Saturday was our 17th wedding anniversary. My husband asked me what I wanted to do and I said thrifting. So we went to two locations of our local thrift store. I love going after Christmas because you can find the treasure that people cleared out of their houses prior to the holidays as well as the stuff they donated to make room for the new stuff. Sometimes you even find stuff with price tags still attached. Here are some of my haul from this trip:
This is our senior dog, Ruby, photobombing here.
Total, I spent $31 on everything. I am not sure on individual prices for some of them because the one location we went to gave me a discount on the holiday stuff and the receipt just totals up how many were $1 or $2, etc. Maybe because I am a librarian, I like researching things. I looked up some of the items. Those iron script words “live laugh love” are available online for about $18 and I got them for $1.00. The red glass candle jars had the original price tags on them of $16.99 each; they were two for $3. The ceramic owls dish has a price sticker from one of those designer discount stores for $16.99 which means original price was probably more than that. Those yarns are discontinued, but can still be purchased places for $6.50 each. They cost $1.00 each. Total I estimate that my thrifting haul has a value over $125 if I had purchased them new. Maybe more since I could not find exact matches and that is a bit of a guesstimate, but the value is not why I like thrifting. (BTW those mysterious green things were my husband’s pick. They are Christmas light storage wheels.)
Yes, it is cool to find out that the item you bought for $1 is actually worth 20x what you paid, but it is more about getting stuff you like and not spending a lot for it. Some of my favorite furniture finds came from our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I have a pair of wicker chairs I purchased for $75 total and a pretty nice red dresser in my foyer that I picked up for $50…sorry, no pictures of those. We took down the holiday decorations and the elves still need to clean up after the fake pine needles and melted sow.
Back in high school, I spent a lot of my paycheck at my local Goodwill on clothes. I had a fascination with men’s wool sports coats and then vests during warmer months. That was my signature style to the point where our underclass-mates put on a skit when we were graduating and the girl playing me had a men’s vest over her T-shirt to show who she was playing. Then when my son was a baby, I once again turned to Goodwill for my professional attire as the paychecks were a little tight. These days, I mainly purchase from the clearance sections at Target, Old Navy, and Kohl’s. Oh, and can’t forget about Ross. I make an annual trip on my birthday to Ross to purchase new wardrobe additions.
I no longer buy my clothes from thrifting mainly because our local thrift stores do not have the level of organization of color, style, and size that Goodwill has, which is too far away. I don’t have the patience for it anymore. But I love looking through the artwork and jewelry to see what I can find. Thrifting can be overwhelming, but it is fun.
Have you scored any treasure thrifting? Tell us about it in the comments.