Why I Shop Salvation Army - And Why YOU SHOULD TOO!!!!

One of my favourite places to thrift in NYC is the Woodside/61st location Salvation Army in Queens. Located half a block off the 7th train it is super easy to get to and you can usually find great things! And at Salvation Army every week a different tag colour is 50% off. Except on Wednesdays (family day) when all tags except ONE colour are 50% off. I went on a Monday and this day all pink tags were half off. 

Now why should you shop thrift? Betsey Johnson, NWT James Pearse, Michael Stars, Michael Kors, Tahari and more! There is NOTHING  you CAN'T find thrift. I have all sorts of insane designer pieces left to show you (YSL, Liberty of London, Armani and more!!) and I hope one day to add Chanel and Hermes to the list!!

Betsy Johnson skirt - 2.99 due to a pink tag meaning half off! thats a 99% savings give or take!

Next up is a Gap wool skirt. This might not be the most exciting purchase, but it fits me PERFECTLY! I will get so much wear out of this piece, you have no idea!! And once more, half off meaning 2.49

A BRAND NEW WITH TAGS JAMES PEARSE maxi skirt/convertable dress!! 7.99

A Tahari blazer. No belt with it, but I will do a bright green, red, blue or yellow belt with this to give it a bit of colour. I love that its a tiny skinny belt needed! 8.99

A simple brown Banana Republic brown sweater. Nothing fancy, nothing special, but a great basic and a great deal at 2.99

A perfect Tahari blouse, in a gorgeous teal colour, in BRAND NEW condition for 1.49!!!

A great fitting super comfortable Michael Stars Tshirt for 2.99

Total Spent? 29.93!!!!


And then, right next door is now another second hand store simply signed THRIFT STORE. I found this great bag there!! It was priced at 25.00 but there was this obnoxious woman in front of me fighting over every single price of every single item. And they finally gave her 10 or 15% off to shut her up. So when I got to the register behind her, the guy apologized to me for the wait, and said he would give me a deal also. He charged me 21.00!

A vintage Michael Kors bag! LOVE!!!

Earth Day Freebies - Not Too Late!

So I went to Sephora today to take advantage of the Origins trade in event and get my free moisturiser. I got the A Perfect World moisturiser and am actually excited to try it! Right now I use Korres Pomegranate moisturiser and like it but don't love it.  

Now for those of you who missed out on the Earth Day freebies, I have good news for you. Kiehls promo is valid until the end of the month! Just bring in an empty and get a set of three deluxe samples! Thankfully because of my project ten pan for bath products (I successfully finished!!) I had enough empties for this one, the Sephora one, and both my mom and a girlfriend each took 2 empties from me to trade in! YES!!!

Seems the bags were all different as my mom got three different samples than me. And the girl in front of me got a 3 step face system. But in my bag was the following:

Buffalo Exchange - Cobble Hill - Skip The Trip!

So for those of you New Yorkers out there, you may be saying COBBLE HILL??? There is no Buffalo Exchange there! But there is! It opened for business Saturday March 31st and I was very excited to go there! It is a gorgeous store!!!

BUFFALO EXCHANGE

Boerum Hill

109 Boerum Place

Brooklyn, NY 11201

(718) 403-0490

Location: off Smith St and Atlantic Ave, Bergen St stop on the F and G trains

Now for those of you not familliar with Buffalo Exchange or Beacons Closet they are a consignment/thrift store hybrid. Bring in your former favorites for trade or cash on the spot! You take your clothing to a buyer in the corner of the store, they price it on the spot (if they want it!) and you get either 50% of the value as credit to shop the store, or you get 30% in cash. You dont have to decide right then. They put the credit in your account (make sure you bring photo id) and as you leave the store you check out. You can get some credit and some cash, all credit, all cash, or leave it in your account and decide at a later date. It doesn't expire.

Now I wanted to take pictures of the inside, but the employees were not going to have any of that. I went on Monday April 2nd, so just the third day it was opened. I had Matt & Nat bags, new with tags James Pearse,  and more. I was sure it would be a breeze to sell. NOPE! Think twice. I dont know WHAT this store is about, but it was not a pleasant experience. They did not want my Gucci, Prada or Juicy Couture sunglasses (all new) as they were unsure how well they would sell. The only thing they wanted of mine was the James Pearse skirt and they were going to price it at 14.00! Meaning I would get half of that in credit, or 30% cash. NO THANK YOU! Everything else was a no. They kept saying they didnt know how it would sell.

I took a look around the store and a few coach bags were over priced and they really had nothing else of any quality. It was a big disappointment. I went to the Williamsburg location on my way home and they took EVERYTHING minus one of the three Mat & Nat bags. They said it was hard to sell bags with shorter straps. But I left the store with ninety something dollars and if I wanted store credit would have had about 160.00.

It is quite possible that as the store gets comfortable and they gain experience they will adjust but I honestly found the buyer rude, snotty, and condescending. I try to hit all the stores when I am in NYC but I really have no urge to go back to this location ever again! But who knows. Maybe a second chance a year from now will be worthwhile!

The Goodwill OUTLET..... How To Make Thrift Even Thriftier.

Ok, so I could spend this post showing you how to get clothing for an uber cheap 1.69 per pound. But NOPE! Im going to take it one step FURTHER and show you how you how I do it! Hold on to your hats folks!

Ok, so I went recently to the Goodwill Outlet in Queens. Located at 47-47 Van Dam Street. Now this is not a thrift store for the faint of heart. This is for extreme thrifters only. I wanted to take a bunch of pictures but I got in trouble for taking just this one. Will teach me to accidentally leave the flash on. But this should give you a hint as to what its like.

The entire warehouse is just full like this. Blue bins. No logic, womens, mixed with mens, mixed with kids, mixed with plus sizes, petites, etc. Just dig in! And you are rewarded with 1.69 per pound no matter what you get. I spent about two hours there before being completely and utterly thrifted out. The highlight was actually bumping in to Kate Goldwater and Alexandra Sinderbrand who run the amazing thrift store AuH20. I seriously have been an avid follower of Alexandra's blog the Cheap Jap forever. So that was pretty cool!

Now, I will show you the haul I got, and then how I got 80% of my bill refunded! Not pictured is a gorgeous Michael Kors (NOT Michael for Michael Kors) trench coat that had a big stain on it. I tried all I could to get it clean but it was not salvageable. Oh well. Was worth the shot!!

A blazer that fits me perfectly!

A cornflower blue J Crew pencil skirt.

A Max Studio maxi skirt

  
The most soft and comfortable cashmere sweater I have ever felt.

An Ann Taylor Skirt Suit. Gorgeous, and brand new!!

A Tocca cardigan!!

A royal blue maxi dress that was way too  large for me, but when I belted it, it works.

Juicy Couture Sweats

 A Max Studio sweater dress

A Banana Republic cotton twill jacket

Now if you will look at the bill I paid 25.35. Not bad at all. BUT........ Thats not all I got in the haul!

I also got these items that I had no intention of ever wearing. A Kenneth Cole tank top, a brand new pair of Nanette Lepore dress pants, and a GORGEOUS pair of wool Fossil pants that were so amazing even in spring I KNEW they would be a wanted item

So I took the pants and top to Buffalo Exchange where I proceeded to get this dress, and 17.50 cash!!!!

25.35-17.50 = 7.85. So that means all items pictured above cost me a total of SEVEN DOLLARS AND EIGHTY FIVE CENTS!!!!!