You Won't Believe What I Found!

Not going to lie. Like many people, especially since the pandemic hit, I have always tried to find good deals that will help me fit my budget whenever I could, only splurging on occasion.

Well, just recently I had to do a little bit of both because I was celebrating the Feast of Passover on my own this year and, like any good Jewish girl, I had to find and collect all of the necessary elements needed for the Seder, a special meal that kickstarts the Week of Unleavened Bread. Traditionally this is supposed to be a community feast that is to be shared with family, friends, and fellow synagogue (church) members, however because of the pandemic a lot of us celebrating have to accommodate with smaller gatherings and/or virtual visits, the latter of which I had to do in order to feel connected with my family-in-faith. Also, as I previously stated, this was my first time doing it by myself so I had to make do with what I had, which meant I had to budget how much I spent on getting the things necessary since I had to also pay rent and several other bills that were due around the same time.

Now procuring the minor elements, such as the herbs, Matza (unleavened bread), Kosher grape juice, and cups is not such a hard nor expensive task. (Granted getting the lamb cut I needed was a bear since I was only feeding one and stores sell for a least two, which was not very helpful for my limited budget nor for the tradition of it being a "one night only" meat.) However, procuring a proper Seder plate is a different story. Generally, the Seder plate has to have six sections, such as cup-like depressions, and a flat surface in the middle to hold the elements specifically used during the meal and is a prominent piece of China that is sold in specific places or the Internet. Since I was in no position to go to Judaica Corner (a Kosher district in Rossville) and online shipping would have taken longer than necessary to get what I needed all I could do was pray (of course) and see what I could find as I shopped for the other ingredients.

Aside from the lamb getting the things needed took me almost no time, but I still had not found the one thing I needed to help make my Seder preparations complete. That is when I decided to take a day off from my preparations and do what I always do to feel better: go bargain shopping.

For this, I normally stay local and go to my hometown's Family Treasures Thrift Store. Usually, I can find what I am looking for but most times I cannot, and that day in particular I could not. So I journeyed a little further out and went to a Goodwill store in the next town to look about and see what I could see.

As I was wandering through the aisles looking at the different knick-knacks, DVDs of old movies, and such lo and behold what did I find? My Seder plate!

Granted it was not like any of the others that had been used in past Seder feasts but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? It was a simple beige, round, hard plastic divider plate with six cups along the rim with enough space in the middle... And only 97 cents to boot!

Finally, I had everything I needed for one of the most important holidays of my religion and all it took was some prayer, a little bit of luck, and a Goodwill.