Thrift Store Resolution Revolution II

My grandfather asked me if I had a New Year’s resolution.

I always find it odd to plan resolutions in the dead of winter, when most life is asleep or temporarily closed for business.

It seems more symbolic to make resolutions in the spring when the wilderness is awakening, babies of the wild are being born, some seeing the outside world for the first time. It only makes sense to ride this great wave of awakening and catch the energy to activate healthy resolutions as your biological clock awakens too. To be honest, it’s hard to make a resolution to exercise when the days are short, cold and there’s snow and ice on the park paths. I think we’d all prefer to settle down for a long winter’s nap instead. But spring? Who doesn’t want to be outside then?

However, if you desire to retool your spending habits so that your holiday financial hangover doesn’t interfere with paying heating bill for the first quarter of the new year, now is time be resolute to take up thrift shopping.

Charitable thrift stores can move inventory with hurricane force winds and inventory for 2009 tax write offs is flying through stores as I write. And then there are the procrastinators, those who will take the 2010 write off after the New Year because they didn’t quite make the deadline. Best to thrift when the inventory is high and the price is low! Us Golightlys? We take items to the thrift store on an as-needed basis, usually with seasonal changes.

Among the current items thrift store shoppers will find are items given as gifts but not wanted, which may be for the simple case they already have that item. Me? I’m hoping for a Kitchen Aid Mixer - red. If I've bought Tiffany's, Hermes, Limoges, Wedgwood, appearal from Barneys and Nordstrom (sometimes new), I think I have a shot at Kitchen Aide. My little mixer works okay, but there are times when it chugs through cookie dough and I swear it’s screaming, “Not sure I can! Not sure I can!” I’m usually screaming back, “Someone’s gotta! Someone’s gotta you damn little mixer that better!” So I talk to my kitchen appliances. Big deal. Who doesn’t?

I hear the term re-gifting bandied about less and less these days. I always hated the notion. Why would someone buy a present that would be so blah, or otherwise completely in the opposite taste of the recipient that it would be laughable or -even worse- painful? Why would the news world consistently run stories about the possibilities of re-gifting? Why not run a story on how not to buy a bogus gift - and not be the butt of jokes for years to come? I wrote a post nearly a year ago, “Wow! This is so… You! What’s happened to the art of giving?” It’s a rollicking read and hit home with many readers.

Notice that the news now focuses less about re-gifting and more about hoarders. Are those unwanted new gifts shoved somewhere under piles of stuff in the homes of hoarders? Probably. And this is weird. January is typically the month for storage item sales. Are hoarders hoarding storage items that are supposed to make them more organized? Probably. We'll have to wait come February to see what's making the rounds in thrift stores.

Thrift opens new shopping venues, saves you money, supports charity and helps you be a bit kinder by lowering your carbon footprint when shopping. Here’s a brief how-to:

1. Plan ahead. Shop for gifts year round. We all know that we’ll buy holiday gifts. Is there a law that says we must buy them between Black Friday and Christmas Eve? When you plan ahead you have a greater chance that: a.) you might buy the person something they actually need or like because you are not in a time crunch and have the flexibility to think more about them; b.) you will save money, lots of it.
   
   
2. If you’re new to thrift, read the section on How to thrift, in the left column. Conventional retail and thrift are in different ballparks. Learn how to develop a thrift mindset and detailed tips on how to find items you need while in the store in this section. This just might help you earn yourself a pair of Snake Eyes.
   
   
3. If you don’t have any big storage bins, pick some up (perhaps at the thrift store) to hold items in the gift queue. Don’t just toss them about the house thinking you’ll remember where you put them. You won't remember and -warning- this is how hoarders typically start. I have bins for: a.) children's birthday gifts, b.) grown-up birthday gifts (if I write “adult” that sounds like something I picked up at some dirty NC-17 store off I-70 in the Midwest - along with cheap fireworks); c.) holiday gifts; and d.) small gifts for the hostess or thank-yous. When you find one of these gifts at the thrift store, put it in the appropriate bin for safekeeping.
   
