My husband’s jeans had gotten a bit threadbare lately, and we’re heading into winter. So I looked through the rack at Goodwill last week to see if I could find him a new pair. I found these after about two minutes of searching:
They’re 7 For All Mankind, in perfect condition. And I paid six dollars for them. They retail new for somewhere between $160 and $220. That’s probably about what I spend on clothes for my whole family for a year. Six dollars for new jeans is much more friendly on our quest for long-term financial stability. That fleece he’s wearing is Columbia, and I found it at a thrift store a couple years ago for about three dollars. This is why I never buy clothing new – or much of anything else for that matter.
We also needed a way to cover the hole in our basement bathroom floor where the backwater device is located. Our inspector said that it had to be readily accessible (ie – we can’t permanently tile over it), and it’s a 12 inch diameter hole in the floor. We’re planning to tile the floor this weekend, and we decided that a small cabinet would be a perfect way to go (our inspector agreed). I found a perfect little white cabinet at Goodwill for five dollars. We’ll tile up to the hole in the floor and leave the hole uncovered. Then we’ll set the cabinet on top and screw it to the wall with a couple of long screws. That makes the hole easily accessible (just remove the screws and move the cabinet) but safely covered. We had considered a lot of possibilities, but none of them were as inexpensive as this little Goodwill solution.
Do you always check for secondhand options before you buy new?
Mrs. Money says
Handsome Mr. Frugal Babe! :) I wish our thrift stores here were as good. My mom has great luck in Michigan with hers!
Albert Moreno says
no, I don’t always check second hand stores. For clothes, stuff I have to wear everyday, I prefer to buy something of high quality that I really, really like and then wear it for years. I’ve had one hoodie I love for 4 years. I think it’s difficult to find used clothes that really call you. That being said, I have been lucky a few times and found some really cool stuff, but it is a lot of work to find that one special item that is perfect for me.
Frugal Babe says
Me too – but I find ours at thrift stores! I don’t buy low-end stuff at all. The clothes I buy in thrift stores was originally sold in high-end stores, but buying it secondhand means we pay pennies on the dollar. Our Goodwill prices all jeans roughly the same (usually $5 or $6), regardless of whether they were originally $20 jeans or $200 jeans. It’s definitely worth it for me to dig around for a few minutes to find the good stuff. That said, we do have a really nice Goodwill – I know they’re not all that great. But there are always treasures to be found :-)
kat89 says
For me, it depends on what I’m looking for. I always look through the consignment shops and thrift stores, but any clothing I buy is usually casual wear. Like Albert Moreno, I also prefer to shop around until I find something I really, really like and will wear for a long time. The problem with thrift shops is that they’re limited in selection and size. So, for clothes, it’s not my usual go-to place, but for home furnishings, decorations and materials for crafts, my local Goodwill store is my #1 stop. I’ve found some beautiful things there at great prices.
CarlaPeicheff says
I try to… But not always. I need to make it a habit though as I know it would save us even more $$$. Our issue is that the only thrift shop we can get to is an hour bus ride away… so it needs to be well planned & organized.
Awesome deal on the jeans!! :)
mustangsabby says
I do like our local thrift shops for some clothes. When potty training my son, I basically loaded the entire 3T collection of pants into my cart and off we went. I have found Banana Republic with tags still on, and companion pieces to our dish set etc. My husband hates shopping thrift, so it is a battle sometimes to get him to see how much I am saving.
But I do draw the line at some things. If I want to add a quality piece to my wardrobe that I know will last for a long time, I buy new. I also never buy used running clothes, because… ick. I tend to buy books on my iPad now, but we usually buy the kids books new in the bargain section at Chapters (canada book chain) Sometimes, I just want something luxurious, something new that is just mine. I save for it though, so we aren’t going out of our way just so mom can have some retail therapy. :)
I have a more personal question though, just curious. Do you ever get tired of rooting and searching for good deals at thrift? Do you sometimes just want to buy the thing you need and be done with it? I know I sometimes struggle with the idea of thrifting as opposed to buying new.
Frugal Babe says
I have some places where I draw the line too… underwear, socks, swim suits, running shoes. But I have an awesome pair of Pearlizumi running shorts that I got for a few dollars – they were brand new, with tags still on them. They sell new for about $50. So I never say never – it just depends on what I find.
