Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to go to thrift stores. I had a friend who had tons of neat toys, and when I asked where she got them she would reply "second hand stores". At the time, I thought Second Hand store was the name of the store! It wasn't until later that I realized that second hand stores were in fact thrift stores, and that they are everywhere!
When I was about 7 or 8 every Saturday when we drove to my piano lessons we would drive past Value Village. Whenever we passed it I would ask my mom if after my lesson we could go there. Every time the answer was a steady "No." My mom hates the smell of thrift stores. Have you ever noticed that all thrift stores have the same smell? Well, after you've been in them for an hour or two you hardly notice it! Any ways, at Halloween that year we had to go to Value village to buy Halloween costumes! I immediately loved thrifting! This was due mostly to the fact that they sold beanie babies for cheap, and yes being a nineties kid I loved beanie babies, I wanted them all! Sadly my mother didn't share my love for beanie babies.
As I got older I still wanted to go to thrift stores, but not for the beanie babies for the clothes! In grades six and seven brands like TNA and Lulu lemon were in style, and I figured that there would be lots of those brands at thrift stores for cheap.I eventually got to go, but to my disappointment, there were none of the brands that I was looking for! That was the end of my thrifting for awhile.
Recently I've been on pinterest, and they have lots of things that you can make from things found at thrift stores! I wrote up a list of things and went to a little salvation army thrift store up the street from my house. The first time I went i only bought 2 vases and didn't even look at the clothing, but it turned out that the thrift store was going out of business, and was having a 50% off sale the next week. When I went back the following week I took a look through the racks of clothes. To my surprise I found several tops that were cute! After spending nearly two hours in the store I had a cart full of clothes! At the checkout counter I ended up paying around $25 for everything! The hunt, the discovery, the savings... It was awesome! I found myself suddenly hooked on thrifting!
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| $1.50 |
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| American Eagle dress $2.00 |
Sadly The salvation army store has since closed. I have lived within walking distance from it for years, and I decide to love thrifting the week before it closes. :(
Value Village tunes out to be VERY expensive. Their clothes are wayyyyy over priced, and most of the clothes there are ugly not my style.... I don't understand why they feel justified to charge so much for their things! First of all, they get their stock FOR FREE! So can someone please explain why some of the things are the same price as you would find in a retail store? Dear Value village, May I remind you, that the things they are selling are USED? Second of all, no one in their right mind is going to buy a ratty old tank top with holes and stains on it for $5.99. On top of everything, they charge tax. I think it should be a rule that thrift stores do not charge tax! The reason for this is that every thing in the store has been bought at a store, thus being taxed already! Plus, living in BC the HST is a real pain. You can end up paying like $8 just in taxes! Never the less i ended up going to Value Village, and spent a pretty penny on things that should have been way cheaper.
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| Forever 21 sheer top $6.99 |
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| Lace top Dress $14.99 |
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| Delias tank top $10.99 |
These pieces were just too cute to refuse! But as you can see they were way overpriced. With tax this purchase came to over $35!
Thankfully Value village has 4 days a year where they are 50% off. And I was lucky enough to go to one of them. My sister and i went and bought a ton of clothing! Here are some of the things I bought.
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| BLACK Gap skirt $5.00 |
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| Tube top $3.50 |
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| Brand new American Eagle dress $8.50 |
Ever since I've found thrifting, I find it hard to shop retail for clothing. Thrifting is a great way to save money and help the planet (by reusing!). I am excited to show you other clothing I have found thrifting, and share my thrift shop experiences on my blog! Stay tuned for more outfits and maybe even some of me modelling clothes (if I can find someone to take pictures of me). If you have read all the way down to the bottom of this page, thank you very much for your long attention span! Thanks for reading! :D
