It’s not too late to get to some of those New Year’s resolutions and while Thrift Town may not be able to help you lose weight (although a few laps around those commodious stores might help), getting organized and saving money becomes a whole lot easier when keeping a thrifty eye out for office supplies and paper goods.

I know, I know…it’s a lot more fun to shop clothes and house-wares but let’s face it: some of our hard-earned dollars are budgeted for more prosaic things like school supplies, office supplies, gift wrapping material and gear to keep us organized. When shopping at Thrift Town it’s well worth making your way past the main aisles to the outer perimeter where things of this nature are displayed.

Everyone needs a few notebooks and three-ring binders and these pictured were available during a recent trip. If you’ve not priced a three-ring binder lately, you’d better be sitting down. Those are running upwards toward $10! The steal deal of the day was this package of printable mailing labels for $1.99. They are $22.99 for the store brand at my local office supply store. I almost always find nice gift wrap, gift bags, miscellaneous office supplies, quantities of printer paper and other necessities. Keeping a good supply of all-purpose note-cards is good practice and these were all bargain priced including the box of Hallmark cards with the retail price of $8.99.

The Austin Thrift Town has a wall of pre-bagged small items like toys, small house-wares and decorative items for $1.99 a bag. I go right to the office supplies section because I can often find a bag with a supply of post-a-notes (those thing are expensive!), some pens, binder clips or other helpful things I always seem to be needing. One $1.99 bag contained two bottles of name brand household glue and a package of big erasers. I didn’t happen to need glue but checked the retail price at my local drug store - $2.49 a bottle!

A lot of retail stores tell you to “stock up and save” but Thrift Town lets me REALLY save…so much so that I was able to buy that Anne Klein cashmere sweater I found for just $5.99. Almost makes me want to send Thrift Town a thank-you note!

Stephanie F. is a dedicated thrifter whose mantra is, “Buy used – there’s just too much stuff in the world!” She became hooked when she found a pair of sock hop saddle shoes in junior high that she could actually afford with her allowance money (hey, it was a RETRO sock hop!). Today she lives and works in Texas’ capital city doing her part to “Keep Austin Weird.” She’s the author of an Austin blog – The Thrifty Snicker – which lets her prowl local thrift stores while telling herself that it’s not shopping; it’s research.