Successfully Shopping the Thrift Store

Sometimes I (Ashton) get asked about where I find clothes, particularly modest clothing. And the honest answer is all over, but mostly thrift and consignment stores. Because I have very expensive tastes AND I'm super cheap. Yeah, its hard. But that's why I love thrift stores. And today I thought I would share my very best tips to successfully shopping the thrift store.

-Be picky. Most of my clothes are brands like JCrew, Land's End, Eddie Bauer, LLBean, and LOFT. But I've never actually been in or bought clothes from a JCrew, and I've only been in LOFT maybe twice. However, I usually look at the brands of clothing in thrift stores and try to stick with nicer brands that I know and like. Their clothes hold up better and I know what size I wear.

-Don't be picky. Right, I know I said be picky. But sometimes you gotta ignore brands, because in reality, no one will know if you are wearing JCrew or Walmart if the garment looks pristine and fits you impeccably. So don't pass up a perfect piece that you love just because you haven't heard of the brand.

-Examine clothes carefully. And I mean carefully. Look for stains, holes, wear, and stretched out places, especially along seams and the front. Don't forget to test all of the buttons and zippers or other closures. Check sweaters for snags and pilling, and please, don't buy worn looking sweaters. They won't look any better once you get them home. If you buy something with the intent of fixing it, ask yourself, can I really fix this and will I do it in the next three days? If not, leave it.

-Know what you like and what looks good on you. I don't really look good in light brown so I don't even look through the light brown clothes, and I cannot wear over-sized clothes because I look like I'm drowning in fabric, so I pass on those, too.

-Try everything on. It's a hassle, I know, but do it. It will save you money and you will leave with what you know fits and looks good. Besides, if it looks good in the horrible thrift store lighting, it will look good at home.

-Watch and wash. Watch the care labels: if you don't want to invest the time and money to have something dry cleaned, don't buy it. And please, wash your new clothes before you wear them. Thank you.

-Don't limit yourself to just thrift stores. Check out the antique stores and consignment stores in your area. They may be a little pricier, but you can often find really great deals or something special. The picture on the right is one of my graduation pictures; the jean jacket came from a thrift store and the dress, belt, and boots came from three different online antique/thrift stores. (I don't know where the horse came from, he wasn't mine. But he had good taste and liked my jacket.)

-Shop in the right neighborhood. I figured this one out by accident. If you live in a large town or city with a "nice" or upscale part of town, check out their thrift stores or the stores that are close by. More upscale neighborhoods usually mean nicer clothes and brand in better condition. Not always, but usually. (BUT, don't forget the little stores in the old parts of town as they can have some real treasures!)

-Watch for extra discounts. Some stores do half-off days, or brown paper bag days, or Military discount days, or a discount on anything with a particular color tag, so keep your eye out!

-Remember to check the online consignment stores that are popping up! Our favorite is thredUP, but there are lots out there. On thredUP you can shop by color, size, brand, or all of the above all at the same time. They have really great prices and do a good job letting you know the condition of the item, and we have been nothing but pleased with the clothes we have purchased from them. And the boxes they ship the clothes in are super cute. (I'm not getting paid to tell you about thredUp, I just really like it and have had great experiences with them, and disclaimer, if you use the link above you get $20 to spend ((seriously)) and we get $20 too. So ya know, that's cool and you are welcome.)

-Don't shop! The easiest way to save money at the thrift store is to just not buy anything. The easiest way to do that is to not go in in the first place. Trust me!

So there ya go, my best tips and tricks. And I would love it if you commented and shared yours!
 -Ashton

The B Word!

The B word...budget...or how I cut our grocery bill in half!

Budget...not a nice word in many a vocabulary, but oh, so needed!  I want to teach my children to live within their means, possibly even below their means, and be good stewards of their money.  To do that we ourselves must be faithful!

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little cwill also be dishonest with much.  So if you have not been trustworthy in handling wealth, who will trust you with true riches?"  Luke 16:10-11(NIV)

We use to spend a lot of money at the grocery store.  I mean, A LOT!  Like that was one of our biggest expenditures.  And yet we never seemed to have any groceries in the house.  The "there's nothing in this house to eat" kind of nothing to eat.  Drove me crazy!

Fast forward three years...

