Late August Thrifting Haul - August 22, 2015

What a weird month this has been. What a weird summer.

Yesterday I did a quick thrifting trip with Amy and only hit one store - my favorite store. Over time, I've started to develop a gut feeling about how that store will work out, and yesterday I was feeling that there wasn't going to be much I would buy. And I was right. I mean, my closet is now bursting and I'm working on paring down, donating, selling, etc. so that's totally fine, but I do need more fall clothing. I'm also (still) on the job hunt, so any "nicer" clothing is always a great addition to my closet just in case, as I live in jeans 99% of the time.

I tried on pretty much every pair of pants in the store in my size (or what I thought was my size - it's always fascinating to see the wide range of what a certain number means depending on the fabric and style and, most importantly, the brand) because there were a lot. Often the pants section is full of very outdated, very unfortunate specimens with crazy high waists (I do believe that's coming back in style though) or lots and lots of polyester. This time there were great brands and styles. And....not much fit in the way I wanted it to. But I did find some gems.

And I also walked away with one of my favorite finds in a while. I'll save that for last.

Pants are hard to take nice pictures of....

These are squishy loungey Aeropostale shorts. $1.50

Levi's! In the style number that I wore pre-weight-loss but my current size. I still love them. $2.50

Bonus: They have pretty funky back pockets.

Really nice and a little bit shiny-silvery Express pants. They need to be hemmed because they're too long. I'm thinking of using duct tape. Why not? OK OK OK I mean....using that stuff you iron. #nosew $1.50

These are identical pairs of cargo pants with just a slight color variation - one more brown, one more camel. They're Sonoma, they fit nicely, and hey, they're not jeans! $1.50/each.

FAAAAAAVORITE. These are nearly mint condition vintage-style Kangaroos in my size! For $2.50! AND THEY FIT! (I didn't try them on in the store - I figured it was worth it to take a chance.) They have the cute little zipper pocket and everything. And really, I tend to avoid shoes unless they're perfect - these are perfect. I can tell they were worn once or twice, but everything about them is clean and crisp and fantastic. I cannot wait for the weather to cool off a bit so I can wear them!

And that's it!

Sorry Not Sorry: The Thrifting Posts Continue! - July 22, 2014

First: A SHOUT OUT to my new friends. You know who you are. Whee! SHOUTY!

So I thought for sure that 50 cent day was last week, but no. The store's calendar said yes, but the staff said that it was this week. Last week I bought one thing - some dividers for drawers from the Container Store for $2. This week I bought....many things.

(Not shown: I bought two cardboard storage boxes with handles to corral more of the overwhelming paper mess in my house. I'm going to cover them with cute paper. Probably. Maybe.)

All the clothing cost 50 cents per piece. (The store does a monthly clean out where anything that has been in the store longer than...it seems about 2 months...gets marked down. This is my happy happy place.)

Oh, sorry, were you napping? Didn't mean to wake you...

Brown sleeveless Merona top.

Suuuuper cute Ann Taylor Loft skirt. The ribbon belt is adorable. It's greener in person.

Stripey button down shirt because I need button down shirts again. AT Loft.

This innocuous, squishy, foldy bit of fabric is in fact a yoga-pants-material squishy skirt. It's Merona and it kind of reminds me of a maternity skirt I loved to pieces - except not maternity.

Dockers dress! (So classy that I left the doorknob in there.) This one has a story - I've been eyeing this dress for a while now but I wasn't interested in paying $8 for it. The last time I hit 50 cent day, I was pretty sure this dress would be on those special racks, but the staff hadn't had time to look at the dresses at all. I skipped last month's 50 cent day. Today I saw that it was still on the rack and I was POSITIVE this should be marked down - so I grabbed it and asked, noting the magic number on the tag. "Oh, yes! Definitely." Yeehaw. It's cute on too.

Some sort of plain gray shirt.

Again with the jeans. I know, I know. Abercrombie though. And next to them, that thing is a long black stretchy skirt, just trust me.

Really cute AT Loft shirt. More button downs, see?

This shirt is good but not great, but it's American A*parel (yes, I starred it - I don't want this to come up in search because that company is problematic - but they do make cute, soft shirts).

This is the robot portion of the post. ROBOTS. Does this shirt fit me? I have no idea, I didn't try it on. Will it fit my kid? Maybe. BUT ROBOTS. So I bought it.

