Thursday, May 21, 2009

Thrifty Souvenirs

Welcome to another edition of Thrifty Thursdays hosted by Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville. A fun little time to hunt around the house, the garage, someone elses house and garage or even a thrift store or two to dig up some cool finds. Be sure and check out the other Thrifty Finds, from the other participants.

I stopped shopping for stuff several years ago. Every so often things come into my house, but for the most part I go to the grocery store a few times a week and that's about all the shopping I do. So when I went to Ireland and the Isle of Man this past week (Be sure to come back and read about the trip. I've got three posts up so far.) -- Yes, so on my vacation I wasn't there to shop. BUT I knew I had to bring back souvenirs and I knew they had to be thrifty because airplane fare, food and lodging was 99.9% of my budget. I had very limited space in my bag to carry anything, too.



I'm obsessed with mail.

I love mailboxes.

I love paper to write on.

I love writing out addresses on envelopes and I am in love with fun stamps.



Before I left I decided to invest my Dollars, Euros and Pounds into post cards. I copied off a few dozen names and addresses of friends and family and took them with me, so I could send off postcards to them as small gifts :)

Then I made sure that I got a really nice assortment of postcards for myself, too.

Continuing the Thrifty Theme - I'm going to mail out a few dozen more post cards to people, even though I'm home. It's much cheaper to send the cards to the US, in the US.



I only got to the Post Office in the Isle of Man and not in Ireland, so I was only able to bring home IOM postage. I usually like to get a few stamps from countries that I visit. It's a very inexpensive way to get a souvenir. The flower stamps were 1 cent, 2 cents and 4 cents each- so that's REALLY thrifty!



This stamp was so neat - it's an IOM stamp that shows the US landing on the moon. It's even got a US flag in it. I thought it was the perfect stamp to bring home.

I did end up buying one shirt and I had to buy a windbreaker/rain jacket because I was not prepared for the deluge of rain we experienced. Other than that, my Thrifty Souvenir adventure was perfect and I don't feel like I missed a thing.

Oh, I also took over 400 photos! Those were really inexpensive, too!

Please go on over to Leigh's place and see who else joined in on the carnival.
Kristin

I was asked by Marie of Vintage Postcards blog if I'd like to link up to her blog carnival about Postcard Friendship Fridays. I thought it might be nice, so I did :) If you'd like to see more fun postcards, stamps, pictures of mailmen or other things postcardish, go on over and take a look. I'll have to do the same!

17 comments:

  1. Great way to invest in some thrify souviners! And I do know you love that! I cannot wait to see more of these 400 pictures!

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  2. Coool! This is so up my alley! I have a thing for mailboxes too and was swooning over your shot:) I have a blog event called Postcard Friendship Friday.. This post would be so perfect for it! Would you like to share it with that group of bloggers too! There is a clickable badge on my blog about it if you'd like to learn more:)

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  3. Postcards & stamps as souveniers are quite thrifty. I would love to go to Ireland. Never heard of the Isle of Man though. And you can never take too many photos. We went to Europe back in 2003 & I wish we had taken more photos. Thanks for visiting my blog & leaving me a comment.

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  4. I love all of those postcards! I'd love to read the reactions from your friends!

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  5. And you got some really great post cards with your investment!!!!

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  6. What a great idea for souvenirs! I love the idea of collecting postcards and stamps... = ) Thanks for sharing!

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  7. The Isle of Man stamp is just perfect. Great idea about the postcards. Love the mailbox shot. Sounds like a dream trip.

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  8. I do agree that stamps and postcards are thrifty souvenirs. I am fan too.
    Happy PFF day.

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  9. A great post! Doubly so for me because I was born in Dublin, so I'll be going to look at your other posts about the land of my birth. :) I buy postcards everywhere, as a reminder of holidays and visits.

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  10. Hooray! It's so nice to see you here! Huge PFF hugs!

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  11. Cool and thrifty. I like the idea of using stamps as souvenirs.

    When I was in Norway, I would buy all sorts of stamps to mail packages home. But when I got home, I found that all the stamps had be cut from the boxes and I didn't have them after all. It was disappointing.

    I never thought to buy stamps and bring them home unused.

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  12. Oh wow Happy PFF !
    I love the cool green
    painted post box.
    I really must admit
    I loved it all .
    This is right up my alley .
    So many treasures to enjoy today.
    Thank you for sharing them.
    Have a very happy weeknd.

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  13. What a wonderful blog! I thoroughly enjoyed reading every word! Happy PFF!

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  14. Thanks everyone from PFF for stopping by! It's great to meet a whole bunch of new folks.

    I'm totally in love with those mailboxes - I'll post all of my other photos of them for next weeks PFF.

    Thanks again.
    Kristin

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  15. Great post....great ideas on thrifty souvenirs. Postcards yes, but I would never have thought to purchase stamps. What a clever idea. :-)

    Have a beautiful weekend.

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  16. WOW!!! Great postcards and stamps. The mailboxes are fun.
    Debby

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  17. I love your thrifty suggestions. Great ideas when traveling or even here in my home town.

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