I didn't grow up being thrifty or frugal. Even when we hit some pretty tough times, financially, I don't recall that we were "thrifty", necessarily. What we did was to just not spend any money. There was a moratorium on ALL spending that wasn't absolutely necessary.
So, we didn't get new clothes or shoes that year. We probably ate a lot of cheap canned food. When my parents' friend went fishing and caught a lot of fish, we thankfully accepted his gift of fresh fish. It was delicious.
But we never went to the Goodwill or the Salvation Army store, or really, very many other Thrift stores ... well, except the used book store, and that was different.
I grew up believing, like the "rich girl", mentioned in this video, that Thrift shopping was something poor people did, and that was sad. It was sad that they were destitute, desperate ... needy. It wasn't a character judgment. It just was what it was.
Even when my family actually was destitute, desperate, and needy, when going to the Thrift store could have meant that I was well dressed in quality used clothing we'd purchased at a fraction of its SRP for a new garment, instead of wearing out-dated, hand-me-downs from the family in the cul-de-sac just up from my suburban home (and being embarrassed every day, because my polyester pants were "Mom" clothes from the 1960s), we didn't thrift store shop.
In college, as a young mom and poor college student, I still didn't thrift shop. It was that same mental block. It was "charity," and I didn't do charity ... accept I did for other things. Just not clothes.
As the saying goes, I wish I had known then, what I know now.
I was in my thirties the first time I met someone who had a discount card for Goodwill. At first, I thought, "Why would someone want a 10% discount on used stuff?"
I've come around to her kind of thinking.
In fact, now, most of my clothes are from the consignment shop. Like the mom in the above video, I have advised my children that the only new clothes they should buy are shoes and underwear. Shoes, not because they are inherently unsanitary (I mean ... bowling), but because our natural gait will wear the soles of shoes in ways that may point to an unhealthy gait.
But also, because the kinds of shoes that we're going to wear, and wear a lot, I want to last for a very long time.
I'm not a fan of yard sales, but I am LOVING the yard sale groups on social media. I just bought a cabinet for my living room for a quarter of what it would have cost new.
The video linked above is a spoken poem by Kelly Zimmerman, "Ode To Thrift Stores", and what she says resonated so much with who I am now, and how I feel about consumerism and stuff acquisition.
What's funny is that what she says in much of the poem is exactly the Prepper mantra. "Make the Thing You Have, the Thing You Need."
As a prepper, that's exactly what I do, and after many years of spending too much time and too much money trying to buy what I thought I needed, I will take a few extra days to figure out if I already have what I need, or if I have something that could be modified to be what I need.
It's a good life. And moreover, the knowledge that I am able to create something that can fit my needs is incredibly empowering.
One of the best things about shopping at a thrift shop is, just as Kelly Zimmerman's mom advised, it changes. What they have today will be completely different by tomorrow or the next day. It's a revolving inventory, and so there's always something new, or interesting to see.
If there's some reason why you don't thrift shop, if you think it's for poor people or that it's sad, please visit a thrift store. You will be incredibly surprised, and maybe you won't find it the treasure trove so many of the rest of us have discovered, but I'll bet you enjoy looking through the books, CDs, or vinyl records!
Wait. What?
Where do you think people send the stuff they don't need or want anymore? Unless it's a consignment shop dedicated specifically to garments, clothes are just a portion of what can be found at the Thrift store. Everything you can imagine can be found at the Thrift store - just not always in the color or size that you want, which is why you have to go back. Go often.
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