Sunday, January 16, 2011

Why I Love Thrift Stores

My frugalness isn't just limited to using coupons, I'm a thrift store junky. I LOVE going to thrift stores (clean, organized thrift stores) and I really love finding great deals at thrift stores. ARC is my favorite thrift store by far but I pop into Goodwill off and on if I'm near a location that I know is good.

Yesterday I was running a couple errands on my way to work and had some time to kill. I hit the Goodwill off of Havana and Colfax. I know it's not the best area of town but that Goodwill is fairly new so I don't mind going in there. I had just cleaned out a fair amount of shirts from my closet so I thought I'd peek around and find some new shirts to replace them. :)

Here's what I ended up with for only $21.01


That's 15 items for only $21.01! I picked up 10 shirts...6 of which were just pretty basic plain long sleeve cotton tops. The other 4 were sweaters, 2 cardigans and 2 regular sweaters. I also found a small glass dish that goes with a set that I own (as well as my mom and grandmother), a Care Bears DVD for Nora (for only $2.50), a plastic storage box that was only .75 (it has a hinged lid that snaps closed) and 2 binder pouches for my new coupon binder (more on that in another post)!

It's very true that you usually have to sort through a few crazy things to find your gems, but if you are in the mood it is definatly worth it! I found Merona and Mossimo, Old Navy (one still had the Old Navy tag on it!) and Banana Republic in my finds. Since Goodwill was doing a 50% off sale that day, everything I bought was 50% off the tagged price. Pretty much all my tops ended up being $1.75 each!!
Although I'm sure he appreciates my frugalness to some extent, I know my husband has made comments about how I don't need to shop at thrift stores for my clothes. I really don't see anything wrong with it. It's the ultimate form of recycling! Plus, when I decide that I'm tired of my clothes, or one of the kids (or myself) stains or rips what I'm wearing, I don't feel like I lost a whole lot. I still feel "attached" to some of clothes because of their style or the way they fit, so I can still end up being bummed, but I probably only spent pennies on it. PLUS, most of the time I end up just sending them back to a thrift store, when I'm tired of them (or they don't fit right, etc), anyway.

Even better than getting MY clothes at the thrift store is getting clothes for my kids there! It is the only way to go with kids clothes. They wear them for such a short amount of time there is no reason to spend retail on them. I know a LOT of mom's who will shop at consignment shops and a thrift store is basically the same thing. You just have to sort through a few items that may have stains and such, which a consignment shop wouldn't have, but you can find brand new clothing for next to nothing!

If you ever want to come shopping with me some time I'm happy to have a tag-a-long. Saturday's are usually the best days to go to ARC because they always have a 50% off sale. Goodwill has them occassionally as well so keep your eye out and score yourself some awesome deals!!

2 comments:

  1. Yay for great thrift store finds. I didn't know about that Goodwill~thanks for sharing. I have a ton of stuff to get rid of and a few things to look for. It makes sense that you'd find some good stuff at that location. Stapleton and Park Hill are so close.

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