A Goodwill Birthday
So, Sonia turned 5 the other day, and it occurred to me that almost all of her gifts came from Goodwill this year. Lest you think this is a cruel and unusual form of parenting punishment, let me show you her loot. Because we managed to buy most of her presents at Goodwill, she actually got nicer presents than she would have otherwise.
First up is a Tinkerbell backpack on wheels. Sonia loves Tinkerbell, even though she has never seen the Peter Pan movie. She just likes the diminutive blonde fairy, probably because she is diminutive and blonde herself. She saw this backpack at Goodwill and immediately fell in love. She does already have a backpack(which we use to carry her stuff when we go on vacation), but she REALLY wanted this one. It has some other kid's name written on the back of it, but she doesn't care. It's Tinkerbell, and it has wheels. The other kids are quite jealous. 😉
I paid $4 for the backpack(it was $7, but the cashier at Goodwill was so taken with Sonia, she marked it down to $4 when she heard it was for her birthday. Sonia has that effect on people.)
Sonia's old backpack got handed down to Zoe, who is quite thrilled to have a pink backpack of her own.
Secondly, she got a new-in-the-package Tinkerbell watch. She's been asking for a watch for quite some time, so I snatched this one up when I saw it. It was $6.99, and I decided that was a pretty good deal when I saw the exact same one online for $32.
Thirdly, she got a sparkly butterfly shirt. She didn't really need a new shirt, but she loves short sleeve shirts with sparkles on them. This cost me a whole $2.
The last thing I bought from Goodwill was two packages of tape. These were $1 each. I know that tape seems like a really unusual present, but Sonia LOVES tape, and she was thrilled to death to have two rolls of her own. She's been taping up a storm ever since her birthday.
Joshua and Lisey usually buy Sonia a present too, and this year we happened upon a wonderful gift for her at Goodwill. Sonia adores baths, and she really enjoys bath soaps, bath confetti, bath fizzers, and all that sort of stuff. We found a bunch of packs of brand new jumbo bath fizzers one day at Goodwill, and they were only $.50 each. A tiny pack of little fizzers costs twice as much at Five Below, so we were really pleased with this bargain. Joshua and Lisey each bought her a pack, so she's set for six fizzy baths.
Her only non-Goodwill present was a Klean Kanteen...this we bought new from Amazon, and it was her most expensive present at $18. My husband and I both have Klean Kanteens and the kids have really been wanting one of their own. Sonia is very pleased with her little pink one.
I poked around the internet to find comparable items and here are the prices I found:
Tinkerbell backpack-$35
Tinkerbell watch-$32
Two packs of Scotch tape-$3
Butterfly shirt-probably $5
Bath fizzers-probably at least $2 each for each package
If we'd paid retail for all that, our total would have been $82, which is way over our birthday budget. Instead, we only paid $16, which meant we had plenty of money leftover to buy a Klean Kanteen for her. 🙂
Sonia thinks Goodwill is very possibly the best store on the face of the planet, so when she found out that most of her presents came from there, she was anything but upset. I'm sure that when she's 16, I'm not going to be able to buy all of her birthday presents from Goodwill, but for now she's happy, I'm happy, and my birthday budget is happy too. 🙂
If the name on the back of the pack is in Sharpie a little nail polish remover would take it off. That is quite a birthday hall!
This is such a great story! I'm afraid our Goodwill stores (and we have 3 of them!) are nothing like yours. A couple of weeks ago my son asked to go to the "toy store" (this only happens after my parents have visited and have taken him, ahem) and we were by Goodwill and I thought about you and how you and your kids love it and thought it would be perfect. There was no "toy section" but my husband somehow found an old "See and Say" for $3 and my son seemed happy with it so we got it. I was not very happy though, because I had given his old See and Say (in much better condition!) to Goodwill over a year ago.
I thought I'd have better luck at the Goodwill I always give our toys to and went there last week since we had two birthday parties for other children to go to, but again, no toys, no children's books - nothing!
I did snag a pair of Spiderman pajama pants for my son for $1 which he loves - he had started to call his other two pairs of pajama pants his "holder" pants because the elastic was shot and he has to hold them up with his hand if he's running 🙂
There is one other Goodwill in town I haven't been to in a while, but I'm not that hopeful and I really am mistified as to why the other two have no kids' stuff.
I ended up going to the children's consignment shop for the other children and spent $11 on two new-looking books that the kids loved.
Our "big" gift to our son this year will be a play set we got for free from a neighbor because their kids are grown. Whew.
What a great birthday! Who would have guessed you could have gotten all that at the Goodwill- every item is adorable. I work at Disney studios sometimes so I know how much this stuff goes for in the studio store.
Very impressive.
We LOVE the goodwill. The boy gets to spend his "allowance" (10 cents he gets for listening the first time) there and he thinks it's the best thing in the world.
How nice!! I always browse the kids sections when I'm there, and can't believe some of the things I see!
David always refers to Goodwill as the "Toy Store". The one where we live now is kind of crappy but the one in our old town was awesome!
