The following is a guest post by Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. Her blog covers living expenses, saving for your future, and the fun stuff along the way.
I love shopping at Goodwill. I don’t shop for clothes often—once every year or so—but when I do, I go to Kohl’s, Dillard’s, and Goodwill. Oh, and Shirt Woot, but that’s more for the humor than the shirts themselves. 🙂
Kohl’s has my favorite line of tops (Dana Blumenthal). Dillard’s carries my favorite line of work slacks (Investments). Goodwill is just for fun.
There’s just something about browsing rows and rows of clothing that I don’t have to feel guilty for wanting to buy. I’ve only bought one t-shirt and four blouses over the past 3 years, but all of those are still my favorites and cost less than $25 altogether. Two of the blouses make great work tops!
My first trip to those lovely aisles was with a friend about 3 years ago. We had a ton of fun trying on 30 or 40 pieces each and coming out of the dressing area to get the thumbs up or down from each other. It was also fun to think of the outfits we could easily put together for friends and family members that weren’t there—the tackier the better, lol.
I thought that Goodwill would have worn-out stuff that was all from before I was born, but I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, there are some old styles, but there is also a lot of new stuff too. Not all tops come with shoulder pads. 🙂
My favorite Goodwill blouse is easy to clean and fades from a tan to black from shoulder to stomach so it looks elegant and works great for a woman with a little fluff (like me).
For guys, the fashions don’t seem to change as much so there seems to be more general options. My husband would be fine with almost any of it, but his wardrobe is complete for right now.
Have you ever shopped at Goodwill or a different thrift store? If you have, how did you like it? If you haven’t, would you consider it?
I rarely shop at thrift stores on my own because I don’t have the patience to wade through that much junk to possibly find something that works for me – I’m usually looking for something specific & that doesn’t work well, at least around here. When I do go to one, I prefer those that are run by auxiliaries & women’s clubs, as they usually have some nicer items. What’s fun though is to go with a group of friends & make it more about the recreation than the shopping. And some bloggers have inspired me to look beyond the actual item to the possibilities if I’m willing to tailor/remake it (like shortening skirts, dying the top, etc).
As an aside, in our area Kohls has the largest selection of slacks & jeans, so that’s what I shop for there.
@valleycat1, Kohl’s has a big selection here too…just not of the petites I need for my very short legs, lol. Okay, I’ll be honest, they have petites, they just don’t have much for chubby petites. That’s why I gravitated to the Investments brand – they fit. I have high standards, hahaha.
I agree, it really is much more fun with friends!
I’m 5’10” so I can pretty much only get tops at goodwill. Pants are almost always too short.
My local thrift stores are expensive. Shirts are in the $8+ range. I almost bought a top a few months ago until I noticed it was marked $12. Sorry, I didn’t like it that much.
Thrifts are better in bigger cities. More supply, less demand = lower prices.
My favorite thrift store in college was called the Jewish council thrift. I’m going to be totally stereotyping here, but the Jews in my town have good taste. The store was filled with quality name brand clothing. I would often find nearly brand new quality brands there at very reasonable prices and got many compliments on the clothes that I bought from there. Too bad there weren’t more taller Jewish women out there or I would have made out like a bandit.
@ Sandy L: In these parts, Hadassah operates a very nice thrift shop.
I learned about it from my beloved neighbor, who was Jewish. She was the one who showed me how to outfit a family of four at practically no cost. At the end of each style season, she would hit the sales and buy department-store clothing–nice clothing, at astounding markdowns. These would go into the kids, the hubby’s, and her own closets. As she was stuffing the new goods into the closet, she would take out last year’s outfits. Everything would be freshly washed and pressed, and then presented to Buffalo Exchange.
Because she’d learned how to “work” BE, she usually sold most of the old clothing there. Because she had paid rock-bottom prices for the new clothes, what she got back from the consignment store about covered the price of the new stuff. Everything she couldn’t sell, she took to Hadassah, a group for which she also volunteered quite a lot.
Her family always looked well dressed in the current styles, and she wasn’t paying much for the privilege!
I used to love to shop in thrift stores. Now I’m more of a dropper off than a shopper or buyer. I’m not really sure what caused the change. I’ll have to go back!
You can find some great deals in thrift shops. The only thing that bothered me about this post was hearing about you trying stuff on. Buy it, take a chance, wash it, and then try it on. I used to work in a thrift shop. You would be horrified if you saw the donations that came in. Yes it was sorted through but sometimes an item would be salvaged from a very bad selection before tossing the rest. Many people donated clean almost new stuff and then there were others….Yuck! You wouldn’t believe the stuff I saw.
@Sandy L, sounds like being tall has the same drawbacks as being short. 🙂
@SimplyForties, it takes more time to shop thrift stores…that’s why I only make it occasionally. Hope you find some awesome deals!
@iamtheworkingpoor, I can’t afford to buy everything I’m interested in – even at Goodwill prices. I can see it being gross, but I’ll just have to take my chances (I usually have 40-50 items I want to try before settling on 3-5, lol).
Ditto that, Budgeting!
@ iamtheworkingpoor: I had a similar experience with something that I bought at Buffalo Exchange before I noticed…ahem…a particularly gross soiled spot. Wear some hefty underwear and, if you have them, a pair of tights and a leotard.
The concern I feel these days about shopping in any second-hand store is the whole bedbug thing. The little critters have hitch-hiked from NYC, where they’re a BIG problem, out to the sunny West. The instant you get home, stick everything you bought in the washer along with the whatever you wore into the shop, and then run it all through the dryer on “hot.” Apparently the heat of a dryer set on “high” will kill ’em.
When I was in high school it was the cool thing to do to buy your clothes from Savers. We used to search for vintage Levi’s, and it was such a score to find them. Some of my favorite jeans from my youth were purchased for $2 at Savers.
Now, I admit, I’m a little scared to purchase clothing from Goodwill. But I do frequent their aisles for home goods that can be re-purposed – like bulletin boards, picture frames, lamps, and wood furniture. If I have a “list” of home things I need, I’ll often start there.
@Lady Mint, I hadn’t thought about shopping Goodwill for non-clothing. We seem to get a lot of hand-me-downs from family for around the house stuff and we buy the rest new or used off of Craigslist. I’ll have to keep Goodwill in mind!