Frugal Brushes

Journaling:

Found the brush I wanted in a "value pack" at Wal-Mart. 25 brushes for $4.67. That's about 18¢ per brush...and my kind of price.

Yes, I'm a tightwad.

The one I wanted was a 1/2" camel wash brush. I thought I was looking for a shader. Hummm.....

I'm finishing up Journal #4 (4 x 6) and will be going to a larger format with Journal #5 (6 x 9). I figured I needed a larger brush to cover a little more territory. I currently use a 1/4" flat shader (or I thought it was a shader) and a little tiny microscopic liner brush for the fine lines. Even in the 4x6 the 1/4" brush was a bit too little.

My search began.

Pondered on all the brushes at DickBlick.com for a long time. The cheapest brush I found was in the $8-$9 range. Since I don't know beans about brushes I didn't want to spend that kind of money and have it be a crappy brush. I've done that before.

Hubby says I shouldn't say tightwad, I should say frugal. Meh. Same difference. I loath parting with money. I couldn't see spending at least $8.oo for a single brush, plus the shipping (even if I was buying more than just the brush.) I abuse brushes so I don't need shouldn't have expensive brushes.

I know, I know, $8.00 is not an expensive brush. I'm a tightwad, remember?

Went to Wal-Mart and pondered the selection there. Bags o' brushes for $4-$5. Love that kind of pricing. And it looked like the brush I wanted was in there plus several alternatives. Woot! Into the cart.

The other 24 brushes won't go to waste. Hubby will get the bristle brushes for his grease and industrial adhesives. They, hopefully, will keep him out of my "good" brushes. The big nylon brushes will go in the wall painting box because sometimes I need a little bitty brush to get into tight spaces.

I already have a set of small nylon brushes I use for calligraphy so the new ones are duplicates. They will get get gooed up with masking fluid and hit the trash after one use. At 18¢ per brush they aren't worth trying to clean.

All in all, Momma is happy.

And, if you are up surfing the Internet in your jammies at this hour instead of out partying, Happy New Year!