ROBOTS. ALL THE ROBOTS. Same story as above.

SERIOUSLY, MORE ROBOTS. Same story. ROBOTS.

I went back and forth on this shirt (what does it mean?) but it fit well and it's a Bella shirt (nice, soft) so eh 50 cents, sure.

Shorts for the kid!

A sister shirt to the other Snoopy shirt I bought recently!

Talbots skirt. Fits well, flares out in a nice A line. Love.

ALSO:

Old-style Candyland for a dollar. The cards are possibly not all there and some are bent, but the board is perfect - we can use it with the spinner from the (weird, overwhelming, sensory-overloading) newer version we have.

Tadaaaaaa. Thrifting!

Thrifting Post - 50 Cent Day Edition - May 20, 2014

Every month, the newly discovered thrift store clears out things from the previous month or two and marks it all down to 50 cents. Bam. Boom. Pow. 50 cents. Clothing and also some random pillow cases and things. Only other woman was shopping when I was in the store, and there was no competition between us. I just grabbed everything that looked cute and tried it all on, then culled it to these 11 things. I paid less than $6 total for all of this - even at the thrift store's regular prices I would've spent around $70 (well, I wouldn't have but you know what I mean).

City shirt!

New with tags Dockers skirt. Price tag says $40. It's so cute too - soft, dark blue corduroy.

Express skirt

I am probably going to resell this Guster shirt. I knew the band when they were Gus!

Jordache jeans for the kid.

Levi's shirt.

Terrrrrible picture of way cute black Ann Taylor Loft button down shirt.

FAVORITE. It's a NY&Co. skirt and I loooooove it.

Plain boring but cute Old Navy waffle shirt.

How could I resist a Piggly Wiggly shirt???? (The back says something about Piggly Wiggly too.)

White Stag skirt - I guess that's the evil empire's house brand? It's cute for 50 cents.

Taaaadaaaah! And yes, I'm still working on that crafty post. I just have to finish a few things around here first.

Birthday Thrifting! - November 23, 2013

So I turned 40 last week and the biggest adjustment has been hearing that number come out of my mouth, over and over and over. Rolling it around on my tongue and trying to reconcile my notions of what 40 should be with what 40 is for me. It's fine, I'm fine, I'm learning.

To extend my celebration a bit longer, I planned a thrifty day with Amy. Well, I also needed to get away for a little bit. Things have been tricky with the kid's school and she also had a stomach bug hit her pretty hard (I blamed it on "food poisoning" until I found out that other kids in her class were similarly afflicted). I take my breaks as I can get them.

After fueling up at Dunkin Donuts, where I cashed in my free birthday drink coupon on a french vanilla coffee with skim milk and sugar and threw in a chocolate donut for nostalgia's sake (DD = Boston = home), we hit our favorite spots. The kid's wardrobe recently grew incrementally thanks to some gift cards and some store sales, so she didn't need much. Technically I didn't need much either, but I also was finding myself wearing the same things over and over.

OK, also, the first store we went to - an indie store that supports the community - was having BOGO on all adult clothing. All adult clothing is normally $2 or $3 a piece. YES PLEASE.

Two side notes: This store definitely goes in cycles and for the past...year? I hadn't found anything appealing. But the last time we went and this time I found so many things. SO MANY. And also, I used to walk into thrift stores and stare at the racks of clothing - particularly if the store was having any sort of sale at all - and go blank, wander over to the books, and buy those instead. It has been a long, slow process to me buying clothing for myself that does include my weight loss but also a sort of comfort in my body and my own style. (I still worry that someone out there is waiting to make fun of me for what I'm wearing - thank you, junior high school/high school - but thanks to the Internet and seeing so many people making so many choices, I'm more comfortable just letting myself wear whatever the fuck I want to wear.)

I considered hanging up everything all nice to take pictures and then I realized nobody's looking anyway so whatever. These pictures are terrible and my blog will never be famous for its photography. Hey camera makers, if you ever want to send a DSLR to test and review, I'd gladly accept - I'll even take two so I can do a fabulous giveaway! Ha.

I do use these thrifting posts a lot for my own reasons though - to look back and see what I've bought, what I need, what I bought but never wore, what I wear all the time, and also to check pricing because I do occasionally resell things and I want to see what to set prices at.

Anyhoo, let's get to the pictures!

