Sometimes, you may get lucky - I’ve scored probably five pairs of shoes in the past year that were never worn!
I’ve been Thrifting great word, btw for my entire adult life.
One thing I’ve noticed is that if am in the market for some jeans and I am a size 10*, the size 10’s on the rack are more like an 8 in size. BECAUSE the reason why people get rid of something is either it is out of style or it shrunk. SO, I look for a size up.
My kids are so use to thrifting that going to the mall isn’t nearly as fun because for $20 you might get one shirt. For twenty bucks at the Salvation Army/Goodwill you will get about 4 pair of pants, a dress, some shirts and stuff.
AND if you are lucky, the SA or GW near you will have a 5 for $5 deal on a specific colored tag. I outfitted our entire family in color-matching t-shirts for a family vacation ( everyone would wear one color one day. It makes it MUCHO easier to find someone in the sweaty throngs.) for about $20. And I bought our souvenier shirts for the kids from the SA before we left for $5. SCHWEEEET!
Thrift shops that are on the edge of a Rich area or heavily commuted area will have higher grade stuff and a better selection than the ones in the poorer sections of town. However, routinely hitting the poorer area ones ends in some nice scores as well. YMMV.
*I am not a size 10. I haven’t been a size ten since y2k. I blame global warming.
I’ve scored many deals, but one of my favorites was the ice cream ball.
Brand new.
Someone had received it for Xmas that year and I was in the SA the week after xmas. Saw the box, got a little excited, saw it had everything in it including the gift card from the people who gave it to them stating " Merry Xmas from Bob and Susan, 2006."
I paid $3.00. Totally worth it.
If I paid $40.00 I would have felt like I’d been anal raped. (It’s noisy. The ice cream makes a consistency between hard ice cream that’s melted a bit too much or soft serve that need viagra. It’s alot of work for maybe two people. It is a fun gimmicky thing for kids to fool around with, but not at $40 + shipping.)
I am not a size 10 either. 
I blame Bruester’s ice cream.
And global warming of said ice cream, requiring me to eat it faster and more often. 
/hijack
Thrift stores are awesome for getting medical equipment. Whenever we need something (ie: crutches, walkers, etc.), we always check Goodwill before paying retail.
My grandmother recently needed one of those adjustable height medical potty chairs for my house - retail $50 - $150. I went to Goodwill and paid $5.65 plus tax and it was BRAND NEW. Now, granted, I took it home and sprayed it down with bleach and hosed it off before giving it to her, but I’m 99% sure it had never been used. She would have gladly paid retail for a new one, but I wanted to handle it for her and she loves it when I get good bargains!
Also, I collect cookbooks. One can never have enough cookbooks and I buy any and all that I want when I’m at Goodwill - how can you say no to $0.50 - $1.50?
I blame the expansion of the universe for my no longer being a size 10.
Definitely. When my wife came with me to Palm Springs for a conference I was attending, she found some really great stuff at a thrift store there. Carmel and Monterey have some nice ones also.
Shirts will probably be your biggest money saver then.
Go shopping in the tight-fitting t-shirt. Pick out a shirt whose color and pattern pleases you and try it on over your t-shirt. If it fits, check and make sure it has all it’s buttons. Buttons down the front, buttons on the cuffs, buttons on the collar. Look at the collar and cuffs to make sure they are not too worn. Hold up the shirt to make sure there are no grease spots or bleach marks on the front. Look at the back. Check the price.
On passing inspection, add it to your basket and go on to the next shirt.
You just want to see me in a tight fitting t-shirt, don’t you?
Part of the reason for this is that vanity sizing has become ridiculous. The size 4 jeans of today are the size 8 to 10 of a decade ago. For classic style jeans (like Levis) that don’t go out of style, watch the sizes.
I have so gotten good shoes at the thrift stores. My favorite are a pair of lavendar suede work shoes brand new for $7. They are the most bizarre things I owe, but I’ve gotten so many compliments on them.
When I was in college I found a Thrift Store run by the Women’s Auxiliary of a local hospital.
They had the greatest stuff, all of it in really good shape. The clothing was really high quality as well and I found a lot of higher end, gently used clothing in my size.
Since your in my neck of the woods I’ll give you a couple of hints. Use the Goodwill in Winter Park or private shops close to other nice neighborhoods. You’ll find the nicest things. If you are hitting the one on Michigan in Orlando, you’re going to be very disappointed.
