Friday Fun + Frugal Finds: Hitting Friday yard sales,lots of thrift store finds, and some extended family fun!

The last two weeks I have made Friday my grocery shopping/errands/thrift store shopping day (I usually only go to town once a week since we live 20-25 minutes away and gas costs like $5 a gallon these days.)

And I have really enjoyed it for ONE particular reason: FRIDAY yard sales   And one way I can go to get to town takes me by some really nice neighborhoods = rich people’s yard sales trash .  No super great finds yet, but of course I have enjoyed it anyways.

Here’s what I bought at one really nice house last week – they were having an estate type sale.

• Pinecone/flower wreath – $4  (it is actually like these hard pods/the tips of the pinecones?)  I bought it cause it resembled the Target paper curl wreath that I LOVE but haven’t found on clearance or secondhand yet.
• 2 large candle sconces – $1 each
• 8 vintage clear glass salad plates – 50¢ each (I plan to use these when I host showers or different events. The pattern on them was super cute!)

Then this was my Goodwill trip – the most I have bought there in a while!

• White office/organizer thing  – $2.72 (hoping to use it as jewelry organizer)
• picture frame – $2.72 but 1/2 off so $1.36.  This was very IKEA looking and the matte is in great condition too.
• Wood box with chalkboard side – $5.95  I loved this!  Things like this are super popular right now and I knew I could make use of it for storage!
• Merona t-shirt – $4.87 but half off so $2.43

Here’s what I found during 2 different trips to Value Village:

• Large picture frame – marked down to $2.42
• Large frame – $1.21.  Love this – the frame is already the perfect color and I think I will keep the linen type matte edge the same too!  Great deal for $1.21
• Heart wreath – $2.02
• Balderdash game – marked down to $1.21
• Dockers gray bermuda shorts – $3.29 BUT was the half price color so only $1.65 – woohoo!

I found the shorts and game when my sister-in-law went thrift shopping earlier this week.  (She blogs over at Rockin’ What Ya Got – you can follow her on facebook here.)  She lives in another state so we never get to do any shopping or anything together so it was super fun!  I was excited to show her around to my thrift stores and even though we didn’t find any killer deals, we both picked up some fun stuff. 

Then this was my last find…

I actually saw this chair at Value Village and almost bought it when I was shopping with my sister-in-law.  We talked about how fun it would look yellow with some bright fabric or another fun colors.  It is a french provincial cane back dining chair.  The caning is in perfect shape so it just needs a paint job and some new seat fabric.  And it was only $3.03!!  Seriously my Goodwill would charge$20 for it!  But I didn’t get it cause I was undecided and I didn’t know where I would put it.  And I thought about it the rest of the day and the next day and really wished I had bought it.  I called the store to see if they would hold it for me until I could get to town the next day and of course they said no and said they didn’t even think they still had it.  BUT my mom happened to be in town and was able to go by and it was still there!   So it finally did make it home with me!  I have french provincial furniture in my guest room and a french provincial dresser that I just refinished so I love that style.  And this will be a fun re-do project and will probably live up in my guest room.

Then it was time for some family fun!

While my sister-in-law was still in town we headed to the zoo together!  I brought my 2 nieces ages 4 + 2 and 8 mo. old nephew and she has 4 boys ages ranging from 7 mos. – 9 years old.  It was fun for me to have all 7 of my nieces and nephews all together in one place for the day!

Here are the oldest 5 checking out the meerkats (the babies were in strollers probably sleeping…)

My nieces LOVE the zoo!

Taking a break for some PB&J

I got to introduce my 8 mo. old nephew to his first zoo experience.  This panda bear was very actively eating some bamboo and my nephew was fascinated by him!

He also enjoyed the gorillas!  We got to them right as they were being thrown food so it was fun to watch them eat.

Check out this little baby gorilla!  Soooo cute!

They changed the giraffe exhibit (you can even feed them) so they get up close and personal.

Buddies for the day…  Keeping up with 7 kids and 2 strollers on a 90 degree day in May surrounded by 50+ school groups of kids is a zoo all in itself!

The petting zoo is always a highlight…

Having a deep boy-to-goat conversation…

He said, “Mom, can I talk to the goat?” And the conversation went something like this…”Hi, goat!  How are you?”  Kids are adorable! 🙂

It was a fun day!  Not too often that I get to have all my nieces and nephews all together and they had a lot of fun with each other.

How about you?  Find any thrifty treasures recently?  Or had a fun family day out?

{cj}

Linking up to: Rhoda’s Thrifty Treasure party