When I was a teenager in the eighties there were a few times that my clothes had to be purchased from the thrift store. I appreciated the fact that I was able to have clothes, but was also embarrassed that we had to shop at a thrift store. At the time, I associated thrift stores with people who didn’t have much financially. Since then, my attitude has changed and I now appreciate the money I am able to save by shopping there.

What most people find about thrift stores is that they are sporadic in the quality of items that they will have on hand. This is frustrating for most people, and it is what causes people to not venture into a thrift store. I may spend thirty minutes at a thrift store and only find one or two items that are in the condition that I would consider making a purchase, but there are other times that it has taken me less time. Shopping in a thrift store is a tedious process because everything has to be looked through to find the quality items.

Clothing – One of my favorite ways to save money is with my sons clothing. I find the majority of my sons clothing at one of our local thrift stores. Some of them are name brand, some of them aren’t but I am able to pick through the racks and select the clothing that has minimal wear and end up with a decent wardrobe for our son without having to pay full price for his clothes. I have also found several pairs of shoes for myself that appeared to be new and never worn.

Home Decorating – I love venturing to the thrift store to locate a frame for a piece of artwork or print I have that needs a frame. The picture frames I usually end up purchasing previously held some picture from the sixties that was long ago out of style, yet there it sits ready for someone to purchase it. I have purchased a few items from thrift stores (baskets and ceramic vases) that I have repainted or stained because they weren’t the right color.

Purchasing Items for Resale – From time to time I have found items at the thrift store that are in excellent shape, but it is an item that I don’t need. I have sold books and CD’s on both Ebay and Amazon.com and recognize items that may have good resale potential. I have also purchased toys that still look great and resold these on Craigslist. Nothing guarantees that I will be able to turn these items over for a profit, but if I am able to it helps in some of the minor expenses that our family has.

Tax advantages – Finally, the last way I utilize my local thrift store is by contributing to them the items that my family no longer needs. It helps me by getting rid of the clutter, and helps them to make a profit. Donating items that still have value in them also allows me to reduce my taxes when it is time to file my faxes. Normally when I take a donation to our thrift store I itemize what I take and use Goodwill’s chart to determine the value of my donation. It helps to do this each time you take a donation instead of doing it all at the end of the year right before you file your taxes. I keep my itemized list in the file with any documents that I will need for tax preparation.

I’ve written a couple of times on ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle to cut down on trash that is thrown away to help the environment. I don’t keep up with the amount of trash that our house produces every week, but we are provided with two large capacity trash cans by the city. We normally only use one of these trash cans each week, unless we have yard clippings, or some other yard project that requires more trash can space.

I have been thinking for a few months about areas that we could improve upon to reduce, reuse, or recycle our trash so that we don’t create as much waste. We recycle, but for the next week I really wanted to focus my attention on every piece of trash that our house creates to see if there is something that we could change about our lives that would reduce the amount of trash that we generate.

Let me just say that my husband is less than thrilled about my new project for the next week. I am certain it will create more work for me, but hopefully I will learn something from it. I will follow-up next week with details on the trends that I see at our house and areas that can be changed. It should be a fun week ahead.

I find myself using four websites repeatedly and I need to share them. I use the internet a lot to read about bargains, consumer products, money and credit, as well as read about cooking more at home.

About.com – This one is a life saver for a number of reasons. I’ve used this site to learn about why not to close certain types of credit cards, how to remove stains, how to cook or repair a cast iron skillet, and countless other helpful things. Need to know about drywall texturing for a DIY project? This is your site. Here’s an example of why this website is great. “5 Credit Cards You Should Never Close.”

Allrecipes.com – Need to figure out how to make something at home for an affordable price rather than spending $40 at a restaurant? This website is the place to go. When I joined my husband’s family, I was a little intimidated at family dinners because his mother and sister baked and cooked good food. I used this site to find a nice recipe for a Cranberry Upside Down Cake that was a hit. This site is loaded and will save you money. You’ll find recipes for Blackened Catfish, Habanero salsa, bison meatloaf, and other more traditional dishes such as apple pie and mashed potatoes. As they say, “this site is money.”

