- All right, we just
got to the thrift store. We have a few things on our list, but what's number one on our list that we're looking for today? - [Corbyn] Sweatpants. - What did you guys just start doing? - Taekwondo. - Taekwondo. And so you guys both wore
those pants last night to your first lesson, which is fine. They just wear regular
clothes for their lessons. But we are hoping to find a little more like athletic style clothes today, huh? So, we're gonna go first into
our favorite thrift store, see what they have, and then if we have to go
across the street to Goodwill, we'll do that too. I have a couple other things on my list. I know myself now. I have to go in with very specific things, otherwise I still get
caught up on all this stuff. So we're gonna try and stick to the list and only get that stuff today. What do you think? Can we do it? - Yeah.
- Yeah. - Are you gonna be distracted by the toys? - No. - Yeah, but I'll get through it. (light music) - This is a lot bigger than I remembered. - [Mom] It's bigger than you remember? - Yeah, 'cause I remember like, that half. - Yeah, all right, let's go this way over to the clothes, okay? Okay, so some very specific things that we're looking for
are some athletic clothes for the boys to wear for taekwondo class and for Maggie too, if we find it. She doesn't need it
quite as much as they do. I'd also like to find another butter dish and then maybe like one
piece of Easter decoration. We have no Easter
decorations, I've realized. And so we'll just look
and see what they have. So I'll be honest, I'm still really careful
about going into thrift stores because I am still susceptible
to impulse-buy in there because things are often
really inexpensive. I mean luckily the prices
in some of the thrift stores have really crept up, so then
I don't impulse-buy as much, but man, I am still like
dishware is my weakness, cute little furniture. - They're kind of big. - [Mom] Those are like big. I think you're in the XL. I think we gotta come back this way. Lookit. Corbyn? Corbyn, right here. - Oh yeah.
- Check out those ones. I don't do so much clothes anymore because I've just learned with that. But more like the housewares,
that'll still get me. So even before we headed in,
I was talking with the boys, I'm like, "Okay, if you
could each find two T-shirts and two pairs of like
athletic style pants, then I think we'll be good. And then if something is a little too big or a little too small, we're
just gonna leave it there. Or not quite what you want." Because I think that's the other thing that we've fallen into in the past too, is kind of like, "well,
it's close, right?" And then you think you're
not gonna find anything else or it's such a good deal. And so I kind of tried
to set the scene of like, "We're not gonna settle. We're gonna look for stuff
that fits well right now." And we like this thrift
store because the prices are really reasonable and we know that all the money they earn
stays right in the community and they share it with
different organizations and everything in the community, but mostly because it's inexpensive. Like, you can still get
T-shirts for a dollar, which a lot of thrift stores
isn't even a thing anymore. And so I really appreciate that. So the first pair of sweatpants
that Corbyn found were $3, but they were literally brand new. And then the other pair he was looking at, I think were $4 and they were
almost like brand new too. So I was totally fine paying those prices. And then the T-shirts they were looking at were like one and $2 each. So again, that's not bad at all. And I was just gonna grab
the stuff and head out, but Corbyn wanted to try
'em on, so I was like, "Well, that's fine." I mean that's very wise shopping, right? So he tried on the black sweatpants, but then he decided he didn't wanna try on the other ones. And then Gage had to get, you
know, in on the action too. If Corbyn was trying something on, then he had to try it on as well. Now, the other thing that I
mentioned that I was looking for is a butter dish because I've noticed that our butter dish doesn't
get washed very often because when the butter runs out or there's just a little bit left, someone puts a new stick in. And so my thought is if
we have two butter dishes, that when one starts to run out, that one can get used up and washed and then just pull out the new one and put the stick in while the other one is like going through the dishwasher or getting hand washed or whatever. So that's my thought. (laughs) The only thing is I really
like this butter dish that I got from Walmart that is more like the actual dish style. It'd be very hard for me to go back to a regular style butter dish, although I did see this
one from The Pioneer Woman at Walmart and it's
only like 4.99 or 5.99. And even though it's
still more traditional butter dish style, it has
kind of a wide bottom to it that I think would still be okay. And it's just really pretty. And I think it would look nice
sitting on our open shelves. What did you find? What is it? Oh, it's like a little treasure chest. How much is it? - 2.89. - [Mom] Do you wanna spend
your own money on it? - Yes. - Okay, you can get it then.
