Thrifting Finds #48: Creepy Clown Alert!

Oh.  Em.  Gee.

Yes, I'm going to start out complaining about the weather again.  On Thursday, we had a high of 70, followed by thunderstorms, 70 MPH winds, and temperatures dropping into the teens overnight.  Saturday was sunny and breezy, with a high of 60.

Today it's snowing.

Again.

Work opened at 1:00 which was nice, but really, it just needs to stop.  Now, please.

Okay.  Enough of that.  On to more pleasant things.  Well, slightly more pleasant, anyway.  It was not a particularly good week for thrifting, despite being able to cover all of our usual spots.  We'll start off with something different--one of the Hubster's finds!

1.  Another Stretch Vase!  We seem to be finding these fairly often, which is just fine with me.  This is a slightly smaller one, not sure if it's even a foot high.  Hubs sprinted ahead of me and spotted it, so to the victor go the spoils, or something like that.  Savers, $3.00

2.  Slide Tray!  This, of course, is for the Crestline slide projector I got some time ago, hoping to find some slides.  Naturally, as soon as I got the projector, the supply of slides in the thrifts dried up.  Still, one likes to be prepared, and this was still in its original shrinkwrap, so how could I resist?  Savers, $4.00

3.  Poly Perk!  I've been wanting a little percolator to use at work because I find those K Cups too expensive, not to mention a huge waste.  All that plastic for one cup of coffee?  No, thanks.  So this looked perfect, or at least I thought it did.  I'm actually going to give it back.  See the "5" above the top crown?  That came off easily with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  Unfortunately, some wiseacre wrote "Hobo Frank" on the other side in Sharpie and I thought I would be able to get it off.  Well, no amount of assistance from Mr. Clean did a thing, nor did straight acetone.  Sorry, but I'm just not going to use a "Hobo Frank" coffee pot.  Especially at work.  Not much harm done, though, as it was only $3.00 at Savers (disregard the "5" as I did.  Didn't even notice it until I got it home.

WARNING!  CREEPY CLOWN ALERT!  SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

Would you believe me if I said he looked even worse in person?  Maybe it was his size (almost 2 feet tall, I bet), or maybe it was the pink toenails.  I think, though, it was the lines by his mouth that really did me in.  Eek.

Bargain of the Week Department! Lookit--something new has been added. So I guess in addition to my thrift finds, I'll post my BotW if there is one.  This week it's

Detergent!  Both Rite Aid and CVS had a buy one, get two free sale on Purex.  We've used it before and I guess it works about as well as any other detergent.  Ninety-nine loads worth for $6.29, which works out to 6.4 cents per load.  Not bad.  Hubster figures we do 7 loads of wash a week, so this should last us over three months.  But we won't even start using it until we've run out of the Sears detergent we got at least six months ago.

Which makes me think of something Smart People say:  Buy it when it's cheap, not when you need it.  To which I would add If you'll use it up before it goes bad and if you have room to keep it.  This won't spoil, so I'm not worried if it takes a while to use up.  And I have room to keep it, so win/win.  Frankly, I'd love to be able to buy one of those huge packages of paper towels, with like 50 rolls.  Unfortunately, I'd have no place to put it, unless I threw a cloth over it and made it into an end table.

What I made Department:

Not my picture

Not my picture, either

A:  Chili and Cornbread.  Well, I made the cornbread yesterday, but the chili is from a few weeks ago, via the freezer.  What with today's weather, this will be a good dinner tonight.

B:  Portuguese Spiced Pork and Couscous.  The pork came from that bigass loin I got a couple of months ago.  it doesn't look like much, but it sure is delicious.  This is something my Grandmother made and Mom made, and now I guess it's my turn.  Mine isn't as good as theirs, but Hubby kept going back later for "just another bite."  So I call that a win.

And that's it for this week.  I'm hoping to have a better week next week, but I realize I say that all the time and nothing ever really happens.  Still, doesn't hurt to cross one's fingers, right?

(Whew.  Accidentally closed the wrong tab and I thought I lost this whole post!  Thank you, Blogger for your excellent Auto Save!)

Linking up with Sir Thrift A Lot, Thrifter/Maker/Fixer/Farm, and We Call It Junkin.

Thrifting Finds #22!

Wow.  It feels like it was a really busy weekend, when in fact it wasn't.  Maybe I'm just getting old.  Okay, definitely getting old, but you know what I mean.

