I love decorating on the cheap..

I love thrift stores! Specifically the D.I (Desseret Industries). Savers, The Salvation Army, and Consignment shops aren’t so bad either, but I seem to have more success at the D.I. I even had a favorite D.I. The one in Sugarhouse was the BEST. I renamed it “the super D.I” and I tried to keep the place a secret, so it would stay unknown. It was “the super D.I” because it had 3 floors! Super organized as far as thrift stores go. But then they changed locations, and now its laid out/looks exactly like the Murray D.I which is nothing to brag about. In fact, don’t even bother going to the Murray location. I have hit or miss success at the Sandy location. The only good thing about the one in Sandy is that it is so close to my house… much more convenient then the old “super D.I”.

Today I stopped at the Sandy D.I on my way home from volunteering at a Planned Parenthood Clinic. (That will have to be another post another day, but seriously it was such a good experience there today. I LOVE Planned Parenthood).  

First I checked out the books. I love getting books second hand. For one: I feel like I’m recycling/being green and for two: they are so inexpensive. $1 for paperback, and $2 for hardcover. Oh and a third reason is: I can ALWAYS find new books/that Target is currently selling. PS If you ever want a book by Jodi Picoult (my favorite author), I always find at least four of her books every time I go.

Next, I checked out the board games. Board games are another thing I like to get second hand. You have to be careful though and check to make sure they have all their pieces. I never use to look for games, but after I got married and moved out of my parent’s house I no longer had any games. My parents kept our “family” games. So I had to start my own collection. And when I discovered that board games were only roughly $2 rather than +$20 I was stoked. So far I think the games I have bought second hand are: Uno Attack, Uno cards, two sets of Scattergories (because I didn’t realize we already owned it), Racko, CatchPhrase, Scrabble, and Mastermind. And today I found a brand new game called Buzzword. It’s kind of like a team trivia/memory game I guess. I started to read the instructions, but for those who know me, know that I pretty much suck at reading directions. Explain something to me by showing or telling me how to do it, but if ever I have to read step by step instructions or recipes I get “bored” after step 3 and just “wing” it. So Mic read the instructions, and will hopefully teach me how to play our new game. LOL.

Lastly,  I figured I’d walk by the furniture on my way to the check out. I want a new painting project, so it would be fun to find something cute- furniture wise. Especially because we need a new TV stand, because unfortunately our new TV we finally splurged on doesn’t fit in our old (super cute) entertainment center. I don’t usually have success finding cute, not WAY dated looking furniture at thrift stores. Ksl (Utah’s craigslist) has a much better selection. But as I was browsing heavy/solid (hideous) entertainment centers, mismatched kitchen chairs/bar stools, and dressers that probably have +3 different layers of paint, I happened to come across a super cute big wall clock. I looked around trying to figure out if someone had just temporarily set it on the kitchen table it was lying on, and would say any second “oh that’s mine..” when I picked it up.. but, alas no one was around. I examined it and found that the second hand wouldn’t stay in place. But I was already in love with it, and trying to figure out how I’d be able to fix it, or replace the hands. I have wanted a large wall clock for my house, but wasn’t willing to pay a lot for one. Tai Pan Trading has super cute ones, but the ones I like are a little pricey.

I brought my clock home, and thought I’d show Mic, and he could tell me if it was even repairable, or if I needed to somehow figure out how to replace the hands altogether. Literally 2 minutes later he had the whole thing taken apart, and put back together, and it works! So stoked. Now I just have to decide where to hang it. Its super cute- dark brown, cream, and dark red. Which just so happens to be the 3 exact colors of my living room.

So thanks Mom for being super Frugal and instilling in me your wisdom of thrift store shopping and Dad for being super smart with money/finances/budgeting/accounting/pretty much everything actually. The combination of those two opposite people has helped make me who I am today. (cheesy but super grateful for them). Now if only I’d learned how to cook. LOL.

"Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the be." --Benjamin Franklin

"The amount of money you have has got nothing to do with what you earn... people earning a million dollars a year can have no money and.. People earning $35,000 a year can be quite well off. It's not what you earn, it's what you spend."-- Paul Clitheroe


PS Disregard the pants/clothes drapped on my bed. I didn't realize it was in the picture until after, and I'm too lazy to retake the pict/edit the blog post. 

My new clock, LOVE it.

The board game

I bought this 5X7 frame for .50 cents and then I put a cute subway Valentine's art thing I'd printed in it.