Thrift Store Finds and Friday Night Treats

Thursday turned into a shopping day for us. Both Lily and Kendall had eye appointments in Charlotte in the afternoon, so we had planned on a trip to IKEA.  It worked out that before going to Charlotte, we spent some time in the local thrift stores (Goodwill and Salvation Army). The Salvation Army is brand new, I was really surprised at the nice furniture that they were offering. For the morning, we spent a total of $40. At Goodwill, we purchased a total of 7 clothing items, 1 shirt for Zach and the rest for Matt and I.  We had on our list for IKEA purchasing new silverware.  We really didn't need new silverware really our need was for forks. At the Salvation Army, I was able to purchase forks at 0.25 each, I bought 16 of these.  As I have mentioned many times, saving money becomes not only a choice but a way of life. Clothing, especially for adults, is expensive so the first choice for us is to check out the thrift stores before looking to purchase new items.  I am not going to even say we probably saved x by buying both the clothing and the forks this way but I do not have a doubt that we did save money.

On Friday after dinner, we started talking about going to grab a treat of ice cream. Our first instinct was to head to either the ice cream shop that is owned locally or Sonic.  The kids obviously loved this idea and finished all their dinner. As we are heading out, I mentioned that we could always go to ALDI, purchase ice cream and bring it home. At first it was a casual joking comment, but as we started talking about it, it started to make more sense. First for the same price or less that we would spend on a stop at the ice cream shop we could all pick out a different variety of ice cream. Next, this would allow us to enjoy ice cream all weekend to say the least. Finally, it would also be a shorted trip for us, which was the deciding factor.  We spent $12 at ALDI, came home with 5 different boxes of ice cream.  Saving money is slowly becoming even more of a way of life for us.