Hello fellow Berries!
I would like to start a thread for thrifter berries! I am addicted to thrifting - probably half my wardrobe and bedroom is thrift-store stuff. I know there are some thrifter berries out there, and I wanted a place where we could open up about our more unique passion of thrifting!
Best wishes 
Thatās me! [name_m]Even[/name_m] the items I donāt get at the second hand stores are always bought on-saleā¦I canāt stand paying full price for things. Why spend $50 on a pair of jeans when I can go to the thrift store and get three pairs of jeans, five shirts, two tank tops, and a skirt for the same $50??? And I donāt buy junk either. The other day I scored a brand new [name_f]Bebe[/name_f] dress, still with the tags on, for $15. It was originally over $100!!
Seriously, I was raised to be Thrifty with a capital Tā¦like feeding-a-family-of-six-on-a-$40-a-week-grocery-budget Thrifty. My mom will negotiate the 25-cent rack at a yard sale - āIāll give you a dollar for five,ā she says. I come by it honestly!
Now that Iām grown and married and we have our own budget, Iām much more liberal with my moneyā¦we both work so we eat out a lot and spend a ton on food. But I still canāt carry that mindset over into the clothing department. Fashion doesnāt have to be full-price! 
I love thrift stores/bargain hunting/antiques! Not just clothes, too. Unfortunately I used to live in a suburban area with mostly big box and chain stores. Now that I live in Toronto for school- Toronto berries, give me suggestions on where to go!- hopefully Iāll have more luck.
My parents arenāt bargain hunters but theyāre super careful spenders, they literally thought for over a year about buying a new TV and only did so in the end because ours broke! So I grew up learning about saving money and not spending rashly. I started āthriftingā because I have friends who are really into it and they have the most unique clothes. I love finding clothes that are unique- styles and patterns and colours that are different. I love shawls and scarves, which are generally expensive around here, so I pick them up when I travel to places that have them cheap.
I also love that secondhand stuff has a story, even if I donāt know it, and that it meant something to someone before me. My favourite shawl is a green and black one a woman at my church gave me- sheād brought it to church to use as a costume for a play and I liked it so much I asked her where she got it. Iād wanted to buy one for my friend who also wears shawls sometimes. She said it was from [name_m]Halifax[/name_m] (hours away from here) but I could have it since she doesnāt wear it. It reminds me of her, my church and that friend.
Oh, and my typewriters! Two are from yard sales and one my great-aunt gave me. I just wanted to mention them so I could share their names ;). [name_f]Jane[/name_f] [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f] (after [name_f]Jane[/name_f] [name_u]Austen[/name_u]), [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] [name_f]Viola[/name_f] (after [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] [name_m]Mitchell[/name_m], author of Gone With the Wind), and [name_f]Nelle[/name_f] [name_f]Victoria[/name_f] (after [name_f]Nelle[/name_f] [name_u]Harper[/name_u] [name_u]Lee[/name_u]).
Yes! I love the thrift store. We have tons of them here and we have one very large warehouse building thatās a thrift store. Mostly all my clothes are thrift clothes, the babies clothes are all consignment bought or thrift bought, I buy books there. I furnished my entire house from the thrift store (couch, chair, all the dressers, the beds, the TV standā¦everything) and spent about 200 total.
Yes, I love thrift stores. 
My mom owns her own thrift store so I get the added bonus of digging through new boxes before she puts them up for sale.
Britberries - as far as I know a thrift store is sort of a cross between a charity shop and an antique/vintage shop.
That would be me!
I have been obsessed since I was a teenager because I love finding things that you wonāt see on others and owning a piece of history. As Iāve gotten older I have toned it down a bit with the crazy poly-blend loudly patterned stuff or the over-the-top costumey vintage stuff & I like to mix thrift stuff with higher quality itemsā¦though I have found some classic high end items in thrift stores as well!
I do charity shopping. My town has absolutely millions which annoys my peers but little me, that hates spending money, loves it. I have lots of little skirts and a tunic and a skirt made out of a maxi dress. I also look for āgranny chicā pottery. My best value for money buy was a [name_f]Zara[/name_f] skirt that still had the tags on and a Ā£40 skirt for Ā£2.50. The only thing I wonāt buy are shoes [I believe you should have a good, solid pair of shoes] I really donāt see why people donāt like charity shops when you get bargains and the money goes to a charity?
@sleepysessha - That sounds like my family! My mom pretty much does all of our non-food-or-necessities shopping at garage sales or thrift/consignment stores. Itās hard to stay on a budget when you have three children all of over the age of 12 who have very strict guidelines for their clothing
@[name_f]Lauren[/name_f] - Typewriters? What a find! The biggest thing Iāve found so far was an antique dresser for my little sisterās room.
@dantea - My family was also in the thrift store business for a little bit (my grandmother owned a thrift store for 15 years but sold the store after my sister was born) and even when I was only three, I would love to help sort the items and pick out stuff before it went out on the shelves.
@renrose - Yes, in case the Britberries are wondering - itās like a secondhand store where you can donate things and other people will buy them - mostly furniture, clothes, toys, books, household items.
