Last month I wrote about saving money by shopping for second-hand clothes. Today, in a nearby business park, our neighborhood used-clothing shop had a warehouse sale. Everything was a buck (except coats, which were two bucks). Better yet, there was an all-you-can-stuff bin — for $2, you could fill a garbage bag with all sorts of less-than-desirable clothes.
I bought a nice shirt and a nice pair of slacks for $1 a piece. I also filled a $2 bag, including a nice pair of denim pants in just my size. (Most of the all-you-can-stuff clothes are substandard, though: ugly or damaged. I will use these for lounging around the house or for working in the yard.)
Not bad for $4 and half an hour.
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I’ve become spoiled by thrift-store shopping. There are a couple of great thrift stores in my city (plus quite a few not-so-great ones) that I frequent often. Just last week I got a like-new pair of books, 100% wool peacoat, and four sweaters for $20. I have a hard time justifying buying any clothes for full-price at a department store now.
One more thing to look for: some thrift stores get overstock items from big department stores. One thrift store that my mom frequents is like this – my mom regularly gets designer clothes (Ralph Lauren, Ann Taylor) with store tags still on them, brand-new, for like $5 each.
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On the other end of this equation, I try to give all my old clothes to the county clothing center. Giving away clothes is a great feeling–plus, you get more space in your closet and possibly a tax deduction. And then they move on to become an attractive and frugal option for somebody else!
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My husband and I donate old clothes we never wear. Most of them are hardly worn! I shop at the thrift store for fabric, cooking stuff, and old blankets, old pillows, and other useful things that I use for sewing projects. My local thrift store has tons more stuff than just clothes. Most do, I think.
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This time of year I donate as much as I shop in thrift stores, collecting receipts for tax deductions. There’s a great thrift store in our area, and once I started shopping thrift, I never looked back. I don’t think I have bought a new clothing item for 2 years now, and haven’t missed it a bit.
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I do a lot of clothes shopping at thrift/secondhand/consignment stores for my family. We also donate clothes and lots of other types of goods when it’s time for those things to move on.
My husband and I joke that we never buy anything, we just rent them from the Goodwill or Value Village for a while.
I’ve got two kids (a toddler and a first grader) and I could probably count on both hands the number of shirts/pants/coats I’ve bought for them new at the full retail price. Just isn’t worth it.
I also buy probably 90% of my wardrobe on consignment, work clothes included. (I’m an adjunct college professor–not as well compensated as you might think.) This isn’t easy, since I’m what’s euphemistically known as “plus sized”. However, I regularly troll the racks at a wonderful local consignment store that’s just for larger-sized women and I keep myself looking professional for way, WAY less than retail.
There’s a cold snap on the way, so today my older daughter and I went thrifting to find her a warm winter coat. We found a beautiful warm coat that fit her perfectly, as well as a couple of coats a that would suit her next year. We’ll stow them in the coat closet til then. Each garment was in great condition, from a quality manufacturer and was priced $7 or less–I estimate we got each for 10 or 20% of the retail price.
My older daughter loves fancy dresses, pretty clothes, looking cute, etc. She’s also interested in money, her very small allowance, stuff like that. I tell her that I like to check out secondhand stores first when there’s something I need, so that I don’t have to give away more of my money than I need to in order to get what I want. So far she sees the logic in that. It also helps that, when garments only run a couple of dollars apiece, we can go ahead and get that fancy dress or cute sweater. I’d never in a million years be so free with my purchases in a department store…
As an addendum: my husband and I really see this frugal mindset paying off. We have always had a family income lower than or equal to the median income in our urban area, with explosively expensive real estate. This spring we were able to buy our second house, keeping and renting out the first. Our stellar credit ratings and money in the bank made this feasible, even with two kids to support. We made the conscious choice to buy house #2 even though we knew we’d take on some consumer debt–the place was a fixer-upper, and we knew we’d get in the hole dealing with some of the repairs and updates in the near term. I’m happy to say that this month we’ll be paying those credit cards totally off, and will be back in the black. Fancy “new” coats and all!
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hey, thanks for reminding with this article, i used to go second hand shopping years ago, i found once cool t-shirt from German police with “Polizei”
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You can get new shirts under $2 too … there are a handfull of websites that sell clothes at or just above wholesale. e.g. http://cheapthreads.net Good brands too, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, etc.
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With the exception of underwear, shoes and socks my entire wardrobe is from Village Thrift and Goodwill. Working part time as a restaurant host I can not justify spending $20.00 on a Polo shirt and $40.00 for Dockkers when I can get them for .88 cents and $2.88 respectively when they are just going to get ruined in a few weeks anyway. Just be sure to wash them before wearing them. The quality is just as good as the clothes at the mall and I can’t tell you how many times I have found items that still have the tags on them. One of my favorite sweaters I got at “The Village” for only $3.00 that still had the tags on it from The Gap saying it was $48.00 new.
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The most difficult part of thrift store shopping for clothing is that the stuff for very large people is very limited. Even when they have something, it is usually worn out. I completely understand that since it is quite costly to buy large clothing,even at a discount! I recently lost over 150 pounds and I am very fortunate to live in a city that has a JCPenney Outlet store. (Unfortunately, they will be closing it down soon.) This store was my clothing salvation! I’m so thrifty (okay, cheap) that I won’t even buy from their discounted “full” price but I wait until it is marked down even further. I’ve had to replace my wardrobe four times in the last couple of years due to size changes and by getting tops and pants and even dresses from here literally saved me thousands of dollars. Plus, when I am done with them, I list them on Craigslist to help finance the next wardrobe or, because I know that finding gently used clothes in larger sizes is such a thrill to discover at the thrift store, I donate what I can. We can all be thrifty and pay it forward at the same time.
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