   
4. When I’m in good form, I have a small inventory of boxes or decorative tea tins to put these gifts in so that when this gift’s time for giving is on hand, all I need to do is put a ribbon in it (usually bought from thrift) and a personal note. This takes a lot of stress out of giving and actually makes it fun. My basement is a small store of lovely goods where I know I can find something worthy of giving. I’m freed from long register lines and a commissioned sales staff.
   
   
5. Keep an open mind while in the store, and you just might find things you need, and make up for all those years of receiving gifts that made you sigh as you tossed them over your shoulder. You might just find yourself clutching a new Anthropologie dress for $7.99 while joyfully declaring, “Thank you thrift store! It’s so me! It’s exactly what I wanted but never knew!”

For example I bought this lovely Innova enameled cast iron heart casserole today at Goodwill for $7. It retails $60 (shipping not included). I assure you this casserole has never seen the inside of an oven, it is just missing it's original box. Think that box is worth the $53 difference? Do you know how wonderful a dutch oven is? You can toss just about anything in it meat or vegetable or combination of both and the results are magnificent. The covered casserole lets little vapor escape so the contents bake in their natural juices.

Today, I also bought a new or ever so gently used Coach handbag No G06S-10284 for $11. I found a lovely Sleeping on Snow sweater, sold at Anthropologie. The sweater cost $5 and appears to be new. Who knows what price Anthropologie had on it. All this along with a lovely collection of children's books for my library. I think the favorite is The Low-Down Laundry Line Blues by C.M. Millen followed by Why Kings and Queens Don't Where Crowns by Princess Martha Louise. This includes a CD read by Princess Martha Louise of Norway. The items I just listed, including the casserole, set me back $25. They probably retailed well over $275. But for me, the value is the happiness they bring or the need they fill and not the price. Well, there's no way I would have paid for those items full price, I'd rather pay my heating bill, but it's wonderful to have quality gifts to give to people I love.

Well, I'm probably preaching to the choir. So, if you know someone who needs to retool their shopping behavior and is currently in the doldrums of post holiday debt, send this along to them and call it a gift or consider it a consumer's intervention. Since the retail I write of is not illegal, health issues are not in play and the FDA has no jurisdiction over a chocolate fountain (only the chocolate) you have the charge with helping your friends who have a "retail problem." Retail Mania, it's one of the problems we don't speak of, the type of ailment so horrific the aunts from Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs can only whisper them.

If you are a new visitor to The Thrifty Chicks, be certain to scroll back up and open the Thrift Catalog slide show, featuring over 250 photographs of thrifted items. This gives you an inkling of what could be waiting for you. Also, check The Thrifty Chicks’ Table of Contents (prior posts) and read about other Thrift Store Conventions. We’ll get back to posting more on this. We just took a break from photos during the holidays.

The 2009 Thrifting Gift Guide: A Resolution Revolution

Introducing a new genre of resolution for the New Year.

It does not require a daily battle of will. It does not require a load of upfront money like a gym membership. It is pain free.

This resolution is one of discovery and adventure in an unsuspecting, unassuming place, the charitable thrift store. This resolution activates new shopping tactics that are easy on the family budget and easy on the planet. It even directly serves a charitable cause.

What’s the resolution? Buy 2009 gifts from the thrift store. Reserve one spot in the home to store these items and, if really motivated, box them up as they come in.

To the top, left of this text is a slide show featuring about 90 items to spark ideas. Double click on it to enlarge the item and caption. It is arranged in 10 categories: Children’s Toys, Books, Cookware, Tabletop, Children’s Clothes, Women’s Clothes, Men’s Clothes, Jewelry, Odds & Ends, and Holiday Items. Apologies that all the children’s clothes and most of the toys are for are girls, but that is what I have, two young girls. Also, the toys are those designed for active, imaginative play. After watching my two daughters play for 11 years, I have come to learn that imaginative play is not bought in a chain toy store or at a discount retailer. Imaginative play comes from everyday items. My oldest daughter spent more time with tissues and tape than she ever spent with a Barbie. Parents, do not allow a video game take the place of you child's beautiful, unique brand of imagination!

