My friend Jamie and I went to Omaha to go shopping at secondhand stores. It is so fun to have a thrifting buddy, especially one like Jamie. She is always willing to start very early, and she researches the shops in advance and then plots them out on her GPS. We shopped for about 8 hours- and both of us found some great stuff.
I am usually looking for clothes for my two girls, and Jamie has a boy so we aren't fighting over the same things. And we always have some good laughs over the strange stuff you encounter- especially at the Goodwill Outlet. The clerk at the Outlet actually threatened to call the police if you got out of control. Really, that happens? Fighting over bins of (mostly) garbage? You'll be happy to know we did not have to waste any of our money bailing each other out.
Here is a rundown of my purchases:
First stop was the Omaha Goodwill Outlet. This is where you look through raw donations, and pay by the pound. Neither of us had great luck here. I ended up buying:
a clothes basket
2 smaller plastic organizers
a Littlest Pet Shop house
brand-new package of Baby Jesus cards (for my niece)
a book decorated with a snowman picture
2 books
3 cassette tapes of John Denver. I'm hoping someone has a cassette player!
For all of this, I paid $8.51 including tax.
Next we went to a place called Thrift World. We had great luck here- this was their location on 36th Street. Items with purple or yellow tags were only $.98- and there was plenty of good-quality merchandise with those tags.
Land's End snow pants- size 8 (just what I needed!!!)- only $.98!!!
Gymboree jeans with a dandelion embroidered on the leg- $1.98
Children's Place Jeans- fleece lined (we love these)- $.98
All of these pants are in like-new condition, with no wear on the knees. I was especially excited about the snowpants- both of the girl's snow pants are in sorry shape right now.
Gap girl's sweatshirt dress $.98
Gap purple dress $.98
Then it was on to New Life Thrift - I really scored here.
2 girls' gymnastics leotards, GK brand- $2.95 for both
(these are around $40 new)
2 pairs of girls' denim capris- $2.62 for both
I thought the patches on the waistband were so cute. These are both too big for Katie, hopefully in a few years she will still be agreeable to wearing them.
Women's jeans were on special for $.98, and denim shorts were $.85, so all the jeans and 2 shorts should have been less than $3.
However, the clerk told me that these jeans were not on sale because they were men's. I told her they were not men's. They are Seven For All Mankind jeans, most definitely not men's. She insisted that because of the size (they are 29, 30, 31 as opposed to 8, 10, or 12) they were men's. Grumpily I paid the full price. Jamie reminded me that I was getting $100 jeans for $3, so it is still a great deal.
B2B Last Chance was the next store we hit.
All girls' clothing sizes 7-10 were only $.25!!!!! So I got a dance leotard, capri sweatpants, a swimsuit, a flowered Gymboree shirt, and a navy blue Gap shirt all for $1.25. What a deal!
Then on to a different Thrift World.
A dance leotard, $2.98
White skirt (for a later tie-dye project) $.98
Warren Kimble Brandon House plates, similar to my barns dishes- $2.98 for all 4
My final purchase of the day was at a little shop across the street- I think it was Saturn Thrift Store (do you remember Jamie?). I couldn't pass up this cute tie-dye dress for $2.99.
I always wash everything right away when I get home, and then the next morning I had the girls try everything on. They were so excited with their new clothes.
I can never remember to take pictures with Jamie. I promise, next time I will include some action shots!
