6 Month Thrifting Check-In: Winners & Losers

While it feels hard to believe that half the year has flown by already, it’s time for my 6-month thrifting check-in. I started doing these a few years ago to hold myself accountable. Even after many years of thrifting, I still make mistakes. I get a little price blind. I get a little brand blind. I figure, it’s so CHEAP just DO IT.

It seems even rougher this year, since they’ve closed most if not all of the thrift store dressing rooms. Sure, you have a week to make returns (for a store credit), but my favorite stores are more than 45 minutes away… so I can’t always return to them within that time period. So for my mistakes, I typically will list the item on Poshmark or just add it to my donate pile so that the next thrifing queen can enjoy it.

Since we are halfway through 2024, let’s take a look back at my thrift winners & losers. (PS you can find all my thrifting posts here: Thrifting Fun)

January 2024

Winners:

  • DRU Holland Dutch Oven, $6.99
  • Glitter Converse One-Star Shoes, $8.99
  • Rain boots, $5.99

Losers:

  • Athleta Arrival skirt, $13.49

Loved the addition of the dutch oven to my china cabinet and both pairs of shoes have gotten use in my closet. However, as much as I liked the Athleta skirt, it just didn’t fit me well. I listed it in my Poshmark closet and after their fees and shipping, I made $5 dollars on it.

February 2024

Winners:

  • J. Jill Embroidered Top (mustard), $5.99
  • Two Vintage Enoch Wedgewood Tea Cups, $2
  • Charter Club embellished cardigan, $8
  • Laura Ashley skirt, $7

Still Deciding:

  • Soft Surroundings Coruh Gauze Top (blue and white), $7.99
  • L.L. Bean Cotton Cardigan (blue), $3

Love the embroidered top, tea cups, cardigan and OHMYGOD that Laura Ashley skirt. They’ve all been used/worn over the past few months and will continue to be remixed. Rather than having ‘losers’ for this month, I have two items that I’m still trying out.

I’ve worn the Soft Surroundings top once and it’s just kind of ‘eh’ for me. I need to try styling it again. As for the cotton cardigan, it’s pretty heavy and I only had one or two times to try it out when the weather was cooperating. I plan to style this again in the fall/winter when the weather gets chilly. If I can’t make them work, both items will be hitting my Poshmark closet.

March 2024

Winners:

  • South Parade Hoodie, $15
  • Birkenstock Arizona Sandals, $40

Both these items were secondhand purchases off Poshmark. The hoodie is super comfortable and the sandals were for Jack, for his summer shoes. They’re holding up great and I’m kind of excited that he’s only a couple shoe sizes away from MY shoe size… so I’ll be getting his hand-me-downs soon!

April 2024

Winners:

  • Universal Threads v-neck t-shirt, $2.79
  • Don’t Be A Salty Heifer t-shirt, $5.99
  • Vintage skirt, $8.29
  • Handmade Pottery Tray, $6.49
  • Jeannette Cube Sugar Bowl, $7.99
  • Birds Outdoor Pillow, $4.49
  • Egg Crate jewelry dish, $5.99
  • Leather Braided Belt, $3.49

Still Deciding:

  • Old Navy Fern top (green), $12
  • Line of Oslo Blouse (purple), $5.99

Lots of fantastic scores in April, much due to our fabulous Tuscan, Arizona trip. Everything in the ‘winners’ list has either been absorbed into our house décor or worn happily. On the still deciding list are my two ‘maybe’ items. I wore the fern top once and it was fine. I need to try it again styled differently – I thought I would like it more, but it’s just okay. As for the Line of Oslo blouse, I dyed it purple and it’s very pretty… but I haven’t actually worn it yet. So, I’ll need to make sure I reach for it soon, or it will hit the chopping block!

May 2024

Winners:

  • Lou & Grey joggers, $6.99
  • Jofit skort, $6.99
  • Madewell Walker Chelsea suede ankle boots, $5.99
  • Athleta v-neck lightweight sweatshirt, $9
  • Pyrez “Zodiac” casserole dish, $8.50

So many winners for the month of May and most were scores from our visit to Naples, Florida. It was already too warm for the booties, but I can’t wait to wear them in the fall. The joggers and the sweatshirt were both so comfortable, so they will see a welcome return to the front of my drawers in the fall too. I’ve worn the Jofit skirt regularly on my evening walks and the Pyrex bowl happily joined the rest of my collection. Hmm… is this proof that we need to revisit Naples?

