Tips For The Frugal or Broke Fairy Gardener

If you are anything like me, you have a couple financial obligations. Rent, cell, food, gas, student loan interest. And the essentials of course, beer and/or wine.

Your new fairy garden hobby can totally interfere with your best laid budget plans if you’re not careful…

Guess what? You do not have to buy everything. Really! I have mastered the how do I get stuff without spending much money question. Without stealing. (Okay, hardly ever stealing. And our definitions of “stealing” might differ a bit, so quit judging.) Also, there are several great strategies for spending as little as possible for some really cool items. Or, items you can turn into really cool things.

My favorite, fantastically frugal ideas to help you source some good materials for your fairy garden:

1.      Thrift Stores!

Frequency and timing are everything! You can go one day and find nothing at all. But don’t leave discouraged. Go back again, and often. You might hit the jackpot the day they put out a whole bag of dollhouse furniture. And be friendly with the staff. Employees who know and like you will keep their eye out for goodies you might like.

Areas to hit: kitchen wares, home décor, magnets, picture frames, electrical and plumbing, jewelry, Christmas junk…just about every section but books…however take a peek shoppers put stuff down and leave it all the time.

And my favorite: Scrape the bottom of that toy barrel. This is where you will find small items that have sifted through the other crap and lay in wait on the bottom. Think tiny dishes, animals, fake food erasers, all kinds of mini treasures.

The best part is when you take a handful of random small items to the check out, the cashiers often don’t know what the heck to charge you for what looks like junk so they say things like

            “How about a quarter?” or 

                   “Um…you can just have that stuff.”

My favorite bottom of the toy bin find so far? A mini roasted chicken! The fairies were stoked, they were getting kind of sick of dessert….

2.      Dollar Stores!

Ugh, I know shop local and all but this saves you so much money. If you have tons of rainy day money saved up, by all means purchase where you feel most morally comfortable.

But if you’re trying to save some money  go ahead and peruse the dollar store for basics like toothpicks, BBQ skewers, LED votives, popsicle sticks, mini figurines, glitter and that handy caddy you so needed YESTERDAY.

It is kind of amazing the weird stuff I have scored at the dollar store. Like a mini Jenga knockoff game with perfect, pre-cut wooden blocks to paint and build with. Look down every aisle because you never know what is hiding in plain sight. For a dollar.

While we are talking dollar stores, don’t forget the Dollar Sections of Other Stores! You can find great things on sale for a dollar. You can scrape up a couple of dollars in coins for some tiny jars, glass pebbles or burlap ribbon.

3.      Yard Sales!

One man’s junk can totally be your fairy treasure for cheap.

4.      The Ground!

Yep. Look down.

So. Much. Free. Stuff.

Nature drops cool things. For instance twigs, moss, lichen, feathers, pine cones, seed pods, leaves, sticks, shells, sand and rocks. Score!

Let’s face it, litterers drop a lot of lame things but occasionally some really cool things. And you can help our grand planet by picking up the trash and reusing it in an attractive ecofriendly manner. Double score! I’ve used castoffs like washers, bottle caps, lone beads, barrettes and random pieces of metal in my fairy garden.

And sometimes people just lose tiny cool things. Once I found a pair of hot pink platform flowered Barbie heels at a park just lying abandoned by the monkey bars. Adorable score!

A bit advice. Maybe look twice. I went for what looked like a cool amber bead outside Safeway the other day and picked up what I hope was just a Dayquil Gel Cap.

Have any other tips for saving money? Share!