The Good and Bad of Goodwill

Ok, you know how I love Goodwill? And you know how there’s this one store in South County that I find great things?

Well, it didn’t disappoint last night!

For the London trip, I decided I needed a longer coat. The only long one I have is a black leather coat my parents bought me in high school for a DC trip. I love it but it doesn’t do well when you layer sweaters underneath it, so not the best for the Europe trip.

On a whim, I stopped by my favorite store for some browsing. And found this lovely…

  

She’s a knee-length red wool coat from somewhere (can’t remember the label) that is SO nice and warm and perfect for the layers of sweaters underneath it. Plus, it looks pretty awesome with my white microfleece hat, right? Yup, she’s pretty yummy.

Did I mention she was $10?

Sold. :)

But lest you think Goodwill is all roses and ponies, here is a coat that looked SO good on the hanger. It was the right length, right weight and it had a hood!

Um… no, I don’t need to look like a Jedi in Europe, thankyouverymuch.

I went with the first one.

Finding a diamond in the rough – the thrift store rough, that is

Last weekend, I decided to take advantage of the lack-of-Husband-because-of-law-school-exams-thing and so I stopped by the thrift store after church. It’s my favorite one – seriously, they have the best selection in the city.

I ended up with lots of stuff – a skirt, pair of pants, two tops and a dress - for only $16.50!

This black dress definitely qualified for a “new” outfit from a thrift store, don’t you think?

It’s sleeveless with a high neck and a little peekaboo thing in the middle. It’s also got a really nice line under the bust to make sure the girls are taken care of.

You can kind of see the details here, including the little frog clasp near the neckline.

I can’t wait to wear this one out on the town!

Learning the ropes of thrifting

A few weekends ago, I went out with my friend, M, and her mom and aunt, the garage sale gurus. I wanted to learn from the masters and M offered that I ride along [sounds like a police-thing, doesn’t it?] on what it supposedly one of the best neighborhood garage sales in the area.

This neighborhood nearby hosts its garage sale each year around the same time. The city hall even creates maps of all the houses that are participating each year and passes out signs for people to put in their yards to make it easier to find the houses. It’s really a great idea! The houses are so cute that when Husband and I start looking, this is definitely an area we’ll start looking at first.

At the first house, the four of us got out of the car and made a bee lien for the tables. I found a few Tupperware containers there and was kind of intrigued. Those things are really expensive new and even though I’d been wanting them for a while, I didn’t want to spend the money.

But the other ladies didn’t find anything at the house, so we went on to the next few down the street. But I kept thinking about the Tupperware and decided to stop back at that house on the way back to the car. M’s aunt, the real master, went with me to make sure she could coach me in The Garage Sale Way.

I asked the lady how much for the containers and she thought about it for a moment (there wasn’t a tag on them or anything) and said she’d sell all three for a dollar. I said I thought I could do that! After we’d exchanged cash, she said she thought there was a fourth container that matched the set and that I should take that one too. :)

I ended up with four Tupperware cereal containers for $1, pajama pants with penguins on them for $0.50 and a Weight Watchers 20 minute cookbook for $0.50.

All in all, I’m starting to get the hang of it, spending a morning going to garage sales. :)

Good Will Indeed!

This afternoon, in the middle of a very long day and an even longer to-do list, I thought to myself….

Jessica: Self, I feel like shopping.

Self: But Jessica, you don’t have any money! You can’t go shopping.

Jessica: Yes, Self, I know that, but I have the urge to buy!

Self: I know, I know.

Jessica: Where can I scratch the itch and not spend a fortune?

Self: This is beginning to sound like a cheesy commercial.

It’s at this point in the recap that I realize I’m better at reading other’s scripts rather than writing my own. A playwright I never will be.

So yes, in the middle of the afternoon, I decided to go shopping at Goodwill. There’s a very nice one – clean, smells good, has a nice selection, brightly lit, good parking – near our favorite movie theatre. Husband and I peeked in there one day and really wanted to go back and explore.

I decided today was the day.

And I was NOT disappointed!

Here’s what I came home with -

This is a JONES NEW YORK skirt, size 8P. Oh. My. Goodness. $3!!!

This is a cute shirt in a color that I love but don’t have a lot of. This was $3 as well!!!

And the pièce de résistance … an amazing Chenille-like jacket. I hope I can get it to the dry cleaners tomorrow morning and get it back before a big meeting/event I have on Thursday. I’d really like to have it to make a great impression! It will look perfect with black pants and my boots.

But yeah, definitely have to get it cleaned. It smells like an old woman! But for $4, it was TOTALLY ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT!

It just goes to you that Goodwill is absolutely worth your time.