Nope, I don’t ever get tired of buying used. :-) Half the fun of it for me is the scavenger hunt. With building materials for our basement, I’ve almost always checked first at the local used building supply place. If they don’t have what we need, I head over to Home Depot, no problem. But that’s because we need whatever it is, right away in order to keep going on the project. That’s pretty much never the case with stuff I get at Goodwill. Clothes, home supplies – those are never an emergency. I plan ahead a bit with our boys clothes to make sure that I’m not in a situation where the first snow fall of the season finds them with nothing that fits except shorts. That’s even easier for me and my husband, since our size doesn’t change. If I do need something specific and I’m unable to find it at Goodwill (like this summer when our son’s favorite shoes – his crocs – melted in the sun on our patio), eBay is a good option (I got him a great pair of barely-used crocs for a total of $11, including shipping). I can’t imagine not checking places like Goodwill, eBay and Craigslist first when we need something new. Every once in a while we head to TJ Maxx to stock up on stuff like underwear and socks, and that store doesn’t seem like fun to me at all. Goodwill, on the other hand, is lots of fun!
I think part of it is that there is rarely something that I really consider a “need”. So I don’t often have to go shopping with a mission in mind. With two little boys who are growing like weeds, this is mostly because I plan ahead for their clothing needs (and the little one has a closet full of hand-me-downs, thanks to being the same gender and born at the same time of the year as our older boy). Like I said, with building supplies that we really need, I have no problem buying new. The stuff I buy in thrift stores is clothing and household goods, most of which aren’t really “needs” at all. All we really need is enough clothing to keep us warm and dry (not a whole closet-full) and some basic stuff in our home. The rest is just gravy, so it’s fun for me to find it used. And some of it is just for fun, just a bit of a splurge that I don’t need at all but really like.
sense says
I used to for certain items when I lived in the States, but i don’t anymore!
NZ has a horrible thrift store selection and it is just as expensive as buying new. I once accidentally bought a skirt for $70 at one (no price tag), and they rang me up and processed the transaction before I could stop them. They had a zero return policy (even though I was right there and had never even left the counter!) so I was stuck with it. Grr. I never thought there could be a $70 skirt at a thrift store when all the others were $25 – $35 or so…! I could have gone to one of the cheapo stores and bought a new one for about $40 (I needed it for a work conference I was helping with that required a certain dress code & none of my friends are my size or had the skirt I needed). American residents are lucky that their thrift selection is so cheap and good, although it is awesome to live in a place where they (Kiwis) really take their ‘use it up, wear it out, make it do, or go without’ mantra very, very seriously.
Frugal Babe says
Yikes! I guess it must have been a very awesome skirt! I have some good friends who are kiwis, and my husband and I were there in 2005 to visit. But we didn’t do any shopping – secondhand or otherwise – while we were there so I wasn’t aware of the dire secondhand market. It is nice to know that they do a better job of wearing out their goods – must be less wasteful than our American culture.
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Mandy says
Love this article. It depends on how urgent it is and what it is exactly, (I get our undergarments at Target in their clearance section and stock up ). We live in a busy city area of in one of the little side sections of the city, one time we made it to 6 Goodwills in a day. We have some other great thift stores in the area. I go between thrift and department stores for clothes, it does bother me that Goodwill doesnt organize their clothes by Size unlike the Saver thift stores we have here. I see a nice pair a pants for 3 bucks only to find they are the wrong size. Bad teaser! We actually just found some nice white cabinets for under 2 bucks a piece at one of our goodwills. I feel guilty full price for anything these days. I have an amazing matching set of book shelfs, 3 of them, that probably sell for atleast 20 a piece. I bought one at one location, 5 months later saw the other one at a different goodwill, 2 weeks later came back to that one and saw another one. Each 7 dollars. Then I have a smaller one that matches them I got 5 at a different good will. If I had bought new I wouldnt have been able to get all that I wanted. For awhile I also got a lot of sterilite containers for 5 dollars, havent seen them lately sadly but those retail from 10-30 it would have been hard to reason that type of cost in our budget. Good luck shopping!!!