This one is long, but grab a glass of wine and stay with me.
Almost 6 months ago a friend told me about "compactors", people who sign a contract and vow not buy anything new for 1 year. What a fabulous idea! I mulled over this some time, discussed it with the family, and we ventured into our own version of compacting. I joined our local Freecycle group, and the adventure began!
If you are wondering why I did not join and sign the compact contract, well, it is because I do not do well with rules, so I would never voluntarily inflict them on myself. And I don't buy used shoes. And, even though some of the posts on the compact yahoo list were very helpful and informative, as with every group online, there are always a few assholes to spoil the fun.
I have always been a thrift store queen. I LOVE thrift stores...Seriously. The thought of making a great deal and saving the environment, and at the same time kicking consumerism and debt in the ass is so empowering and bitchin' :). Finding Freecycle and a few other resource unknown to me was great. Now, when we need something big, like a drum, a dryer, 1000 legos, a watering can, a lawn mower, etc, we go to Freecycle (these are all things we have WANTED, and RECEIVED.) When I find things in my house I would never give away, but I don't need, I put them on Freecycyle and find the perfect, thankful owner for them! My kids live in breathe in the environment, and they see Freecycle as our personal department store.
To get to the reason for this long intro: I wanted to share some keypoints of my day with you. My brain ramble will come together somewhere down there!
This morning my kids had piano and guitar lessons with our fabulous Ms.Lisa
who is just awesome! She is teaching my daughter to play the blues on the guitar, so B.B. King watch out! My 6yr old has written 2 Rexi songs for his dog and is playing them on the piano.
While they are making wonderful music, I am preparing my package to send to Oprah. Yes, that Oprah. :)...I wrap up my book and a Goddess that my kids deemed the "Oprah Goddess" in a magical little package. Now I am manifesting the package becomes invisible to all the screeners and looky-loos, and ends up in Oprah's hands. I want to go on Oprah, that's that. She personafies everything I want to be. Anyways, the kids were done, we sprinkled our package with magic invisi powder, and right before we walk out the door, I run to check something on the computer.
There is an email from one of my favorite thrift stores that says: TODAY ONLY ALL CLOTHES 50% OFF! OMG, my heart races!!
So off we go to the post office, then of course to the thrift store. We were like three treasure hunters, making our way through the crowd. We unearthed:
3 pairs of Levi's for me (My ass is special. Only certain jeans fit my ass, and I never find any. Today I found 3..so I had to buy them all. If I would have found 10, I would have bought them too....)
1 pair of jeans for Mr. Heike
1 pair of shorts for Mr. Heike
1 pair of capris for me, and 1 pair for Heike Jr.
1 bathing suit for me, and 1 bathing suit for Heike Jr.
4 long sleeved cotton shirts
1 blouse
1 dress (notice I am not writing who gets what...)
1 hand crochet blanket for my fabulous vacation van
, or future home.
1 salad spinner and 1 vegetable cutter
1 pair of shoes
1 beautiful goddess jewelry box, brand new, for Heike Jr because she is so wonderful.
1 truck for Heike Jr. #2, because he is so wonderful.
My total? $46 with tax!!!!
Whew! Let me fan myself!!!
:)
To celebrate our finds, we went to Haggin's and had our first fruit freezes for the year. You know, to acclimate ourselves for the summer.
I ended this successful day with salmon, wine, 2 hours on the phone with long-time-not-seen-friends-who-are-fabulous-and-inspiring, and a little teary-eyed blogging (see buttons to your right under my goddesses, and check these women out! Let's send out some cyber love!!)
Almost fini.
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Fini.Labels: compact, dreams, friends, goddess, jeans, manifest, oprah, thrift, wine
