Lorelle of Lorelle on Wordpress is someone whose site I cruise regularly in search of blogging tips and techniques. As much as I admire Lorelle’s expertise in blogging, Lorelle herself admires the shopping acumen of the friend she’s staying with in Israel. That friend’s skills have lead Lorelle to this week’s blog challenge: writing about shopping experiences or expertise.

I hate shopping that involves going to a mall or a grocery store. Raising four boys has lead to way too many breathless dashes to sporting goods stores (at malls) for bats/cups/cleats/shin guards en route to a game or tournament. As for the grocery stores, I can’t guess the number of trips I’ve made to or the dollars I have spent at those over the years. That is a destination I now avoid as long as I possibly can every week, even if it means eating popcorn or bean burritos for dinner. Rating: 1(on a scale from one to 10, 10 the best)

Online shopping is my friend. I won’t say I love it, but will concede that I derive some satisfaction from finding the best prices on those items I am looking for. Plus, it can be done while I take quick breaks from work and blogging. Rating: 5

Online shopping on Black Friday is my BEST friend. While others swarm the malls and WalMarts of the world, I am swigging coffee and shopping in my jammies while searching for one-day-only specials. Rating: 8

Now onto my favorite kinds of shopping. I am feeling all yummy inside just thinking about these places… please take me along if you are making an excursion to:

1. Good yard sales (but not estate sales; they make me sad)
2. Great thrift stores (my best luck has been at the Habitat Home Supply Store and the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) Thrift Store here in my town)
3. SAS, a fabric by the pound experience in Phoenix

I got hooked on yard sales the first time I went. In a little old lady’s central Phoenix driveway, circa 1982, I spotted several pottery pieces that I held up for my yard sale expert friend, Cath, to inspect. I remember scrunching up my face and asking her, “Are these good?” Well, they were McCoy, Bauer and Roseville, and yes, they were very good. Rating = 10

At the Habitat Store and DAV Thrift(spelled ‘Trift’ where I live) I have scored awesome finds over the years. From lovely lithographs, antique windows, beautiful Italian tile, antique furniture, and wonderful etched glassware. I love the dustiness, the excess (200 window screens sort through and measure!), and the dangers (watch out for broken glass!). The day I found the exact windows I needed to make a built-in glass fronted cabinet in my recent bathroom remodel, my very intrepid mom and I loaded up three of these beauties in my truck and gloried in the haul: just $30. Rating=10

SAS is a seamstress’s wonderland. Not that I make that much time for sewing in my modern life as a blogging-web designing-project managing woman, but I have made some great outfits from fabrics dug out of huge cartons or pulled high off a shelf. Linens, silks, rayons, wool jersey, leathers for making unique belts or jewelry, every kind of trimming or notion you could ever imagine await the patient shopper at SAS.

I have adorned my body, my children’s bodies, and my home with high end fabrics woven for manufacturers who make pillow shams and evening wear for people far fancier than us. My aforementioned intrepid mom and I have scored hand knit water-damaged sweaters from Peru from this very same store. Set up warehouse style and without air conditioning or chairs, I even relish shopping on hot summer Phoenix days when the temperature inside that place has to be over 100. Alongside women looking for bridal fabrics or something special enough for their daughter’s first communion or quinceñera dress, we poke and prod and exclaim over our finds. We’re all sweltering as we search, and then all smiles as we plop down $50 or less for 10 pounds of woven bargains. Rating: 10, for sure.