Hip2Save – Hip2Save is a deal aggregator website. There is always a good online deal or brick-and-mortar type deal on this site. There are online freebies, alerts to coupon deals, and alerts to sales. I’ve found many great deals here. For example, this site had a link to an incredible sale on children’s Stride Rite shoes at Amazon.com that I wouldn’t have know about but for Hip2Save.com. I bought my $125 flat-iron for my hair for only $20 through a lead from this site as well.

Wisebread.com – This site is all over the place and will cover anything and everything to do with money. Yesterday, there were articles about “Forced Frugality,” selling weird things on the internet, the economy, baby products, and the Consumer Price Index. On any given day, I’m always finding something interesting on this site.

My husband and I like to get an espresso or coffee at Starbucks or other local coffee shops about two or three times a month on average. We realize it’s expensive. The two drinks my husband likes to order cost $2.01 (Double Espresso) or $1.73 (Coffee of the day) and the one I like is almost $4.00.  If we take our daughters and son, it’s almost like going out to dinner in terms of the cost. While it is fun to go out and do this occasionally or it’s nice for my husband to drop into a coffee shop before work, we’d like to figure out how to do this cheaper at home. What exactly would we need and what would it cost? Also, can we afford the cost?

This is what we would need to duplicate the products we buy:

• Espresso machine
• French coffee press
• Coffee Grinder
• Milk frother
• Gourmet coffee

We looked at espresso machines and figured out quickly that we could buy one for about $100.00 by DeLonghi that would suffice but probably wouldn’t deliver the quality we’d want. We’d probably need to step up to about $200.00 to start approaching the quality we’d want. The French coffee press is entirely affordable. A good one can be purchased for $20.00. A French press doesn’t filter all the oils away from the coffee like a paper filter does. A milk frother can be purchased for about $20.00 as well. A DeLonghi coffee grinder would run $40.00 and of course gourmet coffee costs about $15.00 per bag for good stuff.

To duplicate the drinks we buy, it’s going to cost us around $300.00 to start at a bare minimum. Espresso machines can go into the $1,000’s if you’re wanting to really get into it. Supposing you spend $25.00 per month at a place like Starbucks, you would spend $300.00 in a year. If you spend more, the investment in this equipment would really make sense. Now, we must get into what you really like about a place like Starbucks.  Do you like the atmosphere? Do you like the drive through window? I do like going into these places sometimes. I especially like a place called Java Dave’s in our city. However, I do find the ability to make this at home without driving somewhere appealing. My husband likes the idea of making a cup of espresso at home and drinking it on the way to work rather than stopping on the way. After breaking it down, we’re strongly considering buying this equipment.

While the upfront expense to start up your own home coffee shop may seem a little daunting, I like to look at it as a quality of life investment. I enjoy the flavor of coffee and like to enjoy it while in my own home or backyard. I like the amount of quality time that I can spend with my family, while still enjoying one of my favorite beverages without leaving my home.

This past week I’ve been working on decluttering my kitchen. I actually acquired some used kitchen items that I needed and in keeping a somewhat organized kitchen I had to find homes for the new items. I discovered that a few things needed to be purged as well if I were going to find homes for the new things.

The kitchen is a funny place to declutter because some of the items are used infrequently, and some may be used just once or twice a year. I have some serving pieces, not expensive mind you, that I like to have in case I need them. The serving pieces are some of the once or a twice a year items and they take up space, but I can’t part with them because it doesn’t make sense. However, at the start of my decluttering I discovered that I had a total of four cheese graters and a mandolin slicer which can be used for grating as well. I parted with two of the cheese graters, and am now trying to decide what to do with the remaining graters. I will keep the mandolin slicer although I’ve only used it twice since I’ve owned it. If I could figure out how to use the mandolin without cutting a finger off I think I would be confident in just keeping one of the graters and the mandolin, but for now I’ll stick with the two graters.

