Thrift Store Fashion for the Bargain Basement Diva

So you love fashion but hate the price tag of designer fashions? Maybe you're a high school student with a part-time job and a full-time desire to look good? Or you're a college student whose money goes to books and tuition with very little left for fashion? Whatever your story, you don't have to be rich to look like a million bucks!

New to thrift store shopping? No worries.

First, you have to find the thrift stores near you. If you don't already know where any are, do a search with your zip code and words like "resale," "consignment," "thrift," and "secondhand." You can also search to see if branches of big thrift stores like Goodwill, the Salvation Army, or Savers have stores near you. Most people won't have trouble locating at least one store. Once you find a store, go visit it. While you are there, strike up a conversation with an employee or fellow shopper to see if you can find the location of other thrift stores in the area. Those in rural areas might have further to drive, but believe me, it's worth it. Some areas even print lists of thrift stores in the area, like the Ocean State Consignment Guide available at secondhand stores in Rhode Island.

Your goal is to find TEN stores to visit. Keep a notebook for your thrift store adventures. After each store that you visit, write down the name, address, hours of operation, and phone numbers. Make notes about the kinds of items and the prices, how items are organized (or not organized), and don't forget to check out accessories like purses, jewelry, and shoes as well. Maybe you'll find one store that has about 5 dresses, all in a style your grandma would wear, but an amazing selection of cute vintage purses, while another store has awesome clothes but a crap jewelry selection. You're making notes because you might forget in a couple of months which stores have what.

By all means, buy some fabulous clothes while you are scouting the thrift stores! And don't give up on thrift stores until you have visited at least ten, because every store is different, even different branches of the same store don't have the same quality of merchandise. Worried that the fabulous dress might have belonged to Susi Homecoming last season? Drive a few miles out of town to do your thrift store shopping in another area and you'll lessen that possiblity.

What's the difference between thrift store, resale, and consignment?

Thrift stores work from donations. People bring in items that they no longer want and give them to the store to sell. A lot of times these stores have religious associations, but not always. Of the three types of secondhand shops, thrift stores usually have the lowest prices, but prices definitely vary based on geographical region and numbers of donations. For instance, in southwestern PA, jeans at a typical thrift store range from $1 - $5, but in Providence, RI, thrift store jeans are in the $5 - $10 range for the same items. If you live in a city, you might need to drive out to the 'burbs to get the best deals, but you'll always find a better selection in a city.

Resale shops are usually stores that buy designer names goods from people then resell them to the public. So a store like Plato's Closet in Monroeville, Pennsylvania will pay people $1 a pair for used brand label jeans, then sell them again to shoppers for $10 - $15 a pair. It might sound like a rip-off for you, the consumer, but it's still cheaper than paying retail prices for the same pair of jeans.

Consignment stores don't buy the goods outright, instead the items are on display as a kind of loan, meaning that the owner doesn't get any money until the item sells, and if it doesn't go, they get their item(s) back. Consignment stores take a percentage fee on everything sold, so if you pay $10 for a pair of jeans, the original owner usually gets about $6 of that while the store keeps the other $4.

When you are shopping for thrift store fashions, keep a few additional points in mind, and you'll be well on your way to being in style with money left in your pocket: Shop for classic shapes in quality fabrics -- i.e. if it's already beaded and pilled, like an old sweater, don't bother because it's going to keep doing that even if you clean it up, however, a wool skirt may still have years of life left in it. If you love something that's too big, buy it anyway and pay to have it tailored to fit. If you love something that's too small, put it down. Sure, you might actually lose the 20 lbs required to fit into it, but you might not like it that much by then anyway. If by some chance you put down something that you find yourself dreaming about later, go back the next day. If it's still there, plunk down the cash, and if it's gone, tell yourself that it wasn't meant to be.