Well, I was trying to improve the view for women in FL. If you were a Californian, the instructions would have read more like, …Go shopping in tight fitting bike shorts, but don’t oil your chest, it might damage the shirts.
I did forget to remind you to check for the buttons on the shirt pockets.
And astro’s right about never wanting to pay for than $20 for a shirt again, once you get used to thrift store prices.
I bought a pink and green plaid Izod cotton lined skirt, and coordinating green tank top yesterday. $5 for both pieces. If Muffy wants me to meet her for drinkies at the country club, I’m ready.
If you can get over being grossed out by other people’s shoes, you can sometimes find excellent deals. I have three pairs of Doctor Martens shoes that were practically brand new, each of which would have cost upwards of $100 new. I also got these really awesome knee high lace up black leather boots, again worth over $100, for $3. Could never have afforded them otherwise.
I also find that you can find almost new jeans for next to nothing. I rarely shop retail anymore because the thrift stores and second hand places around here have such good stuff.
I buy kids videos and I’ve bought a few VCRs. We go through them like crazy, used or new. We HAVE a DVD player but used kids’ VHS tapes for a buck is way too good a deal to turn down. My daughter’s twin mattress (covered in plastic) cost 20 dollars.
Most of my dishes, many of our towels and sheets, and most of my little girl’s clothes come from Goodwill. Sometimes I get lucky with clothes but it’s hard to find much in ladies “plus” that doesn’t have a stain on the shirt or a split in the seat. Just like in my closet. 
My SO is in construction so all of his work clothes and shoes come from Goodwill or Salvation Army. We get him good new socks and I always wash the shoes first, but we’ve found some new ones. Whether new or used he goes through a pair every month so I really prefer spending five instead of fifty a pair. I got my purse there, and it’s lasted me two years so far. I probably paid three bucks for it.
I think the schools must donate their old school supplies/toys/games because I always come out with more than I should. I pop stuff up in the attic and give it to kids for holidays. And my kid’s bike and scooter.
Hell there’s very little in my home I didn’t buy at Goodwill.
I think the key is patience. I don’t always find a treasure, and I don’t always find what I went in looking for. But I seem to always find SOMETHING. And eventually I’ll find what I need.
This is true. Even in cheaper brands, it’s often at least one size off. I would be very uncomfortable buying thrift store jeans without some way to try them on. Always look in the racks for the next size up as well as the size you would look for in a regular store.
I’ve found over the years that many times, I can buy higher quality, gently used goods for less than cheaply made new stuff.
My current sofa is from one of the downtown SAs, most of my business clothing is from thrifts or consignment stores, my microwave sits on a cart that came from a GW store, a nice LV purse from Southern Thrift…on and on…
Probably the single best find for me was three pair of Ferragamo loafers and one pair of pumps, in my somewhat hard to fit size, never worn, for $150 for all (they knocked $10 off for purchasing all of them).
One of the more fun things to check out is the music selection. Around Nashville, a lot of times, you can find CDs (yes, I still listen to them) that are still in the original packaging. Sure, they usually weren’t put out in the past 12 months and most of the time, the artist is either past his/her prime or a relative unknown, but when you get one for $2, it’s a cheap way to expand your musical horizens, especially with genres that you’re not familiar with.
I’m a big fan of thrift stores. I’ve been shopping at them out of necessity since I was a child, and now that we live on just one income, it really helps the budget. I mostly look for wardrobe basics while thrifting and then buy a few “in-style” tops each year at retail sale prices, and I’m golden. I have two toddlers, so I really hate paying full price for clothes that are just going to get ruined. And we have a great selection of Blue’s Clues VHS tapes for our 3-year-old. You must be patient and willing to look very carefully at each item, which is why my husband hates thrifting. He wants to go in, grab exactly what he wants, and leave. To me, it’s a treasure hunt. What will I find today?
haha, I found a Brooks Brothers seersucker skirt for maybe about 25 cents at the local thrift store (where it costs $1.25 a pound for clothing). See you at the 18th hole.
IME, as a male, I virtually never find good pants or jeans in thrift stores, but then that’s pretty much true everywhere when you are 5’9" and have a 28-inch waist. Still, the problem is more acute in thrift stores because men don’t tend to discard clothes that much, so there’s a narrower field of choice to begin with. On the other hand I’ve done pretty well with jackets and belts, and the book department is usually a reader’s dream.
Chicago area Salvation Army’s do 50% off all clothing on Memorial Day and Labor Day. Yesterday I got a winter coat and a summer shirt for $6. At the next store I got three sweaters and two fitted Ts, also $6 total.
Store #2 also had a pack of 4 teenage boys trying to scrounge up $100 to buy a piano. I’m not sure if they were successful or not.
I occasionally find a few books in my local thrifts, but not regularly. We have a chain of used book stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and most people tend to take their books there, and get a few bucks back. I can usually find an armful of books at this chain, because not only does it take used books, but it gets overstocks/remaindered books, too. The thrifts don’t get many books donated, and of the books that are donated, the selection is pretty sparse, and they’re usually in bad shape. However, if it’s a book that I’ve been wanting to read but haven’t been able to find, I’m delighted to pay a quarter for a book that would be rated “reading copy” (book selling term that designates the lowest sellable quality of book, people will only buy it because they want to read it). So I always check out the book section in the thrifts. Usually I don’t find anything I particularly want to read, but when I do find something, it’s really a score.
Wasn’t there a Doper who wrote a book on Thift store shopping?
I haven’t been Thrifting in a few weeks, but to make some of you green with envy, I won’t tell you that I am within 45 minutes of the country’s largest Goodwill store in Utica, Michigan. (It’s HUGE and Clean and they jacked their prices up a tiny bit when they moved from their old, smaller location.)