.wjla.html

Bookcases

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, i've been extremely sick!! There is this alwful cold going around at school and everyone has been on the down and out. Its one of those colds where it wont go away and it hits you hard.

Soo.. after a second trip to the doctors office and some antibotics Im starting to feel better.

I decided to rearrange my bookcase.

I think one of the reasons I love our house is for the built in bookcase in the living room. I've been reading alot of decorating magazines and they keep talking about redecorating bookcases.

Sorry I have no before to show you... but here is the after!

Some of the knick knacks are hard to see but the green fish was a yard sale find and I just fell in love with him. The cheese dome was a dump find. The dancing wooden people are from our honeymoon. I love that the bookshelf is made up of such trinkety things.

Freebies at Rite Aid

I got all of this stuff for FREE at Rite Aid

All I had to do was sign up for the single check rebates and Rite Aid is cutting me a check for $52.69

Considering I only paid 47.69 ( I used the $5 off $25.00 or more coupon) They are paying ME $5.00 for all of this stuff!! Yes folks this is bargain shopping at its finest. I will be set for any cold I may get this year. So keep an eye out for Rite Aid weekly flyers (you need to get their early in the week because I know these products run out!)

Neighborhood Wide Yard Sales Are Not Always What They Seem!

So on Saturday I dragged my behind out of bed very early with hubby for probably our last yard sales of the year.

I was soo excited a really nice section of our town was having a neighborhood wide yardsale.

Well needless to say I didn't find much there at all! A little dissapointed. But here are the few things I did manage to score:

Glass Pumpkin $1.00

Brand New Scrabble Game Still In Shrink Wrap $2.00

Glass Cake Dome $.50

Total: $3.50

Wonderful Dump Finds!!

Hubby and I took some leaves to the dump today, and boy did I find some great stuff!!

Our little dump store was overflowing with wonderful stuff!!

Here is what I found:

*Gold sandals-for a Halloween costume im going to make--details to come :)

*Cloth napkin holder

*Cheese dome with wooden base (i've been eyeing these at yard sales all summer!)

*Etienne Aigner small purse (looks like its never been used im going to ebay it!)

*2 packages of brand new baby shower invitations

*Metal tray im going to spray paint black

*Basket in great condition

*Fake topiary in great condition (im going to spray paint the base white and put it on my mantel)

My Favorite Part: IT WAS ALL FREE

Don't Worry Im Still Blogging

Sorry i've been in crazy stress mode lately and have not done alot of blogging. This wonderful three day weekend will help relieve some of my stress. Okay, with that said Hubby and I are hitting up some wonderful yardsales tomorrow morning. I'll blog about all my finds, until then here is a hysterical cartoon I found at An Inch of Gray's blog. If you're having a hard time reading it go here http://est.rbma.com/content/Rhymes_with_Orange?date=20090925

Wrapping Paper and Lampshades

Im participating in Southern Hospitality's. http://southernhospitalityblog.com

I did not go thrifting this weekend... (See blog below).

BUT...

My mom gave me these really great brown suede lampshades. Im going to paint my bedside lamps white and and put these shades on them.

I found the wrapping paper in Walgreens on clearance for 1.00. I loved the print so much Im going to paint some frames (I found at the dump) white and and frame pieces of it for cheap artwork.

Redo pictures to come soon!

Good Deals At The Mall?

We had a fabulous time in Rye this weekend celebrating hubby's 30th birthday. The weather was great, the cabin was cozy, the company was wonderful, and the food delicious! I did manage to find some great deals this weekend....

Ron and I had some spare time so we swung over to the Fox Run Mall before everyone showed up to the cabin.

I am not a person who likes to have a bunch of open credit cards but I opened a victoria secret card a long time ago and have just left it open.

LET ME TELL YOU THIS IS THE CARD TO HAVE

I rarely use it but monthly they send me coupons for free underwear and during my birthday month they gave me 2 ten dollars off ten dollars or more coupons

THAT THEY LET ME COMBINE.

I bought two short sleeve angel tees and a pair of underwear for a total of $10 and if you know anything about Victoria Secret you know that you usually can't even buy one pair of underwear for $10.0

So if there is a place you regularly shop I highly recommend looking into their credit card, some stores definitely have better rewards than others.

Here is the shirt I bought in cardinal and coal (originally priced $20.00 a piece... ridiculous for a plain t-shirt!)

All I Ever Learned About Thrifting I Learned From My Mom

So I was born into thrifting. My mom was a thrifter, my grandmother was a thrifter it's just in my blood. I've been so busy planning hubby's 30th birthday that I haven't been able to go thrifting. So here are some thrifty finds from my mom today:


She got all of this at the Salvation Army for $3.49, the books were on sale by one get two free. Great finds mom!

Go Mom!


*On a side note i'll be away this weekend at the beach for hubby's big 3-0 so there will be no thrifting this weekend!

Thrifty Treasures Party

So Im participating in the thrifty treasures party today at Southern Hospitality http://southernhospitalityblog.com/! I found some great stuff on Saturday at a couple of different yard sales and the dump! Please scroll to Saturday's blog to see all my finds!!!

