Thrifty Thursday

This summer I have been trying to relax, but I just cannot sit still.  If I'm not at at home surfing TpT or Pinterest for classroom ideas, I'm out shopping and thinking about "ohhh this would go great in my classroom!"  I guess I'm still on that new teacher "high"?  I hope it lasts though.  I hear about the teacher burn out rate and it's quite astonishing.  I love reading all the teacher blogs and other teacher's experiences out there.  It really is building this internet community out there for all of us teachers and it's helping me to stay on track and keep the motivation to do a profession I love.

Well, as  I was saying in the beginning of this post, I do love shopping around for my classroom.  I do my best to find good deals (as do most teachers out there).  One place I LOVE to frequent is the thrift store.  Goodwill is ok, but if you can find a store like Unique Thrift Store or Value Village, then you've hit a gold mine!  I found at least 95% of my classroom library books at thrift stores as well as furnishings.  This week I spent $9 on two purchases for my classroom this year:

 

Now wait til you see what I did with that ugly looking IKEA white board!!  I'll be posting my little project for Monday Made It :)

In the meantime... one other place I often hit up for deals is Craigslist.  I'm always weary, because you never know who's out there, but you can find some good thrifty deals.  First, there is a list of yard sales.  Last year I did a lot of yard saling, but did not find as much things as I thought I would.  It's definitely hit or miss.  I tend to find more luck with people posting adds.  Here are two items I got on Craigslist last year:

That rocking chair glider is soooo comfy!  I can't tell you how many teachers stop by to just sit in my chair some days haha.  The bistro white board was great this year, but had some flaws.  I love the amount of writing space, but it was not magnetic.  It would drive me crazy if I needed to stick something to the board to display.  I always had to have tape or sticky gum around.  I did put a magnetic strip along the bottom, but it kept falling off all year.  So I am excited about my new IKEA white board which is magnetic.  Can't wait to post it's make over on Monday.

Hope you enjoyed my thrifty finds this week :)  ~Cara Lee