I do about 90% of my clothes shopping/buying from thrift stores. I go to real stores for underwear, socks and at times, a really dressy outfit for a special occasion when I'm in a time crunch and can't find what I want in local thrift stores. And when I say thrift stores...I mean Goodwill, Salvation Army and Hospital Thrift Shops run by their ladies auxiliary, etc.
I shopped like this when I was fat and I shop like this now. One of the painful aspects of shopping in regular stores was having to pay quite a bit for something I didn't really like. And when I was fat....I was gonna not like or look good in almost everything. It was simply a matter of which item looked the least horrible on me.......and to pay good money for this just added to the loss of self-esteem pain. (and I know the lighting in those dressing rooms make you look your worst in those mirrors...lol)
When you purchase an outfit in a store....wear it once and it's no longer NEW. For those who like the feel of new clothes, you only get to experience that one time....and is the cost worth it?
I'm not wealthy and one of the best things about thrift shopping is that I can literally spend like a drunken sailor and go home with bags and bags of stuff. I once got a receptionist job and needed casual/dressy (non-jeans stuff). For about $75 I literally bought an entire wardrobe that took up a good bit of my closet and got lots of compliments on many of the outfits/items. I feel like Ms. Rich Person when I can shop like this.
Another plus is that the aspect of it being a treasure hunt makes it challenging but in a fun way. You have to do a bit of searching to get most of your finds but feel like you hit a gold-mine when you find the really good ones.
Another is that thrift stores carry many things that are no longer super-stylish but might have been the styles that looked best on you....when the current styles might look horrible on you. I remember one year when I was fat, I needed a nice dress for family wedding and the style that year was shirtwaist......and I'm short and they looked awful on me. But went to a thrift store and found a nice empire waist dress that looked much better on me.....but that you could not find in stores due to shirt-waists being IN and empire waists being OUT.
I'm sorry.....but when you're fat (and not wealthy).....wearing the most current fashions is not your greatest priority. You just need something that looks decent on you........so who cares about the trendy aspect?
Many of the items....you can tell just by looking at them....were worn once or twice and later donated. You will know which items launder well before you choose. Some of the items are VERY worn but there are plenty of relatively new things to choose from.....new meaning not worn, not meaning trendy.
I cycle around the different thrift shops....there are several Good Wills around me.....and I do each one in cycles.....to give them time to put out lots of newly donated stuff I've not seen before. Sometimes you can get the best stuff at 1) the thrift stores in the more upscale areas and 2) in the hospital thrift stores that are in good areas.
Seriously, it's a blast. I wear 29-30" jeans now (from 38-40" about 2 years ago) and I STILL buy most of my clothing at the thrift stores. You get to the point where the prices in the regular stores look outrageous when you become accustomed to getting clothes for much less.
My idea of a decent price for jeans if 5 bucks now....
$100 for them seems totally nuts...and highway robbery....to me.
And you can find some great treasures....my dad got Armani suits at the Paoli Hospital Thrift Shop...barely worn (I think most of the volunteers/auxiliary ladies there were married to doctors and would just buy stuff the husband didn't end up liking much....so they would donate it...often with the price tag still on it). Just recently, my sister found a pair of jeans for herself (for $5 ) that (she's fairly wealthy and has 3 daughters) she knew for a fact cost $170 in the stores. I can't remember the name...
seventy-one or something like that....but she was thrilled. I even have designer items I've gotten from thrift stores....and items from Talbots and other pretty upscale and expensive stores.
I would never pay the prices in regular stores any more....unless I was really desperate and in a time crunch.
deena
