Saving Big on clothes!!

My wife has been trolling the goodwill stores for a couple of years now, and coming home with some amazing clothes. I mean name brand (Bill Blass, Bacharacks, Alfred Dunner, Liz ClaBorne, and many many others) clothes with price tags still attached, never worn clothes!! So tonight she talked me into dinner out, and a stop at a Goodwill store. We spent $34.18, and came home with 3 pairs of Wrangler Jeans for me (2 new, 1 very slightly worn), two very nice skirts, a dress, and a sweater for her!!

If you have not looked here for stretching your dollar, it is time!

Keith

I usually find some good bargains at our Goodwill whenever I get a chance to go there.

Yep, the Goodwill, thrift stores and even some yard sales. Although you can also do what I do, wear them till they're about to fall apart. LOL

Oh I do, especially shoes. I get teased at work for it all the time. My employer provides work boots, due to the environment inside the plant I do not want to wear my nicer shoes in to change into my work boots (which I also do not want in my vehicle). I have jeans that are so old they are starting to fall apart. I mean even the stitching around the zipper is giving away, and re stitching just causes the fabric to pull apart beside the stitches.
And don't even get me started on getting your money's worth from a vehicle. My current vehicle I bought new, in 2003. By my estimate it has another 8 or 9 years of good service left in it.

I prefer the older vehicles. My van is pretty old. We bought it used 10 yrs ago. We're actually looking for an old VW bug. Those things were built to last and the backyard mechanic could work on it. Even as old as my van is, it has too many electronic components that makes it hard to fix it yourself. Joe found an old VW bug, 1969, I think he said, that we're going to try to check into.

The old "Vanagon's" were great!! Two of the guys I work with drive them. Both were re-fitted with a small diesel engine from a VW Rabbit. If you do this they recommend the turbo version, because the van is so much heavier than a Rabbit.

I really don't like cheap quality clothing and with what I want to spend on clothing, it usually means poor quality, new, from the shops. Instead, I shop the thrift shops and get good quality for very low cost. We spend less than £100 ($200) per year on clothing for the 2 of us.

Miss Lillia, that sounds about like our yearly clothing expense.

My wife and I spend about $200 to $250 annually for clothing.

Another thing, I mend our clothes. I hate to spend money if I don't have to.

I've looked in the thrift stores around here, and normally, the clothes go for about what they do in the store! I tend to wear my clothes until they're falling apart, so it doesn't bother me too much when I do need to finally break down and buy something. The thing I'm the hardest on is probably shoes.

My wife loves the thrift stores. Not only does she get clothes from thrift stores but she also has bought skirts for their material so she can make them into quilts. Its like getting material for practically nothing.

dizzy, check the goodwill stores. We can get some really nice clothes there, and many pieces still have the store price tags. Some things need minor alterations to fit, others do not

I've checked. We have Good Will, Salvation Army and other thrift stores and normally the prices on clothes is about what you'd pay in stores, sometimes it's even more. But, if I have to spend $20.00 in a thrift store for a pair of used jeans, I might as well wait for them to be on sale at Wally World for the same price. Plus, it's hard for me to find my size in a regular store let alone a thrift store.

dizzy wrote:I've checked. We have Good Will, Salvation Army and other thrift stores and normally the prices on clothes is about what you'd pay in stores, sometimes it's even more. But, if I have to spend $20.00 in a thrift store for a pair of used jeans, I might as well wait for them to be on sale at Wally World for the same price. Plus, it's hard for me to find my size in a regular store let alone a thrift store.

What part of the country are you from Dizzy? We are from eastern OH and my wife would never pay that much for used clothes. She shops at Good Will and Salvation Army all the time. She really liked Village Discount Outlet but the one near us closed a few months ago. As far a buying new I buy my Jeans at Wally world and always get Wrangler for about 16.99 - 17.99.

South Jersey. I have yet to find a thrift store that has good prices.

hmm,

location, location, location...

Our last trip to a thrift shop we walked out with three pairs of jeans (Wrangler), two dresses, four womans shirts, and two pair of womans slacks for a grand total of $9.00

So either your thrift shops are not thrifty, or we have different definations of thrift stores. I understand things cost more in Jersey (or any larger metro area) than I see locally, but there should be bargains to be had. Also look for a "Habitat Re-Store" for building and decoration supplies (including paint)

We have one of those, and there was next to nothing in it. Our thrift stores are not that thrifty, at least not when it comes to clothes-unless you get stuff that's not that nice.

Plus, like I said, it's very difficult for me to find my size, even in the regular stores. I'm lucky if they have 1 pair of jeans in my size, let alone 2 or 3 pairs. They tend to stock the larger sizes.

dizzy, so you have Salvation Army or Goodwill stores in your area? If not, this may be a wonderful opportunity for you to open a second hand type store in your area. You may do pretty good in your area if you keep the prices down. Take things on consignment to help others in the community.

We have everything in this area, and none of them have good prices. I can think of at least a dozen "thrift stores" w/in 20 miles of here and those are only the ones I know about.

So, you give lower prices and make a killing! Everyone is looking for good deals, so repurposed items you can make a profit and still give good prices for buyers.

I gotta agree with sonshine here, either the pricing structure is out of line, or taxes and regulations are keeping things priced at ridiculous levels

Rent and other overhead (I have heard) is five times what it would be locally, that may also be a factor.

$1,000 will rent a store front in a good (not prime but good) location here, and that's for aprox 800 to 1,000 sq feet

As for sizes, may I offer you a bacon cheese burger?

No thanks!

And yep, I figure location is probably what keeps the prices so high. NJ is one of the most expensive states to live in. If I wanted to open a thrift store (which I don't!), I need to figure in the cost of renting a store. Then, I'd need insurance on it, plus the cost of electricity and heating. Most people would not want to donate items to it because it wouldn't be a non-profit organization, so I'd have to find a way to get merchandise for cheap. Then I'd need a vehicle for hauling the stuff and insurance on that. Plus, I'd need to hire a couple of employees since I have 0 desire to spend all day sitting in a store, as well as someone who knows how to do bookkeeping. Then there's all the taxes I'd have to pay for unemployment, social security, sales tax, and who knows what else. And these are just the expenses I can think of off the top of my head. All of this would take money that I don't have and give me stress that I don't need. Bottom line, it wouldn't be worth it.

We have a Goodwill, but I rarely buy anything there unless it's marked on clearance. Their prices are too high usually.

I do get good deals at rummage sales. In the spring and fall, churches around here have sales and I can always find my kids something to wear.

I love going to yard sales. Every year they have this thing called peaches to beaches. It's a couple of hundred miles of yard sales. This year we picked up an antique phonograph, that still works! We've been hitting thift stores and antique stores buying records for it.