Bargain Store Savvy: To Thrift or Not To Thrift?
- Got a mall brand you trust? Look for it at the thrift store, instead. You'll still love that argyle sweater in 18 months when the original owner gets sick of it.
- This raincoat is cute, but my son begs for a hood (I digged, but never found it). Now I'll have to buy him a new one, too.
- Would you ever buy one of these at a retail store? Probably, and it would set you back $30 to $50. At Goodwill? It's less than $5.
- I bought these wooden Thomas trains at the Bins, and many months later was left wondering if they weren't recalled. How would I know? There was no product information on either of them. I ended up removing them from circulation because it was better safe than sorry.
- 10% of the cost, and if you break it, you won't mind (as much)
- Don't eat your metal when you don't want to. Buy baking tins brand-new. The snarky-sharky oven mitt? Definitely thrift it!
- Price in boutique: $10 to $40. Price at thrift store: $1 or less. Average total hours of use: 20. You do the math.
- I saved a couple of dollars by buying this 'Berenstain Bears' book at a garage sale. But the speed at which the pages rip out makes me several dollars' worth of crazy.
- My boys can turn a pristine watercolor set into blackness in 20 brilliantly happy minutes. I'm so glad I didn't pay $2.99 for this!
- I don't want you to buy these toys, anyway. But you should find it telling that someone else found the spendy toys too offensive for their own home...
- This Betty Crocker Cooky Book is a classic and I paid only 50 cents for it; I've found a good half of my favorite cookie recipes here!
- If you're anything like me, you hated your maternity clothes so much by your ninth month, you wished it could all go in the trash -- BEFORE the baby came! No point paying big for what you won't love (and won't use at all) next year.
