Thrift Shop Bonanza
When the weather is nice we walk to church. I like walking with my children in their Sunday best and looking at flowers or just generally being outdoors. Yesterday on the walk to church I was watching Link running ahead of me and I realized that his church pants are a couple inches too short. So is his tie. And the pants have pills all over them. This realization wouldn’t be so bad, except that I’ve had the exact same realization several weeks in a row. One of my hot items for garage sales was new church clothes for Link, but I didn’t get lucky.
Today I decided to bite the bullet and go to a thrift store to see what I could find. I mentally planned to spend about $10 on pants, a tie, and maybe a shirt. I was headed to the boy’s clothes section when I noticed little signs saying “All purple tags $.99.” I started with dress pants, then I rummaged shorts, then dress shirts, then girls clothes, then coats, and mens clothes… you get the idea. Fortunately I had my “looking for” list with me, so I was able to quickly determine what sections to comb carefully and what to just skim. Items we could use that had purple tags, went into the cart until the cart was piled high and I was tired.
I went in mentally cringing at spending $10. I walked out after spending $30. But for that thirty dollars I got:
8 coats (yes coats, nice winter coats for kids to grow into)
3 sweatshirts
6 pairs of boys shorts
1 skirt
2 pairs dress pants for Link
1 tie (This is the only item that didn’t have a purple tag, but it was also the only child sized tie available)
2 boy’s dress shirts
1 turtleneck
I was thrilled with this haul and I asked the lady at the register how often they do this kind of sale. Apparently Savers does this every Monday. They have 5 tag colors and each of the colors goes on sale in rotation. This completely changes my clothes shopping strategy. Instead of driving around hitting garage sales every weekend, I need to be hitting Savers every Monday. Lot’s less gas involved, and it’s air conditioned. I’ll still hit garage sales for other things, and I won’t pass up cheap clothes if I find them, but now I know where I can find a steady supply.
Now if only I can find a set of bunk beds with the tag of the week on them. (I know, not likely, but I can dream)