- Let me see that. - I don't have any money in it. - Sell the car, sell the car.
- Look at all this crystal. Oh look at this cake dome. Corbyn, can you see how much that is? - $12.89 cents.
- $12.89 cents. - I'm gonna think about that. (laughs) So I'm trying to decide like, should I just find one at thrift store or should I get this
pretty one from Walmart or should I get one just
like the one we already have? Because it really does work well. - [Gage] This is only 98 cents. - [Mom] Only 98 cents,
that a good deal, huh? - This one will be good for nana. - Yeah. I think this is super cute. Not really a practical
size, but, I don't know. There's something about the
white that's really pretty. And I always like these little dishes too. Nothing you can actually do with them, but I always think they're so pretty. So I actually registered for a cake stand like this when we were first married and we got it for our wedding. And then when we were moving out of our first house, it broke. But I just, I like the
kind of vintage style. I don't actually need it, except, I don't know, I
just think it's so pretty. It's 12.89 though, so I
think this is one of those that we'll probably leave here and I'll think about it a little bit more. - [Corbyn] Well, if you think
about it, it will be gone. - Well, not always. I don't see a single butter dish though, so I think we're gonna check out and head over across the street now. Aren't these pretty, too? I think they're really
pretty as like flower vases. They're kind of narrow as a cup, but there's four of them. I don't know if I can
break up the set, $1.49. I'll have to come back. I have plans to grow a lot
of cut flowers this year, so I feel like I'm gonna need
more things to put them in. I don't know if this is a common thing? Do you all put the butter in the microwave to soften it when it's cold out? Here in Minnesota, our butter, like a good chunk of the
year room temperature is not soft enough to spread on toast or whatever you're doing, right? Well, it's also because I keep the heat really low in our house, but people are constantly
putting it in the microwave to soften it, which we've
got a lot better at. It doesn't normally
get like totally melted in the bottom of the dish anymore, but it still is known to happen. So this style of dish
like works really well. Anyways, so that was my thought around finding another butter dish. But at this thrift store I did
not see a single butter dish. But man, all these cute little dishes, I think they're so fun, and I'm like, "Oh, that would look cute
on our open shelves." Or, "I could decorate with that." But none of them are really practical and I don't actually need any
like baking or serving dishes. So, the trick I play with myself is I'm just gonna leave it here, and if I really can't
get it outta my mind, then I can come back and get it. This store isn't that far out of our way. And so I'm always trying to be like, "Let's just leave it at the store, and then if I really want it then I'll come back and get it." So that usually seems to work and then I forget about it. (laughs) You have to be in this one too, Gage? You're bombing. (laughs) - [Corby] Photo bomber! - All right, so we
found two pairs of pants and a T-shirt for Corbyn. Oh, Gage is pretty excited
about his treasure box, huh? That's really neat. And then Gage got one T-shirt. We found one pair of shorts for Maggie and Corbyn found a
denim jacket for Maggie. It's like brand new, it's Old Navy brand and I think she's gonna love it. She's wanted a denim jacket, hasn't she? - Yeah.
