thecarvingwitch:

After lusting after the beautiful, completely necessary, horribly expensive witchy items you are no likely looking at, and finding my bank account empty all those years ago (and now….), here are some tips I gathered:

• DIY. Make it yourself, if you’re crafty! I found out that I was decent at carving, so I started making wands out of woodfall from my front yard. If you sew, you can make your own ritual clothes, or embellish things you already have with embroidery, etc.
• THRIFT STORES, secondhand, and garage sales. Seriously, any person worth their salt, nevermind a witch, should take full advantage of the thrift store. Especially the trinkets/miscellany section. You’ll find nifty little boxes, hippie looking clothes, candles (I got one about as big as my head for two dollars once. TWO DOLLARS. DUDE. I probably saved like, at least thirty bucks there.) candle holders, silver plates for offerings (tarnished? Polish it with ketchup or white toothpaste), jewelry, all sorts of things.
• The dollar store. No, really. Need a ritual chalice? Dollar store wine glass. Bam. Need spices? Dollar store. Colored thread for binding? Bag of tealights? Dollar store. Tea? Dollar store. Hand mirror for portable ward? Dollar stooooooore.
• Clearance section of anywhere. Clearance clearance clearance. It’s worth the digging through bins, because there is nothing like the feeling of digging through crap and then finding that one gem.
• Never underestimate the power of everyday items. Just because it’s not arcane or supermagicalfabulous looking doesn’t mean it won’t pack a punch. Salt is common, salt is cheap. Buy salt. I buy lots of salt. I put that shit on everything. You can use spice mixes for Athena’s sake. You can effing enchant your shoes. Find things around your house to use- a wooden spoon for directing energy, old nails for wards, common everyday kitchen herbs for EVERYTHING. On and on and on. 
• When the halloween stuff goes on sale in November, pounce. I have to say that Halloween is one of my favorite seasons, because all of the spooky creepy awesome stuff is normal for everyone else. This counts for all seasonal things that go on sale- you can get easter items for Spring festivals, for yule, etc etc, all a year ahead of time and super cheap. Basically after the holiday, stores want to get all of that crap out asap, so they put it on saleeeeeeeeee.
• Creativity, saving, and bartering. Just about every witch I know is a pack rat of some kind- and for good reason, you never know what might come in handy! Tealight burnt down? Cool, pop that bit of wax that’s left out and save it- melt it all down once you have enough, and make more candles. Remember those wands I said I made? I traded one with someone here on tumblr for an amazing green cloak, plus some extra goodies she tossed in from her etsy shop. Wash out jam jars when you’re done with them and save them.

There’s such a wide old world of things you can do without spending a shitton. I really hope this helps you, anon!