Those are some awesome finds!! I love places like goodwill and salvation army! I'm so glad she had such a nice birthday with all those cool gifts! On our last trip to goodwill, I got an oversized Star Wars pillow ($2), a {in new condition} Pirates of the Caribbean soft chair with a pull out sleeping bag ($6), & 2 pairs of soccer cleats, Nike & Adidas for $2 each (in great condition). I was mighty pleased and so were the kids!
Ah Goodwill. I haven't had all that much luck there, I'm afraid since probably the Clinton administration. I blame the rise of eBay and Amazon Used & New. I don't buy used clothes so when I go looking for stuff at Goodwill it's more electronics and such.
My mom always bought from regular stores as she feels that used gifts are not really gifts but my dad used to buy us stuff from yard sales and the like.
Although I am not buying for children any more, the other day I found a new $16.00 tart pan (price sticker still on) for 25 cents at my local thrift store! So many wonderful bargains to be found.
My son (7)loves tape too and goes through tons of it. This pains me from an environmental standpoint [there's got to be a landfill somewhere completely filled with used tape, right?? :-)) but he makes cool art with it and other found objects, scraps of paper, un-recyclable plastic, etc. And he loves bath fizzies too but hardly ever gets them because of the cost. There is a Canadian body products company called Lush which makes the best ones, they are huge and come in what seems like a million colors and "flavors". They actually have a store in a mall by us now but we only get one if we're in Canada as a somewhat cheap souvenir. He doesn't know there is a store nearby and I'm going to keep him in the dark! Mean Mommy!
Office supplies make the greatest gifts for kids! I remind my mom to buy tape (generic-scotch and masking) for the kids' gifts, because otherwise they're swiping mine to use in their creations. (They're always trying to tape blankets to the wall to make forts.) Once at Goodwill I found a large quantity of both blue and pink envelopes--I divided them between my son and daughter, and they had the greatest time sending each other "mail", writing notes to Grandma, and so on.
@Jinger: Thrift stores are one of the best places to find cooking supplies. I recently bought a Griswold Cast iron skillet for $2.79! What I really want is some good copper bottomed stainless steel pans but I have a feeling I may just have to buy these (at least it will be a once in a lifetime purchase.)
Liz, I gave that a try, and it didn't come out. It must be something other than Sharpie. You did give me an idea, though...I could paint over the letters with matching pink nail polish, and the name wouldn't be as noticeable!
Julia, I feel the same way about the tape...but it brings her such great joy, I can't bear to ban it. lol And if I don't give her her own, she will still be using mine anyways. :p
Don't be too sure she won't love Goodwill when she's a teen! My daughter is 15 (going on 25) and she loves to shop there. She finds stuff from all the expensive brands like Abercrombie, Aeropostale, all that stuff, as well as more ... original things. And this is the child whose first sentence (I am SO not kidding) when she was 2 or so was "No Mommy, Katie want PRETTY shirt!" I haven't picked out her clothes since.
Also Kristen, try Goof Off for the name on the backpack; I have a friend who swears by it. Also nail polish remover will get a lot of things off.
I got my daughter a beautiful wood vanity with pink flowers for $15 and a wood rocking chair that I transformed into a pink princess chair ($7) with a old tutu $2. She loved them both. I asked at the desk and they were as excited as I was. I love goodwill.
Our Goodwill seems very expensive for a Thrift Store! When we lived in Texas, there was a great one which I went to a couple of times a week.
I have to agree that teens don't necessarily outgrow a love of Goodwill. Both of my daughters (14 and 16) LOVE to shop there because they can get name brands that I would NOT pay full price for. Neither are they eager to spend their own hard earned cash on clothes at the mall when they KNOW they can find something comparable for a FRACTION of the price at a thrift store.
Kristen,
What Awesome presents! We also buy all our presents at Goodwill, and give such better gifts because we do. It is of course it's hit-and-miss, so you have to keep an eye out for gifts all year long. But it is sooo worth doing so.
You didn't mention your re-usable fabric gift bags, but they look great. ( I recognize them from your Xmas posts.) I have a goal of zero-waste from gift wrapping and am inspired to make bags like yours. You should make a few extra and have a contest to win a few. (I would do a link to it on The Non-Consumer Advocate!)
Katy Wolk-Stanley
The Non-Consumer Advocate
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
Kristen,
What a fun post. I too am a Goodwill-a-holic and a tape-for-gifts type mom. I have never read your blog until now and find it very informative and interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post, it's fun to read!
I love Goodwill myself as well. Last year most of my children's Christmas presents came from there. My oldest comes up with off the way Christmas requests and it thankfully willing to wait until goodwill comes out with it before she receives it (I trained her well!) For 5 years straight she had begged me for a robot for Christmas and I finally found on in it's original packaging for 3 dollars. It was a robot dog... but it suited her just fine and she read the book that came with it cover to cover and had that robot dog trained before the night was through! A few years ago she was wanting an American Girl doll but there is no way I can afford an 88 dollar doll! But, I found a 5 dollar doll that wears all the same clothes and looks just like one of them. She was thrilled!