thrifty thursday - sometimes you have to settle for 'used' goods

Hey there! Welcome to the 3rd installment of thrifty thursdays!!

I've bought a lot of things for my kids in thrift stores/garage sales/flea markets. There's a couple things I don't ever buy ~ stuffed animals, shoes, & anything that can't be hosed down, thrown in the washer or otherwise sanitized from someone else's cooties.

The thing about buying kids' stuff is that it is not going to look new (for the most part). Some other kid has most likely already spent countless hours playing with the thing that you're buying. And you have to be ok with that or thrifting may not be for you.

When my kids were little I wouldn't buy anything that had bite marks or looked like it was the dog's chew toy. However, I managed to swipe up some great toys at garage sales that ended up being some of my kids' favorite toys. 

The other day I picked up these bikes at the thrift market:

They're basically in good shape. They have a little bit of rust. And Ben's bike needs new pedals. But I got Olivia's bike for $18 and Ben's for $15. Now if you've priced bikes lately you know how expensive new bikes are. And the bigger kids get, the more expensive the bikes get. So spending $32 on 2 bikes in decent shape is a good deal in my book!! Especially since you just realized the week before that your daughter outgrew her bike from last year...

But then during that same trip, in the same thrift market, I managed to snag the deal of the year:

Yes, that's an American Girl doll, Elizabeth to be exact. In near perfect condition. 40 bucks. Yep, 40 buckeroonies. And if you're familiar with AG, then you know those dolls sell for new for 100 bucks. Olivia was ecstatic to say the least. Now, I did make her pay for half, cause even though we got a great deal on her I'm not in the habit of just giving a 100 dollar doll to my daughter for just no reason. I know, I'm mean. But hey, 20 bucks for a brand new AG doll?? That's a steal if you ask me! (and Olivia thought so, too!!)


Btw, the seller and her daughter were in the thrift market and we ended up stopping and chatting for quite a while, super nice. Anyway, they might have another doll to sell us :) Olivia wanted me to call her back the next day and see if she had anymore to sell! hehe I don't know who she gets her impatience from ;)