- Good find, buddy. That was awesome. Thanks for thinking of her for that 'cause it didn't even like
cross my mind when I saw it, so, thank you. So we spent a total of $21. I didn't impulse-buy the cake stand. I know it's here if I
wanna come back for it. We also saw some puzzles for
grandpa that we passed by too, but we can always come back, right? - Yeah. - I think that's a good idea. All right, we're gonna
head across the street to the other thrift store now. So then we headed to Goodwill, which is just across the road. Two things I don't like
about Goodwill anymore is that they actually took
out the fitting rooms. There are no fitting
rooms at this location. And the prices, 6.99 for a
kid's shirt is just a lot to me. Even if it is brand
name or almost like new, like that's like $7 that's a lot, right? Oh look it. These are super cute. - [Corbyn] Yeah. - [Mom] Oh it's only 2.99. Oh, and it's a music box, oh my. Oh that's really cute. Like the little bunny on the house. - [Corbyn] Yeah, look at this. - Oh that's cute too, isn't it? That's cute. So, we were pretty selective, but it seems to be that
their pants are cheaper? I don't know. So we started out by looking for pants and stuff for the boys. Gage luckily found a pair
of athletic style pants, since we didn't find any at
the other thrift store for him. And so he found a pair right away. And then Corbyn, of course,
found a camouflage pair of athletic style pants. At first I was like, "Buddy, you're literally
wearing camo pants. Like we're looking for
like gym pants, you know?" And then he was like, "No, mom look." And then I'm like, "oh," they're like Starter brand,
like athletic style pants. And so he was like in love. So even though we had
gotten two pairs for him at the other store, I was like
"Okay, we can get these two." And then he had found a
T-shirt at the other one too. And then we looked at
the T-shirts for Gage and we didn't really find
anything that he really likes. So I was like, "You know,
if we don't love it, like we're just not
gonna get anything here." And he probably is fine with
the T-shirts he has at home. And really in the past
I would've been like, "Oh wow, they're starting this new sport. They're gonna go multiple times a week. Like they need a bunch of,
you know, new clothes for it." And now I know like they literally could have one or two pairs of pants, like Gage would actually be
fine with the same pair of pants for a while and then we
can just keep our eyes out for another pair. And so I really have a much better idea of how much inventory we actually need when it comes to kids clothes
and that kind of stuff. And then I did make a
quick pass looking through for any kind of clothes for Maggie and I was finding nothing. So, I don't know if it's the time of year, but there was just really not much for like, athletic style
clothes for girls or boys at really either of the stores. And so it's fine. I think she has enough
and she's kind of getting to the point too where she
likes to pick it out herself. Sometimes I can get away with it, but she's gotten a little particular, so probably it'd be good just
to take her shopping too, to look for stuff. But there is another Goodwill that's not too much further from us and it's a much bigger store and they usually have
a lot more inventory. And so probably we would just try to go to that one next time 'cause at least I know now what's there and what isn't. And then we actually talked about toys before we went into the store because I know at Goodwill, the boys can get sucked
into the toy aisle. And so we talked about our
experience of buying toys at Goodwill because in the past, a lot of times I'd be like, it's fine if they spend
a few dollars on a toy. I know they're probably
not gonna play with it long and it'll probably just end up getting donated back to Goodwill, right? And like, even if it keeps them occupied for a couple days, then,
you know, it's worth it. But now that they're older,
they're eight and 10, we talked about how the toys that they've gotten there in the past haven't lasted or they're not the ones that they keep over the long run. And, you know, we just went
through their bedrooms. And so we talked about
how it's their Legos and their RC cars that they
really enjoy playing with now. And so unless we saw something like that, that would go along with those two things, and that they wanted to
spend their own money, that we would probably
leave the toys at the store. They did wear me down
though for getting a treat. But it's consumable, so I was like, "Okay, I'm fine with that." So then I did also look for
butter dishes at Goodwill. I knew they would have some. I found this white one, but I'm like 4.99! I would just get the pretty
one from Walmart then. And I go back and forth 'cause I'm like, I don't wanna buy new inventory
and bring more inventory into the world, but I'm also like, for 4.99 that just seemed like a lot for a used plain white butter dish, right? Then I found another white one. I actually had that other white one. Maybe it's the one I donated. It was many years ago. When I first became a minimalist, I got all the white dishes at Ikea, I had everything white. And it was kind of when the white stuff was coming in style, too. And then when we moved into this house I was like, "I need color." And so I donated the white dish. I mean the one I have now is white, but it's because of how
