Can you imagine ONLY shopping at Goodwill? Well I recently discovered a local Northwest woman, Beautiful Existence (yes, that’s her name!), who has committed to shopping ONLY at Goodwill (and ShopGoodwill.com) for a year. Clothing, gifts, housewares, items for her baby and even her textbooks for school must be purchased from Goodwill (she excludes food, hygiene, toiletries and prescription items). I asked Beautiful if she’d share her top FIVE tips for shopping frugally at thrift stores and here is what she suggests:
Goodwill, Salvation Army or even your local thrift store… no matter what secondhand place you like to shop, there are always ways to watch your dollars! Here are five ways I have found to be as thrifty as possible when shopping at the Goodwill.
1.) Know your thrift store. When you know where you want to go, what days that store has sales and even what areas you want to hit first; you will find that your time is well spent by planning ahead!
2.) Check the sales. As I mentioned above, keep your eyes on the sale days at your thrift store for extra savings off the already low prices! I even take some time to “map out” the items with the colored tag coming on sale next, that way when I get there I’m already pointed in the direction for savings!
3.) Know your closet (or bathroom, bedroom, etc.) Do you see a pattern here? Thrifty usually means being prepared and knowing yourself, your needs and the needs of those around you. From knowing your sizes to what you child wants for their birthday, when you stay focused on your needs you won’t be open to senseless purchasing.
4.) Allow a splurge. What fun would shopping be if you weren’t allowed to splurge every once in awhile? One of the dangerous things about secondhand stores is that you can get a LOT MORE for a LOT LESS, so you’ll spend just as much money as you would at a full-price retail store because you can get so many more things! This is an easy trap to fall into with Thrift stores, so be diligent (just like you do with coupons at the grocery store) but ALLOW YOURSELF to splurge on things you might not need every once in awhile, it will keep your overall spending in check.
5.) Take a friend. If you want to save some money while shopping at the Goodwill, bring a friend! You might think that they will only encourage you to buy yet another green sweater because it looks good on you but in all reality they will SLOW your shopping down! Especially look for those friends you have not seen in awhile, or the ones you like to chat with for hours. Your chatting could end up saving you some cash!
Beautiful Existence is blogging about her Goodwill challenge over at Living the Goodwill Life.
What tips do you have for secondhand shopping?
asha says
I say just look at your prices. I don’t like to pay retail at a thrity store or a department store. Most of my mom’s clothes are from the thrift store and she has some nice formal clothes and some nice jewels. We usually go to Value Village on Monday which is $1 tag day and $1 on Sunday and Monday to Goodwill. Also at the end of the month at the Cancer store in Kent they have a dollar tag. Just say no to paying full price wherever you shop.
Patrice says
My daughter and I love to shop at Value Village (we call is “VV’s”). She is always looking for skeins of good wool yarn, and she also buys wool sweaters to unravel them and re-use the yarn in her knitting projects. Nice yarn is expensive, so she does real well that way.
simone says
I love shopping at Goodwill and other thrift stores. I have done it all my life and have found some great things! However, as a person familliar with ShopGoodwill.com, I would mention that it may be hard to find “thrifty” deals on thier site. Unless it is some hard to find item that you would pay anything to have, Ebay is going to be a far better auction site. The shipping on the Goodwill site is very high and the bids start out much higher than on Ebay. There may be only one of a certain item listed on the goodwill site, with a starting bid from $5 or $9.99. If you check Ebay, you may find that there are many of that same item and the bidding starts at 0.99. My advice is to always compare what you find on ShopGoodwill.com to Ebay. You may find more savings that way!
Jocelyn says
I’m a huge fan of thrift store shopping, and have had some great finds — a perfectly-fitting cashmere/wool pea coat, and a beautiful designer wool skirt for under $10 each! My biggest tip is to be realistic about the state of what you’re buying. Make sure it’s in good condition so it will last you a long time – no tears, cracks, chips, massive pilling, stains. Know what you can fix and what you can’t. Some simple tailoring skills will broaden your potential finds when thrifting — it’s very useful to be able to take in a shirt at the waist, or hem a pair of pants!
Erin says
Don’t forget to bring your Chinook Book coupon! There is the traditional print version and also a new iphone mobile app.
The coupon is 20% off at Goodwill’s in the Puget Sound. Saves you the sales tax and a little bit more.
Pat Kleinmaier says
We have a goodwill outlet store in Winston-Salem, which sells the stuff that doesn’t sell in the real stores. They sell the stuff by the pound. It is such fun and you can spend hours there as they change the bins of stuff out every 3 hours during the day. If you see something you think you might want you had better grab it quick. We refer to the store as “the pound” and make it a family event. If you buy up to 25lbs, it costs 1.39 a pound, over 25 it is .99. If you all go together you can save a lot! It is amazing what you can find. We never come out empty handed, but are so spoiled now, the real goodwill is now too expensive.
Maegen says
I will add know your brands.
While there are tons of great deals at thrift stores, I also sometimes see items priced Higher than what I could have scored them for new (of course, I’m talking clearance rack here, but I know Queen Bee readers know what I mean-lol).
I also suggest avoiding anything with visible stains, because it probably means someone else already tried and failed to get them out. I also try not to buy clothing that is 100% poly because it’s very hard to get odors out of it. Finally, while we’ve bought all my younger son’s Rescue Hero toys at thrift stores because they don’t make them anymore, do be particularly cautious with toys-make sure they have all the pieces they need to be fun, and make sure they don’t have loose/broken pieces or look so old that the paint might be lead based.
My favorite thrift store find ever was a camel hair coat. I got it for 7.00, and it’s a classic style and soooo warm. We also got an all wood, art deco dresser for our bedroom that we love.
Thanks for the fun post! I can’t wait to check out her blog.