Thrift Store Find!

Yesterday I decided to check out half price day at Value Village.

I don’t know how many of you frequent special sale days at thrift stores, but in case you haven’t, they get pretty crazy. It’s like the bridal sale at Filene’s, except with toothless women in torn t-shirts who look like they were kicked out of Ultimate Fighting Championship for being too rough.

(here’s a pic of the Filene’s sale if you’ve never experienced it.)

I’ve lost a bit of weight from eating locally so I figured I’d check it out. There were so many handbags! I found a pristine gunmetal gray Kate Spade handbag and it came to $2.50 after discounts. That’s 250 cents, not 250 dollars. Insanity took over, and somehow I walked out with yet more handbags to add to my extensive collection. That’s when I had an epiphany: I can use them as gift baskets!

You see, I have been struggling to come up with impressive gifts that don’t support big business. I’ve always prided myself on conjuring up the perfect gift, but that generally entails shopping on the internet. Locally, my choices seem to be limited to fruit, beaded jewelry, homemade soap, and more fruit. No “wow” gifts there. But if I buy some of those artsy little soaps and make a toiletry gift basket (but in a like-new designer handbag), well, it’s a wow to say the least. And they will cost less than $20 each, which is a good price point for someone with a bazillion kids. So that’s my latest project. I’ll try to post a picture when I finish one.

By the way, while I was plucking chi-chi bags off the cheap plastic racks two women my age were complaining to each other that there are never good purses at thrift stores. Give your local resale shops a chance, people. Everyone thinks theirs is full of useless crap, but I’ve never left empty-handed. Sometimes you have to dig to find treasure.