June 2024

Winners:

  • LAND Backpack, $7.49
  • Max Studios skirt, $6.99
  • Workout shorts, $4
  • Chana Dress, $30
  • Starbucks ceramic mug, $3.99
  • Dona Joe Running Skirt, $7.99
  • Leota dress, $12
  • Coach Dakota purse, $29

Losers:

  • Lacy/Crochet Cardigan (black), $3
  • Kate Spade Viva Colores Sidney Skirt (floral skirt), $11.29
  • Anthropologie Skirt (black and white), $5.29

First, let’s talk winners. I haven’t used the backpack yet, but I’m planning to try it as our snacks/drinks bag at the beach this summer. The skirt, dress, running skirt and dress are all winners for me right now. I’ve used that ceramic mug probably a half dozen times already. And OH the Coach purse is divine. As for the workout shorts, they’re growing on me. They are a bit too fitted in the tummy, but I’ve been wearing them for evening walks and they serve their purpose.

For the losers, that cardigan was an experiment that didn’t pan out. That one is already in the donate pile. As for the two skirts, one was too big/short and the other was too tight, so they both are currently in my Poshmark closet and I’m hoping to break even on them.

Total Spent:

Just to hold myself super accountable, let’s total up all the thrifting purchases from the last 6 months. According to my handy dandy excel spreadsheet that I pulled the info into, my total for 6 months of thrifting was: $346.46. Which equals out to $57.74 per month. I didn’t pull Jack’s sandals out of that number, but perhaps I should have since I would have paid retail prices if needed. While my thrifting total/monthly breakdown is not an insignificant number, this is my main ‘fun money’ I spend on myself. I very rarely buy books (I use the library and my kindle religiously) and make 90% of my coffee at home, and most importantly… our budget can afford it.

Overall Favorites:

Oooh my favorite part, looking at all my thrifting purchases over the past 6-months and picking my favorite items!

Home Décor Favs:

  • DRU Holland Dutch Oven, $6.99 (January 2024)
  • Handmade Pottery Tray, $6.49 (April 2024)
  • Pyrez “Zodiac” casserole dish, $8.50 (May 2024)

While the age of thrifting amazing mid-century items may be passing and it’s getting harder and harder to find true vintage… these three scores made me so happy! The dutch oven and casserole dish (after a quick little rehab) are in my china cabinet, where I get to admire them regularly. As for the handmade pottery tray, I have it in my den next to my reading area, and it’s perfect for keeping my random stuff contained and looking pretty.

Clothing Favs:

  • Laura Ashley skirt, $7 (February 2024)
  • Birkenstock Arizona Sandals, $40 (March 2024)
  • Vintage skirt, $8.29 (April 2024)
  • Madewell Walker Chelsea suede ankle boots, $5.99 (May 2024)
  • Coach Dakota purse, $29 (June 2024)

Both of the vintage skirts I thrifted are my favorites right now. That Laura Ashley skirt is so special and every time I wear it, it just makes me smile. As for the other vintage skirt… it’s just the right amount of swishy and flowy and I’ve already worn it at least a half-dozen times. Jack hates socks/sneakers, so as soon as school let out, he went straight to his new Birkenstock sandals for daily wear. He will easily get an entire summer’s worth of use out of them. He may be able to use them for vacations throughout the year, but I fully anticipate he will grow out of this size before next summer.

As for the booties, they’re so gorgeous and I have big plans for them in the fall. I’m imagining them with long dresses, short dresses and tights and rolled jeans too. And last but SO VERY MUCH NOT LEAST, that Coach Dakota purse. Perhaps one of my best thrift finds of the entire year!

After years and years of thrifting, I feel like I’m finally doing better at being more selective. Only a handful of losers and a few more items that are on the chopping block. Not too shabby!

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Low Buy July

It’s been quite a while since I did a ‘no buy’ or ‘low buy’ month with purpose. The last time I wrote about it on the blog was 2018, where I also popped off a bit about the idea that my husband is the boss of me and our money (I actually still very much enjoy this blog post, so here it is: How Much My Husband Allows Me To Spend on Clothing & No Buy July).

