It's Not Exactly "Clothing My Household in Scarlet"...

...but my modern-day interpretation of the Proverbs 31 woman's accomplishment in this area means that for weeks, I had been keeping an eye out for an ad for a super sale that a nearby thrift store has a couple of times a year.  And when I finally saw the ad, I made plans to go, even on a day that wasn't really convenient for such an outing.

I did so because I knew that Jeff, in particular, genuinely needed clothes.  He is literally wearing out many of his clothes--and no wonder, since he's had most of them for years.  Both he and I have no interest in going shopping for new clothes--what a waste of money!  But to find them at a thrift store?  Well, that's a whole lot of fun!  :)

On this particular shopping trip, I was delighted to find 10 shirts for Jeff, 2 pairs of jeans for him, 2 shirts for Josiah (essentially the only boy I ever shop for, since hand-me-downs work well for the rest) ;-), 2 shirts for Moriah, as well as a dress for her and a jumper, a white jacket for myself that will be a very nice reward if I ever attain a smaller size again ;-), a little purse for Moriah (not pictured), and a gift for her (also not pictured) that I laid aside until Christmas.

The bill for all of that came to something like 18 and a half dollars, but I gave the shop $20, since I know the work they do in the community is valuable and I wanted to encourage them in that.

So many times, I go into a store, do some shopping, and then think, "Well, my $20--or $50 or $100 or whatever--sure didn't go very far!"  It was encouraging, during this particular trip, to see how far $20 really could go.  :)

I truly enjoy thrift shopping so much that, even if we were given a million dollars tomorrow, I would still rather shop second-hand.  And if I received a $200 gift card to a department store, the only thing I would probably be able to convince myself to use it on would be socks and underwear for the family, things that I don't buy second-hand.  ;-)  Otherwise, one family's cast-off trash is my family's found treasure!

I think the Proverbs 31 woman would be pleased.  ;-)

I'm including some pictures of my recent acquisitions, not because the pictures are so great (they're not), but just for memory's sake.  Five or ten years from now, when Jeff is still wearing these same shirts, for example, I might stumble across this blog post and smile as I remember when and where I got them.  ;-)

 The next two shirts are for Josiah...

 ...because someday it will be chilly enough to wear long-sleeved shirts again, and he has grown so much this year that I seriously doubt his long-sleeved shirts from last winter will even come close to fitting!  ;-)

A shirt for Moriah...

 ...with adorable buttons.  :)

 And one with a cat, which she loves.  :)

 This next one is a dress (hard to tell dimensions from a picture, I know); and I think it will look especially cute with leggings.

 A jumper...

 ...made by Ralph Lauren, which is nice if you care about name brands, which I don't.  ;-)

 And the white jacket for me!  :)

 Kind of hard to see, but there is beautiful stitching all over this.

 And looky there!  Brand new with tags, and would you check out that price?

I don't mind a bit that someone else decided to pay the $58 price for this and then passed it along to the thrift store.  Thank you, unknown consumer!!  ;-)

(Can you tell I'm enjoying this way too much?)  ;-)