Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Thrift Store???

A few days ago, my husband had to go get a haircut at the barber shop. So I went into the thrift store to check it out. I was looking at some of the furniture that they have in there, a lot of it is actually really neat because its all German, but then I looked at the price. I thought...wow, isn't this a THRIFT store. Thrift, meaning frugality, prudent use of money, etc.? One of the dressers in there, which btw, had issues of its own, was 165.00. I mean ARE YOU SERIOUS? I know its an old dresser, maybe even an antique, but 165.00? I can buy a brand new dresser for that much money, even less. Now it was solid wood, and it definately was old, but there was a handle missing, and it needed some paint, but I just thought to myself, that is entirely NOT thrifty for me. Maybe it is for someone else, who knows? I'm sure they have some good deals in there. The books are probably only a dollar each, but I do remember being at goodwill in the states, they were anywhere from .25 to .50 cents. Dressers, no matter how old they were, were never more than 100 bucks. I saw cups in there going for 2 bucks a piece. I can go to the px and still get plastic cups for only a dollar. So I was very confused. There was a coffee table that looked kind of neat, it was 120.00, I wouldn't have spent more than 50 on it, being its at a thrift store. So what gives? Why have things in a so called thrift store be outrageous prices? I was stumped. I will tell you one thing though, I can't wait to get back to the states to go to a normal goodwill when I need to with normal prices. I can't wait to get back to the states where I can just go to Walmart and get a 125.00 dresser for my kids...I know, its not solid wood, its not made all that well, and it won't last but maybe five years, but its cheaper! I've had to notice where our money is going lately because 1.) my car was in an accident and that = $500.00 deductible, and 2.) we have to save up as much money as we can before we go back to the states. Oh, but I am counting down the days until we can be back in the states. We really want to buy a house when we get back to the states, as soon as we can. Which means back to frugality. I mean, I will more than likely be getting a job when we get back. I need something to do with my time other than attempt to take care of the house. I want to be able to do something. I would like it if I could work at the school cafeteria or something, I know not an ideal job, but its something, and I wouldn't have to work when the girls were out of school I don't think. But like I said, back to being frugal, and thrifty, and not just spending money all the time. Unfortunately over here we don't have a lot of choices as far as being frugal. I mean you either buy the food or you don't, they don't have walmart brand prices, or a variety of places that you can shop around. So I'm noticing more and more what the prices around me are like. We were just in the states, we were able to buy a whole Turkey dinner for about 50.00, over here it would have cost us around 200-300 dollars. Its ridiculous. And we even had to buy spices. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have just about every spice known to man, so for the price to be so low, it shocked both Paul and I. Soon, we will be able to head that way though. Soon, we won't feel as if we are bending over. I mean why does the army even pay us Cola over here, it just goes right back to food/clothes/etc. The amount that we pay vs. the amount we would pay in the states is entirely different. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us, we have to save as much money as we possibly can in the next few months, and it won't be easy. But we'll manage.

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