it functions or whatever. So I saw that one, I'm like, no I can't. And then there was this
other like cute one that was more the dish style,
but it didn't have a lid. And I really do like to have a lid on it, otherwise random things
fall into it, right? And so no luck with the
butter dishes at Goodwill, but that is totally fine. (laughs) I really like these black
pots, but, I don't know. 15 inch round, 8.99. I don't know if that's a good deal or not. So, we'll leave them here and then maybe we'll just think about it and come back for them, right? I like the cat back there. (laughs) That's cute too, yeah. Isn't this cute, Gage? So then we checked out and headed home. The boys were very excited to
get their new clothes washed and then so they could wear 'em tonight. And we do a mixture. I would say like 90% of
their clothes are secondhand. They're either hand-me-downs, which we're always so grateful for, or from garage sales or thrift stores. And, you know, we fill in a few pieces with new stuff once in a while. So they do still get to once
in a while pick out new stuff. But mostly it's secondhand and it doesn't really bother them. I mean, they have just as
much fun going to Goodwill as if we would've went
to Target or Walmart. And so I'm really glad for that. But I think often about
how can I help my kids manage inventory as they get older? Especially now that they
have have their own money and they can buy their own things. And, I mean, my kids are still like yours. We go into a store and they're
like, "Oh this is so cool. Can I have that? Can I have this? Can I go on Amazon? Can I look at something?" And so there's two things
that have been really helpful. One, is that my friend, Dawn, had said that their family
does a buying day once a month. So it's not like we can
go shopping all the time or go on Amazon all the time. It's set for like once a month. So we've kind of split it up because they wanna look beforehand
before they actually buy. So they can like look once a week. Like if they wanna look
at something online, like on Amazon or something, and then we buy once a month. So they can put it in the cart, they can let it sit there,
but we only buy once a month. I mean we also add in some others like after Christmas or after a birthday, if they have extra money
that they wanna spend. So it ends up being a little
more frequent than that. Or when we're on vacation
they can bring their own money and they can buy souvenirs
or whatever if they want to. But kind of roughly we do that. And that has made a huge difference because otherwise I felt like
every time we went to a store they were like, "Well, can I buy this?" They're like, "I have money." And I'm like, "I know you have money, but I don't want you to make
an impulse decision," right? And so I'll be like, "Hey, I'll take a picture of it and you can think about
it and then on buying day, if you wanna come back and get
it, we can totally do that." And in the beginning they'd be like, "We'll, forget about it,
we'll forget about it." And I'm like, "No, I have a picture." And they do forget about it though, right? I mean it's pretty rare that we go back and get something from a store
that they've seen previously. But if they do then that's good, right? That means they've really
been thinking about it and they really want it. And then the other thing
I've thought a lot about, like knowing that they're living, like they're growing up in this world where you can have Amazon, I mean some of you live in areas where you can have Amazon the same day. Like Diana was like, "oh my goodness, I just ordered Amazon this morning and it came this afternoon," right? We're still two day where we live, which even that is too soon. I try to make myself wait for the Prime Day once a week or whatever. Oh my goodness. But I'm very aware that our kids are growing up in this world. Like, we didn't grow up in it, right? Like this is new to us, but they are growing up where everything is at their fingertips. And I'm like, "How do I
help them navigate this to make wise decisions and to not fall into
consumerism, you know, just for the dopamine rush to feel good and to buy things and all of that?" And so what I've really
come to is that, you know, really, I mean, for all of us, it's like, "Well, if you can
afford it, you can get it." Now we talk about when they
get money that comes in, we talk about, you know, giving and saving and then having an amount
that you can spend. So we're trying to help them have it go into these like
different categories, right? But you are allowed to
have spending money, right? As adults we get spending money, you know? And so it's like, "Well,
if you have your amount of spending money and you
want to spend it on something, then that's okay," right? If you're not going into
debt for it or whatever, then you get to decide that. And I've shared this before, but I decided like if
my kids wanna buy stuff from the Dollar store, I let them. Was most of it not good
quality and it would break and they would lose interest? Yes, but I wanted them
to have that experience. They don't really ask to go
to the Dollar store anymore. Now they'll go to Five Below and then we have a
similar experience, right? And we'll talk about like, "Oh, did that stuff last?" Or "What are you noticing about quality and how long things last?" And also not even just that. "How much fun did you have with that?" You know, a lot of times
we'll talk about this, a lot of times we'll get something and it's really fun right away and then it's not really
