An All Day Thrifting Trip

Saturday I went on an all day thrifting trip to Seattle with a few friends.

Turns out I’m not really up for all day shopping right now.  I was achy and TIRED by the end of the day.

I was looking for good condition clothes for my older kids, but since I had specific items in mind I didn’t find as many as I would have if I was just buying all the cute things I could get my hands on.  I was looking for jeans for my older girl who has room to grow in a 7 slim, and leggings for my younger girl who “Hates Pants!” and is generally uncomfortable in anything with a waistband which needs snapping, buttoning or zipping.  I only found one pair of jeans I was willing to pay for, and I just couldn’t bring myself to pay $2.99 for used leggings when new ones are $4.99, and often on sale at that.  Next time I’ll try to plan a thrifting day when the stores are running half off on kids clothes.

I did find some great bargains though.

First we hit the Goodwill Outlet.  Have you heard of this?  They sell everything by the pound, and everything is just heaped into huge rolling bins that you have to dig and sort through.  Definitely not the type of shopping you want to do if you need order or personal space, but with perseverance (and maybe a mask and gloves. I always get sneezy shopping there) you can find some real bargains.  I spent $4.77 on the items in the picture below.  I also spend around $11.00 on shoes including a pair of Bogs for my older girl, some chicken coop boots for myself, and snow boots for the baby to grow into.

Next we hit a regular Goodwill.  Goodwill offers half off a color tag each day.  The color of the day was pink, so I looked for items with pink tags only.  My total for this stop was $7.64 which included a blanket with the original tags still on, and a $3.99 AG hair styling chair which isn’t pictured.  I spent more on the chair than on the baby clothes and blanket combined, but boy were my girls happy when they saw it in the trunk of my car!

(The pink bunting pictured above was actually from Value Village, but got lumped in with the others.  oops!)

Finally we stopped at two different Value Village stores, where I didn’t find much for clothes, but did find something I was not expecting to find or planning to buy.

BOOKS!

Oh, how I love books!  At the first Value Village I found all but one book in the Narnia series, and a great book with 5 minute science experiments kids can do at home and in the yard.

At the second one, I found (drum roll, please) the missing Narnia book, the entire Anne Of Green Gables series, most of the Little House books, Huckleberry Finn, Little Women in print, with the audio book included, three Ramona books, and a Junie B. Jones that we haven’t read yet.  I spent more on books at the last store than I did at all the other stores combined, but I almost never feel bad about spending money on books, and I especially don’t mind when they are a dollar each, and buy four-get one free.

Do you thrift shop?  What are your favorite tricks and tips?

This post may be shared at The Homestead Barn Hop, The Homemaking Link-up, What You Wish Wednesday, and Simple Life Sunday.  Links go live throughout the week.