I could not resist two copies of Cricket magazine from the 70s. I was a subscriber when I was a kid and for a while I had a huge collection. Eventually my mother made me throw it all away, but somewhere in her house (or maybe my dad's house?) there is a box that contains the very first issue of Cricket, the 100th issue, the 10th anniversary, and possibly some other milestone issues. These were 50 cents each.

Kid clothes are a dollar each. I had just bought my kid a shirt at Gymboree that looks very similar to these designs. These are Carters, though, and they seem nearly new to me.

Women's sleeveless tops are $2 each, and they were BOGO so $1. This tank top is to go under a sweater that I'll show you in a minute.

I bought this without trying it on - it's Ann Taylor and it's really cute and it was just a dollar so I figured, why not.

Next up, four skirts. Normally $3/each, but BOGO, so $1.50 each.

Old Navy. Swingy and cute!

H&M. Stretchy and fun!

Express! Swooshy and sweet. Very lightweight and despite what my camera really wants you to think, more of a blue/purple. Loved this one - fully lined and sort of a faux wraparound without the drama of trying to keep the wrap...around.

More Old Navy (I bought a LOT of Old Navy stuff). I really liked this one too.

Sweaters?

Old Navy. Fuzzy and lightweight and a tiny bit see through. Remember that tank top I just showed you? That's for under this.

Don't be surprised...this is also Old Navy.

And some odds and ends.

Target skinny jeans. These are "long" but I think I can fold them a bit to tuck into boots. They fit really well otherwise although I also know that Target jeans stretch out and get saggy really fast. For $1.50 I can handle it, and I liked the metal studs around the pockets.

Gap T-shirt.

Brand I don't recognize, plain black turtleneck cotton sweater.

New York & Company. I wasn't sure about it but Amy liked it and hey, $1.50 and I needed an even number of things so I got it. I've bought other tops in this style before and I never wear them but maybe this time?

Grand total with tax? $21.40.

Next up, other favorite indie store that supports a no-kill animal shelter. As I've said many times, I don't fully understand their pricing all the time, but I'll try to tell you what I paid because you care. Right? RIGHT?

Threadless shirt! http://www.threadless.com/product/1316/Keeping_Up_With_The_Boneses - I think this was a dollar.

Another Threadless shirt! http://www.threadless.com/product/310/Sally_Finds_A_Stray Also maybe a dollar?

Woot shirt that I absolutely adore. Hard to tell from the pic, but it's S'mores Code! I translated it - can you? http://shirt.woot.com/offers/smorse-code Another dollar shirt, I think.

This book was a dollar. It's from 1962 and it's fascinating. I love New York City!

This was complete news to me. The borough was renamed in 1975 - you can look it up for yourself.

Cute little Old Navy shrug with shiny accents. It has a weensy bit of cashmere in it which makes it fancy, I'm pretty sure. This was $2 I think.

Plain but long Old Navy T-shirt. A dollar?

Target T-shirt because, as I've noted, I can never have too many plain black T-shirts. (They all fit in a different way! They all match different things, I swear! Also yay.) Probably a dollar.

The tag was cut out of this squishy lovely sweater so I know nothing about it - size, brand, materials. But I know that I love how it fits and I love the swingy sleeves. Possibly $2.

T-shirt dress from Steve & Barry, a store that apparently went bankrupt about 5 years ago. This dress is cute, sorry S&B for your woes.

Best find of the day, I think - thank you Amy for finding it! It's a Columbia coat that is in perfect condition though I think it's missing a hood, maybe. It was $5.11 - yes, eleven cents - and it fits my kid and she likes it. Hooray!

Grand total, with tax, $18.31.

And finally we went to Value Village just to poke around. I saw an old Palm Pilot and a really cool industrial juicer, but in the end bought nothing for me and just a few things for the kid.

Old Navy adjustable waist cords for my skinny girl. $2.49

Two more cute shirts because apparently all I want my kid to wear (and she approves) is soft cotton shirts with cute designs. $1.49 each, Carters on the left, Old Navy on the right in a design that looks like my kid walking our neighbor's dog.

Hopefully at some point in the future I'll post pictures of me actually wearing some of the things. But first, off to the washing machine they go...!

I found a linky party at A Living Space - and another at Thrifter Maker Fixer Farm. I joined both, I linked up (I hope I did it right), go check it out!