Anywho. This time we are doing a “Low Buy July” as a family for a few reasons. First of all, my husband’s job has been impacted by the Port of Baltimore tragedy, so there have been weeks with very low work as the supply chain is switching back from the Norfolk port to the Baltimore port. Since we are a two-income household, this means that we need to tighten up our spending. The second big impact is that our son broke his arm a couple weeks ago and the emergency room/emergency surgery bills are around the bend.

Not that you need a stampede of bills coming in order to decide to cut back a bit. And I do realize how extremely fortunate we are when many (if not all) families are struggling with the rising cost of everything right now.

If you also want to participate in a Low Buy July, please feel free to join in with me.

I was going to write out my list of rules here, but honestly everyone’s rules will be different. While we are not going on a full spending freeze, we are taking a closer look at wants and needs throughout the month.

Also, we each have our own trigger stores that we are planning to avoid. For me, it’s TJ Maxx/Marshalls/Homegoods. For my husband it’s Walmart and Home Depot. And for Jack, it’s Target. These stores just suck the money right out of our wallets, so we figure it’s just easier to avoid them all together as much as possible. Thrifting is still allowed for my mental sanity. Because I’m not really spending a bunch of money there anyways.

We are all also going to try to just use what we have before getting any new stuff. This includes beauty products/toiletries/etc when they run out, food in the fridge/freezer/pantry, and of course restyling clothing we already own (okay, this one’s just for me) rather than hitting up the Anthropologie ‘sale on sale’ they have each summer. Any ‘wants’ will be added into my Notes app to look at in August and we will see then if we still want each item, or if the desire has passed. I also already went ahead and paused a couple of our non-essential subscriptions.

So yeah, we aren’t going into full money lockdown mode, but more of a bit of a palate cleanser for the month. And hopefully, as those hospital bills trickle in we can get them paid off ASAP… and look forward to our next vacation!

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My Style: June 2024

Apparently, I got dressed to leave the house A LOT this month, which is pretty surprising considering that I feel like I lost a week of my life in the middle there when my son broke his arm. Keeping with my goal to continue purging items from my closet, this month saw a bunch of different items in rotation. However — spoiler alert — nothing much hit the purge pile.

Let’s take a look at my June looks:

First up, three ‘casual’ non-work looks. I wore the first outfit for a graduation cookout event, the second was for errand running and the third was for a day of errands with a business-ish lunch with my accountant.

All the items have been in my closet for a while, other than that vintage Coach crossbody bag, which was a recent addition. And nothing is getting purged, but will continue to be restyled again and again.

Here are three of my office looks. I picked the colorful dress up at a consignment shop for just $30 this month, so I pretty much immediately needed to style it for the office. Love the swish of the skirt and the deep pockets. The blue maxi dress is one of those that I feel looks better in person… but honestly, it does feel like wearing a comfy nightgown in public.

As for outfit #3, I’m still unsure about the white linen + lace top. It is a beautiful top and the fabric and drape are great, I just don’t love white. I’ve considered dying it a different color – but I’m not sure if the fabric, lace and thread will take the color evenly, so I keep putting it off. All keepers again, however I am starting to think the blue maxi dress from Anthropologie may hit my Poshmark closet at some point.

Two casual outfits with the same skirt, as this gingham skirt is on the chopping block. I just don’t reach for it as much as I do the same style in solid colors. This month, I tried it two ways – topped with a graphic t-shirt and topped with a linen blouse. Still trying to decide if this one is a keeper or if it will be hitting the resale group by the end of the summer.

The floral skirt from the first outfit has been in my closet for years and it’s just a randomly luxe cotton skirt from TJ Maxx that I love. As for that black linen dress, I typically style it under a tied blouse because it fit me so oddly. However, this month I actually took the time to adjust the tailoring on the straps and bust… so now I can wear it over just a little tank top! All keepers now that I took the time to sew a little.

And three more work looks. For look #1, I typically wear this dress as a casual dress, but I decided to top it with a cardigan for work. By lunchtime, I was regretting it because it shows off a bit more bust than I like for the office. So this one is back to being a weekend dress. The middle look is a re-wear of that black linen dress I tailored, this time I topped it with a starbust beaded cardigan for the office. And the last look was a last-minute throw-things-together-outfit, and I feel like it turned out very nice!

New vs. Secondhand Talley

This month, I count 10 items that I purchased retail and 23 items I purchased secondhand!

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