Sunday Savings

Ron and I went out and did some food shopping this morning. I had some great manufacturer's coupons and had printed out coupons from Shaws.com (These coupons are great because they are usually on the Shaws brand items or items that are on sale that week) soo.... Ron and I got $80.00 worth of Groceries for $51.55. Not bad at all considering that some of the 24 items we purchased were 3 lbs. of %80 hamburger, 20 rolls of cottonelle toilet paper, 2 bags of fresh express salad, and 2 boxes of ziploc freezer bags. Items we dont normally get.

Our next stop we did even better though....

Walgreens is one of my favorite drugstores to shop at. We got all of this for a total of $3.40
The fruit loops were on sale for $2.00 a box and we had a $2.00 off 2 boxes coupon.

• The organic shampoo is free after mail in rebate (7.99)
  

The Hair smoother was free in store (walgreens gave us a $6.00 register rewards coupon that we redeemed right there)

• The dried cranberries were $1.00.
• The Arizona Ice Tea was on sale for .40

I Just Love Deals!

Thrifty Filled Saturday

What a beautiful Day In New Hampshire

A fun morning of thrifting I had!

First Stop:

The little White Church in Eaton was having a huge yard sale here are my finds:

• Sex and The City DVDs Season #1.50
• The Big Ticket DVD .50
• 2 wooden candlestick holders .25
• 2 mini urns .50
• 2 xmas CDs 1.00
• Candle 1.00
• Decorating book 1.00
• 2 plastic Tubs 2.00
• Winnie The Pooh DVD .50
• Wire basket .50
  Total: $7.75

Im going to paint the candlesticks black and put them on my table for halloween (i'll show you the pics later!)

The tubs will hold all of our catfood and kitty litter

The wire basket im going to put in my pantry on the shelf

The Winnie The Pooh DVD we'll keep for when our nieces come over

The urns will hold some mini topiaries (i'll show you the pics later!)

Second Stop:

Thrift Store at the white church in conway. It was dollar a bag sale day and boy was I excited. I didn't get too much because it is super hard to fill a bag when hubby is calling you from the car to hurry up!

• I got two pairs of super cute sandals (one Steve Madden!)
  A Pair of Shorts
• Purple Shirt
• Embroidered Pants
• Green Capri Pants
• Brand New White Sweater From JC Penny
• Not shown a cute grey skirt that I gave to Aly
• And the sweet church lady threw in a dip they were selling apple caramel yummm

Total $1.00 (that's around .11 per item!)

Third Stop

(and my favorite!) THE DUMP

• Basketball hoop with ball still in the packaging (Im going to bring it to school for my kids)
• People Best of 2008 (I have an obsession with gossip magazines)
• 25 Years of People Magazine (Again an obession)
• Portraits of Presidents (Great book for kids at school)
• 2 Magazines from Hannafords (Hubby and I are strictly Shaws shoppers so these magazines were good to look through for dinner ideas)
• My favorite a hook still in the packaging that im going to attach to the back of our bedroom door for my bathrobe.

Total: FREE

Grand Total For The Day $8.75

What do you get a little girl that could open her own Toys R Us?

Ron and I are blessed to have two beautiful nieces who are (1 1/2 and 3). As you all know im starting my Christmas shopping SUPER early, but seriously what do you get two girls that have everything????

Ron and I love them to pieces but are sick of buying them toys and clothes they already have. So I came up with a fabulous idea! Our 3 year old niece started preschool this fall, so im putting together for her a preschool survival kit! Everytime im out thrifting I find her inexpensive pieces to fill her basket. Here is what I have so far:

Cute brand new hat and mitten set for those chilly recesses .50

Princess DVD to unwind after a busy day free

Two princess crowns to wear and share when she feels like a princess .25

Hair elastics to tame the crazy hair .75

Foam Letters to learn her alphabet .50

Magnetic Letters .50

Tights (hopefully to accompany a cute outfit) 1.00

Brand New Scooby Doo Mouth Wash Free

Scriptograph .50

Not pictured: a wooden puzzle hand made 1.00, baske to put it all in free

Total: $5.00

I definitely know she wont have most of this stuff, and alot of this stuff is useful. I know My sister in law will love it (and never know it came from thrifting :) )

Local Papers Have Hidden Thrifty Finds

So sorry I haven't posted in a while, my masters courses and beginning of the year school stuff is overwhelming! Thanks for being patient.

I am a huge fan of reading our free local paper. It comes out daily and always has good deals in it. I have found many deals over the years in this paper, it may not have the best quality news but it has wonderful local bargains!



Our most recent deal for example: Hubby and I both have birthdays in the month of September, this is very fun except for the fact we have to register and inspect two vehicles!



Macdonald Motors Inc. had a coupon that ran only two days last week that advertised inspections for $10.00 during the month of Sept. I am usually against getting any car maintenance done at a car dealership due to the fact they sometimes can jack up the prices, but I thought what the heck if my car has something seriously wrong and doesn't pass im only out $10 bucks.



The people at Macdonald Motors were wonderful, I asked them to call if anything was wrong at all with the car. My car passed with flying colors (the car only needed windshield wipers and the service guy called for approval before putting them on!)