Some of these items were thrifted BRAND NEW. Some are a century old. The thrift store is a place of many mysteries and surprises and reawakens our foraging skills. We develop more of a connection to treasures found. We take a glimpse at how wasteful we are to throw away so many valuable and unique items. We recalibrate our spending power and prices in new retail market become obscene. We become more creative and self-guided in that we don’t need to listen to television commercials or rush out to fight bargain raged crowds at sales. People are generally very nice in thrift stores. We become more thoughtful and appreciative as we spend a year searching for the perfect gift. Chances are the gift will be treasured in return. And, at the end of the year, we relax and spend our valued time with friends and family, not at an overcrowded mall and in horrific traffic jams.

There is no shame in giving a thrifted gift. If you shop eBay, there's a very high probability the item was found at the thrift store and you're paying the mark up. The same applies to funky boutiques that sell mixtures of new and old. As said many times, Americans need to get over this commercially planted idea that "If it's not new, it's EWW." Let's manage the products already assembled instead of turning to factories on the other side of the world and asking for more. "More" is out of style.
“How to Thrift”, the box below the slide show, offers several posts explaining just that, the zen of thrift. The Thrifty Chicks offer solid advice on how to establish a regular thrifting routine and the best possible thrift store tips on the Internet. I’ve read many tips and they just don’t measure up. Our tips will turn a novice into a master. They are insightful, not rote or obvious because they were written by someone who knows thrift, not a journalist assigned an quick article or a blogger who writes the tips as an aside.

Please know, when it comes to gifts, it’s not so much where you found it, it’s the sentiment, what you do with it, and how you present it. We’ll talk about presentation in another post. But it is essential in gift giving and most new products are presented in very ugly packaging. Oddly enough, most times when I give a new gift, I repackage it.

January is an excellent month to start thrifting. Many people make last minute donations in December for their 2008 tax write offs and they also donate the holiday gifts that failed to fit their personal taste.

Many of these items were picked to meet many tastes and all items are in excellent condition, if not new. If there are people who carefully peruse this slide show and cannot find three items that don’t outright shock them, I ask them to email me personally with comments. I don’t expect very many emails of this nature.

A special thanks to Mr. Golightly for burning the midnight oil to retouch the photographs he so carefully took.

Godspeed,
Ms. Shopping Golightly

Start a New Personal Training Program Now, It’s Time To Get Serious

We have high expectations of our president-elect. Rightfully, he has high expectations of us. Barack Obama will not tell us to, “Sit back while I take care of business.”

On election night, he told us, “Our climb will be steep.”

Now is the time to take personal responsibility and design a cross-training program for that steep climb. What will we do in our everyday lives to train for that Kilimanjaro of change?

"...please start by taking my alias, Shopping Golightly,
to heart during this upcoming season."

Why the Mt. Kilimanjaro metaphor? It is no ordinary mountain and no ordinary challenge. It is a long journey through six distinct ecosystems while tackling over 19,000 feet of gain. The climber must consistently acclimate through constantly changing terrain. We must be malleable and prepared to make smart and sensible judgments to reach our summit. We must check in with our team to ensure they are up to task. Troubles frequently escalate when a climbing team breaks up.

Personal change must happen in many venues now. But, with the holidays on our heels and our pocketbooks low, please start by taking my alias, Shopping Golightly, to heart during this upcoming season. The thrift store is one of the best places to do just that!

"...most Americans cannot distinguish the difference
between necessity and luxury."

I fear most Americans cannot distinguish the difference between necessity and luxury. Somehow the meanings have been mixed and we are lost.

Who defines our personal necessities? Is it us? Or is it the ads piped through the television? We cannot continue to aspire for more and more possessions. That time has past. We must be sensible and thrifty in defining our necessities and translate that new definition through our shopping habits. This will fatten piggy banks across the country. What will you do with your newfound savings? A college education? A family home?

We must redefine luxury. No longer can it be equated with frivolous, expensive possessions, acquired to impress or fill an internal emptiness. Let’s put luxury on our own terms and make it match our values. Make it personal and meaningful, like time spent reading to our children; the cost of a book or a trip to the library and one of the most valuable things we have, time.

"...put luxury on our own terms
and make it match our values."

We have much to do and a have a long journey ahead. What is going to help us summit that peak? Leather seat warmers or a college education? Let’s just hope we get there before those majestic glaciers melt away. Barak Obama believes in us. Yes we can.