Further inspection in my kitchen yields three food processors, all of varying sizes. How many of these does one family need? Apparently three. Now I am feeling guilty. I have a one-cup, three-cup, and seven-cup food processor. I have had the one-cup food processor for more than ten years, and it was my first one so I have a sentimental attachment to it. Yes, I have a sentimental attachment to a kitchen appliance. Don’t ask. Only as I was typing this entry did I realize that I had an attachment to it. I have decided that I can probably part with the one-cup and three-cup food processors because the seven-cup is super efficient and has a lot of power; exactly what I need in the kitchen.

Wow, after only minutes of searching my cabinets for my decluttering mission I’ve discovered an excess of two different items. Thinking back on why I made some of the purchases, it was because something bigger and better came along and instead of purging when I acquired the new item I quietly pushed the older item into the back of the cabinet “in case” I might need it again.

I am still decluttering my kitchen and love the open spaces that I can see when I open my cabinets. Even though the cabinets are closed when I enter the kitchen I feel a sense of peace at what I have accomplished. Decluttering is not just a once a year mission. As new items move into our house, occasionally old things have to leave as well.

Babies cost an enormous amount of money, especially in the first year of their life. They need clothes, diapers, formula, car seats, strollers, and many more items that are essential for their life and their safety. The cost doesn’t have to be insurmountable. Planning and preparation for baby’s arrival will help keep costs down. If I had it all to do over again I would have made a few changes that would have saved us and our family some money.

Get in the kitchen – Before the baby arrives take the time to prepare some meals ahead of time that can be frozen and then reheated later. I was exhausted after coming home from the hospital, and while my husband was a tremendous help around the house and in the kitchen, there were a few times where we opted for fast food as a convenient alternative. Having homemade frozen meals would have taste better and been better for us.

Go shopping – Start purchasing baby supplies before the baby arrives. Diapers will be one of the biggest expenses. If you start purchasing diapers before the baby arrives you should be able to make some strategic purchases with coupons and sales. We used seven or eight diapers a day for a few weeks, and while this number does go down as the baby gets older, they still use an average of about five diapers a day for several months.

Think used – Purchase used clothes, and equipment for baby. I promise the baby won’t care. We were actually pretty fortunate and had a friend who had a baby boy that was eight months older than ours. We received all of her hand-me-downs for the first year of our sons life. I purchased one article of clothing new for my son, and I really didn’t need that. The great thing about babies and toddlers is that they don’t wear clothes for very long before they move on to another size. I have a thrift store that I like to frequent to purchase the majority of what my son now needs for clothing. Many of the items I find are in excellent used condition, and sometimes appear as if they have not been worn. I purchase these items at incredibly low prices, and because some of them are name brand I am able to take a few of them to resale shops which basically pays me back for my sons clothing purchases.

The larger things that were required for my son were actually purchased new as gifts at our baby shower. If I had it to do all over again, I would have purchased most of the items at second-hand stores, garage sales, or Craigslist. One item where I would not sacrifice on quality is the purchase of the baby’s crib. A crib is one of the largest expenses in the nursery. While all new cribs are built for current safety standards, any used crib should be scrutinized to ensure the safety of your baby.

There is much debate on whether you should purchase a new or used car seat for your infant. Our infant seat actually came with the stroller that was purchased for us as a gift at our baby shower. The problem with the infant seat was that our son outgrew it in less than six months. We accepted a used car seat from a friend who had still had the original manual and equipment for the car seat. I recommend doing some research on purchasing a used car seat for your baby as their needs change in the car to determine if a used car seat is reliable.

Babies don’t really need a lot of toys in the first year of their life, yet there are an array of toys that can be purchased for them. They spend most of their time being entertained by you or by entertaining themselves. I think that most people tend to over purchase for their children for whatever reason. Just remember that they are perfectly happy with their used clothes, toys, and other items and it makes them especially happy if they have someone to play with.