I love used jeans, I can't imagine buying new jeans anymore, it just seems wrong to me anymore.

I like to walk into a thrift store and search for the perfect pair of pre-worn jeans, no matter if they are men's or women's sizes. I like the hunt in finding a well made or a formerly high priced pair of jeans that are still in good shape and fit me like a glove. I get a slight high when I walk out of the thrift store knowing that I paid less than $10 for a pair of jeans that probably cost someone else $30- $100. You can almost hear me squeal with delight!

The idea of buying someone else's high priced cast-offs for ⅓ the price or better is a wonderful feeling.

But that is not all, I also love the idea that these jeans have already been preshrunk and all the stiffness has been worn out of them. What you try on in the store is what you are going to get after you take them out of the dryer and put them on at home. No worries.

And I also love that when I walk into a thrift store I am keeping a pair of jeans out of the landfill and my money is going to helping those in need for some of these stores (Goodwill, ARC).

Jeans are my number one purchase at thrift stores but I think the minute you walk into a thrift store, or visit a yard sale, you are saying to yourself and to those around you that you still value the old, forgotten, ugly or cast-off item from someone else. You see value left in that item and it is worth a longer life with you.

To me, finding value in the thrift item says frugal living to the outside world more than anything else because you can talk to people about the $4 dress you bought or the $20 suit that makes you look sharp.

Recently at work, the guys were discussing the best places to buy a cheap, well made tie for some upcoming interviews and I was hearing everything from Dillards to Ross to Burlington Coat factory tossed out as good places to go. Then John, who dresses pretty snazzy when he wants to, piped up saying, "Thrift stores, dude, they are the best. You get some top notch ties for $5!" And after that everyone shut up, because they had to agree. You DO get some top-notch stuff for only a few dollars.

What items will you ONLY buy from a 2nd hand store?

Mark Twain's given name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens and considered a great American author. Twain was a very witty fellow, his wit and satire earned him the respect of his friends as well as his enemies. There are a few things we can still learn from this author.


1. Plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.
- Life on the Mississippi 

So many times I have come upon situations where I complicate it and instead should take the situation at face value and find the answer simply. Children seem to find the simplest questions and answers to so many things that we, adults, so easily forget.




2. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.
- Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar

Simply considering DIY projects to save money drags behind it a fear that freezes me up from moving beyond my own comfort level. But with this quote, each time I have fear I must face it, master it and overcome it - not try to get rid of it.


3. Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered--either by themselves or by others.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain

We each have the capacity to take our creativity out to the open. Our capacity to take our creativity out to play has no limits, our genius is there for us to find and use with no limits to what genius we have before us. Each one of us has genius in us that makes us unique among others around us.


4. Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God, and over these ideals they dispute & cannot unite--but they all worship money.
- Mark Twain's Notebook

The saying, "Money makes the world go around" is an understatement. Money is needed for food, shelter, clothing and entertainment. But throughout history, we have tried to break free from under the thumb of money even for a moment by bartering, scavenging and finding the free in our freedom.


 5. ...being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be. It's just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead all the time.
-The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Money doesn't buy happiness and doesn't create a utopia that we may hope for. We have to enjoy what we have at that moment no matter how rich we are because money has no emotional fulfillment in it.



6. When a distressed nation appeals for this or that or the other grace or help, she hears an answering voice of sympathy from this or that or the other creed or group or faction, scattered here and there and yonder in the spaces of the earth: it is only when she asks for bread, that creed and party are forgotten & the whole world rises to respond.
- letter dated March 14, 1880

When it comes to materialism, nothing make me feel better, longer than when I have a chance to give it away to someone in need. The feeling just isn't there in the acquiring or the having, but in the giving. And when we see the charity at work around us, it makes us feel better and want to join in.



7. If it had not been for him, with his incendiary "Early to bed and early to rise," and all that sort of foolishness, I wouldn't have been so harried and worried and raked out of bed at such unseemly hours when I was young. The late Franklin was well enough in his way; but it would have looked more dignified in him to have gone on making candles and letting other people get up when they wanted to.
- Letter from Mark Twain, San Francisco Alta California, July 25, 1869

I have nothing else to say here, I kinda agree on this quote.

Having white walls or blank walls may keep your home simple and if that is the direction you want to go than more power to you. However, decorating your home can be a creative decision you can make once and leave alone or continually change as the mood inspires you.

Many people would like to put some art on their walls. There are multiple ways to go about this. The most important idea to keep in mind, is to hang what you love.

Spend little to none:

* Frame your own or your children’s artwork and hang
* Rent art-work – The library in my hometown, there's an option to check out art pieces for a few weeks.
* Don’t forget the trash – One person’s tired picture is a ‘new’ one for you
* Search your closets or your parent’s basement for those old ‘masterpieces’ created in school
* Old calendars can be a great resource for single framed or collage art to hang

Spend a little more:

* Check online at eBay, Craigslist, or Etsy for some original art from an unknown artist – prices vary
* Pick up cheap pieces at yard sales and thrift stores
* Check with schools or colleges art departments to see if students are selling their work
* Find photos on photobucket to buy and frame for your home – example
* Enlarge existing photos and frame them

Spend a lot more:

* Check out local, neighborhood art galleries – not the high end ones and go with a budget in mind
* Take a day to visit an art festival – have some ideas in mind of what you are looking for as well

If artwork isn’t for you - alternatives:

* Hang a quilt or blanket that you like the design on
* Gather your stuffed animals, action figures or dolls and make multiple shelves for them to sit on against one wall or two
* If you have a collection of hats, clocks, sports items or toys - bring them out of hiding and enjoy them.
* Paste together a collage that inspires you: quotes, story rejection letters, pictures from magazines and so on.
* More of a handy person? Make a shadow box and place your keepsakes in them.