I remember many years ago I was donating something and browsed around out of curiousity. I found five pairs of new levis with tags in my son’s size for 3 bucks a piece. I bought every one. So the person who mentioned to look for tags? That is great advice.
I find a ton of kids books for the grandson at SA for .49 each. My sofa, I purchased at SA for $100 (it was marked down from $200) and I LOVE it. The end table in my bedroom, also from SA for under $20. Hallgirl1 and I frequently find really good bargins, but it takes a lot of looking.
I’ve never found a thrift store that was open in the evenings or on Sunday. They all tend to be open Monday through Friday or Saturday, either 10-6 or 9-5. Sometimes they are only open 12-5. So, thrift shopping isn’t as convenient that way. You are spending convenience and time to save money.
I’ve never found anything that I want to wear at the local thrift shops, other than a couple of scarves, but I have found household goods and books and toys and a couple of pieces of great costume jewelry. I never go in a thrift store unless I have at least an hour to spend.
Another great location to check for thrift stores is by Large Office Complexes.
There is a Goodwill across the road from a GM factory here. The ease and convenience for the people to offload old stuff there is remarkable.
I’ve found that the adult clothing options are amazing and the kids stuff is meh.
Areas with a higher concentration of teenagers will yeild HUGE amounts of mostly new teen and tween fashions. It is very common to see stuff on the racks at a SA that are still on the rack at the stores.
I remember one time in a thrift store I found a great pair of earth shoes. I tried one on, it fit well and I took the pair home only to discover the “pair” were BOTH LEFT feet.
Since I don’t have two left feet (well not literally anyway) and only a dollar I tossed them.
But you gotta check things like that…LOL
I always see tons of baby clothes at those places. I guess ladies don’t want to put their new babies in used baby clothes. But baby blankets and such are so cheap. My mum would buy all the baby blankets for our cat. The cat then only slept on the baby blankets and it pretty much solved the hair problem. Put the baby blanket on the back of the couch and the cat only sleeps on the baby blanket ON the couch. Then toss the baby blanket in the wash once a day.
I thrift quite a bit and there are great deals to be had. The caveat is that you need to check over every square inch of clothing and shoes etc. Some stuff will look fine at 3 feet but in looking closer you see it’s just on the starting edge of being worn out (check shirt cuffs especially) or has rips, stains etc. in hard to see areas. People get rid of stuff for all kinds of reasons and you need to be aware that some stuff (esp brand new stuff) is donated because it has some issue.
When you get used to paying $ 4.50 for a nice brand name shirt in good shape it’s hard to go back to paying $30-$40 for a new one.
The one near us is open on Sunday. We went this morning. My wife bought a pair of socks, I bought shorts to replace my holy garden shorts ($3.99) and about 10 puzzles - all for $17.
Personally, despite being a perennial bargain hunter, I hate thrift stores – I can never find any clothes in my size, and most of the rest of the stuff is overpriced junk. Maybe it’s better in your area, though; I can see Des Moines as being higher than average for traffic in thrift stores, so maybe that’s why they seem like they mostly have crap. Damned Midwest thriftiness! Back in Madison, the thrift stores (Vincent de Paul) seemed better and cheaper than the Goodwill ones around here, though. Hell, I got a lot of stuff for Halloween costumes and a stack of interesting books at the Dig and Save, where you pay for everything by the pound!
I do agree with melodyharmonius about checking out Freecycle groups in your area, as well as the free section of Craigslist. I generally just use them to give away stuff, but through the Freecycle group I found a plant exchange group in my area where people give away plants, gardening tools, and supplies. I’ve taken advantage of this – I got some tomato plants last year that I just stuck in a pot and ended up getting huge armfuls of tomatoes by the end of the year. I just traded some leftover flower bulbs for some decorative plants that someone a few blocks away wanted to split in their garden. It’s pretty neat. It’s also an amazing way of getting rid of heavy, useless stuff (goodbye broken entertainment center and Zenith wood-panel TV!).
Also, Craigslist is pretty sweet for checking out garage sales in your area. I don’t often cruise them anymore because I’m busier nowadays, but it’s cool to check out the ads in my area and stop at the ones that seem like they’d have stuff I want.