Secondhand Shopping Awesomeness

I think thrift stores get a bad wrap. Or maybe my old childhood fears of someone saying "Yo mama shops at the Salvation Army, Kmart & Payless Shoes" still haunt me. Ha! Of course after I was laid off and decided to stay home we went from really well off, to one small income, I had to re-learn how to shop.

Another reference to the Duggar family in the same day. Their family motto is "Buy used and save the difference". They rarely ever buy anything new, and they pay cash for everything. They have no debt, none, not even mortgage debt. Anyhoo, thrift store shopping is how they clothe and shoe their 19 kids. They are always nicely and modestly dressed.

Our town has about 5 or 6 secondhand stores. Some are better than others. The chain thrift stores like Goodwill tend to be a little expensive. Who wants to pay $10 for a used kids dress? Um, not me. I go there sometimes, and have found great deals, but I prefer to give business to the Church run stores.

Clothing a bunch of kids can get expensive. Especially with the smaller ones seem to grow out of clothes faster than they can wear them out. I have found some super great items. In fact most of what I find are expensive brand names. I have purchased two Janie & Jack items with combined retail price of $93 plus tax, in like new shape for only $4.00. This also helps our environment by reusing and not creating more trash. We should all be good stewards of the earth God has created for us.

This week I purchased 9 items from my favorite Buenas Vidas Youth Ranch Thrift Store (Saturday's everything is 50% off). For the little girls, 2 dresses, 2 skirts and 1 sweater. For the big girls 1 skirt and 1 dress and 2 skirts for myself. Not that I really care too much about brand name items but sometimes it's exciting, especially when you know how much someone else paid for the item you just bought for a dollar. The little girls clothes were all Gap, J&J, Gymboree & Old Navy, all places I can't afford to shop. The big girls items were nice quality brands too. All the items were in just like new condition.

I LOVE LOVE figuring out how much money I saved. I added up the approximate retail price for all 9 items purchased yesterday. It was roughly $345.00, including tax. I paid $18.11 (less than an hour of work for Adam), including tax, averaging $2.01 per item. Saving my husband $326.89 approximately 2 days of hard work. He should be so proud of me. haha!

I took pictures this time, because I'm a nerd like that. I'm missing the black skirt I got for the big girls. I think Kiley wore it today. It's a long, mid calf plain black skirt.