so much fun anymore. And helping them to recognize that so that when when they're in the store, they can think through past experiences and I'll sometimes help
jog their memory like, "Oh, remember, Corbyn, you bought that remote control helicopter at Five Below before and it only lasted one day before it broke and you were really bummed out about that. So, do you think it would be a good idea to buy that again?" And guess what he did? He bought it again. And that's fine, right? Like that's his experience to have. I'm just here to guide and
help, you know, ask questions. But ultimately, he gets to
learn and have these experiences and I don't want to deprive
them of that, you know? And be like, "Oh, you only buy things that are good quality." And, you know, whatever. So I do want them to
have those experiences. And then I guess a third thing is we still have them use cash. So, a lot of times they would be like, "Oh mom, will you just pay for it and then I'll pay you
when we get back home?" But I've learned, I mean
you've probably heard if you've done budgeting
stuff and everything, that like there has to be
that like value exchange. Like they have to feel the
pain of losing their money. And I know there's like debit
cards and things for kids now, but I just wonder if it
doesn't create enough of the experience of
losing something, right? If it's not really real enough. So I don't know, at least
for us for right now, I'm really committed to
having them use cash. But it also helps us stick
to our one buying day 'cause I'm like, "Oh well, you
don't have your money with." As I'm saying this though, I just realized that I let Gage
buy that little treasure box and I told him that he could
pay me back when we got home. It was only $2.49 cents,
so I think that's why. If it would've been a higher dollar item, a lot of times the kids would be like, "Oh wow, could you just pay for it and I'll pay you back when we get home?" And most often, unless I'm like, "Oh, I know that's a
deal we can't pass up." I'm like, "no, we'll just come back and get it on buying day," or whatever. And you know, something that
stood out to me a while back, my brother who was, I mean he's 38, right? But it was so wise what he said. He's like, "I'm realizing there's very few emergencies in life." And, you know, stores are so good at making us feel like, "Oh my, goodness, there's only one and it's such a great deal and
you'll never get it again." And the truth is, you know, it doesn't usually happen that way. And so I also wanna teach them that like, "Hey, we can think about
something and come back." Nine outta 10 times it's
still gonna be there, right? If I decide I really want that cake stand with the glass lid, most likely it's still gonna
be there if I go back for it. And if it's not, then
you know, what do we say? Oh, it's a sign, right? I don't know if it actually is a sign, but I'm trying to teach them
to be kind of open-handed with this stuff as well of like, there's very few emergencies. Like, we can come back, it's okay. Or we can find that
deal again another time. You know, sales run on
a pretty regular cycle, but again, it's not
always easy in the moment when they're so excited about something. But I've really tried to
be consistent with that and now they're learning, they're like, "I know, I know, we can
come back on buying day." So those are some of the things that we do to kind of navigate this. But it is constantly evolving. Like our kids are eight
through 13 right now, and man, they actually like, they kind of get a lot of
money in between like birthdays and holidays and different things and they can earn money when they go to nana's
and that kind of stuff. And so I was just like, wow, it just starts to be a lot to manage and to help them manage. So yeah, I don't know, like I don't know if this is the right way to do it, right? And so I'm like, "Well, I'm still tempted to impulse-buy when I go to a thrift store, right?" And so I know myself. And I tell them this. I'm like, "I really try not to go to thrift stores very frequently." And Corbyn's like, "Yeah, mom." When he got back in the car he was like, "Yeah, I saw you really
looking at those dishes." And so I'm like, "It's probably good if we just go once in a while, right?" And he's like, "Yeah, I
think that's a good idea." So anyways, I think it's just good to talk it out, to let our
kids know we make mistakes too, that it happens. Like, it's always gonna happen. There's nothing wrong with it. We just can use that information then to help make decisions in the future too. So anyways, which butter
dish should I get? (laughs) I am really torn. Do I get the pretty one? Do I get the white dish
style like we already have? Or do I go back to Goodwill
and get one of those so that I'm making use of
something that's secondhand and not buying something new? All right, those are the three options. You let me know what you think and which one you would do. Also, I do wanna remind you that we are selling our
"Minimalism by the Numbers," our new worksheets for how many numbers of each thing we have
in our minimalist home. Every single penny that comes in is going to the Casa Shalom
orphanage down in Guatemala. And so we wanna help them
be able to reach more kids, so you can find details
for that down below. All right, well, I love you. I hope you have a really good day and I'll see you again soon.