@tararyaz - I have found some great expensive stuff for cheap at thrift stores too. I once bought a blue t-shirt for Halloween (I was a cat lady three years ago) that was hilarious - womenās size XL, hand-decorated, with a picture of a cat in the middle and lots of glitter paint! Like SUPER cat-lady. I laughed so hard.
@whirligig - Granny chic pottery? Thatās what I like to do too! Especially the Polish pottery - we scoured every secondhand store in San [name_m]Francisco[/name_m] looking for some. I donāt buy shoes secondhand either (one exception - I found a really cute pair of combat boots that looked awesome).
In Australia its an op shop, here they are mostly for charities like the Salvation [name_m]Army[/name_m]. I do like it but I mostly see junk. I got my name book from a trift store though it was two dollars and used once it had the tag still on it and it was originally thirty.
@Ebs - Yeah, secondhand stores arenāt known for their fancy goods There are a few exceptions though. Most people would try to sell something of higher value instead of donating it.
@[name_f]Catalina[/name_f]- yeah, I love them I only have ribbon for one of them though (thatās basically the typewriter version of a printer cartridge) so I canāt use the others. I donāt for schoolwork, too inefficient! but lots of fun to play around with. Iād love to have antique furniture. Actually my dorm is more than 100 years old so we probably have lots of antiques around, and the building itself has a certain vintage charm to it, haha.
I like how the same thing is called different things around the world. Here we tend to say secondhand store but everyone would know what you mean if you say thrift store. An antique shop here would be selling higher-end/more expensive secondhand stuff like furniture or jewelry.
I like going to the thrift stores, but the ones around here mostly have junk and when they have something good, they know itās good and jack up the price, so I donāt actually buy much. I love the childrenās books, though! Theyāre 3 for $1 at the Catholic Charities shop, so I ALWAYS pick 3 (or 6ā¦or 9ā¦). I had a whole bookcase overflowing with them by the time my daughter was born. Sheās 1-year-old now and adores her books (sheās not always nice to them, though, but oh well, most were 3 for a buck!) I also bought curtains and a bedspread for her room at the charity store. I get her clothes and other things mostly at consignment sales, the quality is a lot better than the stuff that gets donated.
As [name_f]Ebony[/name_f] said, a thrift store is an op shop here in Australia! I love going there for books (especially after [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] ) as people just give away books before they even read them!
I went to a garage sale recently and bought a brand new $130 maxi dress for $4! I was soo pleased. Thatās the best bargain Iāve had so far, and I doubt anything else will come close!
Iām a thrift-store junkie!
Some of my very best finds: An American Girl doll in pristine condition, three āMy Child Dollsā that are hot collectorsā items on e[name_u]Bay[/name_u], an authentic Waterford [name_f]Crystal[/name_f] wedding topper in perfect condition that we used for our wedding (a friend comment āit probably came from a divorceā ā I could care less! It is gorgeous.), a [name_u]Lee[/name_u] Middleton doll STILL IN THE PACKAGING, an infant toy gym by Haba (saving for that future [name_u]Berry[/name_u] [name_u]Baby[/name_u]), and so much more.
I love Goodwill, church rummage sales and garage sales.
I have found less āhotā items lately. I fear Goodwill is selling a lot more of its collectors-type items online.
I donāt normally buy clothes from op shops it just feels weird to me. My mum calls me a snob when it comes to that. My mum buys a lot of toys from op shops as she does day care and finds nice stuff some of its hardly used but there is a heap of junk we found a counting piggy bank with no coins.
@Ebs- my grandma thinks secondhand stores are for poor people. Not that I really care what she thinks. Nice stuff is nice stuff! Of course, I wash all the clothes before wearing them, even though Iām pretty sure the store does that too.
@[name_f]Lauren[/name_f] my grandma loves op shops she buy so much from them. I just donāt do too well with hand me downs Iām an oldest child so I only ever get my mums clothes that she doesnāt want anymore sheās quite young so most of her clothes are actually pretty good. and my mums more then happy to give me money to buy clothes.
@Ebs- I wear my mumās hand-me-downs too! We both wear a lot of āclassicā stuff that doesnāt really date, and sheās a super careful person so it doesnāt matter that a lot of her clothes arenāt that new. My mum, sister and I are almost the same size so my mum would buy stuff for us but if neither wanted it sheād keep it for herself. My sisterās style is more casual/modern so she doesnāt like a lot of my mumās stuff though
Thrifting is my life. Pretty much. I had to have a thrifting fix yesterday even though I was feeling horrid, because I probably would have gone crazy if I had waited any longer. I scored a plaid blazer for $7, which is about $5 USD.
I would love to start a business online/on etsy or little shop of my own with vintage clothes & other stuff. That is my dream, along with being a photographer.
[name_f]EDIT[/name_f]: I get a lot of hand-me-downs too. I am the oldest child in my family, and the oldest grandchild too. I get a lot of clothes from my young aunts (in their twenties) and stuff.
I love thrift stores. Our neighborhood also has a [name_u]Free[/name_u] Store, which is awesome. Everyone brings stuff they donāt want anymore and other people take it. We bring stuff there and get other stuff all of the time.