I hope to start a new regular feature where I share every Thursday about thrifting. #thriftingthursday! Thrifting means buying things from thrift stores, like Goodwill, Savers, Salvation Army, Deseret Industries, etc. The items are usually used but sometimes you can find things brand new still in their original packaging. If you apply a broader term, it can also mean finding things elsewhere for free or cheap, like from ebay, thriftbooks.com, used library books sales, yard sales, yard giveaways, estate sales, just attracting things for free, and dumpster diving. I have never gone dumpster diving, but I’ve done all the other things.

Speaking of attracting things for free, I got this book below when I went to a cottage meeting to hear a speaker at a private home. Some guy was giving away books and I got this one below, back in May. After thinking about it, I realized I could use it as a gift for one of my sons, who has a birthday in July. He is majoring in dance and was in a ballet last March. It looked like new and still had the CD inside. He smiled when he opened the package, so yay! I gave him other stuff too.

I didn’t go thrifting at all in April, and just a teeny bit in March. I sure made up for the lack in May, June, and July. Here are the rest of the goods.

Up at the tippy top, we see some fun stuff I found at Savers. I was especially thrilled to find so many baskets, to switch out for my plastic bins that I’ve been using for toy storage, as well as a pretty dress, and the book about Jewish holidays to add to my collection of family traditions books. I gave the Eric Dowdle puzzle to my dad for Father’s Day along with a book.

The above books came from the quarterly used book sale that my local public library does. After blogging about Naomi Wolf last spring, I was delighted to find a book by her. I love all of Tom Woods’ books. I read the above one years ago, from the public library, and now I have my own copy!

OK, next, below is one of my favorite thrifting treasures ever!

It’s the Jane Game! A Jane Austen-themed board game! I played it with my sister Emily when she is town and can’t wait to have a Jane party in January with my homeschool mom friends. That’s definitely something to look forward to after Christmas is over! I also found some sparkly gold picture frames on the same trip, back in June. This was definitely a moment when I felt the angels were singing above me as I pulled the game off the Orem UT Savers store shelf and figured out what it was! With my coupon for 30% off games, it was only $2.90!

Another June haul from Savers above. I got the book on bread machine bread for my son-in-law. He is such a foodie and is just starting to experiment with his $300 bread machine. The Disney’s Who’s Who replaces the duplicate one I got two years ago which one of my grandsons ripped. My daughter repaired it with blue tape on the spine, but it just didn’t look as nice as the other books on the shelf. I had just been wishing to get a replacement, and then voila, it showed up at Savers in just a few days! I love magical thrifting moments like that!

Another Savers haul from June. The fidget toy/Star Cube has proven to be a hit among everyone. It folds and flips into different configurations. Still new in the box. It was $5.99, so that was pricey, but I decided it was worth it. So fun! The drawing book looked brand new! It’s one-inch thick. I think it was $5 so a bit pricey too for a book but totally worth it.

Another Orem Savers haul from June above. More baskets! The polka dot ribbon is just so sweet!

A June Savers haul but from a different Savers than I normally go to, this time, in Draper UT. I review the This is The World book over here.

This haul above is from the Sandy UT Deseret Industries. I was told by an employee from that store that professional thrifters have told him that the Sandy UT DI is the best DI in Utah. I went looking for baskets and a top for Independence Day so was thrilled to find those things and get a few books.

