Thrift and Ye Shall Find

I haven't been able to go on any yard sale excursions lately. Newborn babies + strangers old junk just don't mix well. The last good yard sale I went to happened to also be the day I went into labor (luckily though, not until I got home.) Maybe the excitement of the finding the yard sale score of the summer spurred my little one to come into the world early?

It all started when I got the big monster order mentioned in my last blog post. Unfortunately I was out of stuffing and my nearest stuffing supplier is in Sherman Oaks. So on August 18th (I'll never forget this date) my mom and I headed out on a stuffing run. Since it was a Saturday morning, I checked Craigslist and mapped out a couple yard sales to stop at along the way.

Guess what the first sale had? A half a bag of polyester stuffing! Score! Not much, but enough to fill a monster. Then, at the yard sale next door I found a full bag of stuffing! I held it up and said, "Hey mom, look!" and the lady who was having the sale said, "Do you need stuffing?" You can have that for free. In fact, here's two more unopened cases, take it all!" 32 bags in all - Sweet! Erik didn't even grumble when I brought these huge boxes home to take up space in our garage because he knows how quickly I go through stuffing. With all the personalized pillows, decorative pillows, and friendly monsters I make, it will all be gone by Christmas.


I'm convinced that if I want something badly enough, I will find it at a yard sale or thrift store. My friends joke that I've got some magical thrifty mojo working for me. Here are a few other recent scores:

This lamp from Ikea:


It retails for $40 . I know because I'd been stalking it for months. I got it for $5 at a yard sale in Toluca Lake.

Elsewhere in the house, we needed backless barstools for this weird bar/nook area of our kitchen. Countless web searches and trips to Ikea and Target yielded nothing and then one day I found these listed on Craigslist - 2 for $20.

For outside, we had gotten one of those above ground pools and were using a step stool to get in it because I didn't want to shell out $50+ for the ladder. Lo and behold, I found one at a yard sale for a mere $5.

And this maternity shirt - I saw it at target for $25, but didn't get it because it fit kinda weird. When I saw it again a few weeks later for 50 cents at a yard sale, I bought it. After a little nip/tucking on the sewing machine it fit fine and became one of my favorite shirts of the summer.

Also, there's this Baby Bjorn carrier, originally priced at $94.00 (craziness!). I got it for $1 at a Burbank yard sale, good as new.

I could go on, but I'll stop lest you think I'm a cheapskate. Does seeking out bargains make me cheap? Then so be it. Unless it's a one-of-a-kind like art or handmade clothes and jewelry, I hate paying full price. And I love that little adrenaline rush that comes when something I've been wanting forever falls into my lap for a fraction of the price that other people pay.

Do you like deals too? Well, since you took the time to read this entire post, I have a deal for you. You can type "I love kokoleo" in the voucher area at checkout and receive 15% off anything on the kokoleo website (excluding personalized commissions). It's good through 2008.