The Costs of Crafting

     It has been my goal since I began this blog to make it accessible to a wide variety of people, including individuals of varying socioeconomic statuses.  As a college student with very limited financial resources, I have little in the way of disposable income.  How then, you may wonder, do I afford my craft supplies?  After all, many craft supplies do not come cheap.
     There are a number of ways I get craft supplies at reduced prices.  The first place I look for craft supplies when beginning a project is my home.  Over the years I have gradually built up a reservoir of craft supplies, but sometimes the perfect items are not traditional crafting supplies at all.  Say you need fabric for a project but don't have any on hand.  Perhaps you have some old T-shirts or other cloth items that you don't use anymore that you could use for fabric.  The home can be full of potential crafting supplies if you think outside the box a bit. 
     My next place to go to for crafting supplies is my local thrift shop.  I frequent the Orono Thrift Shop http://www.oronohealthassociation.org/thrift-shop.html, and this is where I found almost all of the crafting supplies for my upcoming blog post.  There are small thrift shops in many communities, and many can be located simply by googling your area.  Small, local thrift shops often have incredible prices.  I have gotten two yards of fabric for 50 cents, ribbon for 10 cents to 25 cents, and photo frames for 50 cents or less, among other items, from my thrift shop.  The downside to smaller thrift shops is that they tend to have limited supplies, but even if you can't find everything you're looking for you will probably find something. 
     When you have gotten what you can from your local thrift shop and still need more supplies, the next place I would recommend checking out would be larger secondhand stores like Goodwill.  If you are unsure whether there is a Goodwill store in your area, they have a store locator at http://locator.goodwill.org/.  Goodwill tends to be a bit more expensive than smaller thrift shops, but you can generally find a wider selection of items there.    
     Yard sales can be another good source of inexpensive supplies.  The downside to yard sales is that their selection is highly variable, but sometimes you can find great deals.  One way to find out about what kind of items yard sales in your area are having is through local newspapers (or their websites).  Often they will list some yard sales with a short description about what kind of merchandise you will find there.  Unfortunately, this usually covers only a small percentage of yard sales, but it could be a good starting place.  If you know someone who is an avid yard saler, you could ask them to keep an eye out for supplies for you.
     Once I have exhausted these avenues I turn to firsthand stores, but only a small percentage of my craft supplies come from such stores.  Even in firsthand stores you can often find good deals if you keep an eye on clearance merchandise and watch for sales and coupons.  I hope that you will be able to find this post of some use to you.  However, my list is certainly not exhaustive, and there may be some important bargain places that I'm missing.  How about you?  Where do you find bargains on craft supplies?