Total for the inspection AND windshield wipers.......... $20.86

And that my friends is why I suggest you read your local paper daily, weekly, whenever it comes out. Deals are anywhere!

Side note: Ron and I have a free weekend coming up so I'll be out thrifting this weekend, stay posted for new finds and potentially even some transformations!

I love free (or super cheap) dining!

So Restaurant.com is one of my favorite places to go for gift certificates to restuarants in our area. Hubby and I love to go out to eat, but on a teacher's and juvenile probation officer's budget we can't afford to go out as much as we'd like. Right now if you go to restaurant.com type in your zip code you can find $25.00 gift certificates for $10.00. BUT WAIT another great deal! type in the code: NINETY and pay $1.00 yep that's right $1.00 for a $25.00 gift certificate! Just make sure you read the fine print You may have a minimum food purchase (We usually have to pay $35.00 so you really only paid the $10.00 extra and the $1.00 fee you bought it for sooo in the end it cost you $11.00 for $36.00 in food. Still a great deal in my book

Yum Yum

I Love Free Stuff!

Who doesn't love free stuff! I frequent this website called frugal focus (http://www.frugalfocus.com/) These people come together and blog about all the great deals that are going on around the web, supermarkets, drugstores etc. They have everything from coupons to free items. Mine and hubby's favorite are the free dinners we've gotten from here! The pictures below are my recent free finds.

Im not a huge energy drink person but i've always wanted to try Venom! This is a free coupon off Frugal Focus.

I am obsessed with FiberOne bars. These freebies are from walmart.com (through frugal focus)Love that it comes with coupons!

Southern Hospitality Thrifty Finds

I forgot to add I am participating in http://southernhospitalityblog.com/ it is a lot of fun to see what others got this weekend!

Why Does Everyone Hate The Dump?

I've always wondered why all my friends hate the dump! I myself have found some great things there. Our dump has a little dump store that people drop off items to that may be of good use to others. I usually pop in to see whats going on in there. Some people sit outside of it for hours waiting for great finds. That is a bit extreme to me.

So this blog is dedicated to why you should shop at the dump.

1. It is always free

2. People throw away great stuff

3. Contrary to popular belief it is not Dirty and Diseased nothing a little soap, bleach, and cleaning products cannot cure. (I've never caught any diseases from the dump store or wood pile, i am not suggesting however that if you do choose to jump in with the trash you may come out smelly, dirty, and maybe full of some germs.

My favorite day to visit the dump in the summer is Tuesdays (our dump is closed Mondays)

• People drop off unsold yard sale items after the weekend
  
  
• It is not crowded
  
  

Reason # 1 You Should Shop At The Dump (Please see picture)

• The white shirt is eyelet and in great shape I bleached it and fits me great!


• Multiple yards of brand new material (with tags on it from Jo-Ann Fabrics)


• Brand new tubes of playdogh (The dough was still in tube shape when I opened it)


• Road Atlas (Maybe we'll never get lost again)


• Brand New Stuff T-Rex from Barnes and Noble


• Flip Flops - my size that looked like they had never been worn


• Yellow metal tray im going to spray paint white


• Cute felt container for xmas


• Cute little coffee mug from pfaltzgraff
  

Total Price $0

Reason # 2

Found these at the dump store a week later

Yep that's right, glasses that had never been used with Tiffany & Co. stickers on each of them. Im not sure if they're really Tiffany & Co. But the stickers looked authentic and they were super cute glasses. I sold them on ebay for $35.00

Reason # 3

If you aren't convinced by now the dump is a wonderful place to go. Here is the third one. I found this bamboo chair in wonderful condition. (Yes I did climb half way up the wood pile to retrieve it but it was in great condition.) If I had had a truck I would have taken the beautiful vanity I found too but it wouldn't fit in my car. I spray painted the chair and found these cushions at a thrift store. Total price for chair $8.00. It looks so great in my spare bedroom

Before After

So are you convienced that the dump is really not that bad of a place??

Clothes Clothes Clothes

This is my first post ever so hang in there with me as I learn!

So I went to alot of yardsales this weekend. My mom showed up at 8am on Saturday and we hit the town. There were some goodies too!

One yard sale we went to a lady was selling wonderful clothes that were just my size! All of these items were 1.00 each! The black and white dress was a little too big but great for a coverup or the summer time, the brown and white polka dot dress was brand new with tags on it and the pink floral skirt is from dressbarn!

These brooms were brand new and in a Free Box ( I love free boxes!) Im going to decorate them and hang them for Halloween!

This wire rack was also brand new for .50 I couldn't pass it up. Hubby screwed it into the door under the sink.

I had alot more purchases but didn't have enough time to take pictures of them:

.50 an automatic cat food feeder (We have a 15lb cat who insists on eating all the time!)

1.00 for brand new Oscar De LaRenta Pants

.50 for a prevention magazine

.50 for brand new white fuzzy slippers

Free Rug (Thanks mom, she bought the full sized rug and the seller threw in the throw rug for free, I dont think its ever been used it is like a straw material, with cloth edges.

Overall we did great!

Thanks for reading!

Ashley