Our pantry, fridge and freezer are full, there are no more echos of there is nothing to eat and we are spending about $400.00 a month for a family of six, toiletries included.

I am not an expert at this, nor do I spend hours a week concentrating on this area of life.  Not my hobby, just a necessity of life.  So while there are plenty of useful guides out there, here's how I did it:

1- Coupons!  Seemed like a waste of time to me, but it does work.  I would not qualify for that silly show on TV, nor would I want to, but I have been stopped several times on my way out of a store by people wanting to know how I just bought that many groceries for that low of a price.  It's a cool thing.  At first it was a personal challenge to see what percentage I could save, then it became a silly family game with even CP asking each week if we had beat our savings record.  I know, we are silly like that...easily entertained.  See the things that will entertain you when you get rid of cable?  haha

Anyway, you can cut all the coupons out at once, use what you need and send the extra ones to an overseas military base, or keep all the flyers and cut out what you need as you go.  NOTE-  Don't use a coupon just because you have it.  If it is something you use or really want to try, then buy it.  Otherwise don't buy it to just to buy it with a coupon... a waste of money.

2-  Look for sales and then use coupons on top of those sale items.  Some of my friends are awesome at identifying these on their own...not me.  I cheat.  I started getting my cheat sheets at Thegrocerygame.com, free trail.  I now pay a small fee each month for their lists (I love how organized their lists are), but there are also tons of gals out there who do it for free and are just as helpful.  A few I use are Thefrugalfind, Streachingabuck and moneysavingmom.  They will also save you lots of money on tons of other items- you will not be sorry if you subscribe to their sites.

3- Use the grocery store customer cards!  Ya know, those free little ditties you hang on your key chain.  One of my latest trips to Kroger started with a total of about $140.00 and once they scanned that little card the total was about $70.00- and that was before coupons.  So if the gal behind me bought the same things and did not use a magic card for whatever reason she would have paid double.  Crazy!

4- Another site I love...$5 Dinners.  Erin is awesome.  She has lots of money saving ideas, but what I love is that her recipes are geared for the budget minded mom or dad.  Let's face it, if a recipe calls for a million expensive ingredients you just broke your budget on one meal.  I have both of her current cookbooks and love them.  (she does giveaways..I won them both!)  Check her out...again, you won't be sorry.

5- Learn how to get free stuff, especially at drugstores and on double coupon days at your local grocery store.  A lot of my stockpile comes from these free items...haven't paid for toothpaste in forever!  Dish soap, air fresheners and salad dressings are also often free.

6-  And that brings us to stockpiling.  Forget that silly show for a minute and stay with me.  NO one needs 100 tubes or cans of ANYTHING!  That is just crazy!  But, sales do tend to run in 6 week cycles so when things (and here's the key phrase) that you use are on sale, buy enough to last your family about 6 weeks.  That way you never pay full price again.  You can "shop" from your pantry when you need ketchup or you can run to the store and pay full price at the 9th hour.  You choose.

7- Shop for a week at a time, or two if you are brave.  The more you go to the store the more money you spend.  Menu planning works for that reason,  Nuff said.

8-  Use cloth napkins and towels in the kitchen.  We started this for fun, not really to save the planet, but hey, every little bit helps.  For larger families, those things are big ticket items!

Two final notes...since we started this journey we have gone to a less processed food lifestyle.  Because of that, I do not use as many coupons I use to, but you can still find them for milk, eggs and other organic products.  They are out there, promise.  Because we grind our own wheat and make much from scratch these days, there are less canned goods to buy.  That money saved goes towards buying bulk grains and fresh produce.  In season veggies and fruits can be found cheap.  I have found a $3.00 bag of potatoes makes a lot more side dishes, and more diversified, than boxes of scalloped potatoes, no matter how cheap I could get them for.  Just works for us.  I tease my family that my goal is to have a bar code free pantry!  ;)

Also, we eat out a lot less these days.  That will eat up a budget faster than you can say eat out!  Seriously.  Our goal, and mind you this is just a goal, is to eat out 2 lunches a month, usually after church, and one dinner.  A family of 6 in a restaurant = big bucks!  Because I do menu plan, we do have less panic moments of what can we eat which helps a lot.

OK, so ask away...what questions do you have, what can I help you with and what do you do that works for your family?  We may have to have a part 2 to this post gals!  There's a lot more we could cover!