Overcoming the Fear of Thrift Stores

I must confess. I do not like thrift stores. Most often they are over crowded with clothing and it's 100 to 1 I'll find some thing I'll like, that fits. We live in a small community that does not have a thrift shop. This fact adds to my dislike for them-inconvenience.

What has changed my mind is the effort of a few Church ladies. For the past 11 years they have been collecting, organizing and selling thrift store items and giving 100% of the proceeds to missions in the form of a rummage sale.

With their ministry and our current need I was tempted to look. Wow! WAS I IMPRESSED! So I had to pick through a hundred things to find one...,more like 50 to 1 for the kids. But I got over a hundred dollars worth of clothing and shoes for just $20.

My reasons for not using the thrift store have been chipped away. It is no longer inconvenient to go to the rummage sale. I know my dollar is going to a good cause. And the ratios...I'm simply trading time for money.

Goodwill High Prices

Last week I stopped in at Goodwill and not looking at the price went up to buy 2 t-shirts and a book , Shocked it came to $11.75 ! This is Goodwill , they are given free stuff . How can they sell it for so much? It's not always a great deal at the Goodwill. I think I'll hold out for the sales. I feel Sometimes they just rip people off . Every t-shirt is not equal and worth $5. and every pair of jeans should not be marked $7.
The same day at a big shopping store they had a rack , brand new clothing 90% off . I could get
a t-shirts for $2 .

EXXON AND MOBILE

THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON.
This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time to read this please.
Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.
This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May!It's worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!
I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down?
We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas.
It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can Really work. Please read on and join with us!
By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $ 3.15 for regular unleaded in my town.
Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace...not sellers.
With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.
The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.
But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.
Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.
If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.
But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) .. and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!
If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!
How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON and MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Playing the Lotto

Do you like to gamble? I say that I don't, but I think we all gamble. It's just on what we value. However, I want to encourage you in gambling on some thing you can use. Instead of throwing away your money on a lotto ticket, spend a couple of bucks on an antique. Have you ever heard stories of people paying $0.50 on a picture to find out it is worth a couple of hundred dollars? I have a box full of stamps in my garage. I have held on to these stamps for over 10 years in hopes that one of them is worth millions. Truly one in a million. I just think you can spend your money better than on a lotto ticket.

Wisdom From the Past

I have begun asking older Home Makers what has saved them money over the years. With out fail the answer has been, "cooking from scratch." My grandfather said his best investment has been realestate, but the last place he worked on he owned it for 7 years. There certainly isn't any quick turn over.

When I observe the generations ahead of us I see those who have been consistent in a few things are doing better than those who bounce around a lot.

Finding Your Own Stuff At The Thrift Store

Love to give my stuff away and feel like I did a good job cleaning out the kids closet. The freeing feeling of haling it away, but to find my stuff with tags on it. Someone making a killing on my good junk and you stand holding it saying to the stranger next to you" this was mine ". The home made Raggedy Ann doll with the mitten hands that I thought looked more like Lobster Claws. Still after weeks not shopping at that Salvation Army I come back to see nobody wanted it ,and I feeling bad for the doll thinking , maybe I should bring it back home and reached to take it by the hand and realize... ya.. don't think I want it.

Love Free Samples !

This weeks Free Sample !!!!!