We managed to cover almost all of our usual stops this weekend.  Didn't get to go to the Salvation Army because it was closed for Labor Day.  I kind of don't like shopping there because of their politics, but apparently, I'll sell out completely for a bargain.  Don't judge.

Yesterday was Half Price day at one of our Goodwills.  Gloriosky, I hope I never walk into that scene again!  The store was mobbed, every single customer had an overflowing cart full of crap, and people were just plain rude.  It was kind of like a summertime version of Black Friday.  Yikes.

Anyway, while I didn't get much at the thrifts, i did manage to pick up a couple of things that made me quite happy.  On with the show.

1.  Tupperware!  Okay, is anyone really surprised here?  I already have this size in lovely Avocado, but I'm really digging this orange.  I'm trying to up my consumption of vegetables and lower my consumption of potato chips at lunch, so I'm using this to tote a buttload of crudites to work.  Why?  Because I'm huge.  Hopefully, there's a wedding in my future, and I'd prefer not to look like a heifer.  Plus, it was only a buck at the Rescue Mission Thrift.  As an aside, this same canister in yellow was $3.00 at the Goodwill just down the street.

2.  Lampshades!  Can you believe it?  I thought I had used up our lampshade mojo, so you can imagine my surprise when I ran across these in the GW on Sunday.  I looked up on the top shelf where the lampshades are and saw what I thought would be a perfect shade for our new lamps.  Too bad there was only one.  Wait a second--it's really two shades stacked together!  I threw my keys at Hubby, said "Hold these" and scaled the display fixture.  Yeah, I have no shame.

Oops.  Wrong picture.  Let me just Photoshop in the other shade:

There.  Better.  Anyway, they were in great shape and only $4.00 each!  There may or may not have been a little happy dance; I'll never tell.  GW staff, in their wisdom, chose to mark the price on these in black indelible marker.  Does nobody have any common sense any more?  Luckily, the base of the shades is plastic and I was able to almost completely remove the price with some acetone.  Sheesh.  Of course, the harps that came with the lamps were far too small so I had to pick up some new ones.  Here's what it looks like in finished form:

You like?  I like.  I also added inline switches to make turning the lamps on and off easier.  So I think I'm done with lamps for a while.  I hope so, anyway.

That's actually it for thrift finds, but I have a couple of other purchases I want to mention.

3.  Slide Projector!  This was actually an eBay purchase.  I had been toying with the possibility of buying some of the slides I keep seeing at the thrifts and basically snooping into other peoples' lives.  Unfortunately, I didn't own a slide projector.  So I was reading the 1961 volume of Consumer Reports (don't judge) and saw the Crestline Model C was highly rated.  I really liked the name "Crestline" so I searched for it on ebay, saw this and won it for my bid of $5.00.  It works beautifully, came in its original box with all paperwork (see the hang tag still attached to the handle?), and even had a tray of slides with it.  Okay, they were kind of boring, but it's a start.

Naturally, I found NO slides at the thrifts this week!  I have a movie projector too, but I don't think I've ever seen home movies at the Goodwill.

4.  Free laptop!  So here's the story behind this.  A while ago, there was a Class Action Suit against EMachines, the computer company.  Something about the floppy drive; I can't remember the details.  Well, I joined the suit, as I had owned an EMachine that was included.  When it finally got settled, they sent people a voucher for $365.00 worth of stuff from a certain website (tablets, laptops, PCs and monitors, mostly refurbs); you could also convert the voucher to cash--$62.50.  So I saw this Gateway laptop on the site, factory refurbished, decent specs and only $300.00.  When I went to order it, I got the notice that any unspent balance on the voucher was forfeited.  Hmm.  That left $65 bucks for me to do something with.  I couldn't find anything around that price.  Bummer.  So I went ahead with the order and when it asked how I wanted it shipped, I automatically checked the cheapest method.  Then I saw that overnight delivery was $38.00, so I figured Sure, why not? So I got my free laptop the next day!  I've only fired it up to make sure it works.  I already have a laptop and a netbook and don't need another one.  I haven't decided whether to save this in case one of the kids needs a computer or to flip it on ebay.  Thoughts?

P.S.  Still haven't put the Eames coat rack on ebay yet because I can't find a box big enough to ship it in!

Linking up with all the deliciousness at Sir Thrift A Lot and The Nifty Thrifty,