Deal or No Deal?

Many of you who know me well know that I LOVE a good deal.  I try my best to not buy anything that isn't on sale or without a coupon.  It doesn't always happen, and I could do a MUCH better job at it, but I try.  I have not always loved "thrifing".  However,  getting married, then starting nursing school as a newly wed with only one income...I learned that hot glue guns, paint, yard sales, Craigslist and thrift stores were really cool things if you let them be.

Some of my most favorite things in our home have appeared as a result of my begging my sweet husband to stop and "let me look for just a second"!  One of our most recent finds is this farmhouse table we found a few months ago.  We were in the process of starting to look for new office furniture for our study to match this beautiful bookcase that was made for Aaron by an older gentleman at our last church.  To be honest the looking was just discouraging - that stuff can be expensive!  But alas! Goodwill saved the day with this $30 farmhouse table that Aaron stained to match the bookcase.  I love it.

Please excuse the lack of decor. Waiting to get those walls painted! 

I may or may not have traveled the 3 miles from our home to the nearest Goodwill twice within the last 24 hours.  :)  As I mentioned in another post, since Aaron and I don't have any children of our own, we have nothing for babies/toddlers around here.  I know friends and family will generously give us some hand-me-downs (for which we are SO thankful and gladly welcome), but I've also been keeping my eyes open for good deals on things I know we will need fairly soon.  We realize that many foster children often have nothing to bring with them except the clothes on their backs, so I feel like we need to have at least the basics here before a child is placed with us. Over the past couple of weeks, I have found the following items - most of which are BRAND NEW from Goodwill and one other thrift store.  I really hit the jackpot yesterday and today at Goodwill on these:

Four NEW sippy cups (one super cool one that has a part attached to the bottom that you can put snacks such as cheerios in), two NEW snack cups, one NEW dishwasher basket, and one NEW bottle dryer.  Each of these items were 99 cents or less.

These are a few more items I've found over the last couple of weeks.  Three flannel blankets, two NEW hooded bath towels, one NEW Eddie Bauer roller window shade, one NEW crocheted type baby blanket, and one sweet little girl's gown that I just couldn't pass up.  All the items from the last 2 pictures = less than $24.  Deal or no deal??  Definitely DEAL!!!  I.Love.It.  Check out those thrift stores around you...never know what you might find!  :)