The Beauty of Thrift

My daughter has needed socks for some time. We only go to places that might sell toddler socks (like Walmart, Target) once or twice a year, and never go to clothing retailers like Sears, Old Navy, Gymboree, etc.

We are so blessed to get ALL of her clothes as free hand-me-downs; I thought it would be ironic to spend $20 on a few packages of socks for her. So I had been waiting for months to get her more socks; her current socks are fine but seem to be getting tighter and fewer each week (by laundry day she is wearing mis-matched socks!).

We went to the Senior Citizens Club garage sale at the park district; for $1, you can fill an entire paper grocery bag! Too bad most of the clothes were...well, cast-offs from senior citizens! But I filled half of my bag with toddler socks from Baby Gap, about 20 pairs. They are wonderful--thick and long with reinforced toes and heels, interesting patterns and colors!

We also found a sandwich bag labelled "Free." In it were 9 tiny balls of yarn, bitty bitty scraps of yarn that loving, thrifty hands carefully re-wound and neatly saved. My daughter loved them and we came home and examined them, threaded them on an embroidery needle, and "sewed" with them on her sewing cards.

Most people would just discard tiny scraps of yarn, but these painstakingly saved bits were so beautiful. They reminded me of my grandma, who saved every single scrap of paper that came into the house (this was Seoul in the 1980's so there wasn't nearly as much print advertising and junk mail as is now), neatly trimmed each one into a square or rectangle, folded it, and placed into an origami box made out of an old calendar page. Sometimes I think my joy of thrift came from living with my grandma during my formative years. We all slept on bedrolls on the floor in a coal-heated room, used chamber pots, and we each had one cup. I used to carefully peel off the stickers I received on my school papers, glue pieces of tape onto them, and use them again.

What about you? What stories about the joy and beauty of thrift do you have to share?