Thrifty Thursdays: What I found this week

Posted on September 20, 2012 by admin

This past Saturday, I visited a thrift store with a good friend of mine. This friend was new-ish to thrifting, so I wanted to introduce her to some really great deals. We’d try a few locations of Goodwill and she’d had so-so success. But I was confident that she’d leave satisfied. And she definitely did. But more on that later.

I wasn’t shopping for anything particular, and had an idea in mind of what I wanted to spend. $30 was my budget. I knew beforehand that I wanted to visit the belt, shoe, dress, and purse sections. First up: my new black dress with a peplum frill. It was only $6.99 and now I have another “LBD” or little black dress to wear.

Now for this sheer blue dress I got for $4.99. My thrifting companion, who wears a similar size, found this great blue sheer dress. But her body type is different than mine, and what didn’t fit her well, fit me wonderfully. All it needs? A cute belt and a statement necklace.

Next up: this cute 100% camel hair tan blazer. It fits well, and doesn’t need any tailoring. It was only $4.99 and I could see wearing it with a nice white blouse, pearls, navy pants and some neutral dress shoes for work. The buttons are so cute.

In the purse section: I found this great navy/camel purse. I spotted it first, and when my friend laid eyes on it, she wanted it, too. It was only $4.99 and I had to have it. We lived by a simple thrifting rule: the first one to spot it, gets it.

Overall, I found a lot of great stuff. And so did my thrifting buddy. She scored a nice vintage dress, a nice sem-formal dress, some shirts, a skirt and a great, vintage American Tourister suitcase-all for only a little over $30 (similar to the one found on Peaches and Dream).

Source: Peaches and Dream

But we both learned a valuable lesson about thrifting: try your clothes/shoes etc. on. She spotted a great vintage print dress. The dress, which had shoulderpads, appeared in great condition. But when she tried it on, she realized that one of the shoulders had the shoulderpad, but no padding. Easy fix, of course. But something she may not have ever realized if she hadn’t tried it on first.

What’s your favorite piece? How would you style it?

A little background on my introduction to thrifting: I started thrifting about a year ago. Only when I realized I was spending lots of money on clothes in a down economy. I decided to check out Goodwill, and see what they had to offer. I’ve been hooked ever since. Since I started thrifting, I’ve found lamps, dresses, shoes, pants, dresses, skirts etc. from stores like Ann Taylor Loft, Banana Republic, J.Crew, etc all for a deep discount.