Thrifty Breakdown

I am so stoked about Sparky and I's finds this past weekend!  In planning our wedding, I have decided that we need to try to do as much of our wedding recycled and reused.  This will prove to be a fun challenge in my opinion and not only be environmentally friendly but also budget friendly.

In Sparky and I's secret preparation the past few months, we have already accumulated a few items.  We love going to estate sales and the area in which we live always seems to have a lot of awesome estate sales.  At one of the estate sales we came upon a few months ago, I was able to score A BUNCH of mason jars plus assorted glass vases.  We toted off from the estate sale with 4 boxes full of mason jars and glass vases for only $5 total.  It was a super sweet deal if you ask me.

We have also been trying to pick up any good  chairs we can find.  Our goal is to collect as many assorted chairs as possible so that we won't have to worry about renting them later.  At one garage sale, we picked up three wooden folden chairs for another $5.  So far, Sparky and I have approximately 25 chairs due to all our random chairs we already have in our home and in our attic and we still have only spent $5.  If we come up short on our wedding day, I already have some cute ideas up our sleeve that will allow for some perfect seating...but I'll keep that info to myself for now.

But, this weekend, we accumulated some good decor items.  We were headed to the local Salvation Army Thrift Store when we stumbled upon some no name thrift stores.  I'm pretty confident these people just go to garage sales and then re-sell their items in a "thrift store"...just sayin.  Sparky and I had to DIG through stuff.  But, we found these 4 lanterns still with their wicks for $3 each and 3 aqua glass electrical pole insulators for $2 each.  I can't decide if I want to spray paint the lanterns all a matching color...like white or silver?  I'm still pondering this.

4 lanterns at $3 each

3 electrical pole insulators

$2 each

On our way home, we stumbled upon an estate sale that was just about to close up shop.  Needless to say, they were very willing to negotiate just about anything and told us everything would be an additional 75% off.  The place seemed emptied out and I didn't think we'd find anything. 

I spotted a table with some gloves and realized there was a stack of assorted dainty handkerchiefs.  I picked up 20 of these cute fabric squares for just $0.25 each for a total of $5.  I will probably either make a garland of some sort with them for the wedding or accumulate more and use them for napkins at the wedding.

20 assorted handkerchiefs for $5.

I went into the kitchen and sitting on the kitchen counter were these cute little white ceramic birds.  I kid you not, I have a picture of a similar bird (not color) already printed off from save-on-crafts.com and in my wedding binder.  There was no way I was going to leave without scooping up these little birdies.  I was able to score both birds for just a $1.

$1 total for both birdies.

I was just telling someone the other day that I do not have a punch bowl...but now I do!  I saw this bowl and ladle sitting all by its lonesome.  I think it may be meant for soup but I'm all about it being a cute punchbowl.  Any objections?  I doubt it.  It was totally worth the price of a whopping $5.

Cute bowl/soup bowl and ladle for $5.

Our biggest purchase was the dishes.  Sparky and I are pretty picky when it comes to dishes...which is why we currently have solid white dishes.  I actually love solid white anything, so I still love the solid white dishes.  But, Sparky was totally diggin on these dishes at the estate sale and we could not turn them down for the price.

I counted a total of 59 pieces.  12 dinner plates, 12 bowls, smaller plates, coffee cups, cream and sugar set, serving bowl, two serving platters, a few other random bowls and plates, and a gravy boat!  I am actually really excited about the gravy boat for some reason.  We got all 59 matching pieces for only $12!!  That's a super deal!

That's all of our great thrifty finds this past weekend.  Now I have a lot of dish cleaning to get done so that we can use some of them for dinner this week! 

Do you have any great thrifty finds that you are super excited and proud?

Keep on keepin on.