Everything above is from the Springville UT DI. It was such a great haul! So many great goodies!!! I had just been wanting more pillowcases and then found some! The pillowcases are the gray material. The thing with the boy’s face is a songbook by Janeen Brady of Brite Music fame, called Songs for a Mormon Child. I already have a copy, from my maternal grandmother, gifted to my family when I was a child, but was thrilled to find another copy, for only a quarter! Now when we have family sing-a-longs, people can have a copy of the book to sing with from the couch and don’t have to stand around the piano. I’ve always wanted a copy of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible all in one book, so I was so happy to find that. Then Pillow Talk is about marriage. I’m always happy to find books about Christian marriage. The peach dress is so pretty! Then I found another Susan Branch book. That’s the tiny book with the red bow on it. Hooray! The Outlaw Thanksgiving book is a picture book loosely based on a story that took place in Utah. I like to read it aloud every year around Thanksgiving, and I have to check it out from the public library. I actually had to pay an overdue fine last fall because I kept forgetting to turn it in. So now I finally have my own copy! Another hooray! The white wicker thing with flowers is a tissue box cover. I knew exactly where to put it, to cover the cube tissue box that is on the side of my white desk. Then the red book is Christmas sheet music by Janice Kapp Perry, a wonderful composer. She writes such beautiful songs! Breakbeat Bible is for my drummer son. I got a Wrinkle in Time because my husband had just been listening to it in audio. I added it to my classic YA novel collection. Then there’s a little red basket, a book about grilling, which is great because we finally got a BBQ grill a year ago when two of my sons gave one to my husband for Father’s Day, and with my missionary son gone we need tutoring on grilling. Then I got some faith in God conversation cards, and then, the piece de resistance of the trip, drumroll please…

a DK book about homeopathy! Only $1.50!!!! Go here to see more about this book! Then go here to see all I’ve written about homeopathy. If you’re not using it, you are missing out. Anyway, this particular trip was such a grand thrifting haul! The best thrift haul of this whole page!

I got the above for my first thrifting trip in July, at the Springville DI, on my trip home from my parents’ cabin after spending Independence Day with extended family there. Go here and scroll to below the middle of that post, to read my description of the stuff above.

A Bill of Rights game!!! From the Good and the Beautiful company. It was $2. I bought it at the American Fork DI. I went there to find black pants for my husband, which I did find, then forgot to include them in the photo before I gave them to him. I also found the game that night. My son and I played it one morning for school. A great addition to my gameschooling collection!

More baskets! I think I’ve met my basket quota, LOL!

Everything above came from two different Savers: Orem UT and Draper UT.

First, there’s a perfect gray frame for a print of a painting of Jesus Christ by Greg Olsen that I took from a church magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I had been wanting a gray frame to go with the print, so this was perfect. That was definitely another magical thrifting moment, where I went to the store with the intention to find a gray 8×10 picture frame, and there it was! The Eric Dowdle puzzle is about national parks. Oops, there are the gray pillowcases again. I didn’t mean to include them twice. I gave the college hacks book to my BYU-attending July birthday son for one of his birthday gifts.

Savers emailed me a coupon for women’s skirts, 30% off. So I took advantage of that and got the skirts above and below. Yay! I couldn’t resist the Robert McCloskey treasury for $4. I’ll be reading that aloud to the grandsons for sure! Then, another Eric Dowdle puzzle, this time about BYU football. I’m going to save it for somebody for Christmas, either my husband or one of my sons.

A haul from two different DIs: Sandy and Springville. My husband needed new jeans, and I found him some Calvin Klein’s for $8, using my DI survey coupon code. Then the black pants are for my July birthday son, because he asked for some black activewear pants for using in his dance classes. Then we have some more floral tops, some books, games, an office organizer that matches the teal and white theme of my desk, and best of all, a Reader’s Digest songbook! It has so many fun songs, like the Olympics theme, Indiana Jones movie theme, some popular love songs from movies, popular classical music that you typically hear in cartoons, and much more!! I reward myself after doing my strength-training exercises with playing a song from this book.

Last of all, these books above from the Orem Savers. When you buy 4 books, you get one free. I’m saving the Minecrafters book as a birthday gift for either my grandson or nephew.

My favorite finds of these spring and summer hauls? The DK homeopathy book, the Reader’s Digest Songbook, and the Jane Game. Such amazing treats for the heart and mind!!! I feel so blessed by God with these.

Want more about thrifting? Go here!

I’d love to hear about any of your thrifting finds! Please share below! If you need any more convincing to go thrifting, watch Toni of Our Thrifty Homeschool below.