"I've saved $5k thrifting my son's birthday and Christmas presents"

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Natalie Joy Miller, 38, has saved $5,000 over five years by thrifting birthday and Christmas presents for her son, Artie.  The Portland, Oregon mum has been collecting second-hand treasures since she was 16, long before Artie was born.  This year, she spent under $150 on 13 birthday gifts, including a Dutch oven matching her own, and $154 on 22 Christmas presents.  Natalie says thrifting is both cost-effective and sustainable, adding that Artie loves his unique finds.  She dismisses criticism, saying, “He’s a kid—it's more individual and cool.”

Transcript

00:00For the past few years, I have been thrifting my son's gifts for all the major holidays,

00:04Christmas, Easter, and his birthday. This is everything I thrifted him for his fifth birthday.

00:10He had a forklift toy that he loved, but it broke last year, so when I saw this,

00:14I immediately grabbed it. A walkie-talkie set. Cute little bug catcher. Operation.

00:22I'm honestly shocked we haven't done a fused bead craft in our house yet, so I got this,

00:28and I think it's going to be really fun. He wants to take pictures of everything, and he's

00:34borrowing our phone so he can take a picture of the things he makes or things he sees on our walks,

00:39and I was like, this kid is ready for a camera. I looked on Facebook Marketplace and found this

00:45Kidimento never-been-used camera. The only hitch was that her dog had chewed the original box,

00:53so I got it for 25 bucks, and it works, and it's never been used. He loves flowers,

00:59and this is a flower garden building toy never-been-opened. Cannot pass up a classic

01:05Viewmaster with slides, obviously. The lovers of the flower fairies. So when I saw these two

01:12little flower fairy friends, I grabbed them. This might seem weird, but we have the same one,

01:19just one size bigger. So obsessed with it. He is a pretty good cook, and whenever I need to use

01:26this pot in the kitchen, he also would like to use it, and it's a little bit problematic. Now

01:32he has the same one, but his own. I'm new with Tag's Clifford stuffy. It's so soft. This is a

01:39Madeline matching game. He loves the memory games, so I know he's gonna like this, and we are

01:45Madeline lovers in this house. They're just so sweet. Tiger figurine. I found it to be charming,

01:51and I think he's gonna like it too. And lastly, every year I make him a felt crown. He gets to

01:57request what he wants on it, and he requested a garden or a flower crown. He specifically wanted

02:04a hummingbird, so we did some woodland hyacinths, some daisies, daffodils, a little ladybug,

02:11and bumblebee. I'm really, really, really excited with how it turned out. Also he requested that I

02:18wear this sweater on his birthday, so that's everything.

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