Miles of files (and a curry)

Yesterday was Saturday, so what did I do? Go frugalling of course (Hello, my name is The Shopping Sherpa and I'm a frugalling addict) Well it wasn't really frugalling. At first.

Remember how I bought a filing cabinet off eBay last Sunday? It's one of those old fashioned ones which needs a metal cage thing to hang the suspension files off. It came with one which I used for my personal files but I needed another. And I knew Recon had them. And I also remember seeing a carton of used suspension files last time I was out there and figured they'd probably work out cheaper than buying new.

And I was right. 50 files for $11, which is what it costs for a mere 10 of them at Big W. Even better, the ones I have aren't that nasty green colour and I made sure to pick out all the ones which had crystal tabs attached to them as well. Major bargain and I can also feel smug as I helped the environment by doing some major recycling rather than buying new.

And since I was out and about anyway it seemed silly not to just pop into my two fave Op Shops on the way home. Today's haul:1. Mint in box metal wine cooler: $5. I have one of these already and it's great - chuck it in the freezer for a while then put the wine in it and it stays cool forever. This is going into the Gift Drawer. (Let me know if you're particularly wanting it for Christmas!)
2. Two lots of fabric. Brand new black and white check cotton with stickers attached (do they even still do that?!), 1.6 m x 95 cm: $4. And vintage 50s rosy fabric which I utterly adore, 2.4 m x 66 cm: $5.90.
3. Four pairs of cream and black plastic knitting needles: $6 total. Like I need more needles. But I felt very very virtuous as I had passed by a huge container of tortoiseshell needles at an Antique Centre which were $5 a pair and none of them followed me home. Yet.
4. Octagonal bowl which is a spitting image of the Johnson Bros Heritage white I have but is stamped Made in Japan. Very odd but at 50c I didn't ask too many questions. (Idle thought - how much china can I fit in that kitchen cupboard before it come crashing to the ground and I discover my new favourite hobby is mosaic work?)
5. Two brand new white square tiles:$1 each. I'll be putting felt feet on them and using them as hot pads on the dining table.
6. Two black zips: 50c each. Just in case I decide to make pouches out of any of my even expanding fabric stash.
Total: $24.40 Also purchased at great cost from Big W (while on a wild black and white t shirt chase which came to naught): a cool daisy fat quarter and what is supposed to be a paint pallet but I bought it because it looks like 2 cool daisy containers to me. Total: $5.50

Got a text from M in the early evening - V still hasn't popped so had spent the day cooking curry (she'd read somewhere that curry can help convince bubs to make an appearance) and they wondered if I fancied going over to help them eat it. So I wandered across and had a very enjoyable evening eating far too much, drinking a little too much and having an all round good time. Much better than my original Saturday night plan of sorting out the files in the new filing cabinet...

(Soundtrack: Depeche Mode, Violator)